Rays Round-up: Monster is looming edition

One night. That's all the Rays really have to turn it around before the monster that is the Boston Red Sox arrives at Tropicana Field. The Rays are doing what everyone was waiting for last year... choking under pressure and higher expectations. The little things that went right last year are going wrong. Small mistakes that were overcome last year are instead magnified. This team needs a spark. I don't know what it is or what can be done, but right now they're on life support... back in the AL East cellar.

Here's a look at some of what's going on around the Rays blogosphere (I couldn't bring myself to read the Minnesota papers). As always, my comments are in italics:

Rays the Stakes has put Dioner Navarro on notice and is threating B.J. Upton. I'm with him on that one. I feel ready to hurl whenever I see Bossman and Navarro's batting average. That's why I'm going to keep track of their average right there on the right of the blog.

Rise of the Rays is also questioning Bossman's position at the top of the order. He's really killing the team's offense at the top of the order. However, as a big fan of Joe's Vicious Circle line-up, I'd rather just see Bossman hit the ball.

Rays Index is trying to cheer everyone up with a community project: Tampa Bay Rays WAGs. If Zorilla's homer had led to a win, I was going to download Julianna Zobrist's CD and listen to it all day today. Then, I was going to write a review and put links all over the place. However, thanks to JP Howell, Mrs. Zobrist didn't get the benefit of my promotion today.

DraysBay bad Rays baserunning is getting tiresome. I haven't zoned in on that as one of the bigger problems with the Rays. I think the Rays are just pressing too hard to overcome hitting deficiencies.

The Rays Party is preparing for their draft coverage. May be the only thing exciting going on around June.

Trop Talk described last night's game in one word: Heartbreak. I have many more colorful adjectives I could use to describe last night's game. I wasn't really heartbroken about the game itself. I seem to feel it in my gut that they wouldn't win. I'm more heartbroken about the reality that this team is now what it was last year.

9=8 Blog made a rare (for this season) post about the return of Raysball. It's just sad that one day later that post doesn't hold up when the Rays go back to DevilRaysball. I do like his layout, however.