Nothing Maddon-ing About This

Maddon has made the Rays contenders
 and turned the franchise's fate in 2008.

Joe Maddon isn't going anywhere. And the Tampa Bay Rays made sure of that Tuesday.

The 58-year-old manager was given a three-year extension by his current employer, insuring his place on the Tampa Bay bench through the 2015 season. Maddon was entering the final year of his current contract after previously signing his first three-year extension with the organization in May 2009.

Since being hired as the Rays manager in November 2005, Maddon has rapidly become one of the game's best managers. Under his watch, the Rays have made three appearances, won two American League East Division titles and an AL Pennant.

In a year of firsts for the organization and only his third season as manager, Maddon lead the budget-conscious Rays to a franchise record 97 regular season wins and their first postseason appearance in franchise history, outplaying the high-paying New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox for the division crown. Tampa Bay defeated the Chicago White Sox in the ALDS to clinch their first playoff series victory, advancing to the ALCS to take on the Red Sox.

The series would come down to an epic seventh game -- a game Tampa Bay eventually won, 3-1. However, they were defeated in their first ever World Series appearance, losing to the Philadelphia Phillies in five games.

The following year, Maddon and his troops would take a step back, finishing the year 84-78 -- third in the division, causing many to wonder if their success was just an anomaly.

That wasn't the case.

In 2010, Maddon and the Rays went back to work, clinching their division for the second time in three years. This past season, Tampa Bay would make the most historic September comeback in baseball history, over coming a 9-game wild card deficit only to first their first ever AL Wild Card berth the final day of the regular season.

Although, back-to-back years they have been ousted from the postseason in the ALDS by the Texas Rangers.

Maddon has built a foundation for success down South, but it hasn't been easy.

He spent his first two years in Tampa Bay as a Devil Ray, watching his team finish in the cellar of the AL East, combining for 127-197 record and drafting young players that would define the team's recent success.

In the first round of the 2006 amateur draft, Maddon and Co. selected shortstop Evan Longoria out of Cal State Long Beach with the No. 3 overall pick. Then, eight rounds later, the Rays selected Desmond Jennings, who played in 63 games this past season as a rookie.

In 2007, with the No. 1 overall pick, Maddon took left-handed phenom David Price out of Vanderbilt and played a major role in the team signing free agent first baseman Carlos Pena.

Longoria won the 2008 AL Rookie of the Year. Price has become one of the game's most premier pitchers, winning a career-high 19 games in 2010. Pena set career-highs home runs (46) and runs batted in (121) in his first year with the Rays and hit a combined 144 HRs in his four years with the team before leaving as a free agent prior to the start of last season.

But after a year away from the organization, Pena signed a one-year deal this offseason to return. As for Jennings, he batted .259 with 10 HRs and 25 RBIs, playing a major role in the Rays' magical September run.

And despite being drafted by the Rays just month before Maddon was hired, Jeremy Hellickson is his second rookie to earn the AL Rookie of the Year of the honor, going 13-10 with a 2.95 ERA in 2011.

Maddon is not only the fourth manager in franchise history, but the longest tenured as well.

The franchise's first manager and current Yankee pitching coach, Larry Rothschild, held the mark prior to Maddon's arrival, managing the club from 1998 to 2001.

Maddon is one of three successful managers in baseball that studied under Mike Scioscia, who is a two-time AL Manager of the Year.

The former Angels bench coach established early and often he would do things his own way. With his thick-rimmed-rose-color glasses, Maddon is known for his unorthodox managerial style and preaching the fundamentals of the game he loves so dear.

On Aug. 17, 2008, with a four-run lead, Maddon elected to intentional walk Texas' Josh Hamilton with the bases loaded rather than pitching to him as the potential tying run. It was only the sixth intentional walk handed out with the bases loaded in baseball history.

The move prevailed as the Dan Wheeler struck out Marlon Byrd to end the game, preserving the lead in a 7-4 win.

Maddon was won the AL Manager of the Year twice ('08, '10), has accumulated a 495-477 record in his 972 games and is now greatest manager in franchise history with at least four more years to add to his legacy.

Hip, Hip, Jorge!

Posada is a borderline Hall of Fame candidate
 and one of the greatest hitting catchers
in history.

A year after New York Yankees great Andy Pettitte decided to call it a career, Jorge Posada has followed suit, leaving the "Core Four" to a perfect pair.

After months of speculation about his future, it has been reported rather than put on a different uniform for the first time in his career, Posada will indeed announce his retirement in the coming weeks.

