Blue Magic
by R.J. Anderson on Jul 7, 2008 6:47 PM EDT
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PrintAs noted elsewhere Dave Cameron finally unveiled the final part of his MLB trade value series today with 1-10 going up. Let's look at the Rays representiation:
29 James Shields
23 Scott Kazmir
11 B.J. Upton
1 Evan Longoria
Yes Longoria was rated the number one asset at the top level of MLB. Entering this season we knew each of those four were pretty good, but I'm not sure if I would've ranked all four within the top 30 assets in the league. Something I found interesting is just how similar Upton/Longoria are with the exception of B.J. not quite having Evan's power.
Go a little further and you'll discover both see right around 4.03 P/PA and even their strike breakdowns aren't too far apart. Evan with 27% strikes looking and 17% strikes swinging and B.J. with 31% strikes looking and 15% strikes swinging. Both have upper 70% contact rate and neither is all too eager about swinging at the first pitch more than 35% of the time.
What this means more than anything is the Rays have two early-twenties positional players with incredible plate discipline at the beginning of their careers. I'm not being rhetorical, but is there a better young duo in the league?
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I'm just glad I'm not alone in finding Carrie Brownstein attractive.
by Aaron Campeau on Jul 7, 2008 8:57 PM EDT up reply actions
You know what they say about guitar playing skills.
by R.J. Anderson on Jul 7, 2008 9:02 PM EDT up reply actions
That bromide certainly applies to me.
I’ll leave it to you as to what exactly that means.
by Aaron Campeau on Jul 7, 2008 9:03 PM EDT up reply actions
GRIT. HUSTLE. DESIRE. HEART. TOUGH. SCRAPPY.
WITH YOUR POWERS UNITED I AM BEN ZOBRIST.
by R.J. Anderson on Jul 7, 2008 9:09 PM EDT up reply actions
I was hoping it was something used to mock a stupid commenter
or some sort of zen saying
by JI on Jul 7, 2008 9:20 PM EDT up reply actions
I'm thinking of naming a song 9=8.
No one who listens to us would know what the hell it meant, and they’d probably assume it was something really weird and existential.
by Aaron Campeau on Jul 7, 2008 9:15 PM EDT up reply actions
Neither does Felix, Ichiro, Tim Ruskell, Hass, Lofa, or Kerney.
That doesn’t stop me from loving all of them.
Agreed
and his power numbers will go up some during the second half of the season.
Blake
USF--Class of '09
I wonder where Price would fit
I think he would be ahead of Tulo, and in the Lincecum and Felix range. Personally I’d rank them Lincecum, Price, and then Felix.
The King is better than everybody
and Price isn’t close to Lincecum. Do you know what Lincecum did to the minors?
Tools Whore
Sign Bonds!
That's all Price will do too
but Lincecum did it better
Tools Whore
Sign Bonds!
In the end i think Felix will have the best career, but I think I’d take Price right now mainly because of the contract situation. I think Felix is going to be great, but he has a bit of time under his belt for putting up just decent numbers. He is in his what 3rd year? I’ll take an extra 3 years of Price. I just don’t think the Rays would trade Price for Felix. But either way I’d have them 7-8-9.
I doubt it
They wouldn’t be able to afford him for much longer. And it isn’t like Felix is a proven arm. He hasn’t become an ace yet. Yet soon he’ll be paid ace money. I think the Rays would rather have Price for longer and cheaper.
If Price is as ready as some people claim he is
Why isn’t he in the blgs?
by JI on Jul 7, 2008 8:42 PM EDT up reply actions
Price is going to be really good
Not only does he touch 99 MPH occasionally as a lefty, but he also throws a “heavy ball”, meaning he’s going to get a lot of ground balls and bloops from hitters in the majors. He may not be blowing hitters away with the strikeout like Lincecum has, but he’s still been really, really good so far. A 7-0 record, .210 BAA, and 1.60 ERA attests to that.
www.raysbb.com
Yes, we really do have fans.
Hey RJ, when you wake up, we have a spammer in the fanposts.
Do not think that what is hard for you to master is humanly impossible; but if a thing is humanly possible, consider it to be within your reach.
"Is there a better young duo in the league?"
I would argue that Braun/Fielder in Milwaukee are a much better offensive duo than Longoria/Upton, but when you factor in defense I suppose you could make the case for Longoria/Upton being the better overall duo.
"Clogging up the bases isn't that great to me." -Dusty Baker on OBP
My feelings exactly...
One difference being that our duo are younger, Upton is a few months younger than Fielder and Longo is a full 2 years younger. The other difference you mentioned, they project as far better defensive players. Additionally, they play 2 far more important positions.
Looking at the positional landscape, Longo projects as either the second or third best hitting 3B in all of baseball (either behind only A-Rod or A-Rod and Wright). Upton projects out to be somewhere between top 5-10 CF in baseball over the next 10 years. Braun will probably be about the same in LF depending on the year. Fielder, as well, if he doesn’t eat himself out of the league.
Taking into account Longo’s deal, I’d much rather have our duo.
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