Archive for the 'Brian Shouse' Category

Dec 02

[THE HANGOVER] The One Where We Discuss Jeter To The Rays, Howell Going Nowhere And Burrell’s New Deal

Brian Shouse, Derek Jeter, Jason Bartlett, JP Howell, Pat Burrell Cork Gaines 2 Comments »

In one of my recent pieces at Business Insider, I examine the possibility of the Rays signing Derek Jeter. While the Rays usually shy away from players like Jeter, this is a special circumstance. He represents the one player that could help convert some of the local Yankees fans.

The biggest obstacle might not be money. Rather, it could be convincing Jeter he is no longer a full-time shortstop [image at right via The Beckett Blog]

THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…

  • As if the Rays didn’t have enough problems with the bullpen, now comes official word that JP Howell will not be ready for opening day. However, The Dude says it could be mid-April. [The Heater]
  • We know a lot of you don’t want to hear this, but John Romano repeats what we have been saying for a while: The Rays are better off using 2011 as a reloading season with an eye towards going for it in 2012. [St. Pete Times]
  • Pat Burrell has Read the rest of this entry »
Nov 11

[THE HANGOVER] The One Where We Discuss Minor League Free Agents, Crawford’s LA Fantasy And Zim Chiming In

Brian Shouse, Carl Crawford, Carlos Hernandez, Carlos Pena, Dale Thayer, Joe Dillon, Winston Abreu Cork Gaines 5 Comments »

Baseball America has the complete list of Rays minor league free agents. The list includes Winston Abreu (right), Dale Thayer, Carlos Hernandez, Brian Shouse and Joe Dillon.

THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…

  • Buster Olney lists the Angels, Red Sox and Tigers as the three teams that need Carl Crawford the most. The Rays don’t even make the full list of 8 teams. [ESPN]
  • John Romano writes that it would make sense for the Rays to re-sign Carlos Pena…We’ve been saying this for a while, but we wonder if another team will be willing to give Pena more than one guaranteed year. [St. Pete Times]
  • Don Zimmer on possibility of Rays Read the rest of this entry »
Jul 22

[THE HANGOVER] The One Where We Discuss Soriano’s Revenge, Shields Performance And The Return Of Shouse

Brian Shouse, Carl Crawford, Dave Martinez Cork Gaines 10 Comments »

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

THE GOOD: Devil O’sian? With one out in the 8th with the potential tying run on second, Scott Moore broke for third despite a groundball being hit in front of him to Jason Bartlett. Bartlett got Moore at third killing the O’s last hope…Rafael Soriano. One day after his first real blown save of the season, Soriano came into the 9th of a 1-run game and mowed the O’s down 1-2-3…Randy Choate. After Shields left with the tying run on base in the 7th, Choate came in and battled Nick Markakis before getting him to hit into a inning-ending double-play…Evan Longoria. He started the scoring with his 14th home run and broke the tie in the 6th with a bases-loaded walk.

THE BAD: James Shields. “Big Game” (haha) James continues to struggle with the longball. This time it was a 2-run home run to yet another former Ray, Ty Wigginton. The blast cut the Rays lead to 2 and brought the O’s back in the game. Shields would eventually allow the O’s to tie it before being pulled after 6.1 innings.

THE TELLING: Carl Crawford was not in the lineup yesterday after CC hurt his PP…Randy Choate leads the AL with 49 appearances…Brian Shouse made his first appearance since re-signing with the Rays. He threw 2 shutout innings for high-A Charlotte.

WHERE THEY STAND: The Rays are 57-37, 2.5 games behind the Yankees and 4.5 games ahead of the Red Sox in the Wild Card. Nobody else is within 7 games in the Wild Card. After 94 games in 2008, the Rays were 55-39.

THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…

Jul 06

[THE HANGOVER] The One Where We Discuss CC’s Golden Glove, Maddon’s Papi Reversal And The ’96 Yankees

Brian Shouse, Delmon Young, Evan Meek, Joaquin Benoit, Joe Maddon, Josh Hamilton, Rafael Soriano, Ty Wigginton Cork Gaines 16 Comments »

