Bobby Fenton

Went out to Bucs training camp this morning. Yes, everyone says the same things at training camp every year, but Vita Vea seems leaner, like still huge but carrying less dead weight. And Ebuka has "the look". We'll get into it on the next Free Stretch on JoeBucsFan.com

Un fucking believable, Rays

A guy being completely healthy and then ending up on the IL from simply swinging a bat within literal hours of joining the Rays is the most Rays thing ever. Like it's just so Rays it hurts.

I'll ever bet against my own team in any sport, but yesterday's offensive explosion combined with the Dean Kremer factor practically made this an auto-loss for the Rays. You could see them not being able to buy a run from a mile away after last night.

Looking ahead to tomorrow, the Rays are 3-8 this year the game after a game in which they score 10+ runs. They average 2.45 runs scored per game in those games.

The Lightning are at the Panthers Dec 27 and Bucs are at the Dolphins Dec 28 for Bay area folks looking to pull the South Florida double

Good for Judge not wearing the All star issued socks.

So everyone from the AL is in their team's gray jersey, as it should be, but Caminero is in the navy blue Rays jersey because the Rays chose to drop their gray jersey for this season since they were up against the MLB limit under the 4+1 rule.

Gotta say, this is just flat out elite work by the @Buccaneers media people and anyone who was a part of this to get all those guys in and put it all together. Bravo.

This is no offense to Orlando, but Orlando has always been viewed as the backup - leverage option, IMO. I don't know the other investors in the group, but have been told they are names Tampa area people will know and respect. So we will see.

I put absolutely zero stock in this (and I don't mean Evan's reporting, which is exemplary). After all that has happened, nothing really means anything until construction is underway.

Why is everyone yelling at me through the camera?

"Zalupski is expected to keep the team in Tampa Bay area, with a strong preference to be in Tampa rather than St. Petersburg." #RaysUp

The E:60 on Jim Abbott tonight on ESPN was really good.

Tough to say. On one hand they didn't play well for a pretty decent stretch of the first half. On the other, even after this whole debacle they're only a game out of a playoff spot. They'll start playing better. Feels like they're about 50/50 for the postseason right now.

There's no sugar-coating it, that is as bad as things can go into the All-Star break. Yes, the 2008 team lost 7 in a row going into the break. This isn't that. That team was still 55-39 and a half game out of first after all that. This is pretty bad.

I love Chandler Simpson but that's a bad play. The third base coach needs to be in his ear a little more too. Simpson heard the crowd roar and figured it was caught, but with two outs you have to just run man.

This is about as bad as I can remember things post-2007. And not just the losing but the *ways* the Rays are losing. It doesn't seem possible for all these types of things to occur together in such a short span. That's all I have. Just a total disaster going into the break.

Did Walls not get a secondary lead there? How do you not score on that?

Wirfs' injury in the playoffs was huge too, but yes, there is no doubt in my mind this is true. If only someone had just gone over and talked to him for a minute it would have changed everything.