Rays Round-up: Power of postitive thinking edition

After a loss like Thursdays, it's hard to think anything but negative thoughts about your team. It's easy to get into a rut and decide that your team is just garbage. But, you could be harming your health!  According to the Mayo Clinic, studies show that keeping a positive attitude is important for your long term health.  Instead of giving in to negative self-talk, you need to weed out misconceptions and irrational thinking and then challenge those thoughts with rational, positive thoughts.

So here's my list of Rays negative self-talk and ways to put a spin on it:

Negative Thought:  The Rays offense is horrible!

Positive Thought: The Rays offense has faced some really good pitchers that last week that have brought their "A" game.  The Vicious Circle lineup is still talented. They just need to put it together for a few days in a row.

Negative Thought: The Yankees, Red Sox, and Blue Jays are already pulling away from the Rays leaving them in the dust.

Positive Thought: You win the division in head-to-head matchups.  The Rays still have 48 games against those 3 teams. That's plenty of games to catch-up.  Those teams also still have to play each other. Only one can win at a time.

Negative Thought:  The starting pitching is not as good as it was last year.  We need David Price. We miss Edwin Jackson.

Positive Thought: The Rays starters are keeping them in the game. If they continue to do that all year, they'll win more games than they lose.  This team is too talented.

Negative Thought:  The Rays are a one year fluke.  Now, they go back to the cellar where they've always been.

Positive Thought: This is a talented team who can compete with anybody in baseball.  They need to just get some things going their way and they'll be on a roll before we know it. It's only April, there's plenty of games left to play.  These last 2 weeks will become a distant memory like that losing streak the 2008 Rays had in July.

Here's a look at what other people are saying. As always, my comments are in italics:

- Rise of the Rays says Maddon's post-game comments about the shadows at Safeco field make him sound a little whiny.  The manager said after the game that he thought the roof should've been closed for the 3:40 game.  I really hate Safeco field.  It's not just the shadows. It's the way that the field holds balls that should be homers up in the air.  It's a weird place. I hope that the Rays don't create nothing like that if they build a new stadium.

- The Rays Party points out the Rays lack of sacrifices this season. Honestly, this one doesn't bother me as much as it does others. For example, I don't think there was any context in yesterday's game to lay down a sacrifice bunt.  When you're moving runners over, you have to have faith that the next guy can get them in.  With the way the Rays are hitting, I can see why Maddon won't give up any outs too easily. He's working to get his team hitting.

- TBO had a good wrap-up of yesterday's game. I found Pat the Bat's quote the most interesting part: "It's real simple. If we don't score, we can't win. And we've got to score." That's right, Pat. It's embarrassing to get beat 1-0 on a first inning homer.  Maybe the guys will finally be embarrassed enough to take it out on the A's.