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

THE GOOD: John Jaso. Recently, any time the Rays would get the bases loaded with no outs, our initial reaction has been “oh crap.” But JJ Dyn-O-Mite came through in the 6th. After being down 0-2 in the count, he battled back to a full count and then delivered a game-tying 2-run single…Maddonology. Last week, Maddon wouldn’t intentionally walk David Ortiz with first base open and Big Papi made the Rays pay with a big home run. Last night, with first base open, Maddon did go with the free pass. After a walk, Grant Balfour and Randy Choate teamed to strikeout the next two batters to get out of the 1-out, bases loaded jam and keep the game tied…Bullpen. Matt Garza put the Rays in a hole, but the bullpen picked up the slack. Six relievers combined for 6 innings and gave up just 1 run on 3 hits and 2 walks. The only baserunner in the final 2.2ip was a broken bat single in the 9th. And how awesome is the lights out combo of Joaquin Benoit and Rafael Soriano? We thought last winter that the Rays biggest need was a flame-throwing relief pitcher and World B. Friedman gave us two. This may be hyperbole, but when the Rays are playing well, they remind us a lot of the 1996 Yankees with Benoit and Soriano in the roles of Mariano Rivera and John Wetteland…CC’s Golden Glove. We didn’t think Carl Crawford was a gold glover last year, especially under MLB’s rules of not distinguishing amongst the three outfield spots. But they might as well give Crawford the 2010 award right now. He had another spectacular diving catch that kept the Red Sox 4-run 3rd from being any worse than it already was.

THE BAD: Matt Garza. Let’s hope The Garza Complex got that out of his system. The Rays are not going to win many games when their starter allows 9 baserunners in the first 3 innings, especially against the Red Sox and Yankees…Suicidal Squeeze. After tying the game in the 6th, the Rays still had a runner on 3rd with no outs. Ben Zobrist’s squeeze attempt ended with the runner thrown out at home…Willy Aybar. He was 1-4, but left 6 runners on base, including 4 runners in scoring position.

THE TELLING: Sean Rodriguez has started 23 of the last 27 games…Several of the Rays with the high-cuffed pants are no longer wearing stirrups and instead appear to have opted for striped socks…Former Rays (or Rays prospects) in the all-star game include Ty Wigginton (Bal), Evan Meek (Pit) and Josh Hamilton (Tex). Delmon Young is in the running for the final spot on AL roster…

WHERE THEY STAND: The Rays are 49-33, 2 games behind the Yankees in the East and one-half game ahead of the Red Sox in the Wild Card. After 82 games in 2008, the Rays were 50-32.

THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…

Read the rest of this entry »

Jan 13

Brian Shouse Signs With Red Sox; Rays Won’t Get Compensation

Brian Shouse Cork Gaines 4 Comments »

hangover[Update] Marc Topkin reports that the Rays will not receive compensation for Shouse even if he is added to the 40-man roster at some point.

[4:11pm] Although no official announcement has been made, it appears that Brian Shouse has signed a minor league deal with the Red Sox with an invite to spring training (via Over the Monster).

If true, this would net the Rays another compensation draft pick (maybe*) between the first and second rounds of the 2010 draft. Shouse was a Type B free agent and turned down arbitration offered by the Rays. The Rays now have 6 picks before the third round in next summer’s draft, although we doubt the Rays intend to sign all six picks.

Rocco Baldelli signing with the Yankees would be bad. But of Shouse has indeed signed with the Red Sox, he is dead to us.

*A team cannot receive compensation if a player signs a minor league contract. There is some discussion as to whether the Rays will get compensation later if Shouse is added to the 40-man roster prior to the June draft. As of now, he is not.

Dec 07

[THE HANGOVER] The One Where We Discuss A New Place To Discuss, Shouse’s Arb Offer And Of Course, Burrell-For-Bradley

Brian Shouse, Evan Longoria, Matt Lindstrom, Milton Bradley, Nelson Cruz, Pat Burrell Cork Gaines 2 Comments »

hangoverOver the years we have received many requests to make RI more discussion friendly by adding a forum and many more have asked for recommendations on where the best places are to discuss the Rays.

Quite frankly, before now we didn’t think a good discussion forum existed for the Rays. Some were too remote and most included way too much commenter-on-commenter violence and snobby attitudes from those that had been there a while.

That all changes now with the introduction of discussion forums by MLB Trade Rumors.

This will be far and away the best place to discuss the Rays.  There won’t be any shenanigans or tomfoolery and each forum will have its own moderator that will actually moderate as opposed to moderators that claim to enforce some code of conduct but really just rail on those that don’t subscribe their sycophancy.

So head on over and give it a shot. We know you guys will represent the Rays well.

DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…

  • First of all, we don’t know when this happened, but Roger Mooney has moved from the Bradenton Herald to the Tampa Tribune. Congrats to Mooney and nice pickup by the Trib. Here is Mooney’s take on the Rays and the Winter Meetings. [Tampa Tribune]
  • Marc Topkin reports that Brian Shouse is unlikely to accept arbitration from the Rays. If he does decline and sign elsewhere, the Rays would have six picks before the third round in next year’s draft. [The Heater]
  • We spoke with Will Carroll who told us that he was told last Wednesday that a Milton Bradley deal is “imminent,” but that he had no other details.
  • Meanwhile Jon Heyman says Milton Bradley-for-Pat Burrell is “not close,” and that sounds believable. Keep in mind, just because there is only one hurdle remaining to get a deal done, it is usually the biggest hurdle and toughest to get past. [Twitter]
  • Marc Topkin explains just how big that final hurdle could be. [St. Pete Times]
  • Marc Topkin says the Rays don’t expect to make any big moves at this week’s winter meetings. [St. Pete Times]
  • Several members of the Rays front office battled the elements last week to build a playground in one day. Afterwards, Stuart Sternberg won the wet t-shirt contest. [MLB]
  • Jon Paul Morosi reports that the Rays are one of several teams that have contacted the Rangers about Nelson Cruz. That sounds nice, until we hear tomorrow what the Rangers would want. [MLB Trade Rumors]
  • Meanwhile, Joe Frisaro says the Rays are interested in Marlins closer Matt Lindstrom. [Twitter]
  • And Buster Olney says a Matt Lindstrom deal is “imminent.” [Twitter]
  • Ted Keith writes about Evan Longoria’s effort to ramp up his off-season training by enrolling in the Athletes Performance Institute in Arizona. [SI.com]
  • He has a new home, but David Chalk is still bringing joy to the masses with his 2009 All-Times Devil Rays advent calendar. [7th Inning Stache]
  • We often refer to a player’s WAR and/or their WAR dollar value. Dave Cameron does an excellent job explaining exactly what that means. [Fangraphs]
  • Mets Today weighs the pros and cons of adding Pat Burrell. [Mets Today]
Dec 01

Zaun And Shouse Offered Arbitration; Bennett Designated For Assignment

Brian Shouse, Gregg Zaun, Jeff Bennett, Kelly Shoppach Cork Gaines 3 Comments »

hangover[Update] The Rays chose not to offer Russ Springer arbitration (via Marc Topkin’s Twitter).

[7:37pm] Marc Topkin of the St. Pete Times is reporting that the Rays have offered arbitration to both Gregg Zaun and Brian Shouse. They are still undecided on Russ Springer.

As we mentioned earlier today, offering each player arbitration does not mean either player will necessarily be back with the Rays in 2010. All three players are type B free agents. By offering arbitration, if Zaun or Shouse signs with another team, the Rays will receive a compensation draft pick between the first and second round in the 2010 draft.

The risk is the chance that either player accepts the arbitration. In Zaun’s case, news that several teams are bidding on his services makes it unlikely that he will accept arbitration. It is even more unlikely if another team is offering Zaun a starter’s role.

Shouse is a riskier proposition. He will be 41 in in 2010. He is unlikely to receive more on the free agent market than a one-year deal for about  $1.5 million he would likely make in arbitration with the Rays.

There is a possibility that the Rays already have assurances from Shouse that he will decline the offer of arbitration.

Also, to make room for the addition of Kelly Shoppach to the 40-man roster, the Rays designated Jeff Bennett for assignment.

Nov 30

Shouse, Zaun And Springer: To Arb Or Not To Arb

Brian Shouse, Gregg Zaun Cork Gaines 3 Comments »

hangoverToday is the deadline for teams to offer arbitration to their free agents. Gregg Zaun, Brian Shouse and Russ Springer are the only Rays to receive either Type A or Type B free agent status (all are type B). If any of the three signs with another team, the Rays can potentially receive a compensation draft pick between the first and second round in the 2010 draft.

In order to receive the draft pick, the Rays must first offer the player arbitration. The risk is that the player could choose to accept the arbitration. The Rays would then be stuck with that player.

