Carl Crawford News

St. Petersburg, FL -- - The Tampa Bay Rays announced Monday they have exercised the 2010 option on the contract of outfielder Carl Crawford and declined the options on pitcher Brian Shouse and catcher Gregg Zaun.

Now that the Yankees are celebrating this year's championship, the Rays can start the real work in trying to win the next one.

Tampa Bay Rays will just say "yes" when it comes to Carl Crawford's $10 million dollar option for 2010.

So, the Yankees have won the World Series for the 27th time. Hooray! It has been a while.

Last year, we discussed how the Fielding Bible Awards had become a more legitimate exercise than the Gold Gloves in determining the top defensive players in the game.

Rays star Carl Crawford hasn't won a Gold Glove yet, but he's in the book again as the game's top leftfielder.

Tampa Bay Rays veteran Carl Crawford won the 2009 Fielding Bible Award for left field in an announcement made November 1, 2009, in The Bill James Handbook 2010 .

A quick smorgasbord here on two thoughts I have in my mind but are undeserving of their own full-fledged post.

Gabe Kapler decided he didn't need to test the free agent market because he likes where he is.

Oct 26th 2009 at 11:01AM Calling all Yankees and Phillies fans, check this out. For the baseball enthusiast who is also a discerning collector Steuben adds a classic twist on memorabilia with their Major League Baseball Collection .

Do you think it would be wise for the Mets to sign Carl Crawford? He isn't really a power hitter, so Citi's dimensions won't scare him off, and if Jose Reyes' injury is serious, they need speed in that lineup.

Derek Shelton was named the Rays' new Major League hitting coach on Wednesday. After the announcement, Shelton spoke on a conference call with reporters and couldn't hide his enthusiasm about the prospect of working with the likes of Carl Crawford, Jason Bartlett, Carlos Pena, Evan Longoria, B.J. Upton and Ben Zobrist.

All that's left to do now is sit back and watch. After a history-making 2008 season, the Rays couldn't recapture that magic to vault them back to the postseason in '09. So while the Yankees, Angels, Phillies and Dodgers duke it out in each league's Championship Series to eventually crown a World Series champion, all Tampa Bay's players can do is ...

Trading LHP Scott Kazmir to the Angels was about the money, in that it allows the Rays to keep the core of their team together for 2010 and helps going forward with Carlos Pe?a, Carl Crawford and Grant Balfour headed toward 2011 free agency.

Tampa Bay Rays The Rays had another banner year on the farm, even if the major league team suffered a bit of a letdown after their AL pennant year of 2008.

Carl Crawford finished 2-for-4 with two triples and two runs batted in, as the Tampa Bay Rays edged Kansas City, 5-3, in the third contest of a four-game series with the Royals.

Any thinking that the Rays will be highly aggressive this offseason after falling from first to third in the American League East can be forgotten.

Of all the people to get the first cycle in Tampa Bay Rays history, I considered BJ Upton to be an unlikely candidate.A Certainly, BJ has the athletic ability to make it happen, and he most certainly didA Friday night, but I never thought he had the hustle to make it happen.

Tom Ricketts just needs a nod from a bankruptcy judge -- business is booming for those guys these days -- and he gets the keys to the Cubs, possibly by the end of this month.

They were better offensively than the team that reached the World Series in 2008 and, in some areas, better on the mound, too.