Rays outfielder Fernando Perez is undergoing more tests on his injured left wrist today, and the team doesn't expect to announce anything definitive about his status until Thursday. ...more

March 11, 2009

Tampa Bay Rays center fielder Fernando Perez left the field in the top of the first inning today after an attempted diving catch. He appeared to injure his left wrist or forearm on the play. ...more

March 10, 2009

The Tampa Bay Rays made their first round of cuts this morning, trimming seven players from the roster. The most notable name on the list was reliever Chad Orvella, who is still working up to full speed after spending all of last year on the disabled list with a shoulder injury. He was reassigned to minor-league camp along with five others: pitchers Jason Cromer, Neal Frontz and Calvin Medlock and catchers Craig Albernaz and Nevin Ashley. ...more

March 10, 2009

There are a billion or so people in China who don't care about the World Baseball Classic — and China is in the World Baseball Classic. At least it was until it got rolled by Japan and Korea, though China did beat Taiwan. There are billions more who don't care about the WBC, either, especially with the stringent new airport security edict: Only Cuban baseball players weighing 3.5 ounces or less are allowed in carry-on baggage. ...more

March 9, 2009

James Shields is now the official ace of the Rays' staff — for what that's worth. On this team, I suspect it's not worth much because the Rays' rotation is the deepest part of a really deep team. On many clubs, Scott Kazmir would be the unquestioned stud. On many clubs, Matt Garza would be the ace. Here, he's No. 3. Andy Sonnanstine is as solid as it gets at No. 4. And in a couple of years, we could be writing about the choice of David Price as Opening Day starter. ...more

March 5, 2009

Cole Hamels returned to the mound for the first time since helping the Philadelphia Phillies win the World Series and pitched two scoreless innings in a 9-2 win over Canada on Wednesday. ...more

March 4, 2009

The Tampa Bay area remains the spring training baseball capital of Florida, with the Yankees, Phillies and Blue Jays playing spring home games at Tampa, Clearwater and Dunedin, respectively. ...more

March 4, 2009

In some ways, baseball is the ultimate survivor sport. What other competition has been forced to overcome work stoppages, betting scandals and All-Star ties? ...more

February 28, 2009

As is usually the case when the Tampa Bay Rays play the Boston Red Sox, even in spring training, there's a lot of red in the stands at Charlotte Sports Park today, and hearty cheers greeted Boston's hitters as they stepped to the plate in the top of the first inning. Red Sox stalwarts Jacoby Ellsbury, Jed Lowrie and Kevin Youkilis each got a nice hand from a good chunk of the assembled masses. But when the fourth man in Boston's lineup, Rocco Baldelli, stepped to the plate, everyone cheered. ...more

February 27, 2009

You guys know each other, right? They do now. The Tampa Bay Rays and Boston Red Sox play today, provided traffic lets up and the Boston team bus gets through. What's that? Oh, sorry, our fault: The American League champion Rays play the Red Sox today. ...more

February 27, 2009