The Rays Tank: No gold gloves for Rays

The Gold Glove awards were announced, and no Rays won. More on the "snub" coming later today.

More managerial intrigue. In game five, John Farrell let John Lester hit in the seventh inning in a high-leverage spot, while ahead 2-1. MGL discusses.

Jeff Sullivan analyzes a fun at bat from game five. Adam Wainwright pulled out all the stops against David Ortiz. I believe that the quickest way to scout the quality of a MLB batter is to watch how pitchers approach him. Rays pitchers have been altering their approach to Ortiz (and Jose Bautista, and Miguel Cabrera) all year.

Here are five notable major league equivalencies from the Steamer projection system. None of them are Rays, so you might wonder why you should care. Answer: A Nevin Ashley sighting (striking out on a filthy Paolo Espino slider down and away)!

This is old news, but in case you missed it, the posting system is changing. I'm re-posting because I thought a little bit more about it and decided that while this is good for baseball, it's bad for both big and small market teams. Here's the issue. Yes, it's bad for the Yankees because it will shift the money from the posting fee to the contract, so they can't use it as a way to still spend a ton but get under the luxury cap. But it's also bad for the Rays, because even if they win a post they'll still have to compete with two other teams to sign a player. That means longer commitments, and more money in the contracts. On a tight budget, the Rays must minimize risk. They can spend on a one-time fee if they think they have the budget space right now, but they're less likely to want to spread that out over a couple years.