Victim of our own Success?

by BombinRays on Mar 1, 2008 7:17 PM EST

Is it possible to be a victim of our own success? We all heard this back when the Rockies swept both there series and had a, I don't remember, 2 weeks I think. But with the great farm system we have, that has 7(!!) prospects in Baseball America's top 100 list, and 4 of them in the top 20, can it be that we'll have too many good players? This does sound drastic, but people say that our starting rotation for 2010 will be Kazmir, Shields, Price, McGee, and Davis. Our outfield is gonna consist of Crawford, Upton, and Jennings, our infield is gonna be, Longoria at 3rd, Brignac at short, Aki at 2nd, and Pena at 1st. Catcher might be either, Navvy, Jaso, Spring, or others. But with all of our great prospects, and so little money to go around, how are we gonna pay these guys? Then they'll go off into FA, signing with the Yanks, and we will have a farm system that isnt good.

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Re: Victim of our own Success?

"But with all of our great prospects, and so little money to go around, how are we gonna pay these guys? Then they'll go off into FA, signing with the Yanks, and we will have a farm system that isnt good."

I don't think Sternberg's wallet is aching, and in theory we should be winning by then, creating revenue.

by R.J. Anderson on Mar 1, 2008 7:29 PM EST reply actions

Re: Victim of our own Success?

Plus that's the point of system depth - having young guys to step up and replace lesser lights that start costing more to keep, or allowing teams to cast off expensive stars due to depth.

Any money crunch is well off. The org has done a good job in that regard. Shields is locked up, Pena too. The deals for Crawford and Baldelli (assuming he regains his health and performance) aren't out of line at all, and both are optionalfor 2 years. Navarro and BJ don't hit arb until 2009, Aki's deal is reasonable throught 2010. Then a bunch of prospects that likely won't be arb eligible until 2011. The bullpen will require continual tweaking, but that's what happens with them. You just hope the failed starters or guys less focused on (Morlan for example, fill some spots cheaply.

The Rays payroll will be pretty moderate right up to 2011. By then the decision on Kaz will be made, possibly to trade him for pieces and prospects if the kids pan out. The org is in an enviable financial position for quite a while. And assuming the winning starts, RJ's point about rising revenues is well taken. Remember, because teams only put 31% of local revenue into the revenue sharing pool, for every dollar lost there you've gained more than 2 kept. I wish I owned the Rays - financially things look great!

by nyyfaninlaaland on Mar 2, 2008 7:46 PM EST up reply actions

Re: Victim of our own Success?

Also the chances that all of our top prospects pan out into top guys in MLB is about roughly zero.

"Jim Lovell: All right, there's a thousand things that have to happen in order. We are on number eight. You're talking about number six hundred and ninety-two."

by ttnorm on Mar 1, 2008 9:20 PM EST reply actions