I’m sure most Rays fans can name the player who has the most hits in a Tampa uniform…he is now a trader/enemy – Carl Crawford.  Crawford had 1480 hits in his Rays career.  In fact, Crawford holds almost all offensive categories for the Rays, including batting average (.296), doubles (215), triples (105), RBI’s (592) & stolen bases (409).  But, Rays fans, who has the 2nd most hits in franchise history?  Answer later in the post.

BJ Upton has the 3rd most hits in Rays history with 705, Fred McGriff has 603 hits to sit in 4th place in team history and Julio Lugo rounds out the top 5 with 550.  JULIO LUGO!!??  How sad was this franchise?  Current players of note…Evan Longoria sits in 8th place with 508 hits and Ben Zobrist in 10th with 473 hits.  Zobrist is already 30 (a late bllomer) so 3000 hits would be out of the question for him, but Longoria has a shot.  But a couple things would need to happen…Evan would have to stay healthy, which he is struggling to do early in his career and that is not a good sign as you get older.  Second, he will have to hit for a higher average, but I still believe that is on the front office.  They need to acquire a bat who can protect your franchise player/hitter, just like the St. Louis Cardinals did a couple years ago.  The Cardinals traded for Matt Holliday to protect Albert Pujols and then also signed Holliday to a long term deal.  I completely agreed with the Rays not offering Carl Crawford the kind of money the Boston Red Sox offered.  Crawford is a speed guy and at 29…well – read between the lines.

Let’s move on to the sexy category, homeruns.  Carlos Pena is the franchise leader in homeruns with 144 (I think Pena had 146 hits in his career with the Rays…he is the Dave Kingman of this generation).  Aubrey Huff sits in 2nd with 128, Crawford is 3rd with 104, McGriff with 99 is in 4th and then Longoria is in 5th with 93.  Barring injury, Longoria will have the 3rd most homeruns by the end of 2011 and then could possibly be the Rays all time leader in homeruns by some point during the 2012 season.  I don’t think 3000 hits is realistic for Longo, but 400-500 homeruns definitely is a possibility as long as he stays with the Rays – and heck, if Tampa even stays in existence.

Answer to the trivia question: Aubrey Huff

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According to Heyman, Johnny Damon will be paid $5.25 million this season plus a $750K attendance bonus and Manny Ramirez will get a salary of $2 million from the Tampa Bay Rays.

This is huge news for Tampa Bay Rays fans that thought this was going to be a club which could not win 70 games in 2010. If both of these players can increase their production 10-20% over the 2010 MLB season, they could be great numbers for the Rays in 2011.

It’ll be great to watch Johnny Damon and Manny Ramirez suit up against the Boston Red Sox and Carl Crawford this season.

The Matt Garza trade brought five players that should contribute with in a few years. And yesterday it was reported that two Tampa Bay Rays free agents finally signed. RP Chad Qualls signed a one year deal with the san Diego Padres worth $2 million dollars for one season. In return the Rays will get a compensatory sandwich pick between the first and second rounds of this years MLB draft.

Last evening, news broke that the New York Yankees have finally signed RP Rafael Soriano, one of the highest remaining free agents of the offseason. Soriano’s contract is a remarkable 3 year $35 million dollars. Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said last week that the team would not mortgage the future by signing Soriano, despite Soriano stating he would be willing to accept a set up role with the club. This just shows how you cannot take anything a team spokesman says at face value. In return for Soriano, the Rays will now have the 31st pick in the first round in this year’s draft as compensation for losing the closer who recorded 45 saves for the Rays last season.

And for those Rays fans who wanted the club to retain all of these players, here is a staggering figure for you, of the 9 Rays free agents which have signed contracts, those contracts total 19 years of duration and the full value of those contracts are worth a staggering $215 million dollars. And that figure does not include the signings of Grant Balfour, Willy Aybar and Lance Cormier as of yet.

I feel that the Rays have done the best that they could do given the circumstances and I seriously doubt the moves are finished. I have faith that the front office understands what it is doing. The Garza trade allowed a spot on the roster for Jeremy Hellickson, a move that was overdue. These were a series of wise moves for the Rays that are putting together a team that might make another run in 2012 or 2013. However, I am not ruling 2011 out. This is still going to be a very competitive team with one of the best young starting pitching staffs in baseball.

I realize that some Rays fans are having flashbacks to the days of old and are thinking that 2011 is going to be completely lost, the team will be lucky to win 75 games this year. This is not the Rays team of old, have some faith in the moves of the front office and the young talent that this team has groomed. I can easily understand the mindset of what some long time Rays fans must be thinking, I’m also a Tampa Bay Buccaneers fans and after a 3-13 season in 2009, thoughts of the Hugh Culverhouse days flashed into my head. However, look at the season the Buccaneers had this year with very young talent, in a season when not very many analysts predicted them to win more than 6 games.

With only a few more day till we say goodbye to another year, I’d like to reflect on 2010 Rays moments! There are many reasons this past year was fantastic! I really thought 08′ couldn’t be matched. Something inside me says, it’s just gonna keep getting better.

