Tampa Bay Rays

The “Year of the Pitcher” continued Friday night as Arizona Diamondbacks’ pitcher Edwin Jackson threw the fourth no-hitter this year as he defeated the Tampa Bay Rays 1-0 in front of 18,918 at Tropicana Field. Jackson struck out six and walked eight in the 149-pitch effort.

This wasn’t your traditional no-hitter as Jackson walked eight and reminded me of AJ Burnett’s no-hitter against the San Diego Padres back in 2001. Burnett walked nine that game and struck out seven. Very similar to Jackson’s Friday night.

Maybe it's an aberration, but the Tampa Bay Rays were the victims of being on the wrong end of a no-hitter—again.

Dating back to July 23, 2009, The Rays have been no-hit three times; two of those being perfect games.

Let’s take a look at them.

Pitchers are babied in the modern era. Years and years ago, the starting pitcher was expected to throw complete games. They tossed 300-plus pitchers a season and their average pitch count was well in the hundreds. For one night, for one game, baseball went back to those roots.

At SeatGeek , we use ticket data from transactions on the secondary market to make many inferences about the sporting world and fan sentiment. Today, we took a look at the change in prices of tickets for each team in the MLB from 2009 to 2010. The teams with the largest percentage increase from last year to this year were dubbed the “Surprise Teams” of 2010.

Wait! Wait! What's that noise? Is the stadium holding the world cup built over the most ridiculously annoying bees nest in the world? I asked myself this question, the first game I watched of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Did you ask, the same thing? Admit it, you must have wondered.

Tampa Bay Rays owner Stuart Sternberg called for a press conference on Monday without revealing his intentions to the public. After meeting with St. Petersburg mayor Bill Foster, Sternberg stepped up to the podium to tell us what we already knew: Tropicana Field isn't good enough.

Though for the past two seasons the Rays have had the best home record in all of baseball, the Trop is quickly becoming a relic of bland 1980s architecture. The catwalks, the spotty turf, the dome itself; all things people point to when they talk about Tropicana Field.

A couple of days ago I noticed how well Rays' rookies catcher John Jaso and 2B/SS Reid Brignac are playing.  I’ve seen very little written about either of them, so I thought I’d try to fill the void.

Brignac is 24 this year, and he’s splitting time almost evenly for the Rays between second and shortstop.  Regular shortstop Jason Bartlett is back after a hamstring injury put him on the DL for 15 days, but Bartlett hasn’t been hitting, and Brignac has stepped in to fill the void.

Listen to Sterberg's full press conference here (courtesy of 620am-WDAE Tampa Bay)

The Tampa Bay Rays principal owner Stuart Sternberg announced today that the Tampa Bay Rays are leaving downtown St. Petersburg. He urged community leaders to rise above municipal and provisional differences to find a location that best suits the entire community.

Florida Marlins:

Evan Longoria was drafted by the Tampa Bay Rays with the 3rd pick of the 2006 amateur player draft out of Cal-State Long Beach. Rays fans knew as soon as they heard about this kid that he was going to be great.

After spending two years in the minor leagues, Longoria hit a combined .301/.386/.534 with 44 home runs and 144 RBI, all before his 22nd birthday.

Knowing what they had on their hands, with a team that they felt confident with, Andrew Friedman knew that he had to call up Longoria if the team was going to contend.