Let’s take a trip around the AL East newspapers as we try to find some of that 2008 magic…

The Boston Globe’s Tony Massarotti has the AL East going Yankees, Red Sox, Rays.  Shocker.  Not a lot of new stuff included, but I thought there was some clear homerism going on in this statement.

The Red Sox have an obvious vulnerability behind the plate – they allowed a preposterous 151 steals last year – but they may now be as good or better than the Rays at every other position on the diamond. All joking aside, the Red Sox defense looks terrific – as does that of the Rays.

Doesn’t Evan Longoria get an edge over most third basemen, including Adrian Beltre?  And, Carl Crawford is a pretty darn good left fielder.  That’s just two. 

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I went looking at the Baltimore Sun for AL East previews.  Of course, there’s a lot on the Orioles.   And, there’s scouting reports on the Red Sox and Yankees.  But, best I could tell, nothing on the Rays.  Maybe that will come on Tuesday. 

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Similar results in the New York Daily News from Mark Feinsand as he wrote his 28 reasons the Yankees will repeat.  #18 talked about the new look Red Sox.  But, the Rays aren’t worthy of a mention as anything that could even interrupt the Yankees from steamrolling through the East.

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The New York Times’ Tyler Kepner has the Rays taking second in the AL East, which is good enough for the wild card.  Then he says they will beat the Angels and the Yankees in the playoffs before losing to the Colorado Rockies in the World Series. 

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The Toronto Star’s Richard Griffin is a believer:

Granted, spring training is never the best time to get an accurate read on the regular season, but on the surface the Rays seem to have the type of young, dynamic offence that could carry them into the 90-plus win mix, vaulting them over either the Yankees or Bosox.

Just listing the names of the Rays’ offensive talents is scary. Start with 3B Evan Longoria, impending free-agent LF Carl Crawford, CF B.J. Upton, 1B Carlos Pena and 2B Ben Zobrist. If they get starting pitching at all, they will be a force to be reckoned with and a strong playoff contender.

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And I end on this from Dave Sheinin in the Washington Post.

We feel sorry for the Rays. They’re using the equivalent of a slingshot against the nuclear arsenals of the Red Sox and Yankees. They fight valiantly, and they give themselves a chance. But a lower payroll means a smaller margin for error; more has to go right for them.

 

 

The roster appears set.  The Rays made their final bench decision today by selecting Reid Brignac over Hank Blalock.  The flexibility that Brignac gives really is a no brainer at this time.  And, there’s probably a decent chance that Blalock ends up in Durham.  He’s holding out hope that he can find a job in the Majors, but only the Marlins seemed a little bit interested before he signed with the Rays.

So, that brings us to Pat Burrell.  And, to some degree, Matt Joyce.

Basing this on the 2009 season and spring training, I can see a scenario where we hit May and Burrell is hitting sub-.200.  Then what?  At about that time, Matt Joyce should be ready to be activated from the disabled list.  And, Blalock could very well be down with the Bulls doing a fairly decent job swinging the bat.  Would the Rays be willing to cut bait with Burrell and swallow the remainder of his 2010 contract? 

As has been said all along, this is a make or break year for Tampa Bay.  They cannot afford to carry a non-hitting Burrell, even at his hefty price tag.  It would seem like they have several options to turn to at DH.  Willy Aybar certainly could handle the right-handed side of a platoon.  Blalock or Joyce the left.  Heck, the switch-hitting Aybar is probably already a better option without a platoon. 

It’s too bad that the Rays are strapped with Burrell’s contract.  They have to give him a chance to perform.  But, I hope the leash is short.  There are better options available to them.

 

 

Joel Sherman posted his 2010 predictions for 2010 awards this morning and the Rays figured prominently.  Evan Longoria is becoming a popular choice to win the MVP award.  In explaining his choice, Sherman almost sounds like he’s feeling guilty for not picking Joe Mauer.

For me, the most interesting tidbit from Sherman was his Cy Young writeup.  Felix Hernandez was his choice.  But, there’s this:

Tempted to pick Tampa’s Matt Garza, but he just might be A.J. Burnett 2.0, great stuff that never fully translates due to issues with pitching IQ and maturity.

Finally, both Wade Davis and Jeremy Hellickson get mentioned in the Rookie of the Year race, which Sherman gave to Baltimore’s Brian Matusz.

Back in October, I posed ten questions about the off-season.   

Who’s here today that won’t be here in February? Thankfully, the names are few.  Gabe Gross is gone.  Aki was traded.  Pretty much all else remained in place for the upcoming season.  And, that explains why we remain optimistic for the 2010 season.

Who do the Rays need to return to the playoffs?   The obvious answers were closer and catcher.  Both were addressed during the off-season.

What does the outfield look like next Spring?   Carl Crawford and BJ Upton are the anchors.  To this day, right field remains a bit of a question.  Matt Joyce will, most likely, open the season on the disabled list.  At this point, it would appear that the decision could very well be who Joe Maddon feels can play right field (or second base) better, Sean Rodriguez or Ben Zobrist.

Read the rest of this entry »

 

Let me preface what I’m about to say by saying I’d hate to see Carl Crawford go.

Having said that, I can at least make an argument for trading Carl Crawford during Spring Training.  Why?  Because this is going to get messy.

