Kyle Farnsworth?

Good bye.......Free agents
Carlos Pena
Carl Crawford
Joaquin Benoit
Randy Choate
Dan Wheeler


Soon to be good bye.....
Alfonso Soriano
Grant Balfour


Good bye traded core players:
Jason Bartlett
Matt Garza


Hello?
Kyle Farnsworth????


Really?????


The AP is reporting that Kyle "gas can" Farnsworth and his 12 year
lifetime 34-55 record are headed to the Rays.  Please tell me that the
Rays are not really thinking about adding this head case to the roster. 
Especially if the 
money that are reporting can be believed....  


$3.25 million per year????  What????


As a newer Rays fan.... since 1999....  I understand not signing the
free agents, and I have actually kind of liked the trades we have
pulled off.  I know our bullpen is going to be our weakest link in 
2011, but Kyle Farnsworth?  


Note to Joe....  Keep the all the electric fans out of the dugout.... 
and lets hope Kyle spends some of his cash on obedience 
school for his two Bulldogs!!!


At least he can fight!!!  Do you need an enforcer in baseball?

The Card Addict

Night Owl Trade!!!

So a couple of weeks ago, Greg at NIGHT OWL CARDS posted a picture of a Goodwin Champions Anderson Silva card. Being a huge MMA fan I requested the card after it was apparent Greg did not collect "THE SPIDER". His response was, positive. I told the nocturnal bird of prey I also collect Rays and Rickey Henderson. So Greg put together a great little package and shipped it to me here in the sunshine state all the way from NY. I could not be any more excited about what was in the package after I cracked it open. Here are the little gems from the man behind NIGHT OWL CARDS.

First up a trio of BJ UPTON cards.

I love all three of these cards. The Upper Deck Timeline card is especially nice. What a great chrome embossed logo, and very typical BJ pose, running what looks like half speed.

The Owl also scraped up a few Rays pitchers to throw in the mix.


The Niemann is a great card, and I also really like the Ginter Garza, but for this blogger, the David Price Goudey card made me as happy as a Dodger fan when Holliday miss played that fly ball! What a great card!!! The baby blue background is PERFECT!

Next I noticed some shiny!!!!!

Diamonds may be a girls best friend, but chrome cards are mine. PENA, SONNANSTINE, and NIEMANN! oh my!

Night Owl also sent me a few former Rays.....

We missed Hinske and his very profession at bats this year. I also am still pulling for Kaz even though he is pitching out west now, I hope he does well against the Yanks. Then there is Rocco, what is a fan to do when you own a Jersey of a guy who is not only not on your team anymore, but is playing for an arch enemy like the Red Sox? Any suggestions?

Random sweetness!!!!!

So according Zistle.com, I have over 300 Carl Crawford cards. I did not have this 2000 Topps though!!!!!! The Garza is also a very cool card!

Last but not least, the cards that got the ball rolling: ANDERSON SILVA

This guy is one bad mamma jamma. If you are not a fan of MMA I totally understand if you do not know who Anderson Silva is, but if you do follow mixed martial arts I am sure you will agree this is one of the toughest men on the planet..... Thank you so much Night Owl for the cards. I will get your package in the mail shortly! What a great package to come home to!

The Card Addict

Reloading on a budget???????

I slept on it, and when I woke up it left a bad taste in my mouth. Yesterday when I heard that the Rays had traded away Scott Kazmir I was not happy. My thoughts immediately went to the offseason trade of Edwin Jackson to the Tigers for Matt Joyce. So now between Jackson and Kazmir we have traded away two under 25 year old starting pitchers that accounted for 26 wins in 2008. What have we received in return? A Triple-A lefty hitting outfielder batting .274 with 15 HRs, a class A advanced lefty hitting third baseman batting .296 with 9 HR, a double A pitcher who is 13-4 with a 2.75 era, and the dreaded player to be named later.

The Joyce trade made no sense to me. Yes the Rays needed an outfielder when they traded for Joyce. The only problem is.... they still need an outfielder. Joyce did not play well when he started the season in the bigs. He also does not provide a right hand power bat which the Rays certainly could use, see Pat Burrell. He is an average defensive outfielder at best with little speed. Giving up Edwin Jackson, a 14 game winner, did not make much sense.

The Kazmir trade makes a little more sense to me. Dollars and Cents.......

I actually like Torres as a prospect, he is almost a mirror image of Kaz. He has 149 K's in just over 147 innings pitched. He is a lefty and is only 22 years old. He also is not owed 20 million + over the next three years. Matt Sweeney however better not unpack his bags, because I do not see any reason for the Rays to keep this guy. Longoria is the face of the Rays, and at only 24 years old most likely will not be going anywhere anytime soon.

Overall, I think the Jackson deal was done to improve the team, and it just didn't work out. The Kaz deal was made to save money!!! It looks to me like the Rays have decided to pack in this season and start trying to figure out how they are going to make payroll next year. Hopefully Torres will become a quality major league starter, and the Rays will get something in return for Sweeney and the dreaded PTBNL......

Are the Rays headed in the right direction? Will this be another Young for Garza and Bartlett move, or could it be another Jackson for Joyce? Only time will tell. Like Cubs fans always say, "There is always next year!"

The Card Addict