Dewayne Staats Agrees to Contract Extension
by R.J. Anderson on Nov 7, 2009 7:30 PM EST
13 comments
KenDavidoff Intruding on territory of @sportswatch - Dewayne Staats has signed a contract extension with the #Rays. Will call 5,000th game in '10.
This is great news. Staats began calling games for the Rays when they originally began play. His voice (and hairdo) are trademark with the team. I don't think it's a stretch to call him the Voice of the Rays. More Staats is good Staats, although hopefully he lessens the amount of fly ball outs that receive the home run call treatment.
13 comments | 0 recs |
Rays Family Tree: The Dead Trade Strings of 2000
by FreeZorilla on Nov 7, 2009 1:00 PM EST
0 comments
The year 2000 featured the end of two more trade strings for the Rays.
Bobby Abreu traded for Kevin Stocker (released 2000)
|
1997 Trade |
Acquired |
Trade Yr Salary |
PT-OPS |
NT-OPS |
Orginal Draft |
|
Bobby Abreu |
Expansion Draft97 |
$180k |
.687/2 yrs |
.928/9 yrs |
Amateur Free Agent 90 |
|
for |
|||||
|
Kevin Stocker |
Granted FA00 |
$1.8 Million |
.697/5 yrs |
.676/3 yrs |
Draft 2nd rd 1991 |
Pre-Trade
At the time of his selection in the expansion draft, Bobby Abreu was a 23-year-old right fielder who had started 46 games for the Astros in 1997. In his two seasons with Houston, Abreu posted a slash of .248/.325/.362. Immediately upon selection he was traded to the Phillies for 27-year-old shortstop Kevin Stocker who over 5 years with the Phils put up a slash line of .262/.347/.350.
0 comments | 0 recs |
Tampa Bay Rays Face Several Decisions On Player Options; Carl Crawford, Gregg Zaun
by Tommy Rancel on Nov 7, 2009 8:38 AM EST
24 comments
One of the first orders of business to take care of during the hot stove league is squaring away options. So far 11 options have been accepted or declined since the end of the World Series with several more looming. Around these parts the Tampa Bay Rays have three options of their own to take care of.
Two of the three options seem like slam dunks. One is an obvious pick-up and one is a simple decline. The third option, however, is 50/50 and will probably determine the course of who is our catcher next season.
24 comments | 0 recs |
Rays Family Tree: Dead Trade Strings of 1999
by FreeZorilla on Nov 6, 2009 1:00 PM EST
7 comments
Steve Slowinski wrote a piece a week ago about the importance of developing trade strings, particularly for the teams in small to mid-markets. I'll let Steve explain:
To lead off this series (no pun intended), I want to look at a concept that has always fascinated me: trade strings. I'm pretty sure I just made that phrase up, so let me explain what I mean. "Trade strings" are trades that eventually result in future trades. And then those trades beget future trades. And so on and so forth down the road until eventually, a prospect or two doesn't pan out and the trade string fades. Theoretically, if a team was exceptionally good at evaluating talent and got lucky in some trades, a team could keep one player's peak talent within their system for decades, even long after that original player had declined and fallen out of baseball.
This gave me the idea of looking at every major league transaction on the Rays major league tree. I'm going to divide the Rays history into 3 groups. The Live Trade Strings involve strings of players that are still paying dividends today. The Dead Trade Strings were attempts at parlaying assets into others which have since faded into oblivion. The One and Dones involve Free Agents, Waiver Claims, Draftees, and Players purchased who spent part of one or more seasons with the Rays but eventually left the team with nothing in return.
For Part I, we will look back at the Dead Trade Strings in order from the first string to die to the most recent. Our very first Dead Trade String was touched on by Eric Hahmann earlier this week.
1997 trade: Dmitri Young for Mike Kelly (Released in 1999)
7 comments | 0 recs |
Three Rules to Keep in Mind Regarding Relievers
by R.J. Anderson on Nov 6, 2009 6:00 AM EST
113 comments
1) No Type-A Relievers
These players will cost the Rays their first round pick as well as the financial terms necessary to hook the arm. That means Billy Wagner, Darren Oliver, Octavio Dotel, Jose Valverde, Mike Gonzalez, Rafael Soriano, LaTroy Hawkins, Rafael Betancourt, Kevin Gregg, and John Grabow are all no-goes. Yes, the Rays have two first round picks, however, the compensatory pick is more than a dozen picks away from the 2010 first round pick, meaning if the Rays want a Type-A player it will come at the cost of a mid-first rounder, not a late-first rounder.
Now, there is a potential exception. If the team of a select player chooses against tendering an offer of arbitration which waives the compensatory pick. That being stated, if the Rays were to sign a player before the arbitration acceptance deadline (which falls within the first week of December) then they would give up the first round pick no matter the other team's intentions.
