The Rays Tank: What day is it?

Yesterday, the Rays beat the Yankees, and the Red Sox lost to the Dodgers. Y'all know what that means. John Lester will take on Hyun-Jin Ryu today at 4:05 EST, while David Price takes on C.C. Sabbathia at 7:10 tonight. If you want to skip all of that and relive old AL East times, though, watch the 7:10 Blue Jays/Astros game, where Chien-Ming Wang will get the start.

Oh, and apparently Carl Crawford doesn't like Boston. I think he's being completely reasonable and sympathetic in everything he's said.

Rays Links

Dave Cameron compares the Rays' acquisition of David DeJesus to the Rangers' acquisition of Alex Rios, and the Rays come out ahead.

David Laurila talked to Luke Scott about whether hitting is a science or an art.

"Think of a hula hoop. If your swing was to come through the hitting zone and then continue on that same path around that axis, which is your body, it would form a circle, or a hula hoop. Well, that hula hoop, based on the position of the pitch — the angle it comes in, or breaks away — you just angle that accordingly. That’s the science of hitting.

Other Links

James Gentile at The Hardball Times has a really good take on the effect of swinging at the first pitch. Jose Molina makes an appearance on one of the lists.

Stuart Wallace at Beyond the Box Score talks about the performance enhancements possible with sabermetrics and biomechanics.

And Daniel mentioned it in the comments of the tank yesterday, but it deserves a link of it's own. Phil Roth has made a beautiful and useful tool that shows both the past, present, and future salary commitments for every MLB team.

More from DRaysBay:

• The Rays lineup with Delmon Young and David DeJesus
• Series Preview: New York Yankees
• State of the Bullpen