Carl Crawford Confronts Pat Burrell

The Tampa Bay Rays are enduring a pretty disappointing season, and that's an understatement. After going to the World Series last year, they are hovering around .500 and have fallen too far back in any playoff race to have a realistic shot these last few weeks. So, obviously there has to be some frustration among players, and it appears to have boiled over in the clubhouse.

Carl Crawford, one of the team's most respected leaders reportedly "loudly confronted" free-agent bust Pat Burrell before batting practice Wednesday. There are no further details, because no one said anything other than manager Joe Maddon, who kept saying everything is fine.

Hey, I'm fine with a leader of the team calling out someone for anything, and I'm equally fine with the Rays keeping everything internal. That's how it's supposed to be. Judging from the report, nothing about the confrontation was physical, so it is probably just the case of a leader doing his job and trying to whip a teammate into shape.

Crawford is the longest-tenured and arguably most-respected Rays player, having been with the team since 2002. He's hitting .300 with 13 home runs, 62 RBI, 84 runs, and 57 stolen bases. He made his third All-Star team this season and has a shot to take home his first Gold Glove.

Burrell signed a two-year, $16 million contract this past offseason to play for the defending AL champs and was expected to be a power source (he averaged 31 homers a season from 2005-2008). He's hitting .230 with 14 home runs and 62 RBI, which puts him on pace for a career low in home runs and his second lowest RBI total.

The Rays, who won the vaunted AL East last season, entered Wednesday trailing the Yankees by 19 1/2 games and were 13 1/2 behind the Red Sox for the wild card.