Per the The Heater:

The Rays have placed Evan Longoria on the 15-day disabled list with a fractured right wrist and recalled outfielder Justin Ruggiano from Durham.

This is not good.

The Rays have signed #1 overall pick Tim Beckham.

Tim Beckham, the No. 1 overall pick in this year’s First-Year Player Draft, signed a contract with the Rays on Thursday. Beckham’s signing bonus is worth a $6.15 million, the club announced.

“We are thrilled to add an athlete of Tim’s talent and character to our organization,” said Andrew Friedman, Rays Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations. “That we were able to conclude the signing process just two weeks after the draft is a testament both to the relationship that our scouting staff formed with Tim and his family, and of course to Tim’s enthusiasm for the game. He has true five-tool potential, and we look forward to helping him develop his unique abilities.”

Scouting Report on today’s starters from MLB.com:
James Shields (4-5, 3.91) - Shields is coming off a disappointing outing against the Angels in which he pitched well, but the scoreboard did not reflect as much. The right-hander allowed six earned runs, but they came in two innings. Two home runs hurt him, but he managed to pitch his third complete game of the season while picking up his fifth loss of the season. Shields will be making his first start against the Cubs.

Sean Gallagher (3-3, 4.54) - Facing the Blue Jays in his last start, Gallagher took the loss. The right-hander allowed three runs on seven hits over five innings. He walked two while striking out five and needed 101 pitches to get through the outing. The start was only Gallagher’s seventh of the year for the Cubs. As well, it was the second straight where he had recorded a loss.

Check out the Rays’ career numbers against Sean Gallagher.

View the game preview from Baseball Reference.

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Wow! These last two games in The Trop have been some of the most exciting games in team history. Two very good teams playing in front of a packed crowd, and both came down to the last out! Are we sure it is not October already? If the games are this nail-biting all the way through the season there is about a 1.278% chance I will live to see the end of our playoff run. I can only imagine what the atmosphere was like in-person.

Pimp walkin’ ain’t easy: Has there been a bigger surprise to this season that the play of J.P. Howell? His BAA is basically .200 regardless of if he is facing a righty or lefty. His fastball away is really tough on left-handed batters, and his curveball is death to righties. I could not have been more wrong about Howell’s ability to contribute to this team, and I love every bite of crow that I have to eat.

Livin’ on the edge: Troy Percival has certainly made the last two nights a bit interesting to say the least. Regardless, Percy buckled down when he had to and got the job done. I love having Percival out in there in 9th, but he could make it much easier on my heart if he could go back to getting those 1-2-3 innings.

Evan Almighty: How great was that play that Longoria made to end the game on Tuesday? I continued to be impressed with his defense at third, and I have no concerns that his bat will come around. The power that he displayed with that effortless homerun to right on Tuesday was a great example of his talent. I honestly believe Longoria is going to have multiple 35+ home run seasons in his career. Hopefully all of them will be in a Tampa Bay uniform.

Looking ahead: The Rays should have a great chance to sweep the team with the best record in baseball today as they send James Shields to the mound. There is no reason we should ever lose a home game with Shields taking the ball against a rookie starter for the other team. If the Rays get the win tonight they will improve to 5-1 on the homestand before welcoming in a slumping Astros team. They have a great shot to notch a 7-2 record over the homestand, which would give them a great chance to further extend their three game lead in the Wild Card. The Rays need to take advantage of these winnable games at home, because the Yankees appear to be coming on fast.

Scouting Report on today’s starters from MLB.com:
Scott Kazmir - The 24-year-old left-hander took his first loss of the season on Wednesday against the Angels, ending a streak that saw him earn six wins in six consecutive starts. Kazmir moved up a spot in the rotation to take James Shields’ spot while Shields serves a six-game suspension from the Rays’ June 5 fracas against the Red Sox. Despite moving up in the rotation, Kazmir will be pitching on his regular day due to the off-day on Monday. Kazmir will be making his first career start against the Cubs.

Ryan Dempster - Dempster is right at home back in the Cubs’ starting rotation. In his last start, he threw a complete game, his first since Sept. 25, 2002. Not bad for a guy who was a closer for three seasons. He notched his ninth quality start and remained unbeaten at home. He may want to ask Lou Piniella to only pitch at Wrigley Field. Against the Braves in his last start, he struck out 11, and gave up two runs on four hits. It was the second time he reached double-digit strikeouts this year.

Check out the Rays’ career numbers against Ryan Dempster.