Some of those relievers are good players, but giving up the sixteenth pick (technically; virtually the seventeenth pick) for 60 innings is worthless. That slot has produced some fantastic ballplayers. Over the last four years: Bobby Borchering, Brett Lawrie, Kevin Ahrens, and substance abuser Jeremy Jeffress. Some other notables: Chris Volstad, David Purcey, Nick Swisher, Jason Jennings, Kip Wells, Lance Berkman, and Shawn Green. A few true stinkers too, but for the most part some fine talent.
2) Injuries Are Sometimes a Necessary Evil
Especially with pitchers. If guys like Kiko Calero were 100% dependable then they would be outside of our price range. Thankfully they aren't in either case. This is where luck and medical staffs come in handy. If you sign three relievers with about 60% chances of pitching more than 45 innings, then the chances of all three doing such is 21% and the chances of none of them doing it is 6.4%.
J.J. Putz, for instance, has bone spurs, tendon fraying, and gingeritis which lead to downed velocity and ineffectiveness but could make for an interesting non-roster invitee. Same can be said about Chad Cordero who quickly disappeared after a few years as a rosterbation champion.
3) Trading Prospects for Relievers
Not a good idea under most circumstances. Trading Reid Brignac for a young catcher with a few years of control left and having a young relief arm thrown in as an equalizer is one thing, trading a young prospect for a reliever straight-up is generally not smart. For instance: I absolutely detested the Orioles/Dodgers mid-season swap from the Dodgers perspective. They gave up third baseman Joshua Bell for George Sherrill. The latter was fantastic for the Dodgers - providing 0.4 WAR during half a season - meanwhile the former posted a .397 wOBA in Double-A and possesses the nickname "Baby Kemp". You don't have to guess which side is probably winning that deal.
Summary
Of the top 15 relievers this year, only three were free agent signings and those three were Kiko Calero, Chan Ho Park, and Trevor Hoffman. Seven were dealt for, four were drafted (three as starters), and one via the Rule 5 draft. Relievers are often overvalued because of sentimental value - i.e. when a team loses in the late innings - but the truth is even the best closers are only worth two-to-three wins in any given year.
113 comments | 0 recs |
Top 30 Starts of 2009 - Part 5
by Andy Hellicksonstine on Nov 5, 2009 11:07 PM EST
3 comments
This is part 5 of the 6 part series on the best 30 starts for the Rays in our most recent season. So far we have seen 11 - 30 and there have been some real humdingers in there. As a review, here are positions for each starter:
James Shields - 24, 23, 20, 19, 12
Matt Garza - 29, 28
Jeff Neimann - 25, 22, 21,16
Scott Kazmir - 14
David Price - 30, 26, 15, 13, 11
Wade Davis - 27, 18
Andy Sonnanstine - 17
If we assign points, such that 1st would be worth 30 and 30th worth 1, we can sum up for these guys to get an idea of who is beating whom. It would look something like this:
| Price | 60 |
| Shields | 57 |
| Niemann | 40 |
| Davis | 17 |
| Kazmir | 17 |
| Sonnanstine | 14 |
| Garza | 5 |
3 comments | 0 recs
Topps honors Desmond Jennings and Alexander Colome
Desmond Jennings and Alexander Colome are both honored as the MVPs of thier respected leagues.
Gabe Kapler's Deal Versus His Peers: Mark Kotsay Edition
by R.J. Anderson on Nov 5, 2009 11:41 AM EST
12 comments
Trying out a regular feature of sorts here. Basically, anytime a role-playing corner outfielder with a major league track record is signed, we'll compare the contract to Gabe Kapler's one-year $1.05M deal. By the time the off-season gets rolling this will probably be forgotten, but for today at least, it is well and alive.
The White Sox re-signed Mark Kotsay today for one-year and $1.5M, or a difference in salary of $450K. Kotsay is left-handed and will soon turn 34-years-old (like Kapler) but over the past three seasons has combined to hit .260/.315/.372 in 868 plate appearances. Defensively he plays a fine first base, asking anything else of him is asking for too much. He's a platoon hitter at this point, as you can see below, and he's not too poor against righties, however insert a lefty and Kotsay is an automatic out.
Compare this to Kapler, who's hit .268/.336/.443 over his last three seasons (630 PA) and plays above average defense in the corners. Kapler hits the opposite hand better than Kotsay and is even superior against the same hand - Kotsay's death bed scene is going to involve cursing those of the unnatural dexterity -- despite a rough 2009. He's a superior player by every means and for whatever reason Kotsay is making almost half of a million more than him.
Kapler wins this round.
12 comments | 0 recs |
Secondary Sidebar
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Recommended FanPosts
Recent FanPosts
FanShots
Quick hits of video, photos, quotes, chats, links and lists that you find around the web.
Recent FanShots
Certain photos copyright © 2009 by Associated Press or Getty Images. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of Associated Press and Getty Images is strictly prohibited.
