After a rather discouraging weekend*, sometimes it's best to take your mind off the action for a while. The Rays have a day off today, giving us fans some time to recover from watching that slugfest on Sunday, so this seems like an opportune time to mention this: DRaysBay received an eGraph from Jeremy Hellickson.
*I'm still in shock that the Rays are playing meaningful games in July...against the Orioles. And the Orioles are beginning to play the role of the 2008 Rays: somehow, someway finding a way to win. It's frustrating being on the other side of that, but good for the Orioles, I guess.
In case you haven't heard about it, eGraphs is a new company that is billed as "the autographs of the future". Fans can go to their store, request an autograph from a player, and then the player signs on sometime and sends them a virtual autograph. Stuart Sternberg and Gabe Kapler are both involved with the company in some form or another, and some of the Rays players have been the first to jump in on the action.
R.J. Anderson received an eGraph from Joe Maddon on Friday, and over the weekend, we noticed there was an eGraph up on the site for DRaysBay.
Hey, nifty! I'm not sure how Hellickson heard about us exactly, but I'll take it. Thanks, Helly.
- Stuart Sternberg shared some words with Marc Topkin this weekend, and he talked about the trade deadline and some of the challenges the Rays have faced this year. There are no juicy soundbites, but it's always interesting to hear some of his thoughts.
- Think you have what it takes to be a major league manager? Over at BP, Russell Carleton spells out a couple of the underrated jobs a manager has to do. The more I stop and think about all the tasks on a manager's plate, I'm blown away by how challenging a job it can be.