View the game preview from Baseball Reference.

Be sure to join us in the chat room for some good Rays talk during the game!!!

What to watch for: After getting off to a great overall start to season, Edwin Jackson has been very mediocre in his last three starts. Jackson has allowed at least 4 ERs in each outing, and posted a WHIP of 1.77 over those starts. Jackson has struggled in his career against the Marlins, posting an 11.88 ERA against the Fish. If Jackson can manage to keep the ball in the ballpark against the powerful Marlins, the Rays should have a great chance to notch a Sunshine Series Sweep.

Scouting Report on today’s starters from MLB.com:
Edwin Jackson - Jackson made his 13th start of the season Monday night against the Angels, and the 24-year-old right-hander came away with his fourth win after allowing four runs on 10 hits and one walk while striking out two in seven innings. Jackson has electric stuff, which brings the expectations of future greatness, and just lately has he shown signs of being able to harness that ability on a consistent basis. Jackson is 0-2 with an 11.88 ERA in three career appearances against the Marlins.

Ricky Nolasco - Nolasco had one of his best outings of the season and registered the win in his last start, Tuesday against the Phillies. But the 25-year-old probably deserved to record a shutout. Nolasco gave up three runs (zero earned) on four hits and one walk while striking out three. But the three runs scored on Nolasco came after two-out errors by his defense. Nolasco finished his night after throwing 95 pitches — 69 for strikes — against the high-powered Philadelphia offense.

Check out the Rays’ career numbers against Ricky Nolasco.

View the game preview from Baseball Reference.

Be sure to join us in the chat room for some good Rays talk during the game!!!

Masterful Matt: Coming off an ugly outing and outburst in Anaheim, Matt Garza’s start tonight was nothing short of beautiful. He threw strikes, kep his composure when he was squeezed on a few calls, and did not turn into the “Raging Bull” on any of his teammates. Despite only striking out three, Garza threw strikes on 61% of his pitches and was inducing groundballs all night. Garza and Navarro were in a groove all-night, and both seem to have quickly moved passed the incident in Arlington. We have seen Garza put together performances like this in the past, and the key for him, or any young pitcher for that matter, is to work on stringing together a couple of starts together. Garza has been great at the Trop all season, and he should get his next start at home against the Astros.

The unnamed duo strong again: Someone creative out there in the Internets needs to come up with a clever nickname for the 8th/9th inning combo of Wheeler and Percival. This game was never in doubt as soon as Maddon made the call to pen for Demolition. (You know, the most dominant WWE tag-team of the 90s. Here comes the Ax (Wheeler), here comes the Smasher (Percival)! Yea, that’s not doing it for me either…). Six up, six down and the Rays clinch another series victory. It is amazing how the 2007 bullpen seems like a distant memory at this point. I wonder whatever happened to that Gary Glover guy? Probably back in Japan…

Bartlett delivers with his bat??? There is no doubt in my mind that Jason Bartlett won the first game of the year against the Red Sox with his glove. Tonight, he may have won a game with his bat. Bartlett came through with a HUGE two-out single with the bases loaded in the 4th. That hit pushed the Rays on top for good and the outcome never felt in question the rest of the way. Barty is now 4-5 over the last two games with 4 singles and a sac-fly.

Golden Infield: Seriously, is every member of the Rays infield a contender for a Gold Glove this season? Shining tonight, Longoria made a play that probably made Mike Schmidt stop and say, “Damn!”. (#1 Web Gem on Baseball Tonight) His defense has been better than advertised since his call-up, and, with Longoria winning the A.L. Rookie of the Year, he may garner the “name” recognition to have a chance at the gold. I doubt he takes it this year, but he should win this pointless award (which I just spent a paragraph talking about) several times before his career is over.

Bonus Link
Will Carroll takes a closer look at the potential impact of Griffey to the Rays.

2. How does Griffey’s big contract affect the talks?
Griffey’s contract is a really complex one. He’ll make $12.5m this season and is scheduled for $16.5m next year or a $4m buyout. $6.5m of this year (but not next) is deferred which makes the AAV lower. That’s not a big concern for the Rays, who would be more likely to buy him out. The Rays could unquestionably take on the salary, especially if the Reds have already paid the deferred money as sources tell me they do at the start of the season. The Rays could hold out for the Reds to eat more of the contract if they were willing to give up a prime prospect but …

Welcome home: With the 7-3 victory on Friday night, the Rays have now won 21 of their last 24 home games. This great home record has allowed the team to take control of the Wild Card despite having a sub-.500 road record. The Rays maintained a 2.5 game lead over Oakland for the Wild Card, and picked up a game on the Red Sox (1.5 back) who lost to the Cincinnati Reds. Amazingly the Rays are still 11 games over .500 despite playing the toughest schedule in baseball.

