Will Carroll of Baseball Prospectus talks to Derek Jacques about the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and the upcoming 2007 season as part of their “Hope and Faith” series. The article on the website is very flattering towards the Rays offering previous examples of teams that exploded onto the scene when the stars were aligned and suggest that something similar could happen to the Rays in 2007.
As for the audio component, we don’t learn much except that there is sometimes a fine line between expert and someone pretending to be an expert. Jacques comes off as very uninformed which makes this very difficult to listen to at times. Among our favorite tidbits are….
- Apparently the Rays may send Delmon Young back down to the minors for more seasoning. Huh?
- He is another “expert” that seems to have not realized that the Rays have a new ownership and front office. He makes mention of the Rays historically being a “difficult team to deal with”. Never mind that the Rays made more trades in the last year than they made in the previous four years combined. He specifically mentions holding onto Aubrey Huff too long until most of his trade value was gone. Apparently Jacques doesn’t realize that the Rays were still able to obtain a major league shortstop and a top pitching prospect for Huff. Not bad for a pending free agent.
- Jacques says that if Ty Wigginton receives 600 plate appearances, that will mean something went wrong for the Devil Rays. Jacques refers to Wigginton as a player that typically has one good month and then disappears for the rest of the season. Of course anybody that was half paying attention in 2006 recognize Wiggy as the most consistent player and best clutch hitter on the team finishing with 24 home runs and 79 RBI despite missing 40 games.
Maybe next time they should interview THIS guy.
How the Tampa Bay Devil Rays Can Win the World Series [Baseball Prospectus]
