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Tracy Ringolsby's weekly baseball notes

Submitted by SHNS on Fri, 08/15/2008 - 13:25

With all due respect to the Chicago Cubs, Tampa Bay is baseball's feel-good story.The Cubs and their fans can get all worked up over the attempt to end a 100-year drought and claim their first world championship since 1908, but it's the Rays who should be capturing the attention of the baseball public.The Cubs have been good in recent years, and what failures they have certainly aren't because their front office faces an unrealistic budget restriction.In the 11 years that Tampa Bay has been around, the Cubs have been in the upper half in payrolls every year, and the top 10 seven times, including each of the last five seasons.The Rays splurged in their early years, trying to keep up with the success of their expansion cousins from Arizona, and signed a list of free agents that included Wilson Alvarez, Vinny Castilla, Greg Vaughn, Jose Canseco and Fred McGriff. They ranked as high as 10th in payroll in 2000, their third year of existence, but they have been 29th or 30th in each of the last seven seasons.And they had played down to their payroll. The Rays won their 71st game of the season last Sunday, the most in franchise history, and there were still 44 games left in the season. This is a team that finished higher than last place only once in its first decade, managing a fourth-place finish with those 70 wins in 2004.It's why when the Cubs have an Alfonso Soriano go down with an injury, the general feeling in baseball is close to smugness, the critics still gnawing on the fact the Cubs gave Soriano an eight-year, $136 million deal before last season.But when the Rays, in the span of a weekend, lost outfielder Carl Crawford for the rest of the regular season with a torn tendon in his right hand and then rookie third base sensation Evan Longoria with a broken bone in his right wrist, folks are sympathetic.The good news for the Rays is that the computers over at Baseball Prospectus are still picking them as a 94 percent chance for the postseason, even if the cynics look at the loss of Crawford and Longoria and wonder who will be sidelined next.There are some flashbacks to teams such as the 1987 Toronto Blue Jays, who lost shortstop Tony Fernandez with nine games to play and catcher Ernie Whitt with six games to play and never recovered, losing their final seven, including being swept in Detroit by the eventual American League East champion Tigers.And don't forget the 1983 Atlanta Braves, who lost Bob Horner and his 20 home runs and 68 RBI on Aug. 15 with a broken wrist and promptly lost 27 of its final 44 games, going from 51/2 games up in the N.L. West to three games back.INFIELD CHATTER-- With Detroit owner Mike Ilitch's disappointment in the play of the Tigers, there is talk he could decide to slash this year's $138 million payroll below $100 million, which could force a trade of outfielder Magglio Ordonez, who will make $18 million next year and potentially has a $15 million vesting option for 2010 and 2011.-- General manager Pat Gillick may be set to retire in Philadelphia, but there's continued talk that he could be convinced to become team president, if not GM, in Seattle, where he and his wife now make their home.-- Dodgers hitting coach Jeff Pentland will go to Class AAA Las Vegas to work with outfielder Andruw Jones during his medical rehab assignment.OUT IN LEFT FIELDThe Dodgers marketing department is planning to sell bandannas with fake dreadlocks to take advantage of Mannymania.Maybe Manny Ramirez will wear one himself. He does, after all, keep assuring manager Joe Torre that he will cut his lengthy hair so he will have the neater appearance that Torre prefers.CLOSING STATEMENTFriday is the deadline for signing selections from the June draft -- sort of. If a player was a college senior, the deadline isn't until a week before next June's draft. That's why it is unlikely that Georgia right-hander Josh Fields will agree to terms Friday with Seattle.Fields is represented by agent Scott Boras, who figures to be focused on his four other first-round picks that face the signing deadline: third baseman Pedro Alvarez, No. 2 overall pick, Pittsburgh; first baseman Eric Hosmer, No. 3 overall, Kansas City; first baseman Allan Dykstra, No. 23 overall, San Diego, and right-hander Gerrit Cole, No. 28 overall, Yankees.OVERUSE?Something is getting lost in translation.When Phillies closer Brad Lidge was unavailable to pitch last weekend because of soreness and tightness in his right shoulder, Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said it could stem from Rockies manager Clint Hurdle having had Lidge warm up a six times at the All-Star Game before calling on Lidge to pitch in the 15th inning.What Manuel seems to overlook, though, is that he used Lidge in relief the first game after the break and, during a six-day stretch (July 25-July 30), used Lidge in all five games the Phillies played and then called on him to pitch four times in six games before last weekend.Meanwhile, Lidge has said he believes the problem is a mechanical issue.ELUSIVE CENTURY MARKThe Los Angeles Angels went into the weekend on pace for 103 victories. Big deal? Well, the Angels, who were born of expansion in 1961, are one of only two teams in the big leagues to have neither won nor lost 100 games in a season. The other is the Colorado Rockies, who won a franchise-record 90 regular-season games last year. The Rockies' record for losses in a season is 95 in 1993, their first year of existence, and again in 2005.NUMBERS GAME-- 17: Runs that weren't enough for the Rangers on Tuesday when they lost at Boston, becoming the second team this season to score 17 runs in a game and lose. Florida did it July 4 at Colorado. Odd? Well, it happened only once from 1956 to 2007, when Philadelphia lost to Cincinnati on Aug. 3, 1969.SPREAD THE WEALTHNobody can accuse the Indians of showing any favoritism in the pennant races.During the dismantling of their team, they have provided players to contenders in the National League Central (left-handed pitcher CC Sabathia, to Milwaukee), NL West (third baseman Casey Blake, to the Dodgers) and American League East (right-hander Paul Byrd, to Boston).HE SAID IT"I guess I'm auditioning for myself and for the people upstairs. (The next six weeks) are important. I want to pitch well and feel like I'm healthy. If that happens, I would certainly think that would make me lean toward pitching next year."-- Braves left-hander Tom Glavine, 42, a 305-game winner who is 2-4 with a 5.54 ERA in his 13 starts this year, on coming off the disabled list to start against the Cubs on Thursday. Glavine took the loss yielding seven runs on seven hits in just four innings.(Tracy Ringolsby writes for the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, Colo. E-mail ringolsbyt(at)RockyMountainNews.com.)