Silly Season

I actually remember when I said the Rays being mentioned for every good player simply due to their contender status wouldn't bother me, but things are slowly changing with stuff like this and this. I'll address the Price/Pirates note first and simply say if there is one player that the Rays won't trade it's David Price.

Why? Because he's a 22 year old future front line starter on a team that hasn't had too many of those come through the pipelines. Yes, the Rays have quite a few young arms, no that doesn't mean you should trade them for short term gain only. Young pitching is like oil, if you have it in excess you sell it for well over the actual price, otherwise you keep it. The promise of young pitching is what made the Rays trade Delmon Young, what made the Athletics spend four million on Michael Inoa, and what made the Mariners forfeit 2008 for Stephen Strasburg.

Which brings us to the next note that the Rays are interested in Brian Fuentes, Clint Barmes, and Willy Taveras. To their credit both Barmes and Tavares are rangy defenders which would make them valuable to any team, except this one.  Neither are better on defense than the current options, and both of their bats are sorely lacking. No, Jason Bartlett is not an offensive gem, but at least he doesn't hack quite as much as Barmes. To Taveras' credit he has a pretty good understanding of the strike zone, but doesn't seem to willing to actually draw a walk.

Frankly Brian L. Hunter and Bo Hart types are available across the minors, there's little reason to waste assets for bench novelties at best especially when Nate Haynes and Andy Cannizaro are rotting in Durham.