Ok so its time for me to upgrade my rod, the reel it will be matched up with is a shimano spirex 2500.  I fish a lot of spinner baits, jigs and t-rigs.

Im a newbie for the most part, hence the question...  Whats your recommendations on a nice rod say $150 and under.  What should I be looking for?

If you are looking for a rod, then I would say shimano crucial or BPS xps extreme spinning rod.

But, you might want to upgrade that reel as well to match up with the rod you are getting.

I use baitcasting gear mostly for those techniques, but if your fishing upto 1/2 oz. a 7' MF rod should do. Or if you feel that you need more backbone go with a MH.

Powell 703 or 704EF would make for a nice setup.

St. Croix Avids are excellent, and Shimano Compre rods are really nice for the price also.

Grab your reel and go to your nearest tackle purveyor and check them out.

@Lee.MD - I will be looking to upgrade the reel but just not yet.  So i would like to get a nice rod then match it up with a nice reel in near future.

@OIFBasser - I haven't touched a baitcaster yet because the only reels I feel are nice are around 200$  the front spinning reel seemed to be my best bang for the buck...  I need to catch more bass for that price!!! ;  D

The All Star Platinum 6'6" MF at TW is $68:

http://www.***.com/descpageRDSALLSTAR-ASPSSR.html

There might even be a 10% of link in TT's HD section.

With a 1/4 to 5/8 oz rating I'd think it would do well with spinner baits, T-Rig's and lighter jigs up to 1/2 oz.  I haven't used mine yet, but it has significantly more backbone than my other MF spinning rods.

The Platinum would be hard to beat for under $70.  A couple years ago they sold for $199.

7ft Medium Fast or 7ft Medium/Heavy Fast

Two that I have used and recommend:

Shimano Crucial

St. Croix Avid

Right now I'm fishing with 12lb test and I throw spinners up to 3/4 we have big lakes here in AZ and I like to get full coverage from top mid and bottom fishing, I def need a soft tip MH seems to stiff for me... so many choices!

Med/hvy  has nothing to do with how stiff the rod is.

Why do you want a soft tip rod to throw spinner-baits ?

Check here for a very good explanation of rod characteristics: http://www.bassresource.com/fishing/rod-actions-power.html 

Med/hvy has nothing to do with how stiff the rod is.

Why do you want a soft tip rod to throw spinner-baits ?

So a M XF and MH XF are the same stiffeness?

@Lee.MD - I will be looking to upgrade the reel but just not yet. So i would like to get a nice rod then match it up with a nice reel in near future.

@OIFBasser - I haven't touched a baitcaster yet because the only reels I feel are nice are around 200$ the front spinning reel seemed to be my best bang for the buck... I need to catch more bass for that price!!! ; D

I'm sorry for not being clearer. The rods  recommended were spnning rods.