• All-expense paid trip for four to the All-Star Game and State Farm Home Run Derby
• First class hotel accommodations in New York
• Tickets to a Broadway show
• $1,000 MasterCard gift card

The grand prize winner will also get the chance to pick a spot to which two of the Home Run Derby players must compete to try to hit a ball. If the first player hits the ball to the called spot, the promotion ends. If either player succeeds, the fan receives a 2008 Chevrolet Tahoe hybrid vehicle and a 2009 season-ticket package for any team.

News & Notes

• Gregory Sexton was 3-for-4
• Ronnie Merrill was 3-for-4

Organizational Roundup

(AAA) - Durham Bulls - Lost vs. Charlotte (3-6)

(AA) - Montgomery Biscuits - Lost vs. Tennessee (2-3)

(High A) - Vero Beach Rays - Lost vs. Tampa (1-5)

(A) - Columbus Catfish - Lost to Augusta (2-13)

View the full organizational report courtesy of First Inning here.

I received a copy of the Bill James Gold Mine in the mail about a week and a half ago and have been meaning to share some nuggets from the book with you. Hope you enjoy.

Carl Crawford has steadily increased his batting average on fly balls each year since 2002. I’m not sure why, but it’s an interesting number. Here is the breakdown by year:

2002 - .075
2003 - .098
2004 - .162
2005 - .190
2006 - .262
2007 - .307

Staying on the Crawford front, did you know that over the last three years no one has a better stolen base gain than CC? He’s a +100 which works out to be an 85% success rate. Granted, he doesn’t have any many steals as guys like Reyes, Pierre and Figgins, but he does know how to steal bases and is an asset in that aspect.

Last season, Al Reyes had just 23 ground-ball outs and absolutely no force outs. James compares him to Chad Bradford who had 101 ground-ball outs and 9 force outs. Both faced similar amounts of hitters with Reyes at 254 and Bradford at 289.

Scott Kazmir tends to pitch better as he faces better teams.

vs. .600+ teams - Four games / 1-0 / 1.65 ERA
vs. .500 - .599 teams - 50 games / 18 - 16 / 3.20 ERA
vs. .400 - .499 teams - 40 games / 14 - 13 / 4.23 ERA
vs. sub .400 teams - 4 games / 2 - 0 / 4.91 ERA

James Shields retired the first hitter in the inning 74% of the time. That was the best conversion percentage in all of baseball among pitchers who qualified for the ERA title.

On the flip side, Kazmir led the majors in innings throwing more than 20 pitches with 67. Ouch!!!

That’s just a snapshot of some of the good things in the new book. If you’ve not picked it up yet, it’s well worth the money. Do the publisher a favor and pick it up from them using this link. I don’t get anything out of it, but it’s better to support the little man rather than places like Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

Click Here to enter

I bet you didn’t know that the Rays record for most consecutive games with a base hit to start a career is held by Rocco Baldelli (13), who did the feat in 2003? In that time, Baldelli hit .407 / .419 / .559.

That streak is also the Rays record for hit streak to start the year, regardless of if it’s to start a player’s career. Delmon Young challenged it last year with 12.

I also bet you didn’t know that it isn’t a Ray that holds the hit streak record for only Tropicana Field. Nope, it’s none other than Johnny Damon with a streak of 25 straight games with a hit at the Trop (1998 - 2002). Carl Crawford is the best Ray with 23.

All info found using Play Index, part of Baseball Reference. Be sure to click the links for a breakdown of the streaks.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjhOBiSk8Gg

I don’t post much regarding the Rays, and make it no secret that I’m a Cub fan first and foremost. However, I can’t help but be intrigued by this offense. I wanted to take a look at what the batting order did last year as a result. This was a terrible Achilles heel for this team. As a unit, the Rays leadoff hitters put up dismal numbers.

April - .307 / .386 / .525
Rocco Baldelli got the bulk of the time in April in the spot and it went extremely well as he put up .323 / .391 / .565 averages. The team played .500 ball in those games. Unfortunately, Carl Crawford was also used in that spot and saw the team go 2-5 when he did. Maybe I’m wrong on this, but just because a guy can run like the wind it does not mean he’s a leadoff hitter. Crawford has demonstrated over his career that the number two spot is his best spot in the order.

May - .149 / .271 / .376
Ouch!!! Those are brutal numbers, but I think I figured out what the issue was. I’ve narrowed it down to two potential causes. Seeing that Baldelli was still in the leadoff spot the majority of the plate appearances, something must have happened. First, I am curious to know if perhaps Jen Sterger was in the house more during the month of May and cause Rocco to be visually distracted. His strikeout rate and contact rate both declined during the month and eventually Elijah Dukes was tried in the spot. How’d that go? Dukes is playing elsewhere, does that answer your question?

June - .205 / .269 / .325
Man, it’s getting worse. We got on base more via singles, but the extra base hits continued to decline at at an alarming rate. Elijah Dukes continued to get a few chances in the role and put up an eye popping 0 for 17. It’s at this point that Akinori Iwamura got his shot and did not deliver, the team going a delightful 7-15 in those games.

July - .297 / .346 / .373
Thankfully the on base percentage rises again, but unfortunately the slugging still isn’t where we’d like to see it. Aki continued in the role and seemed to begin to figure it out. Unfortunately the team continued it’s poor play and went 7-19 in those games.

August - .268 / .333 / .407
Despite the batting average drop, the on base percentage did not drop as bad and the slugging increased. It seems like Aki began to feel a little more comfortable in the role and the Rays put up a 14-13 record in those games.

September - .282 / .339 / .410
The final month of the season continued to see Aki improve in the leadoff spot. His .290 / .350 / .430 numbers in the month are very acceptable to me. 11-15 are what the Rays did in those games, but overall it seems like Aki continued to show he has the potential to be a very good leadoff man.

That leads me to this question. Should Aki be the Rays leadoff man this year or does the job go back to Rocco?

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From the St Pete Times (Source):

Dioner Navarro was on his way back to Tampa from Venezuela on Sunday and is expected to be in camp today, agent Kendall Almerico said. Navarro has been attending to his mother, Rosa, who remains hospitalized in intensive care after a brain aneurysm.

 Q: Who is the only Ray in history to hit a homerun as a lefty and a righty in the same game and what year did it happen?

Leave your guesses in the comment section, but please refrain from web searches as that takes the fun out of playing.