Tampa Bay Rays

Despite winning two-out-of-three from the second place Tampa Bay Rays over the weekend, the New York Yankees had their wins come at a price.

On Saturday, starting pitcher AJ Burnett was pulled after two innings because he suffered lacerations on both of his palms after he slammed a set of double doors in frustration after giving up a HR to Reid Brignac. Burnett originally said he “fell,” but the truth came out later.

The whole thing sounds like a bad Lifetime movie.

The Yankees paid tribute to Bob Sheppard and George Steinbrenner prior to Friday night's divisional showdown between the Rays and the Yankees. Sheppard and Steinbrenner passed away this week.

The Yankees celebrated Steinbrenner's accomplishments by doing a video montage of him. After the montage, the fans gave a heartfelt standing ovation. Mariano Rivera put roses on home plate to honor Steinbrenner, and Derek Jeter spoke about the bombastic Yankees owner and the soft-spoken public address announcer.

These rankings are based on a 300 point system, 150 for offensive production, and 150 for pitching production. 30 points (1 point for each team) are the most points any team can receive in a given category. For instance, if the Rays lead the league in HR's they will get 30 points for that category.

The 5 offensive categories used:

HR's, RBI, Runs, Average, and SB's           

The 5 pitching categories used:

The Rays were the best team early in the season, and they stumbled out of first place into third. However, via a sweep of the Red Sox, the Rays are back comfortably in second place.

How'd that happen? Here are the grades for the players of the Rays in the first half of 2010.

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Did you see Price finish the sweep against Boston? Seriously? Even with all of Boston's injuries, they are still no offensive slouch.

David Ortiz, Kevin Youkilis, and Adrian Beltre were no match for Price. The trio was a combined 2-for-13 with five strikeouts.

The crazy thing is, Price beat them with just one pitch: his fastball. Of his 111 pitches, 99 of them were fastballs.

But one start does not an All-Star starter make. However, this does:

Twelve wins—most in the AL.

2.42 ERA—second to Cliff Lee by .08.

Tampa Bay Rays’ LHP David Price came into Wednesday night’s game against the Boston Red Sox as a pitcher who threw his fastball 70.8 percent of the time. I guess when you average 93 mph on your fastball, you can get away with throwing that pitch a lot.

However on Wednesday night, Price took that 70 percent and threw it out the window. He wasn’t satisfied with throwing it 70 percent of the time. On Wednesday night he wanted to throw his fastball all the time—well, almost.

After we analyzed the National League earlier in the week, now it’s time to take a look at the American League. We will start with the powerhouses in the American League East.

When it comes to the July 31st trade deadline, the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox are usually “in” on all the top trade candidates. This year should be no different. The Tampa Bay Rays will be active this trade season as well.

Here are the trade deadline needs of the Yankees, Red Sox, and Rays…

It wasn’t B.J. Upton’s fault.

That’s because the young center fielder wasn’t in the starting lineup.

The Tampa Bay Rays are having an identity crisis.

During baseball's first six weeks, no team was hotter. Now during the last six weeks, very few teams have been colder.

As it stands, the Rays have fallen from first to third in the AL East. But thanks to their hot start, only three games separate them from the top.

Still, what happens if this free fall doesn't stop in the next two weeks?

Could the Rays become sellers instead of buyers by the time the July 31st trading deadline rolls around?

Rays general manager Andrew Friedman could be shrewd enough to try to pull it off.

Sunday was one of those days that Tampa Bay Rays’ OF B.J. Upton would rather soon forget. Not only did he go 0-for-3, but when he did get on base with a walk, he got picked off. Then he flew out to end the game. But the worst thing that happened to Upton, was that he and Evan Longoria got into a heated argument in the dugout.