It’s Waaaaaay Back!

I stayed up late last night sipping (*cough* guzzling) some really nice scotch, and as I do many late evenings whilst imbibing the sweet water of life, I turned on the MLB Network to see what fine programming they had in store. Turns out that they were chronicling the biggest home runs of the 2011 season. Not the most important, mind you, but the biggest in terms of sheer distance. Now, I must disclaim that I turned it on a few minutes into the program, so I missed numbers 50 through 40. But in numbers 40 -1 I made a couple observations.

1: The only Rays presence in the top 40 was on the wrong side of the ball, when James Shields tossed up a meatball that Willy Mo Pena was able to turn around and stuff through the railings of the Captain Morgan deck.

2: Justin Upton was allllll over the countdown. I think he had 5 or 6 in the part that I saw, many of which were toward the top.

At 6’3″, BJ Upton is an inch taller than his brother, and three years his senior. Justin does outweigh BJ by a good 20 pounds, though (185 to 205). in 2012, BJ hit 23 dingers, while the younger Upton hit 31.

So c’mon, BJ. Here’s your call to action! Let’s hit the gym a little, put on a few pounds of muscle, and show the world that we’ve got a gnarly Upton in Tampa Bay, too. Don’t let little brother overshadow you! The fact of the matter is that BJ’s been involved in trade rumors nearly every year, none of which have come to fruition obviously, but with him becoming a free agent after this year, the likilhood of the Rays keeping him on staff for the entire year is low, and the liklihood of retaining him after the year is beyond low. So it would be a nice send off to see such a long term Ray have a fantastic year.

And, no, we’re not getting soft on Upton. If the called third strikes start adding up again this year, we’ll complain as much as we ever have.

 

Hickey on the Starting Rotation (radio interview) and Other Bits of Starting Pitcher Ephemera

In an on air interview this morning (linked below) with Mike Pepper and Justin Pawlowski, Rays pitching coach, Jim Hickey, quickly shot down the idea of a six man rotation. Tampa Bay has a copious amount of pitchers in spring training, 38 to be exact. Of them, you have seven pitchers (Shields, Price, Hellickson, Davis, Niemann, Moore, and Cobb) vying for one of the five starting spots. That doesn’t include other big league ready pitchers like Alex Torres.

I firmly believe that Cobb and Torres will start the year in Durham when you consider that Alex Cobb is coming off of surgery. Consider too, even with a formal five man rotation, the Rays have really leaned on seven starters the last couple of seasons, especially when one, or two, of the big five get tired or injured. That is to say, Tampa Bay will need some big league arms ready in the event of exhaustion or injuries. I’d think that both Cobb and Torres would fill those roles, slowly allowing them to get better acclimated to the bigs.

However, that leaves six starters fighting for the coveted starting spots in the rotation. With Price, Shields, and Hellickson all but locked in to the starting rotation, it’s evident that someone is going to have to make the move to the pen. Odds are good that Davis will be that someone. And he’s none too happy about the prospects of making that transition.

“I’m a starter,” he said. “I don’t see any reason for me to be in the bullpen. I understand they’ve got to do certain things, but we’ll see. … I definitely want to be a starter and stay a starter forever. And that’ll be my mentality.”

Unfortunately for Wade, with a newly minted contract, the odds are good that Moore won’t be playing the part of a reliever any time soon. And let’s just face reality here, if performance in the pen is any indication (mind you Davis was relegated to the pen in the 2011 post season, and Niemann was there toward too toward the end of the 2010 season) of things, Davis is a much more effective in the reliever spot than Niemann who, well…flat out sucks in the pen. Blame it on the fact that it takes Jeff’s big body more time to go from 0-60, while Davis seemed much more capable to come off of the bench and make an impact. And besides Josh Lueke, who can go anywhere from one to three innings, the Rays really don’t have a long reliever.

Comparatively speaking,  Davis posted a 4.45 ERA and 105/63 K/BB ratio over 184 innings last season, where as Niemann posted a 4.06 ERA and 105/37 K/BB ratio across 135 1/3 innings. Niemann started last season strongly, yet his performance diminished toward the middle of the year because of injuries. Conversely, Davis was, arguably, the weakest link in the starting rotation at the beginning of last season, yet really picked things up toward the middle and end. It could be assumed that had Niemann seen as many innings as Davis, his numbers would be lower. Nevertheless, when pitting the two together strictly by the stats, Niemann seems to be better than Davis in starting role.

Fortunately there is an upside for Davis, if he’s willing to grin and bear it for a little while. Assuming Niemann performs up to par this season, one could imagine that his equity would rise, and he’d be trade fodder again at some point; be that in July, September, or the off-season. Too, I’d imagine that this is probably the last season in a Rays uniform for James Shields. There are two spots right off the, proverbial, bat. Then again, Davis will be looking over his shoulder again in 2013 in an attempt to fend off, presumably, Cobb and Torres.

Click this here link to hear the interview with Jim Hickey: Hickey: No 6-Man Rotation For Rays « CBS Tampa.

Poll: Who Should Get the Starting SS Spot On the Roster?

With the recent acquisition of former Tigers infielder, Will Rhymes, the Rays find themselves in an interesting position. Going into Spring Training, the Rays will effectively have four infielders, or outright short stops, battling it out for a spot on the roster. We’re diligently writing about the battle for shortstop at the moment. However, we’d like to know what you think! Should Sean Rodriguez and Reid Brignac battle it out for the starting SS position, while Will Rhymes and Elliot Johnson go at it for a utility infielder position? Go ahead and take our poll below. Feel free to add comments in the, well, comments section for why you think that player should get one of the spots on the roster.

[polldaddy poll=5869735]

Lions, Tigers, and Zimmer Bears

The Rays released their 2012 promotional schedule today. Granted there are lots of cool little knickknacks interspersed with a few crappier items on the list…what else is new, right? Among the list is what could arguably be the coolest freebie ever: the Don Zimmer teddy-bear. The Zim Bear (seen below, on the left) rolls out on the 29th of June. Words cannot do this promotional freebie any justice.

Baseball America Top Prospects Released; Moore, Archer, Lee, and Guerrieri Crack the Top 100

Photo by: J. Meric/Getty Images

Baseball America released its “2012 Top 100 Prospects” today, finding four Ray prospects making the list: LHP phenom Matt Moore, RHP Chris Archer, SS Hak-Ju Lee, and RHP Taylor Guerrieri. Moore leads the list of Rays at number two, only behind Bryce Harper of the Washinton Nationals. Rounding the list off are Hak-Ju Lee is 44th, Chris Archer is 89th, and Taylor Guerrieri is 90th. “He (Matt Moore) makes it look so easy, and he’s so good he’ll make David Price a No. 2 starter” say the folks at Baseball America, who put this list together.