The Rays Tank: The Michael Wuertz Is Free!! Edition

MLB Chatter

The big news yesterday was that Theo Epstein formally joined the Cubs and had his first press conference. Just a few hours later, news came out that John Lackey was going to have Tommy John surgery and miss the entire 2012 season. I'm trying to draw up some conspiracy theory that links the two events. Maybe some sort of divorce joke about Lackey and Epstein?

Apparently Octavio Dotel really doesn't like issuing intentional walks. This article is worth checking out for the .gifs alone.

Rays Talk

Over at ESPN Florida, Tommy wrote a bit on Dan Feinstein's move back to the A's. At the bottom of the article, he switches gears and talks about a potential bullpen target that had his option declined yesterday: Michael Wuertz. Wuertz is a reliever that's always intrigued me, and he has shutdown potential when he's healthy. The big question is, how healthy is he? And will other teams make a run for him as well?

Bloomberg Sports recently created a list of the "smartest spenders in sports" and the Rays came in #3 on their list. The methodology isn't anything earth-shattering; they calculated the dollars per win for all the major sports teams, and of course the Rays are going to rank well in a list of that nature. It is still fun to see the list, and the comparison across other sports is an interesting addition.

If you missed it yesterday, over at SBN Tampa Bay, Brad reevaluated the Jason Bartlett trade from last year. Was it actually a good move?