BRIAN SHOUSE: It is highly unlikely that the Rays will offer Shouse arbitration. The Rays paid Shouse $1.35 million in 2009 and declined his 2010 option for $1.9 million. While there are no restrictions on what a team can offer a player with 6+ years of experience*, there is the risk that Shouse would win an arbitration hearing. Being forced to keep Shouse in 2010 would be an unwelcome sight considering the Rays already have Randy Choate as a lefty-specialist and presumably no room in their bullpen…No

GREGG ZAUN: Zaun is a little more complicated. On the one hand, the Rays would like Zaun back in 2010 to platoon with Dioner Navarro. So having Zaun accept arbitration would not necessarily be a bad thing. However, the Rays already declined their $2.0 million option on Zaun. If the Rays offer arbitration and Zaun accepts, there is a chance that Zaun could actually make more than $2.0 million. If that happened, the Rays would look foolish. It doesn’t seem unreasonable that Zaun would ask for $2.5 million in arbitration. While we would not be surprised if the Rays offered Zaun arbitration, our guess is that they won’t…No

RUSS SPRINGER: At 41 years of age, offering arbitration would be a nice incentive for Springer to not retire…No

So that is a “NO” on all three. Can you make a case for offering arbitration to one or more of the players in the hopes of receiving an extra draft pick(s) in next year’s draft? Let us know in the comments.

* Players with less than 6 years of experience cannot have their salary reduced by more than 20% in arbitration.

Nov 09

2010 Options: Crawford Yes, Shouse And Zaun No; Rays Claim Ramirez Off Waivers

Brian Shouse, Carl Crawford, Gregg Zaun, Ramon Ramirez Cork Gaines 8 Comments »

The Rays made several moves today including picking up Carl Crawford’s option. The team also decided not to puck up the options for Gregg Zaun and Brian Shouse. None of these moves are surprising, however there was some suggestion that the Rays could have picked up Zaun’s option.

In addition, the Rays claimed pitcher Ramon Ramirez off of waivers from the Reds.

Crawford will make at least $10 million in 2010 depending on escalators that were built into his original deal. He could make as much as $11.5 million.

Zaun could still re-sign with the Rays at a rate cheaper than the $2.0 million option.

Ramirez is a 27-year old righty that has made 16 appearances (4 starts) in the last two years with the Reds. He has thrown 39.1 innings with 29 strikeouts, 15 walks and a 2.97 ERA (4.60 FIP).

Oct 16

2010 Tampa Bay Rays: In Or Out? The Relief Pitchers

Andy Sonnanstine, Brian Shouse, Dale Thayer, Jeff Bennett, Lance Cormier, Randy Choate Cork Gaines 28 Comments »

Before we jump into the 25-man and 40-man roster projections next week, let’s take a look at the one area where we can expect the most change, the bullpen. But before we start thinking about who the Rays may add to the mix, let’s take a look at who might be back in 2010…

WHO’S IN?

  • JP Howell, Dan Wheeler, Grant Balfour and Andy Sonnanstine look to us like the only sure-things. We suppose the Rays could dangle Sonny and see if anybody still thinks he can be a big league starting pitcher, but we have a feeling that the Rays see Sonnanstine as worth more in their bullpen than on the trade market. And it wouldn’t surprise us if the Rays feel Sonny can grow into the relief role the same way Howell did.

WHO’S OUT?

  • We don’t see the Rays re-signing any of their free agents (Chad Bradford, Russ Springer, Troy Percival, Jason Isringhausen).
  • The Rays do not need both Brian Shouse and Randy Choate as lefty-specialists. Choate was nearly unhittable against lefties and will be a lot cheaper, so the Rays will decline Shouse’s 2010 option.

THE MAYBES

  • Randy Choate is a very effective lefty-specialist, but he is also arbitration-eligible. Might the Rays find somebody even cheaper for league-minimum?
  • Lance Cormier gave Joe Maddon good depth in the bullpen all season. He is arbitration-eligible. While he won’t make a ton of money next year, Andy Sonnanstine will be cheaper and figures to be able to do the same job.
  • Jeff Bennett brings something to the table that none of these other “Maybes” can do…a mid-90s fastball…something that is lacking in the bullpen outside of Grant Balfour. And keep in mind that his numbers were inflated by one outing at Texas in which he gave up 5 runs without recording an out. Our gut says Bennett is more “IN” than “OUT” but may have to win a job in the Spring.
  • Dale Thayer is a bit of an enigma. He is young in terms of experience, but he is not young. He seems suited to be the “Down 12-3″ mop-up reliever. But more likely he will start the season in Durham as the Rays 8th relief pitcher (waiting for somebody to go on DL).

If we assume that the Rays will indeed bring back all 4 of the “Ins”, that would leave 3 open spots. Bennett might have the inside-track on one of those openings. That would leave 2 spots to be filled via free agency or trade.

Previous Entries