AL East

Last year, expectations for the Tampa Bay Rays were sky-high.

Here was a young team that the entire world got to see blossom during the playoffs.

The phenom, David Price, was showcased to the baseball community with his killer strikeout of J.D. Drew during the American League Championship.

Evan Longoria and B.J. Upton came out swinging during the playoffs; Upton hit the second most home runs in a single postseason with seven, and Longoria was not far behind his teammate with six.

This team looked like it was in the upper echelon and might only get better.

"Grounder to second, Iwamura picks it up and steps on the bag. The Rays have done it!  The Rays are going to the World Series!"

Every Rays fan remembers where they were when then-Rays second baseman Akinori Iwamura stepped on the bag to clinch the American League Pennant and capped off a magical season, even if the clock struck 12 during the World Series.

Once again, Carlos Pena professes his love for the Rays and his desire to stay there long term. I never expected to see anyone express a strong desire to stay with the Rays long term, but wow have times changed:

The Yankees have kept fans largely in the dark this winter about when single game tickets will be available available to the general public, but apparently Staten Island Yankee fans are in the loop because for the second year-in-a-row they’re the first to know.

Anyways, NYY Stadium Insider has the lowdown on the ticket situation:

It’s not everyday the Yankees are outbid by many teams, a few years ago they were outbid by Boston for Daisuke Matsuzaka, but that was the Red Sox and with their nearly $170 million payroll you’d expect them to outbid somebody sometime. The Blue Jays however? Come on!

Brett Gardner started in center field and hit sixth in the batting order as the New York Yankees lost a spring training tilt to the lowly Pittsburgh Pirates Sunday.

Neither position is a likely spot to find Gardner after the regular season starts in just 20 days.

Because it is uncertain if Gardner can hold down a regular outfield slot, the Yankees will almost certainly put Curtis Granderson in center because he will be playing every day.

Most people have heard of him by now, Yankees prospect switch-pitcher Pat Venditte . Switch pitcher means he can throw with both his right and left hands, and so far in his Yankee career he’s done so quite well with both arms putting up a 2.34 FIP as a right hander and a 2.26 FIP as a lefty.

Well Venditte is scheduled to be a guest on Yankees Daily’s blogtalkradio show on March 16 and it got me thinking about Venditte.

According to George King of the NY Post , Cuban shortstop Adeinis Hechavarria is close to signing a contract near $10 million with the Blue Jays. The Yankees have made a strong push to sign him, but Hechavarria is said to be worried about being blocked by Derek Jeter .

Here is more from the NY Post:

JD Drew is entering the penultimate year of the five-year, $70 million deal he signed with the Red Sox prior to the 2007 season.

While many members of Red Sox Nation believe that he hasn’t been worth the money, others (myself included) have been converted—at least to the point where we do not consider it to have been an outright mistake.

It is undeniable that he hasn’t put up the kind of sexy numbers you would normally equate with a $14 million players, but he has been very consistent (averaging 429 AB, with a .276 BA, 18 HR, 65 RBI, and 82 R per year).

The Red Sox were faced with a difficult choice this winter: Sign LF Jason Bay for four years and BIG bucks or bring in someone new to fill one of the outfield slots until Josh Reddick and/or Ryan Kalish might be ready for a full-time gig in 2011 or 2012.

The front office had clearly made a decision to move towards a team built on pitching and defense, and while Bay had become popular in Boston, his defense (a -11 UZR/150) just didn’t fit with the new course the team had charted. And then there was the issue of his knees...