Tampa Bay Rays News and Links: Two ex-Rays find homes

It looks like Desmond Jennings, released by the Rays, will head to Cincinnati. Maybe on a minor league deal? Not finalized yet, but Cincinnati has a need for a right-handed bat that can play spell Billy Hamilton in center field.

And after a bouncing around the league a bit this offseason, Richie Shaffer was DFA’d and went unclaimed, so it looks like he’ll finally land in Cleveland’s Triple-A.

Also, this is important.

Best. Shape. Of. His. Life.

And I don’t know quite what “No good read” means, but it sounds like Topkin is saying the Rays are still in these talks, maybe?

Links:

• Grant Brisbee takes a look back on the huge offseason pitching frenzy that wasn’t.
• Dave Cameron over at Fangraphs checks out the trend of teams seemingly “punting” First Base, and focusing that attention on production elsewhere. The weak 1B market has put the Rays is a really good opportunity to wait and see what falls to them.
• Evan J. Davis at Beyond the Box Score writes a pitying epitaph for the Oakland A’s. It’s an interesting read that’s high on emotion and sweeping generalities, and low on info and facts. I don’t really agree that the A’s and Billy Beane should be buried just yet, but it is hard not to look at that franchise and compare it to our Rays. If anything, the recent struggles for the A’s shows just how tough it is to try and keep a competitive team, while keeping future windows open, all on a tight budget.
• The St Louis Cardinals are back in the news, this time for doing legal baseball things. The Cards and young ace Carlos Martinez are set to ink a 5 year, $51 mil extension.

• Shane Tourtellotte at The Hardball Times poses the question and dives in to which was the best World Series Game 7?