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Rays owner Stu Sternberg says "Change is good"

By Daniel Russell
Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports

The Rays owner was with the team pre-game for their debut on local Sun Sports for the season, and Rays Radio has provided the audio. He's jovial, starting out by saying "Change is good! We embrace change, and change is good."

He seems happy to be there, though he said, "I'm as frightened as anybody."

Then Marc Topkin comes out swinging.

"What was the biggest surprise for you, that Andrew left or that Joe left?"

Sternberg's sigh is long and audible, then says he hadn't thought about it, but settles on Joe dismissively.

Topkin takes the hint and goes back to the team, but Sternberg obliges by discussing how the organization has "batted 1.000" in the face of those obstacles.

"They crushed it, they really did... I could only have imagined in the best, best of cases that we'd be here today."

It's an interesting comment, given the state of three starters likely starting the season on this disabled list. As for the positives, Sternberg eventually points to the opportunities in front of the group of pitchers to prove themselves, giving the example of Kevin Kiermaier who may not be the starting center fielder today had Myers not injured himself.

The interview also covered Kevin Cash, a guy Sternberg is fairly happy to have on staff. "The first think I like about him," said Sternberg, "is that we got a guy here we expect to be here for a very long time. That's a good thing, we can put that to bed."

Sternberg lauded Cash's straight forward attitude, and his view point of learning as much as he can and working as hard as he can. If you've seen our coverage here along the way, I think you could pick up the same feelings.

The owner admits the previous manager leaving left a bad taste in his mouth after a leading question, but says it was in his rights to explore other options.

Listen to the whole interview here:

Rays Notes

- The Rays made another set of cuts, dropping OF Mikie Mahtook, LHP Enny Romero, and CIF Vince Belnome to minor league camp to get regular appearances.

- The Rays are stretching Mike Montgomery back out into a starter, or at least will attempt to after converting him to full relief at the start of spring training. He and Everett Teaford will pitch three frames a piece in place of Alex Cobb on Sunday. That will also be the next game to be televised, lucky you.

- Rays Radio provided a quick interview with Colome, who said his body doesn't feel too bad. Losing a lot of weight while in the hospital for a week with pneumonia, he will have some challenges getting back into playing shape.

- Effectively Wild covered the Rays in their 2015 preview series this morning, featuring interviews with the quality pairing of Adam Sobsey (Bull City Summer) and then Andrew Astleford (Fox Sports Florida).

- Per the Rays, Nathan Karns retired the first five batters of Thursday's game, running his streak to 22 consecutive batters retired in order. The right-hander's streak dated back to the second inning of his March 9 start against the Yankees. You can see his thoughts on yesterday's start here:

Links

- Baseball Prospectus posted their Top 300 draft rankings, as well as their "player to watch" per team.

- Every game played on the final game of the regular season will now occur simultaneously. Remember Game 162? MLB wants that to happen again.

- Cistulli on College Hitter projections.

- MLB is likely to hold an exhibition in Cuba in 2016.

- Matt Wieters has a clean elbow, says the x-ray.

- Souza absolutely clobbered one opposite field yesterday, and it was awesome:

- And finally, Ask and you shall receive:

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