The hype is here.  The Rays enter Spring Training with its most talented team ever.  They’re all saying it.  I tend to agree.  So, here’s my problem.  I am convinced that the Rays will not be able to re-sign CC.  His price tag is going to be too high.  He will be the prize of the off-season free agent class.  The Yankees and the Red Sox will fall all over each other trying to bring him on board. 

I would hate to see the Rays get only draft picks for Carl.  The return that he could bring in a trade should be pretty high.  So, when do you deal?  If this is the most talented team in Rays history, they will be flirting with playoff contention on August 1.  Trading CC at deadline if they are within sneezing distance of the playoffs would be a PR nightmare.  Read the rest of this entry »

And this from the Red Sox flagship, NESN:

Tampa should be stronger at the end of games if Soriano performs up to expectations, but with the loss of Red Sox killer Akinori Iwamura and several other departures from their middle relief corps, the Rays don’t seem to have made up a considerable amount of ground on either the Red Sox or Yankees.

Looks like bulletin board material for me.  According to them, Aki was the key to this season.  That, and the departure of several middle relievers?  Will someone help me out with that?  I guess they are referring to the rejects that the Red Sox picked up.

ESPN’s Jayson Stark gave his early assessment of the Rays.  And, Rays fans should be happy.  I won’t dwell, but the highlights are “It isn’t last year anymore” and “They have a closer”.  Enough for me. 

So, if there’s anything from Stark’s piece that sums it up, it’s this:

By the way, this team also has Keith Law’s No. 7-ranked pitching prospect in baseball, Jeremy Hellickson, looming just over the horizon. So while this might not be as ballyhooed a rotation as the groups in Boston and the Bronx, if all these light bulbs go on at once, look out.

 

The major storyline for the spring camp will be the 2nd base/right field battle.  Where will Ben Zobrist end up?  I know the Rays have options at second base in Sean Rodriguez and Reid Brignac and in right field in Matt Joyce.  But, there remains one free agent that interests me. 

Felipe Lopez finished last season with a .310 batting average and a .386 OBP.  He hit over .300 vs. both left-handed and right-handed pitchers, so no need for a platoon.  He has a year of 44 stolen bases, so he has some speed and some Joe Maddon-esque skills. 

Felipe Lopez earned $3.5 million last year.  But, we are into spring training and he remains unsigned.  You have to figure his price tag is taking a hit.  According to yahoo.com, the Rays are not currently among four team entertaining interest in Lopez.  Maybe he becomes more appealing now that he has canned  uber-agent Scott Boras.

Win or else.  Felipe Lopez makes sense.  Stabilize the infield.  Anchor Zorilla in right field.    Owner Stuart Sternberg has said that 2010 is THE year.  Payroll will decline after this season.  If the Rays are playing “all in”, signing a veteran second baseman like Lopez makes sense. Last year, he hit .315 as a leadoff hitter, so he would give the Rays another option to top the batting order. 

If the Rays are going to contend with the Yankees and Red Sox, Felipe Lopez makes sense.  He would remove any question about the lineup and what it would look like on a daily basis.  If this is the year, sign this free agent and see where the Rays end up in the standings.

 

Evan Longoria was in Connecticut this week to attend the Connecticut Sports Foundation Against Cancer dinner and he told the Hartford Courant that he likes what new closer Rafael Soriano brings to the team.

“Last year, we had a lot of problems with the back end of our bullpen. Now, I think we’ve got that settled signing Rafael Soriano away from the Braves. Now, we don’t have to panic in the eighth and ninth inning when we have a one- or two-run lead.”

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CBS Sports’ Danny Knobler posted his preview of the 2o10 Rays the other day.  I thought it was a typical review taken from a national perspective.  It highlights the star players a little, takes swipes at attendance, and speculates that they won’t be able to retain Carl Crawford.  One piece I do take issue with is this:

You can even argue that if the Rays hadn’t made two mistakes last winter (trading Jackson for underwhelming Matt Joyce, and signing Pat Burrell to a terrible two-year contract), they would have had more of a chance to make big moves this winter. 

I maintain that it’s still too early to assess the Matt Joyce trade.  Edwin Jackson really didn’t have a place on last year’s roster.  And, in the end, were his numbers that much better than Jeff Niemann’s?  If, at the end of the 2010 season, Matt Joyce hasn’t progressed with the big league team, then the trade can be proclaimed a disappointment.   

As far as Pat Burrell goes, of course hindsight says it was a bad signing.  But, I don’t think that’s the main reason the Rays haven’t been more active in this off-season.  They Rays had several other contracts that elevated over the winter.  It’s hard to strap the blame on these two moves.

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Finally, Buster Olney’s report on Carl Crawford airs this afternoon at 12:30 p.m. ET on ESPN’s Baseball Tonight.

No doubt, the right field and second base situations for the Rays are unsettled.  It all hinges on where they decide to station Ben Zobrist.  Or, IF they decide to station Ben Zobrist. 

Matt Joyce figures to be in the right field mix.  He’s coming of a solid season at Triple-A Durham where he hit .273 with 16 HR and 66 RBI. 

He told Dick Scanlon of the Lakeland Ledger he’s ready for the competition, but he’s getting used to spring traing battles for playing time.

“I was very stressed out (last year) about where I was going to play, when I was going to play, getting called up and sent down.  The past two years have kind of been a roller-coaster, so that experience has been beneficial heading into this year. Hopefully, it’ll calm the nerves and help me relax a little more.”

My money’s on him making the team out of spring training.  It will be interesting if his hitting will persuade the Rays to keep Zobrist in the infield.