Posada, 40, was drafted by the Yankees in the 24th round of the 1990 amateur draft as a second baseman, but made the transition to catcher, a decision he wouldn't regret. The Puerto Rican native made his Major League debut on Sept. 4, 1995 and made the postseason roster, where he appeared in one game as a pinch-runner.

The following year, the switch-hitting catcher appeared briefly during the 1996 season, but did not participate in New York's first World Series run, starting in the mid-1990s.

After serving as current-New York manager Joe Girardi's backup in 1997, Posada became a fixture and invaluable member in the Yankee lineup in 1998.

That season Posada was on the receiving end of the fifteenth perfect game in Major League history, catching lefty David Wells' perfecto on May 17. He batted .268 with 17 home runs and 63 RBIs that season, playing in a 100-plus games for the first time in his career.

That was the year New York won their first of three consecutive World Series titles with Posada behind the dish.

In 2001, Posada was the recipient of Derek Jeter's incredibly famous flip play that prevented the tying run from scoring in Game 3 of the ALDS with New York facing elimination and a 2-0 series deficit. However, it was Posada's fifth inning home run off future Cy Young Award winner Barry Zito that gave his team the lead and enabled them to win, 1-0, and eventually make their fourth straight Fall Classic appearance.

The Yankee backstop would finished third in the American League Most Valuable Player voting in 2003 after batting .283 and setting career-highs in home runs (30) and RBIs (101).

Posada's best year came at the young age of 35. In 2007, he batted .338 and set a career-high with 171 hits. He was rewarded with a four-year $52.4 million contract extension, but missed most of the final season at the Old Yankee Stadium after undergoing season-ending shoulder surgery in July.

In 2009, Posada got his last taste as a champion. In the team's 15 postseason games that season, Posada batted .260 with 2 home runs and 8 RBIs. Both of Posada's home runs either tied the game or gave New York the lead.

The following year he became the first Yankee in history to hit back-to-back grand slams on consecutive days since another New York catching great, Bill Dickey, did so in 1937.

A month later he knocked in the 1,000 run of his career, becoming one of five catchers in Major League history to total 200 home runs, 300 doubles, 1,000 RBIs and 1,500 hits from behind the plates.

After being stripped of his catching duties prior to the start of this past season and moved to a full-time designated hitter role, Posada's season was full of controversy. After getting off to a slow start, Posada pulled himself out of the starting lineup in a Sunday night game at Fenway Park after being dropped to ninth in the batting order.

He and Yankee brass would settle their differences and move forward, knowing they needed one another.

Posada's season highlight came on Sept. 21, 2011 when he was called upon to pinch-hit, in a tie game with the bases-loaded in the bottom of the eighth inning. The longtime catcher delivered a two-run single, capturing the franchise's seventeenth AL East title. After finishing the year with a .235 batting average, 14 home runs and 44 RBIs, he enjoyed one of his greatest postseason series of his career.

In New York's five-game first-round series with the Detroit Tigers, Posada batted .429 with an on-base percentage of .579. Following the team's Game 5 loss, Posada was asked about his future, where he began to tear up and had to step away from his locker.

He finishes his career as a .273 career hitter, .374 on-base percentage, with 275 home runs, 1,065 RBI and 1,664 hits.

A 5-time All-Star, Silver Slugger and World Series champion, Posada leaves New York as one of the most successful offensive players in franchise history, ranking in the top ten of numerous categories. He ranks 10th in total bases (2,888), ninth in extra-base hits (664), 8th in home runs and games players (1,829), 7th in doubles (379) and 4th in intentional walks (78).

His 1,574 career games behind the plate ranks him third in franchise history behind Dickey's 1709 and Yogi Berra's 1692. But his 119 postseason games behind the plate rank first all-time.

One of the proudest Yankees in history, Posada was a leader throughout his 17-year career and considered it a privilege, honor and a huge responsibility to catch for the New York Yankees.

The Legend of Sam Fuld

Fuld's unbelievable diving play on April
9th in Chicago.

When All-Star left fielder Carl Crawford signed a seven-year $142 million contract with the Boston Red Sox in the offseason, the Tampa Bay Rays knew they needed to find a replacement.

They signed veteran Johnny Damon to fill that void, but since has become the team's full-time designated hitter with the sudden retirement of Manny Ramirez. This opened the door for longtime journeyman Sam Fuld.

Fuld was acquired in the offseason from the Chicago Cubs in an eight-player deal centered around Rays' right-hander Matt Garza.

