The Tampa Bay Rays opened with a series against the rebuilding Baltimore Orioles and got swept.  Depending on how you see this (are you a Rays fan or an Orioles fan?), it was either great pitching by a young Orioles staff (they have great young arms, for sure), or a lifeless Rays offense (they lost Crawford, Pena, and Bartlett).

Let’s call it a little of both.

But the Rays certainly didn’t need this…  Evan Longoria, among the most productive players in all of baseball, was placed in the 15-day DL was a strained oblique – and while Longoria believes that he’ll be back in a couple of weeks, many times it’s a four to six week problem. [ESPN]

As an insurance policy, the Rays recalled infielder Felipe Lopez from AAA Durham.  Lopez, who turns 31 in May, is a journeyman – and the Rays are the seventh different team he’s played for since 2006.  Heck, in the last five years, he’s been in St. Louis two different times. Lopez is a career .266 hitter with medium range power but has had streaky productive runs, so you never know.  For a month, he isn’t a bad option.

Sean Rodriguez got the start there on Sunday and we’ll see how manager Joe Maddon manages around the injury.  This kind of start and injury, on the heels of losing such major contributors to the Rays playoff runs, is the type of bad karma that might take months to get past – so if Maddon gets them out of April with a record near .500, that will be quite the managerial accomplishment.

But he can take heart in the fact that the other team I picked to win this division, the Boston Red Sox, are also 0 – 3 to start the season.

Other Notable Transactions…

With Jair Jurrjens heading to the disabled list with a strained right oblique, the Braves recalled Mike Minor from AAA Gwinnett.  Minor is a very polished prospect, though he had mixed results in a short stint with the Braves in 2011.  He’ll be a fifth starter for the short term, and I think he can help. [ESPN]

Minor, as my friend Andy Finch will remind you, was an ace of the Vanderbilt University staff, and has moved very quickly through the minors.  He’s fanned 163 batters in 134 innings at three levels, and has great control.  Even with Atlanta, he fanned 43 and walked just 11 in 40 innings – he just got hit around a little.  Minor had a decent enough spring, though, so maybe he can stick this time around.

Grab a Screen Shot, Royals Fans…

As of this morning, your first place Kansas City Royals are 3 – 1, atop the AL Central, and it’s because of three consecutive wins in their final at bat.  Yesterday, backup catcher Matt Treanor hit a game-winning homer in extra innings to beat the Angels.

Happy Birthday…

Mickey Owen (1916) – solid catcher, started up baseball camps, that I believe are still around today…
Gil Hodges (1924) – Dodger favorite, Mets manager, late Hall of Fame addition…
Eddie Watt (1941) – Oriole reliever in the late 1960s and early 1970s…
Jim Fregosi (1942)
Ray Fosse (1947)
Tommy Herr (1956)
Brad Kommisk (1961) – long ago Braves prospect…
Scott Rolen (1975)

I’m ten years older than Scott Rolen, but in my mind, he’s older than I am.  Go figure.

100 Years Ago in The Sporting News

The April 6th, 1911 paper led with an article about Nebraska ruling in favor of Sunday baseball, and covered a number of teams as they were traveling through the south, as teams often did at the end of spring training, barnstorming through various cities to help pay for spring training expenses.

The top right corner of the first page included a small blurb about two young and bony St. Louis lefties – Harry “Slim” Sallee, who was a regular on the Cardinals, and the beanpole Thomas “Lefty” George.  The SABR Biography project has a great article about Sallee, a 6′ 3″, 150 pounder who was an awkward thrower – he would stride at a 45 degree angle between home and first, and then throw across his body back to the plate – that appears to have been written by a couple of his descendants.  Lefty George was a rookie with the Browns, having had a successful season with Indianapolis in the American Association.  Like Sallee, he barely tipped 150 pounds, but was a tad shorter at just 6′ 0″.  Sallee had the longer career, winning more than 170 games and being on the 1919 Reds team that won a fixed World Series.  George didn’t succeed in St. Louis (at that time, few did), wound up in Cleveland a year later, and then bounced around the minors for more than a decade after that – getting two short shots at the big leagues over the course of the next decade.