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In 2007, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays were in their second season under skipper Joe Maddon. They actually finished with a better record in ‘07 than they did in ‘06 but only marginally, going from 61 victories to 66. They had a slugging first baseman in Carlos Pena who ripped 46 homers and drove in 121 runs while batting .282. They also had an up-and-coming outfielder in B.J Upton who hit 300 while ripping 24 homers and driving in 82 runs. The Devil Rays had two pitchers who managed to get into double digits in victories in James Shields who went 12-8 with a 3.85 ERA and left Scott Kazmir who racked up a 13-9 mark with a 3.48 earned run average. They also had a closer in Alberto Reyes who saved 26 games. Otherwise, it was pretty grim. They scored 782 runs but surrendered 944. The team ERA was a horrendous 5.53. Their attendance of 1,387,603 was the worst in the American League. Back-to-back years like ‘06 and ‘07 could have been enough to cost some managers their jobs, but the Rays had a plan and they also had some blue chip prospects on the way. In 2006, they drafted a highly regarded third baseman in Evan Longoria third overall,. In 2007 they grabbed hard throwing lefty David Price number one. Those were their best two picks since B.J Upton in 2002. In 2008 Tampa Bay got rid of the Devil and became simply known as the Tampa Bay Rays. The turnaround season was remarkable. They went from 66 victories to 97. They shaved their team ERA from 5.53 to 3.82. The Rays actually scored eight fewer runs in ‘08 than they did in ‘07, but they cut their runs against by 273 to 671. All five of their starters, James Shields, Edwin Jackson, Andy Sonnanstine, Matt Garza and Scott Kazmir -- all betweenn 24 and 26 years of age -- won in double digits with Shields and Jackson leading the way with 14 apiece. Four of the five pitched at least 183 innings. Shields had a staff high 215 and four of the five starters made at least 30 starts. They also added veteran closer Troy Percival who saved 28 games. He also had a great support staff in J.P Howell. Dan Wheeler and Grant Balfour who chipped in with 17 victories. Though Penas numbers dropped off a bit to a ,247 average with 31 homers and 102 runs batted in, Longoria emerged as a force with 27 homers and 85 RBIs while batting .272. Former Blue Jays rookie of the year Eric Hinskie chipped in with 20 homers and 60 runs batted in off the bench. The key though was pitching depth. That 2008 staff had eight pitchers who established themselves as manager league starters including Shields, Garza, Jason Hammel, Jackson, Kazmir, Sonnanstine, Jeff Niemann and Price who pitched in relief late that season. The 2008 Rays went all the way to the World Series where they lost to the Philadelphia Phillies in five. Over the last six seasons they have racked up a record of (550-423) and been to the post-season four times. The only thing that hasnt improved greatly is their attendance. The incredible season of 2008 boosted the turnstyle count by nearly half a million from the year before to 1,811,986. But by last season the numbers had diminished again to 1,510,300 -- the worst in the American League. The Rays has still never come close to matching the attendance figures of their inaugural season of 1998, when they drew 2,506,293. Its sad really, but at least it is living proof that a well managed, small market club can compete and in fact thrive in the American League East. The Blue Jays have the star power in Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion, some possible blue chippers in Brett Lawrie and Colby Rasmus, a decent bullpen and a couple of solid veteran pitchers in R,A Dickey and Mark Buehrle. They just havent been able to stay healthy enough or keep grinding out pitching prospects the way the Rays have. Its still too early to predict how the A.L East is going to unfold in 2014, but in some circles, the Rays are already being called to win the division with the Blue Jays to finish last behind Baltimore. The Blue Jays are still waiting for some kind of solid return on the Roy Halladay trade. Back on December 16th of 2009, they shipped "Doc" to the Phillies for Kyle Drabek, Travis DArnaud and outfielder Michael Taylor. They wound up flipping Taylor to Oakland for Brett Wallace and then sent Wallace to Houston for Anthony Gose. The Astros designated Wallace for assignment this week when they signed veteran right hander Jerome Williams. Wallace never really developed as a hitter and didnt play well enough defensively at first or third. The Jays are still waiting for Drabek and Gose to arrive as major leaguers and DArnaud was used as part of the package to get R.A Dickey from the Mets. I bring all this up because Halladays illustrious career is now over. The Phillies are going to honour him on their alumni weekend this summer during a series against the Mets. On Aug. 8 the Phils will hold a special ceremony for Roy and will give the fans a special Halladay bobblehead. That same weekend on Aug. 9, the Phillies will induct Charlie Manuel to