Nov 11
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 »
Dec 12
[Update 10:55pm] The Rays not only did not non-tender Dioner Navarro, they reached an agreement with Navi on a 1-year, $2.1 million contract. They also non-tendered Shawn Riggans making him a free agent. Signing Navarro is a bit of a surprise, but this could just be buying the Rays time to trade him.
[10:30 pm] Marc Topkin is reporting that the Rays have non-tendered Gabe Gross, making him a free agent. No decision has been announced on Dioner Navarro.
Also, the Rays avoided arbitration with Randy Choate and Lance Cormier. Choate will make $700K this season while Cormier will make $1.2 million.
These moves leave the Rays with six arbitration-eligible players including BJ Upton, Jason Bartlett, Matt Garza, Kelly Shoppach, Grant Balfour and JP Howell.
In addition, the Rays re-signed Winston Abreu and Carlos Hernandez to minor league deals. Abreu made three appearances with the Rays last season. He struck out 77 in 51 innings with a 1.94 ERA at triple-A Durham. Hernandez went 7-6 with a 3.29 ERA in 21 starts for Durham.
And in the ex-Rays department, Jonny Gomes has been non-tendered by the Reds and is now a free agent.
Nov 20
If you missed it yesterday, the Rays added Desmond Jennings, Jeremy Hellickson and Alex Torres to the 40-man roster. The move left the team with exactly 40 players on the 40-man roster.
The biggest surprise was the absence of Aneury Rodriguez, the pitcher the Rays received from the Rockies for Jason Hammel. While Torres is more valuable than Rodriguez, we are surprised that the Rays are willing to risk losing Rodriguez in the Rule 5 Draft, when they have a seemingly expendable player on the 40-man roster like Elliot Johnson.
Rodriguez struggled in the first-half of the season and finished with a 4.50 ERA (4.69 FIP) in 142 innings with 111 strikeouts and 59 walks at double-A Montgomery. But he was much stronger in the second-half as he seemed to find a rhythm, regularly pitching into the 7th inning and allowing 2 runs or fewer.
DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- Marc Topkin has read the new book by Vince Naimoli we discussed a few months ago, and breaks down a few of the more controversial sections. As we write this we can’t recall the name of the book, but we are pretty sure it should be titled, “I am bitter as hell and about 10 people will know it!” [St. Pete Times]
- We dropped this on Twitter a couple of days ago, but in case you are one of the silly people not following us on Twitter, a few more big names from the Rays minor league system have been granted free agency, including Winston Abreu, Calvin Medlock (came over in the Jorge Cantu trade), Carlos Hernandez, Jon Weber and Jason Perry.
- The City of St. Pete has responded to ABC’s recommendation for a new baseball stadium for the Rays. Lines are starting to be drawn in the sand, and as we have said previously, this is going to get ugly before it gets better. [St. Pete Times]
- Bob Nightengale of USA Today said yesterday that the Rays have become the “clear-cut favorite” to land Milton Bradley. It is unclear if he is basing that on inside information or if he is just speculating based on the news reports that are already out there. [Twitter]
- The Rays Party takes a look at Grant Balfour’s fastball. [The Rays Party]
May 31
Durham 10, Buffalo 2. Carlos Hernandez only needed 96 pitches (69 strikes) to work 8 innings, giving up 2 runs on 9 hits and no walks. He struck out 5. His one blemish was a 2-run home run…Ray Sadler was 3-4 and drove in 5 including a 3-run home run, his 6th…John Jaso was 0-2 with a walk and Justin Ruggiano was 1-4 driving in a run.
Carolina 9, Montgomery 3. Jason Cromer was pulled after allowing 6 runs dropped to 4-3 in his 8th double-A start…Eddie Morlan allowed 1 run on 3 hits and a walk in 1 inning of work…Desmond Jennings batted third and went 1-5 with an RBI and 2 Ks…Rhyne Hughes was 0-3 with 3 strikeouts.
Charlotte 8, Tampa 5. Jeremy Hall allowed 5 runs in 5 innings but improved to 5-3 on the year…Cody Cipriano was 2-4 and is hitting .327.
Rome 11, Bowling Green 2. Joe Cruz struck out 6 and walked none but picked up the loss having allowed 2 runs in 6 innings…Tim Beckham was 0-4 with a strikeout.
