Rays Notes

Princeton Rays GM Jim Holland was interviewed at MiLB.com: "It does amaze me how well the simple things like foam fingers move and that we cannot keep those on the shelves. We also stock lower-priced items like logo balls and plastic batting helmets from almost every Major League team, and they also move quite well. As far as unique, cowbells were popular and a souvenir mover in our park long before they were even a thought in Tampa Bay."

You can meet Princeton's new manager: "Fans of Princeton Rays baseball and all members of the general public are invited to meet and welcome 2009 P-Rays' manager Jared Sandberg to Princeton, WV as part of a free reception on Thursday evening, February 5, 2009. The welcoming reception will be held at Schell Fellowship Hall of the First United Methodist Church of Princeton, located at 100 Center Street in Princeton from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. that evening. Brief remarks will be delivered at 7:35 p.m. There will be drawings for Rays' door prizes following the remarks segment of the program."

Princeton made an addition to their front office: "Aiden Thornhill, a senior Sports Management major at nearby Bluefield college, joined the Princeton Rays' front office team on January 22 as an administrative/marketing intern. Thornhill, a resident of Thornhill, VA, will be with the team at least through the first part of May helping General Manager Jim Holland make preparations for the upcoming season."

More job opportunities, this time with the Bowling Green Hot Rods: "As a game-day intern, you will work hand-in-hand with our front office staff members, gaining valuable sports marketing experience while ensuring our fans have the best possible time at the ballpark. Over the course of the season, you’ll get to work in all facets of our operation: sales, stadium operations, community and media relations, and merchandising, just to name a few. By the end of the season, you will have a head start over many people looking to break into this fun and demanding industry." Click here for details.

The Sports Law Blog discusses the Rays “file-and-go strategy” on arbitration: "After the Phillies lost to Ryan Howard last year for their first setback at a hearing (the Phillies are now 7-1 in their 8 hearings), the Rays became the only team with a perfect winning record in arbitration hearings. After reviewing the exchanged numbers between the two parties [referring to Willy Aybar and Dioner Navarro], I thought I spotted an interesting point. The differences between the two figures are amongst the closest of all of the 46 exchanged figures this year."
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"I have at least two thoughts about this. If the parties were that close, why couldn’t they get a deal done before the deadline? Second, does the “early deadline” prompted by the “file-and-go strategy” help push the two parties closer to each other? One of my arguments has been that salary arbitration usually works because most of the time the parties agree to a figure at the midpoint or slightly below the midpoint."