Chad Bradford News

Rafael Soriano is obviously a huge boost to the bullpen, his 43 saves more and ninth-inning arsenal better than anyone else the Rays have.

Baseball's winter meetings will feel aptly named with snow forecast for Indianapolis much of the week, but maybe the cold temps make the action hotter.

Welcome to another edition of Thaddeus' Tampa Bay Rays Offseason Report. Each and every Friday, we're going to recap the moves, trades, signings, and other nonsense of the previous week in the wonderful world of Tampa Bay baseball; keeping you, Dear Reader, up to date with the team until Opening Day in April 2010 against the Baltimore Orioles.

View full size photo>> Here's the thing about the minor league free agents list .

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

Major League Baseball crowned a new champion Wednesday night, and Thursday morning it was back to business as players could begin to file for free agency.

The Rays' bullpen this year was quite the odyssey. There were times we loved it, but just as frequently, there were times we hated it.

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 ...

It's a right of passage, per se. For starting pitchers, few numbers are more important than 200, which is pretty much the goal for the number of innings in a season.

RHP Chad Bradford 's season may be over due to some slight elbow discomfort, and his career may be, too.

Matt Wieters had the best offensive night of his brief career Tuesday, a game in which he displayed some of the raw power that's been missing during his rookie season.

Joe Maddon says the recent failings of his bullpen could be more due to emotional exhaustion than physical fatigue, and he won't change the way he's using his relief pitchers over the final three weeks of the season.

Not too many ideas around my head lately, although I have been a bit busy with school work and learning new things about baseball.

After last season, we can never look at the Tampa Bay Rays the same way again. That's what makes this season so deflating.

The Rays' bullpen is what it is, and there aren't going to be any substantive changes to it in the season's final weeks, according to Manager Joe Maddon .

Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Great, I have thrown in the towel for this year. Four straight games of having the lead or being tied going into the eighth inning, and also seven times during the past three weeks.

No one thought that Chad Bradford would make his high school team. Bradford did.

That's the second part of the series about the organizational depth the Rays will probably have in 2010.

Technical difficulties apparently won the battle with the earlier version of this, so let's try again: SS Reid Brignac started Tuesday so Jason Bartlett could get a day off, then after the game was optioned back to Triple-A. RHP Chad Bradford was activated off the disabled list and will rejoin the bullpen on Wednesday.

After failing to reach agreement by Monday's deadline to sign draft picks, the Rays said they tried, moved on and wished top choice LeVon Washington well.