Joe Maddon Ops out of Contract

Oh boy, here we go.

With the news last week of the Dodgers stealing Andrew Friedman, Joe Maddon has also decided to jump the Tampa Bay Rays ship and opt out of his current contract that ran through 2015. Which, according to Jon Heyman, was his right. Yes, I did just link a tweet by Jon Heyman. That's how serious this is.

Resolving The Royals Rays Trade

Now that the dust has settled and knee-jerk Twitter comments basically reducing Dayton Moore to a sad clown of a GM have subsided (somewhat), the blockbuster deal doesn't look so terribly lopsided in the Rays favor. It's not like Moore completely scorched the Royals farm and salted the earth. Besides, if the Royals win the World Series after making this trade, giant fireballs will destroy the planet leaving all of these article pointless anyway.

About That Deal: Royals GM Dayton Moore finally got the ace of his Hot Stove pitching triumvirate adding James Shields to Ervin Santana and Jeremy Guthrie. And, oh, how will they rule the AL Central with the same power of Gaius Julius Caesar, Marcus Licinius Crassus, and Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus. Along with two reasonably controlled seasons of Shields, the Royals are receiving starter/reliever/starter/? Wade Davis and a PTBNL or some sweet Tampa cash.

The Rays get a package of prospects led by minor league player of the year Wil Myers. Myers is a 22-year-old outfielder who hit 37 home runs between Double-A and Triple-A in 2012 and strikes out a bit/a lot. RHP Jake Odorizzi, LHP Mike Montgomery and 3B Patrick Leonard also leave the Royals farm for Tampa Bay's.

Win Now Without Money: The Royals at least have an allowance but not enough to shop at major department stores. While they can afford starting pitchers like Santana, Guthrie, Bruce Chen and sometimes Gil Meche, the Royals just don't ever have elite guys like Zack Greinke. From 2007-2012, Shields is 13th in MLB with a 23.4 fWAR. And a respectable 3.80 ERA. The Royals will pay him around $22 million for two years before Shields hits free agency. He gives them a front line pitcher to go with a young and currently inexpensive core of position players. The Royals will give Davis another rotation look after he excelled in the pen.

The Rays, taking a page from my book, have no money. But they're crafty. Thanks to good drafts and smart trades, the Rays can replace (to an extent) Shields in the rotation with Chris Archer, Alex Cobb or even Odorizzi. While Davis was great in his bullpen role, the Rays have a history of procuring prolific pen pieces. Adding Myers, at first glace, looks like another steal. Myers will likely start the year in right field for the Rays and make preseason Rookie of the Year lists. In classic Rays style, Myers will be dirt cheap for a few years and under control for six. Same with Odorizzi and Montgomery who isn't quite the prospect he used to be.

Then There's The Uncertainty: Dave Cameron nails it. But in summary, yeah, there's uncertainty. As Royals-side trade supporters point out, prospects can fail. This is news to me and I will ask Brandon Wood if it's true the next time he bags my groceries at what I assume is his winter job. Wil Myers could be a bust. His name is spelled incorrectly after all. Or he could be an All Star, next season.

The same Royals defenders (okay, it's mainly Jeff Passan) claim Kansas City is getting a "known quantity" in Shields. Roy Halladay, Dan Haren, Tim Lincecum, Josh Beckett and Jon Lester are all ahead of Shields on that fWAR from 2007-2012 leader board. Uncertainty is a dish best served cold. Wait, that's not it. Cameron's point, that I borrowed, is uncertainty doesn't only exist at the prospect level.

Concerns: Shields has a career 3.33 home ERA and 4.54 road ERA. Jeff Francoeur will continue to get playing time in the Royals outfield.

Myers' strikeout percentage jumped to 20.9% as he did to Double-A in 2011. It jumped again to 27.6% in Double-A in 2012 before "coming down" to 22.3% in Triple-A.

Conclusion: N/A

Rays Rookies Get HAZED.

Ah, Rookie hazing. That age old tradition that bonds both veterans and youngsters alike. It is also that time of year where the seasoned vets remind the kiddies who, in fact, is in charge. Whether it's the Smurfs incident that the Washington Nationals rookies lived through last year, or Mike Trout getting dressed up as Lady Gaga, every year a new high (low) is hit.

I'm going to go ahead and say that the Tampa Bay Rays are this years winners. Of course, when you have a manager who orchestrates things like this, you should already be a step ahead of the competition. For this year's hazing, the Rays veterans (is it weird to call 26 year olds veterans?) decided to not just parade around their young pups, but they were going to have them announce their rookie-ness to the entire world (Or at least to anyone who happened to be in Fenway Park).

Matt Garza Is Pretty Cool

This past Monday, Matt Garza threw the season's 5th no hitter against the Tigers. He faced the minimum by doubling off his only walk of the game. It would have been an even more impressive feat if it had come against a team with more than two major league hitters in the lineup. Still, it was the Tampa Bay Rays first no hitter and Garza was quick to thank his teammates...

“Becoming the first Rays player ever to pitch a no-hitter has been a great experience. I really couldn’t have done it without the support from my team. To thank them for their nine innings of hard work, I decided to give them a personalized embroidered bag and bottle of Crown Royal Black. That way, we can all celebrate together when enjoying the new whisky,” said Garza.

I like Matt Garza a whole lot more now.



