#Rays don’t play tomorrow.This season marks the first time an MLB team did NOT play on a Sunday since 1995.

— Barry LeBrock (@BarryLeBrock) August 25, 2012

LeBrock clarified that he meant “scheduled to play on a Sunday”- plenty of teams have been rained out on Sundays, but that is still bizarre. The Rays lost an off-day earlier this season in exchange for this one here and ended up playing 19 consecutive games without an off-day, the maximum that the MLB CBA allows.

And then, the RNC was an excuse for some of the Rays, particularly the controversial Luke Scott, to talk about their political opinions. Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times talked to Scott, Burke Badenhop, and Sam Fuld here. Without criticizing anyone, here were the highlights, all courtesy of Scott.

“He is against excessive government intervention, rails against laziness and finger-pointers and insists ‘we need to get back to our identity as Americans.’”- Topkin on Scott

“President Barack Obama is an open Marxist, an open Socialist not capable of handling the responsibilities of the job.”

(On ObamaCare) “That needs to be taken and thrown into muriatic acid and just absolutely disintegrated and never spoken of again. Like it would be blasphemy to even mention it. We can’t afford it. It’s not right. It’s the unaccountability thing, where people can smoke cigarettes and be lazy and be unhealthy, and then you and I have to pay for their health care bills. No, I’m sorry, it shouldn’t work that way. … This bill is another thing that helps people avoid accountability and responsibility and puts the burden on those that are doing things the right way, which is evil. E-V-I-L.”

 ”Here’s a message to those who are socialists and are communists — go live somewhere else. GET OUT! We don’t do that here. Go to Russia. Go to Cuba. Go to China.”

Jeff Niemann left tonight’s rehab start after being hit in the arm with a comebacker. (via watchingdurhambullsbaseball.com) #Rays

— Cork Gaines (@CorkGaines) August 26, 2012

And then the Red Sox and Dodgers completed their crazy trade. Here’s the trade in full.

Boston Red Sox trade 1B Adrian Gonzalez, RHSP Josh Beckett, OF Carl Crawford, and INF Nick Punto to the Los Angeles Dodgers in exchange for 1B James Loney, RHSP Rubby De La Rosa, RHSP Allen Webster, OF Jerry Sands, and INF Ivan DeJesus.

The Red Sox traded a superstar in Gonzalez, albeit one that hasn’t lived up to expectations in his last two years in Boston, along with Beckett and Crawford, who have both basically collapsed, and an afterthought in Punto in exchange for a sub-par first baseman in Loney, a couple of power arms in De La Rosa and Webster, with De La Rosa possessing big league experience but also undergoing Tommy John Surgery last year, and power-hitting outfielder in Sands who has sputtered in the big leagues but has shown nice patient and power in the minor leagues, and a thrown-in in DeJesus. Wow. This move clearly makes the Red Sox worse in the short-term, but what they do is get rid of three huge multi-year contracts and get players with the ability to help the team rebuild. The Dodgers are going all-in for the next few years and are proving that they’re willing to take on money to help the team win. We’ll have to see how this all plays out in coming years.

Catcher – Matt Wieters
First Base – Adrian Gonzalez
Second Base – Robinson Cano
Third Base – Evan Longoria
Shortstop – Derek Jeter
Outfield – Brett Gardner
Outfield – Carl Crawford
Outfield – Jose Bautista
DH – Manny Ramirez

Our pitching staff is set except for the #5 pitcher, and honestly, when we are debating which of these two guys is our 5th starter, it bodes well for how we’ll do as the competition moves forward. It comes down to Toronto’s Ricky Romero and Boston’s Josh Beckett.

Rays Colored Glasses is collaborating with the writers from BoSox Injection (Red Sox), Yanks Go Yard (Yankees), Birds Watcher (Orioles), and Jays Journal (Blue Jays) to select an AL East All-Star team, which will face off against the AL Central and AL West All-Star teams in a fan vote hosted by our MLB site Call to the Pen. The AL winner will then advance to face off against the NL division selected by the same method and another fan vote will be held. We have reached a general consensus of what pitchers should be on the AL East All-Star team, except for one. So, we need you, the readers to vote for who you feel should be the final piece for our AL East All-Star team.

Each candidate received two votes among our AL East writers. Romero obviously had the better 2010 season emerging as the Jays’ potential ace, but Beckett has a longer track record and studly post-season performance.
Thinking ahead and forgetting past performance, who is the better fit for a AL East All-Star team this season in 2011?

The voting is underway at Jays Journal so let your voice be heard. We’ll want to finalize our roster over the next couple of days and get ready to destroy the rest of the MLB divisions.