Sonny wins #7: Andy Sonnanstine struggled early, but pitched well enough to hang in there to earn his seventh victory of the season. After getting knocked around in the 1st inning, Sonny had a stretch of 13 consecutive batters retired and had the Marlins hitters completely off-balance. Was anyone else a little surprised that Maddon gave him the quick pull after 5.1 innings? The move worked well, and I guess Maddon felt comfortable going to the pen early with everyone well-rested. 5:0 K/BB ratio tonight for Sonny.

Percy back in action: It was great to see Percy pick up right where he left off before heading to the DL. He struck out the first two hitters and got a weak grounder to end the game. The 8th-9th inning combo of Wheeler and Percival has been great for the Rays all season and tonight was no exception. You could make a good argument that both guys deserve to be a member of the AL All-Star team. I highly doubt that either will be selected, but they both are having that type of season.

CC who?: The Rays familiar face in left field began serving his 4 game suspension tonight, but his absence was not felt at the top of the order. The 1-2-3-4 hitters in the lineup went a combined 7-15 with 4 walks. Dioner Navarro was slotted in the two-slot and put together several good at-bats during the game. I love the idea of putting a high OBP guy in that slot in the order. Could we see Maddon leave Navarro in that slot even after C.C. returns?I know there is no chance of that happening, but, hey, a guy can always dream right? Speaking of Navi, he is rapidly approaching the numbers of PA required to qualify for AL hitting statistics. His .335 average would currently rank first in the American League in front of Milton Bradley and Joe Mauer.

Long-O: The only black eye on the lineup tonight was the 0-5 night by Evan Longoria. I was hoping Evan to pick up where he left off in California, but he missed some meatballs tonight. Hopefully, the future AL Rookie of the Year can get back in the groove of things tomorrow night.

The Rays are back in the friendly confines of Tropicana Field to kick off another round of interleague play against the Florida Marlins. These two teams have been the talk of baseball in the early season. With both teams a combined 16 games over .500 ,this series should generate a lot more local buzz than ever before.

What to watch for: Can Sonny get back in the win column? After starting the year with a 6-1 record through 9 starts, Sonny is winless over his last three starts. The offense should lend him some help tonight as they face off against a Marlins starter who is making only his second career start. Also, can the Rays win this series with only their 3-4-5 starters taking the mound?

Scouting Report on today’s starters from MLB.com:
Andy Sonnanstine- Sonnanstine got a no-decision Saturday night in Texas after allowing two runs on six hits in five innings. The right-hander is a master of deception, employing an array of pitches that he can throw from all different angles. But he has learned to primarily use his fastball to set up the other pitches. Sonnanstine is 1-0 with a 2.57 ERA in one career start against the Marlins. His last win came May 16 at St. Louis.

Justin Tucker- After dominating Double-A Carolina all year, the Marlins finally decided to give Tucker a chance in the Major Leagues. He didn’t let them down. Making his big league debut against the Reds on Sunday, Tucker went five innings while giving up just one run on two hits and striking out six in the Marlins’ win. Tucker walked five batters (one intentional) and threw 89 pitches — 45 for strikes. His fastball was in the low- to mid-90s for most of the afternoon, topping out at 95 mph twice. The only run he gave up was a two-out single by his opposing pitcher, Aaron Harang. Coming into the game, Tucker had posted a 4-2 record with the Mudcats and a Southern League-leading 1.41 ERA.

View the game preview from Baseball Reference.

Be sure to join us in the chat room for some good Rays talk during the game!!!

Back on Track

The Rays crushed the Rangers on Friday night by a final of 12-4. The win moved the Rays within a 0.5 game of Boston in the AL East and gave the Rays a three game lead in the Wild Card (pending the outcome of Oakland’s game). Scott Kazmir was dominant again, allowing only two earned runs over eight innings.. Kazmir’s now sports a 6-1 record with a blistering 1.40 ERA. Sure, Kaz did miss a month of the season due to injury, but he has to be moving himself closer to being a lock for the All-Star game. If he can close out June with an 9-1 record and sub-2.00 ERA it is possible he could make a run at being the starter. It is unlikely due to the amount of time that he has missed, but, hey, I’m an optimist. Pull for a few rough starts by Cliff Lee if you care about that sort of thing.