You have to appreciate the pitcher's taste in adult beverage. The bag is a pretty sweet touch. More importantly, how cool are the Rays. Now I just imagine them hanging out in the lockeroom after games sipping whiskey and smoking cigars while sexually harassing female employees. Or I'm thinking of Mad Men. Either way, still cool.

The celebratory booze might just be a stocking stuffer too since Garza is reportedly finalizing a "separate surprise." If I were a Ray, I'd be hoping for a pygmy giraffe from the DirecTV commercial.

Sweet Lou's Last Run

Cubs manager Lou Piniella has announced he will retire after this season, presumably after a Chicago loss in late-September. Piniella, who started his managerial career in 1986 with the Yankees, has been around forever. The only seasons he wasn't a manager were 1989 and 2006, and he's been in the dugout with five different teams.



Piniella guided the 1990 Cincinnati Reds to a World Series sweep over the A's, but since hasn't had a ton of post-season success. He had several great regular-season teams in his 10 years with Seattle. In the strike-shortened 1995 season, the Mariners won the AL West in a one-game playoff over the Angels and reached the ALCS before losing to Cleveland. The 1997 West champions were beaten in four games by Baltimore in the ALDS, and the 2001 team won a record-tying 116 games before losing to the Yankees in the championship series.



After a forgettable three seasons in Tampa Bay (200-285, combined 96 1/2 games out of first), Piniella was 46 games over .500 in his first three seasons with the Cubs (2007-2009), which included an NL-best 97 wins in 2008. But like 2007, when Arizona swept a first-round series (yes, the Diamondbacks were in the post-season as recently as 2007), Piniella's club was swept in the first round in 2008 by the Dodgers.

Here's a list of some players Piniella managed:

Don Mattingly, Rickey Henderson, Ron Guidry, Tommy John, Dave Winfield, Ken Griffey Jr., Randy Johnson, Edgar Martinez, Alex Rodriguez, Goose Gossage, Ichiro Suzuki, Fred McGriff

And here's another list of players Piniella managed:

Wayne Tolleson, Mike Pagliarulo, Bobby Meachum, Steve Trout, Lee Guetterman, Luis Quinones, Rob Dibble, Troy Afenir, Mackey Sasser, Wally Backman, Erik Plantenburg, George Glinatsis, Salomon Torres, Alvaro Espinoza, Ryan Radmanovich, Brett Hinchliffe, Desi Relaford, Terry Shumpert, John Rocker, Hideo Nomo, Rocky Cherry, Carmen Pignatiello, Esmailin Caridad

Uptons Pack The Trop

Tonight when the Diamondbacks play the Rays, it will be the first time young stars brothers B.J. and Justin Upton will play against each other. B.J. was the second pick overall by the Rays in the 2002 draft. He broke into the bigs in 2004 at 19-years-old. I fell in love with Bossman Junior during the magical summer of 2007. He hit 24 home runs, 82 RBI, 22 steals and had an .894 OPS while playing second base. A star was born and I won a fantasy baseball title. Since 2007, he has 27 home runs, 151 RBI, 109 steals and an average OPS of .733. Sadly, my fantasy teams have still not recovered from the heartbreak.

Justin was the top pick in 2005 and broke in at 19-years-old with the Diamondbacks in 2007. He had 26 home runs while hitting .300/.366/.532 last season. I've never owned him on a fantasy team so I'm fairly indifferent about the younger Upton. He does strikeout quite a bit which makes me happy.

Oh wait, I buried the lede. Upton family and friends will pack Tropicana Field to near capacity tonight for this glorious event...

About 65 friends and relatives of the Uptons will be at Tropicana Field for tonight's first-ever meeting of brothers B.J. and Justin. Most noticeable will be mother Yvonne, who has a special split jersey shirt with both of her sons names and numbers that was made by a family friend.

"This is the easy part," said Manny, their father. "The hard part was making sure everybody got into town.''

Ugh, those jerseys are so tacky. Why can't one parent wear the jersey of their favorite kid and then the other parent has to wear the jersey of the loser kid? We're getting too damn politically correct, America. I hope B.J. doesn't get nervous playing in front of that many people at The Trop. Zing. You might need to put some Neosporin on that burn Tampa Bay fans.

Tampa Bay to Make "Important Announcement" Monday

You can imagine my surprise and delight when MTD sent this link to my mailbox. Tampa Bay principal owner Stuart Sternberg on Monday will make "an important announcement regarding the future of the Rays franchise" at a 12:15 p.m. press conference at Tropicana Field. That's the press release; no other information given. I hope Sternberg realizes neither Yankees or Redsox players have been invited to attend the press conference so he should expect a far-less-than-capacity crowd.

Such a vague announcement forces me to come up with my own list of possibilities:

"Brent Abernathy's No. 3 jersey will be retired before the June 25 game against Arizona."

"Kelly Shoppach Bobblehead Day has been moved to August 5."

"The legendary 2002 Devilrays will be honored before the July 26 game against Detroit. Special slide show presentation: All of Manager Hal McRae's 55 wins."

"Greg Vaughn has been signed to a six-year, $60 million contract."

"Catwalk seats above home plate now just $1."

"Each of Paul Sorrento's 133 strike outs from 1998 will be reprised in paintings and given to the first 133 media members who attended today's press conference."

"Vanilla Ice is the new lefty specialist out of the bullpen; July 9 concert cancelled."

"Esteban Yan's No. 43 jersey will be retired before the September 24 game against Seattle."