James Shields News

This is part 5 of the 6 part series on the best 30 starts for the Rays in our most recent season.

Alright gentlemen and lady , I wanted to continue the look at some of the best starts the Rays had this year.

The Rays saw from the batters box just how dominating Cole Hamels was through last postseason as he baffled them twice on his way to the World Series MVP award.

The Tampa Bay Rays may have fallen short of returning to the postseason in 2009, but they once again proved very adept at developing young pitching.

Ben Zobrist easily beat Carl Crawford to team MVP. ST. PETERSBURG - The Tampa Bay chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of American handed out the annual awards for the Rays.

And they looked so good on paper ... Unfortunately for the Rays, a year after winning the American League East and advancing to the World Series, they found out there is quite a difference between looking good on paper and being a championship team.

The Rays set team records for runs, homers, walks and on-base percentage this season, but they dumped hitting coach Steve Henderson 1n Monday.

When manager Joe Maddon was asked for playoff predictions, he had two teams from his past standing in the end.

The Tampa Bay Rays and Pittsburgh Pirates are teaming forces to renovate two youth baseball fields: the Norma Lloyd Park for the City of Bradenton and 13th Avenue Community Center.

Evan Longoria is hitting .362 with seven home runs and 20 RBIs in his past 25 games.

James Shields carried a shutout into the eighth inning, Ben Zobrist hit a three-run homer and the Tampa Bay Rays extended the Baltimore Orioles' losing streak to 13 games with a 5-3 victory on Wednesday night.

A month ago, this late September series in Texas looked like it might have something at stake, with the teams in the thick of the race for the American League wild card.

Texas hasn't been a friendly destination for the Rays this season. The Rangers swept the Rays in Arlington from July 3-5 in a series that saw the Rays score just seven runs in three games.

Heading into this season, there was no reason to expect James Shields to regress.

The death of the Rays 2009 season arrived this week. Belatedly, as it turns out.

You won't get much out of Wade Davis. In fact, he took the lineup card out to the umpires before Sunday's game and didn't say one word.

When your first eight men to the plate in an inning reach base safely, you'd better have scored enough runs to win the game.

Baseball Prospectus Pre-Season Projection : 94-68, 3rd place Current Record: 72-71, 3rd place Third place seems safely correct, but the record? Not so much.

TV/radio: Sun Sports; 620-AM, 680-AM Rays: RHP James Shields Jays: RHP Scott Richmond Promotion: Jeff Niemann poster to first 7,500 fans.

25, 2009. While messing around with some statistical comparisons, I came across one that I'm pretty sure nobody has ever heard of or even thought of; James Shields is Francisco Cordova .