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MLB Taiwan Tour: Where Are The Rays?

News broke this afternoon that Yankees sluggers Robinson Cano and Curtis Granderson would be going on tour! And no, they are not forming a super-group a la the Travelling Wilburys or Monsters of Folk. Instead, they are joining 17 others -- including possibly Miguel Cabrera, the Detroit Tigers slugger -- on a barnstorming tour of Taiwan, the awesome little culturally Chinese, politically something-in-between island off the coast of Fujian, China.

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I, as a humble fan of both the Chinese culture and history as well as 棒球 (baseball), have a particularly vested interest in these little series. Add on the fact that I'm a huge fan of barnstorming, and it makes it all a little absurd that this is the first I heard of this Taiwan tour!

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Anyway, the Tampa Bay Rays may not have any players on the roster (a roster that features a good deal of "feh" players -- Jeff Mathis, Jeremy Guthrie, and Michael Morse to name a few), but they do have hitting coach Derek Shelton joining the team. With nine roster spots still open -- and presumably one more hanging on the balance depending on Cabrera and the Tiger's World Series status -- the Rays still do have a chance to get some players on the roster.

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The Marlins will be sending Emilio Bonifacio (okay, alright) and Logan Morrison (OOH! FUN!), so at least the state will have some representation.

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The tour starts on Taiwan's northern edge in New Taipei City November 1st, works it's way south, and then concludes in Kaohsiung on the island's southern coast, November 6th.

Photographs by cstreet.us, thelastminute, turtlemom nancy , fesek, kthypryn, justinwright, sue_elias, pointnshoot, and scrapstothefuture used in background montage under Creative Commons. Thank you.