Aki Trade: What it means for the Rays.

The Tampa Bay Rays wasted no time making sure they didn't get stuck with Akinori Iwamura's half-million dollar buy out option.  The team traded the 2nd baseman to the Pittsburgh Pirates for right-handed reliever Jesse Chavez.

So, what does the deal mean for the Rays? In the short term the Rays unload Aki's salary, opening up more payroll for next year. In the long term, the Rays get a reliever that is in their control for the next few years.  Rays executive VP Andrew Friedman says Chavez has a real upside. 

The Pirates used Chavez as a setup man late in the season. He was able to get some outs against lefties, but had trouble against righties. He does have a 96-mile-per-hour fastball and the Pirates were considering a possible closer role for Chavez.

It's still to early to envision exactly what Chavez's roll will be in the Rays bullpen.  I think the main problem with the Rays bullpen is the lack of a closer. If they get a closer, the rest of the pieces could fall in to place.

It's sad to see the Aki era end in St. Petersburg. Who can forget some of the big hits he had in 2008? He'll also be immortalized in Rays' lore as the man who made the final out in the 2008 ALCS.

This trade opened my eyes to one other thing. No matter how much I complain about the Rays and their payroll, the Pirates and their fans have it much worse.  Aki became the highest paid Pittsburgh Pirate yesterday.

Color chart needed to figure out Rays ticket prices next year

The Rays today released their 2010 ticket prices and it looks like you're going to need a color chart to go along with your schedule to see how much a ticket will cost.

The Rays will have five categories of individual ticket pricing: Diamond, Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze.

Here's how it breaks down:

• Diamond games are all weekend games against the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox. Tickets for those games start at $20 for Upper Reserved and TBT Party Deck. The Rays will play a Diamond series against the Yankees in the first week of the season. After that, the Rays don't have a Diamond series until the last week of July. In all, there are 9 games with Diamond pricing: 6 vs the Yankees, 3 vs the Red Sox.

• Platinum games include all other Saturday games, weekday games versus the Yankees and Red Sox as well as Opening Day versus the Balitmorie Orioles on April 6. Platinum tickets start at $18 for Upper Reserved/ TBT Party Deck. There are 20 Platinum games.  If the Rays continue their summer concert series, those would be Platinum games.

• Gold games are all Friday and Sunday games that don't involve the Red Sox and Yankees.  There are 20 Gold games. Tickets for Gold games start at $12. That's the biggest drop between color codes. For example you can see the Royals Friday, May 20th for $12. The same game will cost you $18 on Saturday night.

• The last two price categories is the Silver and Bronze. Silver includes all the rest of the weekday games, except for the 5 Bronze games. The Bronze games are April 29 vs Kansas City, May 17 vs Cleveland, June 9 vs Toronto, July 8 vs Cleveland, and August 2 vs Minnesota.

As for free parking, it looks like it's going to get a lot tighter next year.  The Rays will still allow vehicles with four or more passengers to park for free-- on Bronze and Sunday games. For all other games it's just the first 100 cars with four or more people. Other than that, you'll have to pay $10 to $20.

Despite being a little complicated, the Rays seem to be trying to price their tickets along with demand.  We all noticed last year how weekday games were all slow, while the weekends did real well.  It looks as though the Rays want to increase their profit a bit on the weekend games, while trying to encourage people to go to weekday games by offering discounted tickets.  We'll see how it works.

Rays get new hitting coach

The Rays named Derek Shelton their new hitting coach today. He replaces Steve Henderson who was let go after the season. Shelton comes over from the Cleveland Indian organization (a team that has had some success against the Rays lately).  The 39-year-old has been their hitting coach since 2005.

Shelton does have some playing experience. He played 2 years in the Yankee organization as a catcher before an injury derailed his career.

I say it's good to see a little shake-up in the organization. I hope Shelton can keep the bats going and figure out a way to turn Pat back into the Bat.