I am currently wrapping up my fourth season
in Minor League Baseball after splitting time in 2008 with our
affiliates in Vero Beach, Florida and Montgomery, Alabama.
On a more personal level, I’ve had a passion for sports,
especially baseball, since I was young boy growing up in Medford, New
Jersey (about 30 minutes east of Philadelphia), which I carried with me
through the years leading up to college.

From September of 2001 through May of 2005 I attended Boston
College and was a member of the baseball team. During that time I was
drafted in 2004 by the Montreal Expos but elected to play for the
Hyannis Mets of the Cape Cod Baseball League before returning to
college to graduate and play my senior season. That year we established
a school record for wins with 37. From there I was drafted by the
Rays and have been with them ever since.

Now that we’re caught up, I’d like to give you an inside look at
what’s been going on in the weeks leading up to now.
Following the end of the regular season in early September, I had
about three weeks to relax at home before reporting to St. Petersburg
on the 25th. There we worked out with our instructional league team
for a handful of days in preparation for the first fall league workout
on October 2nd after flying in on the 1st.

Workouts have been in the morning and have been pretty routine
and laid back: consisting of some BP, bullpens, infield/outfield, and
so on. Mainly activities to get us back in the swing of things and to
make sure that everyone is on the same page heading into opening day. I
might add that having last names on the back of jerseys is quite
helpful with so many new faces to get to know.

As I am writing this entry, we are off to a 2 – 0 start after
taking each of our first two games from the Surprise Rafters. Our
offensive production has been rather impressive as we have pounded out
18 runs in two games including a 7 run 4th on Wednesday to overcome an
early 4 run deficit.

On my end, I contributed by throwing an inning of scoreless
relief on opening day consisting of a pop out and two groundouts.
From there, that’s about it. Next week I’ll try to get a little
more in depth as we will have had a few more games under our belt and
a little more time to get to know one another.