Blue Magic

by R.J. Anderson on Jul 7, 2008 6:47 PM EDT Comment 43 comments

As 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.

	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	K	SB	CS	AVG	OBP	SLG
2008 - Evan Longoria	78	286	44	81	22	1	16	53	33	73	6	0	.283	.354	.535

	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	K	SB	CS	AVG	OBP	SLG
2008 - B.J. Upton	85	310	56	86	19	2	6	44	61	74	26	10	.277	.391	.410

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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Comments

That bromide certainly applies to me.

I’ll leave it to you as to what exactly that means.

by acblue on Jul 7, 2008 9:03 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I wish I never found out what 9 = 8 means.

by JI on Jul 7, 2008 9:05 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

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 0 recs

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 0 recs

IT'S ONLY ONE STAT!

by R.J. Anderson on Jul 7, 2008 9:26 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I thought heart went last?

by CARXRiedmann on Jul 8, 2008 3:26 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

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 acblue on Jul 7, 2008 9:15 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Any chick with a guitar is HOTT!

by rglass44 on Jul 8, 2008 9:20 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I <3 Dave Cameron.

by BrianL on Jul 7, 2008 8:40 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

He doesn't love you.

by R.J. Anderson on Jul 7, 2008 8:41 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Neither does Felix, Ichiro, Tim Ruskell, Hass, Lofa, or Kerney.

That doesn’t stop me from loving all of them.

by BrianL on Jul 7, 2008 8:41 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

That's what you get for partaking in celebrity worship.

by JI on Jul 7, 2008 8:41 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Upton would probably be top 5 if he signed a 9-year deal like Longo.

9 = 8

by websterjtc on Jul 7, 2008 7:48 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Agreed

and his power numbers will go up some during the second half of the season.

Blake
USF--Class of '09

by usfraysfan on Jul 7, 2008 7:49 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

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.

by matthan on Jul 7, 2008 8:26 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I would go Felix > Lincecum > Price

by R.J. Anderson on Jul 7, 2008 8:29 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

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!

by Tyler on Jul 7, 2008 8:38 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Played there for a few months before getting called up?

by BrianL on Jul 7, 2008 8:42 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

That's all Price will do too

but Lincecum did it better

Tools Whore

Sign Bonds!

by Tyler on Jul 7, 2008 8:48 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

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.

by matthan on Jul 7, 2008 9:35 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Yes they would

Tools Whore

Sign Bonds!

by Tyler on Jul 7, 2008 9:56 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

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.

by matthan on Jul 7, 2008 10:13 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

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 0 recs

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.

by killa3312 on Jul 7, 2008 10:21 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

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.

by Orlando Rays on Jul 8, 2008 8:14 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Longo and Upton are the two position players with legitimate HOF potential. It’s a long ways away obviously, but you can see the unbelievable talent they have.

I fully expect Upton’s power to come back in the second half. Then again, I figured he’d be at 15 HR’s by now, too.

by jwgator on Jul 8, 2008 9:52 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

"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

by vtcub on Jul 8, 2008 3:00 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

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.

by rglass44 on Jul 8, 2008 3:08 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs