DaPillCaper

Sure I'm a huge fan and the draft we had isn't going to make me change my loyalties but at pick number 20 we could have gotten Mike Jenkins a solid cornerback who can play the style of defense we run. He could have even filled in for Ronde Barber once he decides to retire. But, no, lets not get the local boy who is seemingly the perfect selection. Lets go with the questionable character guy, Aqib Talib, the one who admitted to pot smoking and who was the most over rated of the top 4 corners. I mean did they watch tape of this guy having recievers just blow past him?

Seriously, Jon Gruden, Bruce Allen, Malcolm Glazer, whichever of you made that pick...thanks a lot for ruining my draft Saturday and quite possibly looking past someone who could have been the new defensive leader once Brooks and Barber are done.

At least we didn't pick DeSean Jackson.

Here's to another division title due to weak opposition inside the NFC South and a bounce out in the first round of the playoffs....again.

If the Rays happen to win today then they will, as you may know, have swept the Boston Red Sox. In fact we just came off the sweep of the Blue Jays as well, and I don't know about you guys but I'm really feeling something special happening.

A win this afternoon would be a huge statement as well as a huge kick in the groin to Red Sox fans everywhere. As I did yesterday I am going to list my KEYS TO A RAYS VICTORY

1)The bullpen must continue their dominance. I have a good feeling that the Sox batters aren't going to have another off game as they did last night so Shields may go 5 or 6 innings if he's lucky (Unless he gets one of those games where his stuff is unbelievable). What does that leave? 3 or 4 innings for the bullpen to deal with. In the 2007 season I would have cried had we gone to our bullpen for that long but recently they have shown me I don't really need to, so here's to hoping for a relatively good game for them.

and 2) Treat Beckett as if he were just some regular guy with at +5.00 era. Yeah, I know Beckett is great. He may be one of the top 3 pitchers in the league but look at his ERA so far, it's 5.12. Sure that's mostly due to an injury but I think the injury will still be bothering him. He needed a bullpen session to help him "Get back into the swing of things" last thursday. But did that help?

Rays fans I challenge you to buy a ticket to this game and take your brooms, even if you get embarassed if we eventually lose you can always bring up the fact that we at least won the series and will win it again next weekend. I'll be there.

I think we can take game 2 of this series but two things are going to have to happen.

1) We are going to have to take advantage of Clay Buchholz inexperience by hitting him early and often.

and 2) Edwin Jackson has to pitch like he did in the first two games of this year, not the last two. If Edwin Jackson can get 7 or 8 quality innings tonight and give our bullpen a rest after last nights outing where everyone seemed to come out then we can think about maybe taking the win Sunday against Josh Beckett.

All I'm saying is we can do this Rays fans. After last nights game I feel as inspired as ever. Last year there is no way we would have won that one, but our bullpen is much improved, our starting pitching is much improved and our hitting and defense seem to be much improved.

If we win tonight, I'm gonna go to the game tomorrow with my broom.