One year ago on Rays Index we realized that the Rays have their own David Eckstein, that is, a player that is able to overcome a deficiency, beat the odds and become a major league baseball player.
Rays Prospect Overcomes Handicap [Rays Index]
In the spring, with so many players in the lineup everyday, it is difficult to learn anything about playing time from the boxscores and statlines. What we really need to know is how much playing time each player gets at each position, and more importantly, when are they in the game at various positions. There is a big difference between playing the first five innings against the Yankees, and playing the final 2 innings against the Reds. In the former scenario, the opposing team is more likely to feature a lineup with everyday major leaguers.
So we broke down the playing time by position. Afterward, we split the playing time up in to the first 5 innings of each game and playing time in the last 4 innings. Admittedly, this is a somewhat arbitrary grouping. But glancing at boxscores, it seems that the sixth inning is the most common time for managers to take out their starters.
After the table of position players, we also took a look at the pitchers. We asked the same question: Who is pitching in the most challenging innings of spring games? Again, pitching the ninth inning of a spring game may mean little compared to pitching the third inning, even for a reliever who is more likely to face better hitters early in the game.
This does not necessarily tell us how each player is performing under the different scenarios, but it does give us a sense of what Maddon and pitching coach Jim Hickey think of each player, who they think can contribute at the major league level this season and which players they want to get a good long look at.
We will update this list every few days and we will see how the playing time changes over the next month. At this point it is still a little early to make any generalizations, so we will save comment for the time being.
The Rays tend to keep things close to the vest and that is by design. But if you listen carefully, sometimes you can deduce pieces of their master plan for world domination. We recently saw this with quotes from Joe Maddon and Andrew Friedman about Jeff Niemann that suggested they see Niemann more as a dominating reliever even though they insist he is in competition for the final rotation spot.
Another pitcher that has crept into recent conversations regarding the final spot in the rotation is Carlos Hernandez. The once top prospect in the Astros organization, has looked solid this spring despite not pitching in the majors since 2004. Even though the Rays have never officially announced he has a shot at the rotation, many people have recently wondered if he does.
Gary Shelton of the St. Pete Times has a column up today looking at the comeback bid of Hernandez and how he got here. But what caught our attention was a quote from pitching coach Jim Hickey buried all the way at the bottom of the article (emphasis is ours).
“He’s interesting,” said Rays pitching coach Jim Hickey, who was the Astros’ Triple-A pitching coach when Hernandez was with the organization. “The first day we threw here, I was shocked. His arm action was so much better than it had been….”Look back at last year’s spring training. Maybe Carlos becomes this year’s J.P. Howell.”
In other words, he is not a candidate for the rotation and at this point the Rays are looking at Carlos as a reliever that can pitch multiple innings. Maddon loves relievers that can come into the middle of an inning, retire the side, and then go back out to the mound after sitting between innings. This was something that made JP Howell so valuable last season.
So if Hernandez is out and David Price is destined for Durham and recent quotes suggest Niemann is destined for the bullpen and the early struggles of Mitch Talbot make him a longshot (who also has minor league options), the fight for the final spot may be down to Jason Hammel and…Jason Hammel?
Pitcher Carlos Hernandez flashes bit of his old potential for the Tampa Bay Rays [St. Pete Times]
Time to bring back the GBT – The Good, The Bad and The Telling sandwich, where The Bad is nice and lean and the The Telling is ripe.
THE GOOD: Mitch Talbot. After giving up 7 runs in his first 4 spring innings, including 4 home runs, Talbot looked solid against a very good Puerto Rico lineup. He did give up five hits, but allowed only one run and walked none in 4 innings…Fernando Perez. Perez started in center and stole two bases off of Cubs catcher Geovany Soto…
THE BAD: Gabe Kapler. Kapler finally got his first hit of the spring. But in the official stats sheet he is still hitless since this was not an official spring training game…Lance Cormier. If Cormier is going to have even a shot at one of the final spots of the bullpen he needs to be lights-out and so far he has just been meh. In 2 innings last night he gave up a run, but more importantly, he walked 2. The walks are what’s going to seal his fate.
THE TELLING: Last night’s game versus Puerto Rico will not count in the final Grapefruit League standings, nor will the stats count. This is because the game is an exhibition. Which makes perfect sense because, you know, the rest of the spring games are not exhibitions? Wait. What?…Morgan Ensberg started at first base last night, while Adam Kennedy got another start at second…How often do you see the 5-6-3 double-play? The Rays turned the feat to end the first inning when Carlos Delgado grounded into the shift to thirdbaseman Evan Longoria, who threw to shortstop Jason Bartlett who was playing to the right of second base.
DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…
