Sorry, but I have to vent.....

by Rays Rule on Aug 1, 2008 1:05 AM EDT

We have found that there is water on Mars. We know there is a chance that Brett Favre may be traded within the NFC conference, maybe the division.....but what we don't know is why on God's green Earth didn't Andrew Friedman and DRO did not make a deal. I know that they did a great job accumalting the fine talent we have in our minor league system, but you can't bronze them and put them on a shelf! There is no way we need as many of the fine pitchers that we have and all I can say is that I hope he does something with some of them in the off season.

Ahh....I feel better already! Bring on Rocco and Price. GO RAYS!!!

This post was written by a member of the DRaysBay community and does not necessarily express the views or opinions of DRaysBay staff.

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dude settle down the red sox just traded their second best hitter for someone not as good as him

i believe that when they had manny they were 3 games behind us, i wasnt worried about jason bay being traded there since they didnt improve their bullpen at all so we are still better than them, were also better than the yankees still since he have a deeper bullpen and a deeper rotation even though they have upgraded their offense it wont matter if they give up 12 like they did today

longo=ROY. friedman=Executive of the year. Maddon=Manager of the year. Rays=WS champs 08!

by RaysOfHope on Aug 1, 2008 1:33 AM EDT reply actions

They lost Hansen and hurt their bullpen

by davelrogers on Aug 1, 2008 9:16 AM EDT up reply actions

yeah i'm really confident right now

.... I think Price will do very well out of the pen… and honestly, that is what we wanted, right? Price>> Street.

and as for the bat… I’m really not worried about it… I still think BOSSMAN could go off and hit 12 home runs in a week (or two)... and Rocco,Ruggs, and Joel Guzman could provide a spark

by daveh33 on Aug 1, 2008 1:44 AM EDT reply actions

yes way we need all those fine pitchers down on the farm....dont touch them during the off season

by Rays4ever on Aug 1, 2008 2:06 AM EDT reply actions

It took balls NOT to make a move...

...don’t mortgage the future for short-term gain. I still think we have more than enough to make the playoffs. Who would’ve dreamed of this 4 months ago?

Jamie DeLuca

by JDeLuca on Aug 1, 2008 8:01 AM EDT reply actions

My only beef is that we did not move Neimann

His value will only decrease from here on out. This was the best time to move him if we wanted to maximize his value. He is the odd man out on our MLB roster also so it really the timing couldn’t have been better. I understand Friedman spent most of his time trying to package him into a “big” deal. But he should have also had some minor ones lined up just in case. Heck Neimann for Cruz would have been just fine considering the needs of the two organizations.

by matthan on Aug 1, 2008 9:58 AM EDT reply actions

Niemann for Cruz would be overpaying.

You’re undervaluing Niemann.

by R.J. Anderson on Aug 1, 2008 10:13 AM EDT up reply actions

I don't think so. I know that right now Neimann is worth more than Cruz, but the point is Neimanns value is going to fall at this point

Next year at this time Neimann won’t be able to fetch a player of Cruz’s age and caliber. In the Rays organization this is the peak value for Jeff Neimann. There is a chance Friedman could fetch slightly more in the offseason, but starting then Niemann’s value will start to decline. He will be a 26 year old minor league starting pitcher. That is a bit old. Secondly teams will know he has no chance at starting on the Rays. The longer we hold him the less likely we will be able to fetch someone like Cruz which leads me to think we should have flipped him at his peak.

by matthan on Aug 1, 2008 11:06 AM EDT up reply actions

I think Niemann's out of options next year

IIRC. So he’ll either dealt during the offseason, of up in the pen contributing. Selling low on Niemann would be a big, big mistake.

by Vin on Aug 1, 2008 11:31 AM EDT up reply actions

But then wouldn't we have to sell him low in the offseason? If he goes into the pen and becomes a full time reliever his value drops as well..

by matthan on Aug 1, 2008 11:41 AM EDT up reply actions

Randy Johnson, Chris Young and John Rauch disagree

none of these 6’9” plus guys cracked the big leagues before they were 25 and all have done pretty well. Niemann will have plenty of value in our organization for years to come.

Johnny let his baby brother sleep, through the back door and baseball, all the kids are waiting outside, Old days come and go too soon Old friends, heroes, lifetimes. Don't let a single memory fade away

by LeftRight on Aug 2, 2008 10:31 AM EDT up reply actions

by rglass44 on Aug 1, 2008 2:41 PM EDT reply actions

Guys, please read the article from SPT today...it explains to me why we should have made a move.

Here’s an exerpt:

Over it’s last 20 games, the Rays have averaged 2.7 runs. We are hitting .216 as a TEAM in that span and have a jaw dropping .136 average (21 for 124) with runners in scoring position. Overall Rays have dropped to 12th in the AL in BA (.257) and 10th in runs scored.

C’mon guys, can’t you see the light? I am as big a Rays Fans as you will find and am just estatic that we have made it as far as we have. However, Friedman seriously dropped the ball when he could have added a bat in RF that could have given us a chance to really to some damage in the postseason. Now I’m afraid we might not even make it there. All this crap about mortgaging the future? Are you serious? With as much talent as we have in our system we could have afforded to lose a couple of frontline starter and still would have been fine.