their wall of fame. Cheap Air Jordan Free Shipping .Y. - Geno Smith still thinks of himself as the New York Jets starting quarterback. Air Jordan China . Tony Parker had 33 points and nine assists and San Antonio never trailed in a resounding 116-92 victory over Portland, bullying the younger Trail Blazers in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals. https://www.jordanchina.us/ . He made that dream a reality Wednesday night. Olt, who grew up in Branford, Connecticut, attended UConn and made a nearly 2 1-2 hour trek to Boston a handful of times to watch the Red Sox, belted a two-run homer, one of four hit by Cubs in a 16-9 rout that completed a three-game interleague series sweep. Wholesale Air Jordan .9 million deal Thursday. The 25-year McGinn had 19 goals and 19 assists in 79 games last season in helping the Avalanche tie a franchise record with 52 wins. Air Jordan Outlet . LUCIE, Fla.SAN JOSE, Calif. - San Jose coach Todd McLellan would seem to have plenty to be pleased about after watching his team post consecutive shutouts to open the season.Instead, he wanted to dwell on an inept power play that failed to convert on eight chances and a sloppy second half of the game in the home opener.Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Tomas Hertl scored first-period goals, and Alex Stalock made 30 saves to give the Sharks a 3-0 victory over the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday night.People who didnt see the game, theyre going to say, Boy, the Sharks are off to a pretty good start, McLellan said. But that was not a well-played game on our behalf by any means. I thought we played a good 26, 27 minutes. Then after that we werent close to being the better team. I thought our power play absolutely sucked the life out of our team today. Thats probably as weak as its been in a long, long time.The Sharks retooled their power-play units this season after the loss of quarterback Dan Boyle to have two more evenly matched groups instead of loading up the first unit. Neither group generated many scoring opportunities, with just six shots in 15:41 of power-play time.The puck was bouncing a little bit, forward Patrick Marleau said. Passes werent on the tape. I think we were trying to be too fancy. Theyve got some good penalty killers over there and get sticks on passes, but I think we need to funnel more pucks to the net and try to get those ugly goals.Marleau added an insurance goal late in the second period in the Sharks home opener. San Jose began the season with a 4-0 win behind Antti Niemi against defending champion Los Angeles and followed it up with Stalocks third career shutout.The Sharks joined this years Minnesota Wild team as the first to open the season with consecutive shutouts since Florida did it in 2005-06.Obviously the hard work we put in early on is paying off, and were having a little success early, Stalock said. The penalty kill has been sharp early and thats huge. Second chances, they havent had many, so its been good.Ondrej Pavelec made 23 saves for the JJets, who came out flat following a 6-2 win at Arizona in the season opener on Thursday.dddddddddddd Winnipeg was hampered without top line forward Evander Kane, who hurt his knee in the opener.We didnt have a very good start, forward Michael Frolik said. If you can survive the first 10 minutes in this building you can be successful. We didnt do that. We have to learn and then come back with a better start.After spoiling Los Angeles banner-raising ceremony with a win over the Kings on opening night, the Sharks got off to another strong start against the Jets as they try to bounce back after becoming the fourth NHL team to lose a best-of-seven series after winning the first three games.San Jose scored twice in the opening 5:12, with Vlasic getting his first of the season when his point shot deflected off Winnipeg defenceman Mark Stuart and past Pavelec.Then the Sharks capitalized on a pretty transition play with Joe Pavelski sending a pass from his own zone to Thornton at centre ice. Thornton then quickly fed a racing Hertl, who beat Pavelec for his first of the season to make it 2-0.We just, maybe, overcompensated with respect to their speed and gave them five feet of ice, Jets coach Paul Maurice said. We were fearful of getting burned and thats when you get burned.The Sharks outshot the Jets 15-3 in the period and controlled the play throughout the period. San Jose was a bit sloppy after that but Stalock managed to keep Winnipeg off the scoreboard and Marleau capitalized on a misplay for his goal with 29 seconds left in second period.Zach Bogosian had trouble playing Brent Burns clearing attempt at the blue line. Matt Nieto got to the loose puck and sprung Marleau for a breakaway. Marleau beat Pavelec for his second goal in as many games. The Sharks didnt generate another shot on goal in the game.NOTES: Kane will miss at least two weeks after a knee-on-knee collision with teammate Mark Scheifele on Thursday. He will be re-evaluated after that time. ... San Jose F Mike Brown left in the second period after blocking a shot with his hand. ' ' '