Mar 21
Are we the only ones that find irony in the above picture?
Sports Illustrated is reporting that the Rays are entertaining offers for Jorge Cantu. Moving Cantu would go a long ways to settling the Rays crowded infield situation. In the short-term, B. J. Upton would likely become the “most-days” second baseman and Brendan Harris would be on the roster as the backup middle infielder. In the long-run, the team may want Akinori Iwamura at second base and either Joel Guzman (sooner) or Evan Longoria (later) at third base. The team is not likely to put Muu-Rah at second base anytime soon as he has plenty of adjustments that he already needs to worry about.
If the Rays want to trade Cantu now is the time to do it. He is still only 25 and his only healthy campaign produced 28 home runs and 117 RBI. Cantu will be arbitration eligible at the end of 2007 but will not be eligible for free agency for three more years.
An ideal suitor would be the New York Mets, but we can understand any hesitancy they would have in dealing with the Rays. The Mets opening day starter at second base is likely to be Jose Valentin. If our math is correct, and we like to think it is, he is 85 years old. The Mets also have what is considered by many the deepest and strongest bullpen in baseball (it would have to be when all your starting pitchers are in their 50s), and well…The Rays bullpen is not so deep and not so strong.
Mar 21
*Insert shameless self-promotion disclaimer here*
If you have ever wondered what this site would be like if we cut-loose in a Bill Simmons-style and rambled on for a few thousand words, here is your chance. Head on over to The Hardball Times today. They have been running their “Five Questions:” features for every team and today is “Five Questions: Tampa Bay Devil Rays“, written by your truly, where we try to answer such tantalizing questions as “How good can Carl Crawford be?” and “Can Jeff Niemann be the #2 starter that the Rays desperately need?” and “Will the Rays trade one of their talented young outfielders?” It is yet another case of somebody mistaking us for real writers. Either that or they needed somebody to write about the Rays and they realized there wasn’t a whole lot to choose from.
Five Questions: Tampa Bay Devil Rays [The Hardball Times]
Mar 21
Courtesy of Paul Lukas of Uniwatch here is a shot of Akinori Iwamura wearing Oakley Thumps, with built-in MP3 player during warm-ups.
- Don’t look now, but the Rays have all of a sudden won three of their last five. Yesterday’s 7-0 victory over Cleveland was their best all-around performance of the spring as the pitchers gave up only a single hit and the offense cranked out 14.
- Well, this can’t be good. Rocco Baldelli left yesterday’s game with a tight hamstring. Hamstring problems kept Rocco out of the lineup for the first two months of 2006.
- Jae Seo pitched six shutout innings, allowing only one hit in a AAA game.
- Joe Maddon unveiled his “new” lineup yesterday. By “new” we of course mean, “an awful lot like last year”, with Carl Crawford leading off, Ben Zobrist playing the role of Jay Bell as an “old-school” #2 hitter, Rocco Baldelli hitting third and Ty Wigginton hoping there are ducks on the pond when he gets up to bat in the #4 spot.
- Joe Maddon has been surprised by Akinori Iwamura’s speed. Maybe Muu-Rah was on to something when he said his goal for 2007 was to hit 20 home runs and steal 40 bases.
- We didn’t realize that a formal announcement was necessary, but Joe Maddon has named Scott Kazmir the opening day starter. Whew! Now we can sleep better at night. Maybe Papa Joe should go ahead and name Kid K the opening day starter for each of the next three seasons.
- 90 losses and the Rays would tie the all-time record for consecutive seasons of 90+ losses.