We have waited 4 months for our offense to get off there asses and contribute. What in the hell makes you think it’s gonna get etter now? I just hope our pitching holds up.

by Rays Rule on Aug 1, 2008 3:21 PM EDT reply actions

Our offense had gotten better every month except July

Link

I’d say they were getting off their asses and contributing pretty well in June.

by R.J. Anderson on Aug 1, 2008 3:29 PM EDT up reply actions

True RJ, but for the past month we are on a downward spiral offensively.

Our pitching is the only thing that has kept us in this thing. I really hope Pena, Upton, Aki, CC, and the rest of them show up and produce these next couple of months. All I’m saying is I wish we made a move. Who knows? Maybe whoever we got would have sucked, but it doesn’t make it any better seeing our rivals nab BOTH of the hitters we were looking at (Nady and Bay).

And what about relief? I have zero confidence in Reyes and Miller. And everytime Percy pitches I grab for the bottle of Jack under the cupboard…..

Thanks 4 the link…good info

by Rays Rule on Aug 1, 2008 4:07 PM EDT reply actions

what'll be the greatest thing ever is...

... if we defeat our rivals, despite them taking our targeted players… while we keep our core of prospects for future domination

by daveh33 on Aug 1, 2008 4:48 PM EDT up reply actions

No sane GM

makes decisions about trades based on a month or even two of sub-par performance. He has to decide based on longer term expectations. The very fact that July has seen a downward spiral is exactly the reason not to deal. That would smack of panic and of deciding based on too narrow a sample and usually leads to one-sided deals rather than carefully constructed ones.

Bay is an excellent player. I am not convinced he is a right fielder, but even so he would certainly be an upgrade, and had the Rays been able to acquire him for approximately what the Pirates received, I would have been happy. I think it possible, even likely, that the Rays offered something similar in value. Starting with Brignac and Niemann, in my view, would have been pretty close to LaRoche and whichever pitcher you would match Niemann too that the Pirates received. In fact, I think Niemann would have been better, and while LaRoche might be better than Brignac (although I am not convinced of that either), Reid does play a more premium position and apparently quite well.

But adding Davis or Hellickson would be quite a bit more than Pittsburgh received, and I am not sure that would be worth it. Plus, Pittsburgh received its bounty from 2 sources. Boston gave up only Hansen & Moss to the Pirates. And LA gave up only LaRoche and Morris to them. Of course, Boston also gave up Manny, but that was the whole point. They wanted to replace him. The Rays would likely have had to give up 4 by themselves, and Davis or Hellickson would be considerably more than any of the pitchers Pittsburgh acquired.

You also have to realize that the Rays would have given up not just the prospects but someone now on the roster. You may consider Gomes (the likely one to go) expendable, but I do not, even if his trade value right now is nil. He has to be added into the price.

And finally, it is entirely possible the Pirates simply evaluated LaRoche higher than anyone the Rays would give up and so to trump that offer, ours would have had to be even more impressive. No thanks.

by bobr on Aug 2, 2008 1:45 AM EDT up reply actions

I wonder what the conversation would have been

if Friedman had given up either Hellickson and Davis plus Brignac and a secondary prospect if necessary for Bay?

Somehow I suspect rather than calling him stones for holding out, many of the same folks would be cheering him for being proactive and seizing the moment.

A lot of Friedman envy ( young guy, little prior baseball experience) going on here.

by nyyfaninlaaland on Aug 1, 2008 7:11 PM EDT reply actions

.377 W%, to .407%, to .589%

I think there are more reasons than pure idolatry for us to be happy with Friedman.

by R.J. Anderson on Aug 1, 2008 8:54 PM EDT up reply actions

friedman wouldve sent gomes on his ass if he asked for davis/hellickson

friedman: hey gomes huntington just said that your mom is ugly!
Gomes: gomes angry! argh! (gomes expands into a hulk like monster ready to destroy huntington)!
friedman: jonny i order you to attack him like milk on coco (puffs)
Gomes: coco? me beat huntington like coco and shelley!
Huntington: ok, ok ill help you out ill be in a trade, to send manny to LA and bay to BOS instead! (crying in fear)
Friedman: thats right bitch you better fear me and the GOMER
Gomes: wow what happened to me? (returning to normal) andrew what happened? is bay a ray yet?
Friedman: no jonny but i have forced neal to be in a trade to send manny to boston and bay to BOS and neal also dont trade any bullpen help to the red sox GOT IT!?
Huntington: YES SIR please dont hurt me! wah wahh wahh (crying)
friedman: ya thats right we gonna win the AL east now for sure, KAZ dont smoke in here!
KAZ: I DONT SMOKE! lol pass those doritos man i got the munchies

longo=ROY. friedman=Executive of the year. Maddon=Manager of the year. Rays=WS champs 08!

by RaysOfHope on Aug 2, 2008 2:15 AM EDT up reply actions