Around the Rays Universe March 11th

• Our post yesterday about a Rays Anatomy writer drew a lot of interest. Eric SanAntonio gave it back to us (in his own special, odd way) over at Rays Anatomy. Please feel free to ignore the absurd exaggerations in his post: i.e. "I was chided and nailed to the cross." Nice to see you comparing your plight as a Yankees fan writing a Rays blog to Jesus being crucified. Good simile. Did you major in creative writing? Hopefully, we will have another post on the subject later today (Sports Indeed, Rays Anatomy).

• DRG over at Rays Index had a hilarious edition of "this week in pictures." My favorite is definitely the Rocco one (Rays Index).
  

• Tommy over at OPS posted some nice photos he took at Spring Training. Thanks for sharing (Outs per Swing).

• Zobrist is out for four weeks with a fractured thumb. Andy Cannizaro will likely replace him as the backup shortstop. A lot of the anti-Zobrist guys out there think Cannizaro will be an upgrade. I can't say I disagree (St. Pete Times)

• The Rays made their first round of cuts this spring. Jaso, Houser, and Perez were optioned to the minors, while McGee, Davis, and Matt Spring were reassigned to minor league camp (Rays Report).
  

• Kazmir threw for the first time off a mound yesterday. He is thinking he will make his first spring training start Sunday against the Tigers. He also seems to be thinking more pragmatically about his opening day start (Rays Report):
  

“Sure it’s a goal for me, but I’m not going to rush anything,” said Kazmir. “Whatever happens, happens. I realize that it’s not going to be that big of a difference going from Opening Day to maybe game two or game three. We’re just going to take our time and make sure that everything’s strong and we stretched it out and didn’t rush it.”

• Friedman seems to be saying in this quote that Badelli needs to stop being day to day. The team needs to know this week whether or not he is going to be able to contribute (St. Pete Times):
  

"The point's coming pretty soon where we're going to need to get him out on the field and get a clear sense of what we can expect in April and beyond," Friedman said. "We're not there yet - we still have 18 days of spring training left to figure these things out - but it's fast approaching."

PA