There’s a swagger inside the Ray’s clubhouse and it’s starting to catch on. This team had to rebuild from the pricey veterans (Boggs, mCGriff, Canseco, etc.) to the homegrown, lightly seasoned freshness of today’s team. They’ve found the perfect coach to maintain a calm, and new leaders are emerging. We’ve seen hints of it the past few years in our rivalries with the Yanks and Sox. Garza completes a solid big three in the roatation. The bullpen has gotten a few new parts and we’ve got a solid offense (and one of the most baseball sound players) not to mention a rookie of the year candidate. Let’s not let the current “business” aspect of the game allow us to forget the direction the team has been going and has finally, possibly, arrived.

NOOTZ, I’ve stopped buying a $5 quick pick for FLorida Lotto twice a week and have instead for past two weeks bought a pair of $5 tickets on DevilRays to win the American League.

They currently pay 60x1 and I intend to buy two a week until they demonstrate clearly they can’t contend for a playoff spot.

In the event they do get that playoff spot, then I can easily hedge my original investment during the two playoff rounds.