Quick Hits

It was nice to see B.J. Upton deposit a ball over the outfield fence again. Upton has maintained his great approach at the plate, and it is only a matter of time before we see a huge power surge from Bossman. I would not be shocked if he ended the month of June with 9+ home runs.

Dioner Navarro was 2-26 over the last 7 games before recording to hits in his final two ABs.

Carl Crawford’s average has dipped down to .268.

Scott Kazmir allowed his first home run of the season to Ian Kinsler with 2 outs in the 8th inning.

MLB announced the suspension for yesterday’s brawl in Beantown.

7 games
Coco Crisp, Red Sox
6 games
James Shields, Rays
5 games
Jonny Gomes, Rays
Edwin Jackson, Rays
Jon Lester, Red Sox
4 games
Carl Crawford, Rays
3 games
Akinori Iwamura, Rays
Sean Casey, Red Sox

Draft Notes

Imperialism over at RaysBB has a draft info thread posted with up-to-date info on each prospect that Rays selected. There is a ton information within the post, and I would encourage anyone to check it out for more info on the future Rays farmhands.

The Rays selected Jeremy Beckham, the brother of #1 overall pick Tim, in the 17th Round of the draft on Tuesday. The two brothers should get a chance to flip a few double plays at Princeton later this summer.

Chatting with experts: Draft Edition

Keith Law gets us started:

Dan (Bridgewater, NJ): Do you think that any teams drafted a player that we’ll see this year or next year?

SportsNation Keith Law: Yes, many relievers, like Cashner, Perry, Fields, Schlereth, Weatherford (what a pick at 103 - even with the medicals, who cares? run him right to the big leagues), several of those guys will show up this year. And I wouldn’t count out a Posey, Smoak, or Matusz tearing through the low minors and showing up in late 2009.

Carol (Largo, FL): Hey Keith–I read the Rays were thrilled that Kyle Lobstein LHP was still on the board at 47. Can you tell me a little about him? Thank you

SportsNation Keith Law: Originally projected as a mid-first rounder. 87-90 mph (early in the spring), projectable body, great athlete, willing to pitch with his fastball, shows a good curve, some feel for a change. Velo slipped as the spring went on, and I know some area scouts (not all) felt he kind of mailed in a few games towards the end of the spring. I think getting him at 47, if he’ll sign, is tremendous.

David (Clearwater, FL): Does David Price get called up this year?

SportsNation Keith Law: I think so.

Take it over Jim Callis:

Athony from sarasota asks: Why Beckham over Posey?

Jim Callis: Buster Posey just went yard to make bring Florida State within one run of Wichita State . . . That pick just came down to the Rays’ personal preference. The easier choice would have been Posey, because he’ll be ready quicker and fill a more obvious need, but Tampa Bay thought Beckham had more upside.

Kevin Goldstein wraps it up.

Alan (St. Pete): KG, I’ve never really gotten an answer to this question; maybe it’s a stupid question, but what the hey … At Vandy, David Price was reportedly sitting low 90s and touching 95. I’ve seen him pitch a few times now (in spring training, in extended spring and once at Vero), and the guns have him hitting 93-94 consistently and touching 98. What might account for the boost in velocity?

Kevin Goldstein: I had him 92-94 and touching 96. He might have just gotten better and that’s a good thing, because there are tons of guys who honestly never throw as hard as they did in high school.

Will (New Orleans): hewitt has the highest “upside” in the draft, yet Beckham is a 5 tool talent who’s gonna get 3 times more money. If you put those two guys through a bunch of athletic - not “baseball” oriented - drills, who comes out on top? I guess what I’m asking is, who wins a Decathlon?

Kevin Goldstein: Hewitt by a mile. Over anyone in this draft I’d take Hewitt in a Decathalon.

Marc Topkin is reporting the Rays will select Tim Beckham with the #1 overall selection in today’s MLB Draft.

The Rays will take Griffin (Ga.) High SS Tim Beckham with the top pick in today’s draft.

The Rays on Wednesday said they had narrowed the field to Beckham and Florida State catcher Buster Posey.

Beckham, 18, is an athletic, five-tools type of player projected by many scouts to be a future star, possibly along the lines of current Rays CF B.J. Upton, or his brother Justin, a RF with the Diamondbacks.