Tampa Bay Rays "In Mix" For Ivan Rodriguez
by Tommy Rancel on Dec 5, 2009 1:39 PM EST
16 comments
Perhaps no position on the Rays remains as unsettled as the catcher position. Even with the acquisition of Kelly Shoppach and the departure of Gregg Zaun, it's anyones guess as to who will be the Rays catcher opening day. Even after opening day, there is no indication whether the Rays are going with a primary catcher or a platoon split. Jon Heyman adds to the confusion today by tweeting that the Rays are one of four teams interested in the services of future hall of fame catcher Ivan Rodriguez.
The idea of Pudge in a Rays uniform is one that I've had for a while. Before the 2009 season, I even dedicated an entire post to the Rays signing him. The Rays did not, and instead Rodriguez started the season with the Houston Astros before being traded to the team where he made most of his headlines, the Texas Rangers. Making a modest $1.5 million dollar base in 2009, Rodriguez hit just .245/.280/.384. It's no secret that at his age, his best offensive days are behind him. Pudge hasn't had a wOBA season over .330 since 2006, but he's still pretty good defensively throwing out nearly 35% of runners in 2009. His splits do not to see to be matches Shoppach or Dioner Navarro.
With other teams like the Royals, Giants and Rangers involved, it's likely that he could see more playing time and receive more money in those situations, but you never know. The Rays haven't been as active in signings as the Braves or the Mets to this point, but given their reported interest in all these players it isn't from a lack of effort.
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Ladies and Gentlemen, The Hit Show!
by Steve Slowinski on Dec 5, 2009 7:00 AM EST
9 comments
Now, how would people have answered that same question before the 2008 season? What was our franchise's defining moment before we made the playoffs and World Series? This is a much tougher question, and I think there are a couple potential answers. Some people might have mentioned Rocco Baldelli and his explosive entrance to the majors in 2003. Others may have brought up the Scott Kazmir trade, which is still infamous among Met fans at the very least. And then some people probably would have brought up "The Hit Show".
For those of you that don't know or want a refresher, "The Hit Show" was the slogan that the Devil Rays front office chose for the 2000 team. Specifically, they labeled sluggers Fred McGriff, Jose Canseco, Greg Vaughn, and Vinny Castilla as the Hit Show, since they supposedly represented four of the best hitters in the league. McGriff and Canseco had been with the Devil Rays the previous season, while Vaughn and Castilla were billed as big additions that off-season. And rightly so: Vaughn had launched 40+ homeruns the last two years in a row and Castilla hit over 30 homeruns in each of the past five years. McGriff and Canseco had been quite productive players in 1999 as well, and it appeared that the Rays would have a strong offense going into the 2000 season.
Of course, though, the Hit Show flopped. The conventional wisdom goes that the players were all too old and fell off a cliff, making this a defining moment of the Devil Rays ineffective front office. Maybe I'm attributing more fame to the Hit Show than it actually garnered, but at least in my mind, the Hit Show has always been the moment that aptly defined our franchise's early history. It highlighted the ineffective front-office, the poor decision making, the faulty talent evaluation - all of these things rolled into one. Just like the Curse of the Bambino defined the Red Sox for decades, I felt like the Hit Show defined the Rays.
Since I've been in a retrospective mood recently, I was looking back over the statistics for the players on the Hit Show the other day and received a bit of a shock. You know, the Hit Show wasn't half bad.
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Must Read on Fangraphs
Should help clear some things up.
1 day ago
R.J. Anderson
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Report: Reid Brignac "Primary Trade Target" Of Pittsburgh Pirates
by Tommy Rancel on Dec 4, 2009 7:12 PM EST
46 comments
John Perrotto is reporting that once again, Reid Brignac has captured the attention of the Pittsburgh Pirates front office. Perrotto says that once the winter meetings kick off in Indianapolis next week, Brignac will be the primary trade target for the Buccos. Their affinity for Brignac dates back to the summer of 2008 when the Rays and Pirates discussed a potential swap of Brignac + for then Pirate, Jason Bay. The deal was even reported as done, but as you all know Bay ended up in Boston.