One of the surprising revelations for me was the die hard devotion to the Rays. Whether people agreed… agreed to disagree. The love for the Rays was there. I witnessed it. I saw it first hand!

The never ending talks of our fan base, stadium, the chatter in general, speaks for itself. Someone once told me there’s no such thing as bad publicity (slightly disagree). In general, The Rays are now being talked about. Which is an accomplishment in itself. Especially considering we were once the worst team in baseball! We’ve come a long way!

The Rays and Joe Maddon have so much to be proud of, and I’m proud to be a Rays fan!

What was your best Rays memory of 2010?

Was it the beginning?

Spring Training?

A favorite player meeting?

Opening Day?

Matt Garza’s No No?

Reid Brignac’s clutch homer in 11th inning?

Winning the AL east?

Maddon’s classic ejections?

MFIKY?

The BRayser?

A game that meant alot to you or your family?

The very cool plaid?

A special Rays romance?

Maybe even the Carlos toothbrush holder?

Let’s reminisce about the 2010 Rays. Whatever your moment was I’d love to know … I can’t wait to tell you all about mine!

Ciao for now!  Jenny

You knew this one was coming, the New York Yankees are reportedly talking the former Tampa Bay Rays LF Carl Crawford. You had to know that the possibility of at least discussions between the Yankees and Carl Crawford would happen at some point. The Yankees speak to every big name free agent on the market while trying to find a way to sign them.

That is where the trouble might be for the Yankees, figuring out how to afford him. ESPN’s Buster Olney reported via Twitter that the Yankees might have difficulty signing both Cliff Lee and Carl Craford. Olney suggests that Crawford will sign the largest offseason contract during this free agency period.

Rays fans knew that Crawford was gone after this season, and we knew that Boston and New York might be in the mix, but to watch the discussions unfold is making me ill. Please Carl, sign with the Angels, please.

According to the website mlbtraderumors.com, former Tampa Bay Rays OF Carl Crawford has had discussions with the Boston Red Sox. (pause a moment to throw-up just a little) Michael Silverman of the Boston Herald reports that the Red Sox are working hard to acquire either Carl Crawford or Jason Werth. Silverman reports that Crawford is trying to get an 8 year deal from clubs.Either player will reportedly command between 16-19 million per season.

Crawford has also been linked in rumors to the Los Angeles Angels, Texas Rangers, and the Detroit Tigers as well as the Red Sox. I hate the thought of losing Crawford period. It makes me ill. However, if he is going somewhere, the thought of him playing for divisional opponent Boston Red Sox just makes me more than sick.

Hopefully he winds up playing for a team outside of our division.

It is becoming more and more evident that the Boston Red Sox are going to go hard after Tampa Bay Rays LF Carl Crawford. ESPN analyst Peter Gammons said on WEEI radio yesterday that he fully expects the Red Sox to go hard after the speedy outfielder.

“There is no doubt in my mind that they(Red Sox) are going to go really hard after Carl Crawford. That will be a matchup with the Angels, and you know there will be some puffs of smoke coming out of New York that suggests the Yankees might go after him, even though their primary need is pitching.”

A column submitted to the Detroit Free Press suggests that the Detroit Tigers must sign Carl Crawford. The writer, Josh Huebner, suggests that because of all the money coming off the books of the Detroit Tigers this offseason, makes the Tigers a force to become a player in the offseason bidding for the Tigers.

As the season for the Tampa Bay Rays came to a close on the evening of October 12th, so did most likely the chance of ever seeing LF Carl Crawford ever wearing a Tampa Bay Rays uniform ever again. Personally, I wanted to see the Rays reach the World Series this season just for the fact that I wanted CC to earn a World Series ring with the Rays.

There really is little hope that Carl Crawford will sign a free agent contract with the Tampa Bay Rays and return next season. So where does he wind up? Hopefully not where ESPN’s Peter Gammons believes, the Boston Red Sox. The thought of Carl Crawford wearing that Red Sox uniform next year makes me suddenly want to vomit.

According to Mark Polishuk of mlbtraderumors.com, Gammons reports that the Boston Red Sox are going to go hard after Carl Crawford and they project him as a middle of the lineup type hitter instead of having him hit leadoff.

The website also lines up the usual suspects other than the Red Sox when it comes to high priced free agents. The Yankees and Los Angeles Angels are mentioned. But a few teams I think are wildcards are mentioned as well. The Atlanta Braves, the San Francisco Giants, The Los Angeles Dodgers, the Washington Nationals and the Cincinnati Reds.

It would be nice if the Tampa Bay Rays could find a way to keep Crawford and sign him to what most likely might be the last contract of his career, but with the Rays ownership clearly stating that they want to reduce the roster payroll, I don’t see them jettisoning multiple players while keeping a left fielder who is approaching 30.

Hopefully, wherever Crawford winds up, he’ll join a team which will have an opportunity to win a World Series, just as long as it isn’t with the Boston Red Sox or the New york Yankees.