A short while ago, we took Mike Silva’s NY Baseball Digest to task for assuming that the Rays were only going to start David Price in the minors this season because the team is cheap. Jay Sorgen later responded to our flurry of jabs.
But rather than get into a war of baseball smarts versus New York bias, we will let Jayson Stark exaplain why Price will begin the season in the minors and why this means trouble for the Red Sox and Yankees.
On the depth of major league-ready starting pitching:
The Rays haven’t quite yet said that their favorite 23-year-old left-handed phenom is about to be handed a plane ticket to Durham, the Rays’ Triple-A affiliate. Not officially, anyway…But every indication is that that’s what’s about to happen, probably any day now. And if that isn’t a sign that the Rays obviously have way too much talent and way too much pitching, I don’t know what is.
On the player’s reactions to possibly not having Price [Ed note: several players expressed their disapproval publicly last year when Evan Longoria was demoted at the end of Spring Training]:
You wonder how many teams could sell their fans — and, maybe more important, their players — on the idea that sending out arguably the most dominating pitcher on their roster is actually a sensible baseball move, not some kind of sinister ploy to save money…But it tells you how far this franchise has come in the last year that you hear almost no second-guessing on this front in this team’s camp. From anybody.
“These guys are extremely smart in our front office,” first baseman Carlos Pena said. “So I respect that decision. I know there’s some very good reason behind it that will serve this team and, more importantly, serve David Price’s future.”
On why finances has little to do with demotion:
Oh, the Rays have their reasons, all right. Very, very intelligently thought-out reasons. And we should point out, at the top, that they have no reason — at least in the short term — to avoid starting Price’s arbitration clock. He’s already signed through 2012.