While Perrotto doesn't mention who the Rays asked for in return, he mentioned that the Pirates have tried to pass off closer Matt Capps and possibily have thrown around the idea of starter Zach Duke. Duke, an All Star in 2009, wouldn't make much sense for the Rays. Sure, he is young (26) and left-handed, but he'd probably the fifth or sixth best starter on the Rays without counting Jeremy Hellickson. He also made $2.2 million dollars last season and will defintely see a nice raise in arbitration with an all star appearance to his credit. The only way I see the Rays acquiring Duke is to flip for additional prospects.
Matt Capps had an ugly 2009 highlighted by his 5.80 ERA and his 4.90 FIP. Either number you choose to look at is ugly, but hey he had 27 saves! The good news is Capps appears to have broken a few mirrors and stepped on a few cracks at some point between the end of 2008 and beginning of 2009 and is in line for some regression. The biggest problem for Capps in 2009 was home runs. Allowing 10 home runs in 54.1 innings, he watched his HR/9 nearly double from 0.84 in '08 to 1.66 in 2009. This can be attributed to a HR/FB rate that also almost doubled from 6.8% to 13.5%. His BABIP also jumped nearly .100 points to .370
In 2007 and 2008, Capps proved to be an above average reliever. With some regression to the mean, he could be back to those levels in 2010. Like Duke, Capps is 26, however, he is under contract for 2009 at a reasonable $2.3 million with some incentives for games finished. The bad news is it is the final year of a two-year deal. Stuff wise, Capps sits in the mid 90s and throws a slider and a change-up. Despite the solid velocity, he doesn't strikeout many, but keeps his walks in check (career BB/9 1.66).
Obviously, I wouldn't agree to a Brignac for Capps deal straight up, but it could be a starting point. The fact that the Rays would be giving up more controlled Brignac years would mean the Pirates would need to sweeten the pot quite a bit.
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Gregg Zaun Signs with Brewers; What's Next for the Rays?
by R.J. Anderson on Dec 4, 2009 2:44 PM EST
60 comments
Darn.
A sandwich pick, which the Rays received due to the Type-B designation, is worth about $0.8M. Last year, the Brewers received pick number 47 after the Rays signed Brian Shouse. Barring the Rays signing a Type-A free agent, the team will have five draft picks in the top 75 and have the potential to add one more through Shouse. We talk a lot about the importance of draft picks - and signing them - so goa head and take next draft day off, it'll be a fun one.
Gregg Zaun gave us some fun memories. The day the Rays acquired him was pretty special after what felt like an eternity of begging. The book isn't yet closed on the trade, but consider this: the team is essentially trading Rhyne Hughes for a top 50 draft pick. I don't know about you, but I consider that a win. Factor in what Zaun did for the Rays in his short time here, and Hughes has his hands full if he wants to make this an even deal.
As for the catching situation, this isn't fun. The two main internal options at this point are Jose Lobaton - a waiver claim from the Padres last July 30th - and John Jaso. Lobaton is easily the better defender of the pair - i.e. he doesn't field with the equivalent of an oven mitt while sitting on a stool - but is a lesser batter. Against righties, the switch-hitting Lobaton has a minor league OPS of roughly .780 while Jaso is at .847. If you assume those numbers translate 1:1 (they won't) then over 300 plate appearances Jaso is a superior hitter by eight runs. Is Jaso a worse defender by eight runs? I don't know.
Looking at the free agents list didn't reveal anyone who could be a fit, although, as you should expect, the trade market could provide the answer. We'll see.
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Rays Among Finalists In Gregg Zaun Sweepstakes
by Tommy Rancel on Dec 4, 2009 12:30 PM EST
25 comments
It's not really new news, however, Gregg Zaun confirmed that the final four teams vying for his services are: the Rays, Mariners, Brewers and Rockies (h/t rglass). A physical and contract could be in place by the days end. This is good news for the Rays in any scenario. If Zaun re-signs, we have our catcher situation solved for next season. If he signs elsewhere, then the Rays would be the beneficiary of a sandwich round pick.
Without any inside knowledge, I'm leaning towards Zaun signing elsewhere for a few reasons. One, the Rays could've easily secured Zaun's services by picking up his $2 million dollar option, but let him hit the open market where he'll likely get a tiny bit more. It would look foolish if they signed him to a deal worth more than the option when they didn't have to. If Zaun didn't have an offer of more than $2 million, he almost undoubtedly would've accepted the Rays offer of arbitration which would net him a salary of over that. There is also the possibility of a multi-year deal, but I think the Rays would be weary of signing another near 40-something for multiple seasons.
