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Kennedy Will Present Options

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By MARC LANCASTER | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 17, 2009

PORT CHARLOTTE - Though his third career as a broadcaster requires he be a man of many words, Kevin Kennedy found an efficient way to sum up his new duties.

"My job as an analyst is to tell people how and why and give options," Kennedy said Monday. "That's really what I'm going to be doing with the Rays."

The team officially announced Monday that the former big-league manager will take over for Joe Magrane as the primary analyst on Rays television broadcasts. Kennedy said he'll work about 100 games alongside Dewayne Staats, with Brian Anderson and Todd Kalas set to split analyst duties for the other games.

Kennedy will continue to host his daily afternoon talk show on Sirius-XM satellite radio and do webcasts for Fox, where he served as a studio analyst through last season. But his main focus now will be on breaking down the defending American League champions.

"I'm certainly not up there to second-guess or get on a player," Kennedy said. "I think the advantage for me is I know how tough it can be, because I was a player, and more so in the big leagues, I was a manager and I was a coach ... so I know what goes on as far as the thought process, and that's what the analyst's job is, for me, is just to present options and what the people are thinking when certain moves happen."

THE NEW DEAL

Willy Aybar's new contract isn't officially complete yet because the Rays haven't received the final results from the infielder's physical, but it's finished enough that he was all smiles about it Monday.

"It's good for me and the team is giving me a good chance," Aybar said. "I like the team, I like my teammates, I like the manager - everybody. Good people."

Aybar should be about as sharp as anyone in Rays camp considering how much winter ball he played this offseason in reaching the Caribbean Series with Licey, his team at home in the Dominican Republic.

SIT-DOWNS

The Rays began individual meetings with players Monday afternoon. The sessions feature executive vice president Andrew Friedman, Manager Joe Maddon and members of the coaching staff going over a list of strong points, weak points and goals for each player.

They also provide an opportunity to pass along some in-depth statistical information to the players, a relatively new wrinkle Maddon has embraced.

"Sometimes you think you may have noticed something and you look at the numbers and it's exactly opposite what you had thought," Maddon said. "For instance, I won't say the guy's name, but I thought the guy did a much better job of getting ahead of hitters last year and it turned out it was 50 percent, which is well below our target number. Until you break it down numerically, a lot of times our observations aren't as good as we think they are."

NOTEWORTHY

The Rays will hold their first live batting practice sessions Friday morning. ... By the time Monday morning's workout began, one key complaint from Sunday - no bathrooms on the fields for players and staff to use during practice - had been rectified. "The portable bathrooms are a very key element to our success here," Maddon said.

Marc Lancaster

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