[THE HANGOVER] The One Where We Discuss 2010 DH, The Rays Young Guns And Some Minor Awards
Darin Downs, Gary Sheffield, Jeff Niemann, Matt Moore, Nevin Ashley, Pat Burrell, Wade Davis September 22nd. 2009, 11:36am
The GBT – The Good, The Bad and The Telling sandwich, where The Bad is nice and lean and the The Telling is ripe.
click above image for boxscore
DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- With the Red Sox loss last night, the Rays tragic number is still 1, with one more Rays loss or Sox win and the Rays will be officially eliminated from postseason contention.
- Wade Davis will start tomorrow on an extra day of rest. More importantly, this means Big Dub will likely start the final game of the season instead of James Shields, in essence shutting down Shields one start early.
- Tony Fabrizio profiles Wade Davis. [Tampa Tribune]
- Darin Downs and Matt Moore were named the MVPs for Charlotte and Bowling Green respectively. Also, catcher Nevin Ashley was named the organization’s best defensive player.
- Triangle Offense previews the AAA championship game. [Triangle Offense]
- It’s September, so let’s start the “Gary Sheffield would like to play for the Rays next year” stories. Of course, the Rays already have $9 million tied up in the DH spot for 2010, so unless the Rays can find a take for Pat Burrell’s contract and Sheff would sign for less than that amount, it ain’t gonna happen. [New York Post]
- Is Pat Burrell done? Actually we think The Bat will have a very good year next season. We have nothing to base this on, but we get the impression that Burrell is the sort of player that doesn’t work very hard unless motivated. Most of his career that has been fine as he has been able to get by on natural ability. But his poor showing in 2009 may be a motivating factor and get him in better shape for the 2010 season. [UmpBump]
- Joey Johnston looks at the bright future of the Rays “young, homegrown depth” in the pitching rotation…Interesting that he only focuses on the three rookies and glosses over James Shields who is also homegrown and only a year older than Jeff Niemann. [Tampa Tribune]
- Jeff Niemann calls the AL Rookie of the Year award “a huge deal,” but says he is trying not to think about it. [St. Pete Times]
Related posts:
- [THE HANGOVER] The One Where We Discuss Another Market Inefficiency, The Rays Tuesday Win And Minor League Awards
- [DELMON YOUNG] Rays Trade Delmon Young And Two Others To The Twins For Matt Garza, Jason Bartlett And A Minor Leaguer
- [THE HANGOVER] The One Where We Discuss A Familiar Foe For Garza, Davis’ Minor Future And One Hell Of A Start
Don’t forget to tune in to the AAA championship tonight – Jeremy Hellickson, Matt Joyce & Desmond Jennings will be on display to provide further hope for next season.
Forgot to say when/where: 7 PM, ESPN2
Reading the article about Davis, where he talks about how he benefited from the full season in the minors; and reading about Hellickson’s progression through the minors, I wonder: did the Rays rush Price? I guess the dismal starts of Sonnanstine and Kazmir meant they needed to bring someone into the starting rotation. But I wonder if they did King David any favors.
I don’t know, but lets not forget that Price was (supposedly) not happy about being sent down at the beginning of the year. After they had him up last year to much fanfare, it was almost a sure thing that he would be with the Rays for most of this season.
I know he was unhappy, and there was a great deal of fanfare, but if that’s the basis on which they decide who to call up, then shame on Rays management! No top prospect will elect to stay in the minors; it’s up to coaches and front office to decide what is in the team’s and the player’s long-term interests.
I don’t think the Rays made the decision based on his reaction to being sent down or the expectations of the fans/media. However, those things may have made additional time in the minors less productive for Price than what would have been the case otherwise.
Is Pat Burrell done? I’d say probably yes because:
1. The 33 year old slugger decline (Joe Posnanski did a nice piece about this a few moths ago and it even pre-dates the steroid era; some guys just fall off a cliff at this age). At the time, I though that was describing PB perfectly (I think he is right on the age cited — 32 or 33).
2. The AL East is tougher for him than the NL, and the Trop isn’t the hitters paradise that the Bank is.
3. While everybody (esp. Cork) kept looking for his reversion to the mean, it never really came.
4. He got sideways with the team leader Crawford), and that could spell long-term trouble (Delmon Young tried that in September 2007 and he got sent packing).
5. The ability to access PEDs is (presumably) tougher for the older slugger now, so the chance of staying a productive slugger later into your 30′s is even harder than it was 10 years ago.
On the flip side, you could say he was really hurt all year and he’ll bounce back to his career norms when healthy, but I’d sugggest that the Rays move on as much as they can. It is one thing to take a chance and sign a guy to solve a need; it is quite another to give him 450 ABs when he is killing you in the line-up. The Rays could easily give those AB’s to guys on the bench or in AAA and get better production. Philly would probably take him back if you split the contract. Both sides would be better off.
I expect (hope for) somewhat of a bounce-back year for Burrell in 2010, but I think the chance of him putting up truly big numbers is fairly small. He didn’t have great career numbers as a DH when he played with Philly and, as you ponted out, he isn’t getting any younger.
I try not to speculate about what happened between Burrell and CC, but I hope they and the rest of the team have put whatever it was behind them.
Get rid of Burrell for 1/2 his salary…let our other guys DH we will be better off…I can’t stand another year of him striking out…the odds of him hitting better than this year is slim an none…Book it!