Either way, we should have some good news coming out of the situation. As always check drb's twitter @draysbay or one of our personal pages @trancel @ehahmann or @freezorilla.
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Why Talbot Is The New Hammel
by Erik Hahmann on Dec 4, 2009 6:00 AM EST
32 comments
A majority of focus from the Aubrey Huff trade has been centered on Ben Zobrist for the past year and a half, and rightfully so. His hard swinging, OBP machine, super-utility man routine took baseball by storm in 2009; even going as far as getting him more than the token MVP vote (8th place!). If Zobrist comes anywhere close to duplicating his 2009 numbers in the team-controlled seasons left on his contract then that will go down as one of the bigger trade coups in recent memory. Getting lost in all of the Zobrist hoopla is the other player involved in that trade, Mitch Talbot.
When the deal took place it was Talbot, not the light hitting shortstop Zobrist, who was the more prized ‘get’. Here are Talbot's FIPs for each season in the Rays' minor league system:
2006(AA): 2.81
2007(AAA): 4.00
2008(AAA): 3.03
2009(AAA): 3.55
The numbers are pretty good, but in an organization that was/is as pitching rich as the Rays there was never room for him. He wasn’t polished enough to earn a shot with the 2007 rotation, 2008 saw the additions of Matt Garza and Andy Sonnanstine to fill two vacancies, while David Price, Jeff Niemann, and Wade Davis filled the voids in 2009. The 2010 rotation looks to be the Rays strongest yet. In another organization with less pitching depth Talbot would surely have been given a substantial shot in the Major Leagues by now.
With Spring Training approaching faster and faster the annual rosterbation games that we all play begin to creep up. What free agents are signed? Who gets traded? Who makes it? Who doesn’t? In the case of Mitch Talbot, unfortunately the answer appears to be the latter. Talbot is out of options, and will need to make the 25 man roster to avoid being put on waivers, where he would be plucked off rather quickly. He’s not making the rotation, so we can skip that and move to the bullpen. Since it appears the Rays will go with a four man bench that leaves them with a seven man bullpen. Let’s take a look at the candidates:
Howell
Wheeler
Cormier
Balfour
Sonny
Chavez
Thayer
Talbot
LOOGY
The first four are virtual locks. Cormier is arb1 eligible, so theoretically they could non-tender him, but he’s not likely to get a big raise in arb anyway (h/t Tommy). There are some reverse split guys in that grouping, but Joe Maddon enjoys his LOOGYs, making R.J. Swindle or Brian Shouse (should he accept arbitration) prime candidates for that role. After that you have five pitchers for two spots, and with Sonnanstine, Chavez, and Thayer having options remaining it makes Talbot look that much less attractive. That’s without bringing into the equation the high likelihood of the Rays signing one or more free agent relievers, which they’re wont to do.
If you add all of that up, barring some major injury, the forecast for Talbot being in a Rays’ uniform next season looks grim at best. The team was in a similar situation last off-season with Jason Hammel, and ended up trading him to Colorado where he turned in a pretty decent season. I would imagine Talbot will have the same fate. Where Talbot and Hammel differ is their MLB experience. At the time Hammel was dealt he had served over a year at the Major League level; Talbot has about ten innings. Even though they’ll have no leverage, the front office will not let an asset walk away for nothing. They don’t have that luxury. They’ll move him for a low to mid-level prospect who will provide more organizational depth. Then Talbot will merely be an answer to a trivia question, the "other guy" in the Aubrey Huff trade, a feint memory to most Rays fans. I always liked Talbot and believe he still has a future in the league somewhere; that somewhere just doesn't appear to be here.
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Tampa Bay Rays Release Ramon Ramirez
by R.J. Anderson on Dec 3, 2009 1:36 PM EST
24 comments
All that wondering about his change-up for naught. That puts the 40-man roster at 39. The Rays usually don't make moves just for the fun of them. We'll see what this leads to; waiver claim, Gregg Zaun, or something -- if anything -- else.
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