Surprisley, Fuld made the Rays' 2011 Opening Day roster out of spring training after batting .277 in Port Charlotte.

Major League Baseball got there first taste of Fuld on April 9 in a game against the Chicago White Sox. With the bases loaded, White Sox leadoff hitter Juan Pierre hit a ball down the right field line, Fuld sprinted from right-center all the way to the line to make a diving Superman, citrus catch and rob Pierre of an extra-base hit.

The legend of Sam Fuld was born.

Just two days later, Fuld would play his first career game at Fenway Park and it would be a memorable one.

With both teams off to slow starts the Rays pounded out 19 hits in a 16-5 victory against the rival Red Sox.

Lead by Fuld's four hits and first home run of the season, he came a single away from the cycle. In one of his final at-bats of the game, Fuld hit a ball towards the Green Monster and chose to cruise into second with his second double of the night rather than stopping at first to complete the cycle. Not to mention the two terrific plays Fuld made out in left field to rob multiple Red Sox of base hits.

Fuld's spectacular defensive plays have been a recurring theme on ESPN's Baseball Tonight Web Gems and Sportscenter's Top 10 Plays, with him becoming the recent human highlight reel. Rays' manger Joe Maddon has called Fuld's play in the outfield "fearless" while other suggest it as daredevil like play.

With a 4-1 victory over the White Sox Wednesday, the Rays run their record to 9-9, reaching the 500 mark for the first time after a 1-8 start. The Rays currently sit in second-place in the American League East, behind the 10-6 New York Yankees.

Despite Fuld being hitless in his last eight at-bats, he is still batting .344 on the young season with five runs batted in. That is more than we can say about the guy he placed at Tropicana Field as Crawford is batting only .149 in Boston's first 17 games.

It has been a struggle for Fuld to get here, but it looks as if he may have found himself a home.

After attending Philips Exeter Academy, Fuld decided to play college baseball at Stanford University. There he would break the College World Series record for hits with 24, a record set by Keith Moreland in 1975-76 with 23 hits on his own. Fuld was then drafted by the Cubs in the 24th round of 2003 amateur player draft, but chose not to sign.

A year later, Fuld was drafted yet again by Chicago, this time in the 10th round, and signed in July of 2004.

Fuld would make his Major League debut as a September call-up in 2007, but was never given the opportunity to be any everyday player in the Friendly Confines of Wrigley Field. The 5-foot-10 outfielder is still only 29 and might have just caught a break while entering the prime of his career after a long and hard earned journey through the Minor Leagues.

The Rays will need the spark of a legend to continue if they want to repeat as AL East champions for the first time in franchise history.

Captain Ready to Rebound?

The Yankees need Jeter to rebound to get back
atop the baseball mountain.

It's no secret that the New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter struggled much of the the 2010 campaign.

He hasn't only been the face of the Yankees during his career, but the face of Major League Baseball. Leaving us with the question, has father time finally caught up with the Yankee Captain or was '10 just a fluke?

There is no definitive answer just yet, we will have to wait and see come Opening Day, but don't count Jeter out just yet.

Since Jeter burst onto the scene in 1996, winning the Rookie of the Year Award and the first of his five World Series titles, he has not experienced much failure. Jeter has only missed the playoffs once in his 16 seasons in the majors and never batted under .290 in a full season until a year ago.

How will Jeter deal with setting career lows in batting average (.270), on-base percentage (.340) and slugging percentage (.370) a year ago? The same way he always does, by turning the page.

Jeter showed signs of being the Jeter of old, taking better swings in September and into October.

Jeter also did come away with his fifth career Gold Glove Award, making only six errors all season. He was tied for second in the American League with 111 runs, that is the most he is scored in a single-season since he scored 118 in 2006. With the nasty public contract negotiations in the past and extra work in the offseason with hitting coach Kevin Long, we can expect the Yankee Captain to return to form in 2011.

Despite the fact that Jeter will be 37 in June, he is still going to score 100 runs, get his usual 200-plus hits, play solid defense and make a big play in a crucial situation.

The Yankees need Jeter to be the Derek Jeter they have grown accustom to the past decade and a half if they want to get past the Sox in the grueling AL East.

He is out to prove that his best stories have not already be written.

All that being said, Jeter is 74 hits shy of becoming the first Yankee in history to reach 3,000 hits, something that will be truly magical. No matter what the stats say at the end of '11, Jeter will once again be the focal point in New York for all the right reasons.