Notes from Down on the Farm…
Apr 14
Durham 3, Gwinnett 0.Carlos Hernandez got off to a strong start with 4.2 shutout innings. He struck out 4, walked 3 and allowed only 2 hits…Three relievers completed the shutout with Dale Thayer picking up his second save…Justin Ruggiano and Reid Brignac each had 2 hits. Brignac had a double and a triple and drove in a run.
West Tenn 6 Montgomery 5 (13). West Tennessee scored the go ahead run in the top of the 13th on a bases loaded single with 1 out. The Biscuits last 11 batters failed to reach base…Rayner Oliveros gave up 5 runs in just 3 innings on 5 hits and 2 walks…Eddie Morlan, Chris Mason and Calvin Medlock combined for 6 shutout innings of relief…Desmond Jennings went 0-7.
Charlotte 5, Fort Myers 3. Jeremy Hall pitched 5 innings and allowed only 1 unearned run, striking out 2 and walking none…Matt Fields provided the big blow with a 3-run home run in the first…Greg Sexton was 3-5 and has 5 hits in the last 2 games.
Bowling Green 7, West Virginia 4. Joseph Cruz gave up 4 runs (1 earned) on 9 hits and a walk in 3.2 innings. He struck out 4…Josh Satow struck out 5 in 2 shutout innings…Tim Beckham and Jake Jefferies were each 2-5 with a double and 2 driven in.
Notes from Down on the Farm…
Mar 05
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]
Feb 26
Reds 7, Rays 0.
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: Carlos Hernandez. Hernandez looked strong facing big league hitters for the first time in 3 years, not allowing a hit or walk in 2 innings…While Gabe Gross was dropping line drives, Fernando Perez and Justin Ruggiano, two guys competing to be the first outfielder available from Durham, each threw out a baserunner.
THE BAD: 4, 2, 14. As in the Rays managed only 4 hits, committed 2 errors and gave 14 hits. To say the Rays came out a bit rusty would be like saying Rosanne Barr is mildly annoying…Randy Choate, a lefty with big league experience in 8 different seasons, did not help his case for a bullpen spot by giving up 5 hits, including the big blow, a grand slam, in 1 inning of work.
THE TELLING: While we shouldn’t make too much of it, it was interesting that Joe Maddon gave the opening start to Carlos Hernandez with both Jason Hammel and Mitch Talbot working out of the bullpen. Hammel and Talbot are both competing for the 5th spot in the rotation and we would think Maddon would want to get them as many starts as possible in the spring. Maddon missed an opportunity yesterday…Also, Jason Hammel was used for 2 innings early in the game against the Reds starters, while Mitch Talbot pitched the 9th inning against the scrubs, giving up 2 runs. Clearly Talbot is the odd-man looking in for the final spot of the rotation, and right now it doesn’t even look like he is getting much of a look.
DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- Carlos Hernandez said he felt good and is looking forward to more work as he tries to get back to the big leagues…We have a feeling that if his shoulder holds up, we will see Hernandez at the Trop at some point this season. [St. Pete Times]
- Stuart Sternberg attended the first game at the Rays new spring training ballpark and while he was there he offered a none-to-subtle quote to Aaron Sharockman: “We know how to build baseball stadiums. We know what fans want.” [Ballpark Frankness]
- The Rays automatically renewed the contracts of all players with less than three years major league experience. Exact figures have not been released but we can expect them all to be close to the major league minimum of about $400K. [The Heater]
- The one glitch in the spring opener appeared to be traffic issues getting to the park. [Tampa Tribune]
- At least Dioner Navarro didn’t weigh 772 pounds. A fisherman caught a 772-pound stingray in Thailand recently (thanks Joe). [AOL News]
- Evan Longoria is the latest Ray to reflect on his time in Durham for WRAL. Interestingly, Longoria did not play a game in Durham in 2008. All of his games prior to being promoted were on the road. [WRAL]
- Rays of Light plays around with the Rays regular season schedule. [Rays of Light]
- And finally we would be remiss if we didn’t mention…The first game of spring training is always one of the best days of the year and it would take a lot to ruin it for us. This did. [Joe Bucs Fan]
