[THE HANGOVER] Rays Swept In Kazmir’s Return
Akinori Iwamura, BJ Upton, David Price, Pedro Alvarez, RJ Harrison, Scott Boras May 5th. 2008, 9:28am
THE GOOD: Carlos Pena hitting his first home run in almost a month (Apr 12).
THE BAD: With 2 on in the first, Evan Longoria hit a ball in left-center that would have been a sure double, IF Manny Being Manny was in left field. Instead he was DHing with David Oritiz getting the day off. Jacoby Ellsbury made the catch costing the Rays 2 runs early in the game…Shawn Riggans. 2 passed balls, an error and 0-2. Not good. Anybody think Mike DiFelice will be back sooner rather than later?…Jonny Gomes being robbed of a double on a ball that was clearly fair off the Green Monster and nobody appeared to even question the call, much less ask for help from another umpire…
THE TELLING: We guess the positive spin would be that if entering last weekend’s series, and somebody offered us 3 wins in 6 games against the Sox, we probably would have taken it and ran.
DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…
- BJ Upton was in the lineup after missing the last 2 games with a sore shoulder, but Joe Maddon said that Upton “didn’t want to turn it loose.” And Upton admitted to some hesitation in his approach. [Tampa Tribune]
- Akinori Iwamura is one of only 2 starting second basmen in the majors without an error. [USA Today]
- Marc Lancaster takes a look at the upcoming draft and wonders who the Rays will draft. RJ Harrison says that the choice is not nearly as clear-cut as it was last year with David Price. As a side note, does anybody know why it is OK in baseball for a player to select an agent while they are still competing in college, as Pedro Alvarez has with Scott Boras and yet it is not OK in basketball and football? This one really stumps us. And yes, we realize that the player doesn’t actually “sign” with the agent yet, but they are still aligned with one. And we are pretty sure that would still be illegal in baseball and football. [Tampa Tribune]
- Fox Sports list the Rays as only the 4th worst franchise in sports and only 3rd in baseball behind the Pirates and the Royals. [Fox Sports]
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Another question would be, why would a player pick Boras as their agent at this point? He’ll bring in a nice payday, but don’t you risk alienating a lot of teams??
Riggo is looking less and less like a ML catcher. Trade him to Yankees, call up Difelice, and draft Buster Posey. (personally would rather have Crow, Alvarez, or T. Beckham…in that order, but you gotta do watcha gotta do).
And where the HELL is our leadoff-hitting RFer?!! Oh yeah, his name is Ruggiano, and he keeps getting jerked around.
Perhaps do players in other sports do this as well (talk to agents without actually signing with them)? It is a good question but I have always assumed it just comes up more in baseball because of the way agents work and the differences between Boras and others in the sport.
@Jessica:
then again talent talks. All a kid needs is for one team to draft him to get his payday, and if he is good enough someone will. And while as a fan Boras bugs me, no doubt I would love to bring him into the office for my next salary review.
somebody correct me if i am wrong but i thought it was illegal in football and basketball to even just talk to agents until their playing careers are over.
I don’t think there is a problem with having an agent in an “advisory” role prior to turning pro in any of these sports. What raises flags in basketball and football is when the player starts driving around in a different color Escalade for each day of the week.
i still think there is a difference. there are famous agents in football and basketball and we never here during the season that “Darren McFadden is a Drew Rosenhaus” client or “Kevin Love is a David Falk client” or similar.
there is definitely something different here. i am just curious why and what exactly the differences are.
I think in college sports you are allowed to get an agent as long as you are declaring for the draft. Once you get an agent that means you must go pro the following season. It also may have something to do with the close proximity of the college baseball season and the draft. In football the season ends in december and the draft is in April. In baseball, the season ends in june and the draft is that same month. I’m just speculating though.
the proximity of the seasons is something i considered and is still the best explanation that i have heard. but if so, there must still be a rule. when is it ok to start doing it? I think Alvarez has been with Boras since before the season started.
as to the first point. maybe, but you still never hear a player declare for the draft until after the season. again, this could be bc of the proximity, but could a football player declare and sign with an agent before the season ended if they wanted to? i dont think they can.
Kaz’s return will be a boost for the Rays. He was way overamped for this start but you’ll see a dominating high K, high whip rocket launcher at
home on Friday vs. the Angels.
http://fantasyplayersedge.blogspot.com
One of the differences has to be that baseball players are eligible to be drafted 1) after high school 2) after their junior year of college and then 3) after their senior year of college. Football players are only eligible after their third year of college, and that’s only if they declare themselves eligible and give up the rest of their college eligibility. I mean, you’ll see high school baseball players get drafted, hire an agent to negotiate for them, and still go to college after not signing. Seems like it’d have to be more of a CBA issue at the pro level rather than an NCAA rule (i.e. the NFL requires you to be done or give up college eligibility but not MLB), but beats me why that is.
Didn’t something happen where Wade Townsend had to give up his senior year of baseball eligibility after the Orioles drafted him? I’m pretty sure he went back to Rice but didn’t play baseball between the time the Orioles drafted him and the Rays drafted him but I can’t remember what it was. And that doesn’t usually happen. Maybe this would be a good question for Ask BA over at Baseball America. Maybe a better question would be what the Rays were smoking when they drafted Wade Townsend but now we’re way off topic….
In townsend’s case he had actually hired his agent so that made him ineligible his senior year.
so i am guessing that none of the players have actually “hired” the agents.
but then that just opens another can of worms with high schoolrs that are drafted and threaten to go to college. obviously they havent “hired” an agent. but do they get any represenation? maybe they can be “advised” by somebody?
in a bid for full disclosure… i always have to be careful commenting on Townsend because mrs.prof went to high school with him and the in-laws LOVE him and his family. the one player i find myself biting my tongue about sometimes.
Professor,
Speaking of Boras, although not new news, have you heard his idea for the world series? Increasing it to 9 games, first two games at a neutral cite to commercialize it like the superbowl, and then the regular 7 going to the stadiums.
I personally think its brilliant, I know tradiltionast will disapprove.
Scott Boras loves the World Series so much, he wants to make it best-of-nine — and open with two games at a neutral site.
Arguing that the shift would create a marketing bonanza that would rival the Super Bowl, Boras outlined his ideas in a two-page letter he sent to baseball commissioner Bud Selig on April 15.
“I know from an owner’s perspective, this is a gold mine,” Boras said. “To have a World Series Weekend, WSW, I think it will create a stage that the game has not seen.”
that article was written in 2007, just to clarify