This offseason

Not that the Rockies would trade him, but which player gets moved out of CF? Upton or Fowler?

But Fowler isn’t going anywhere.. a true five-tool guy with a great eye at the plate. Maybe they’d take BJ Upton. Heh.

Simply because I’m the president of the Steve Pearce fan club. The guy can rake. I was catching a live bp he was taking back in Feb 2007 and I predicted great things for him. His best position is by far 1st and would be an average defensive RF at best. Neimann for Pearce straight up seems fair.

And for the record, McCutchen is very over-rated. I’m a homer for local guys, but he just doesn’t do it for me.

I can’t say I’m that impressed with Clevlyn or Mather though, and Alberquerque is the worst hitters’ park in the minors, so you can discount Carroll’s stats there considerably.

I’d love to get Saltalamacchia, although I suspect we’d have to give up Davis (or possibly Jackson) to get him. Pearce might be an option, but he has very high Gomes potential.

Honestly, I see no reason to protect Davis and/or Hellickson as much as the org has though. I’m not sure that the marginal difference between either of those two and Sonnanstine is great enough to warrant having a worse offense just so we can have even more pitching down the road. Sometimes you need to trade the better chip, not the worse chip, to get what fits the team best.

guy is a beast…and I welcome him to the DH spot here in the Trop.

When he was drafted, it was reported he sat at 88-91, and could crank it up to 94, but offspeed stuff and command needed work.

This regime has drafted and signed a ton of high school pitchers the last two years (6 in 2007, 5 in 2008). With all those pitchers, international players, and some JUCO pitchers mixed in, there aren’t enough rotation spots to go around. Out of the 6 that were signed in 2007, only Nick Barnese (3rd round pick) was promoted to Hudson Valley. Moore and Kevin Chavez are starting at Princeton, and Chris Luck and Kyle Ayers are still relievers, despite pitching very well last year. Unfotunately, It seems that it has become normal for the Rays to hold back high school pitchers.

Spending two years at Princeton shouldn’t be a concern. For a guy like Moore, he would still make it to the majors at age 24 given a normal progression, sooner if he excells. The biggest concern is that some of these guys aren’t getting the innings they need (Luck and Ayers especially).

 If the Rays are going to continue to draft high numbers of high school pitchers (which I think they should) as well as funnel players from the international academies through rookie ball, then they really need to add another rookie-level affiliate in the Gulf Coast League. It would also help alleviate the crunch among position players at Princeton. Luis Marchena, a high school SS drafted this year, only has 25 AB’s. Dustin Biell, Ty Morrison, Brian Bryles, Ramon Novas, and DJ Jones are all legitimate OF prospects, but they only have room for 3 of them in the OF at one time. It would also allow them to being more international players to the United States and get playing time.

Which probably means that they need a catcher for the future. Might they be interested in Jaso?

Very short. It’s not so much that he doesn’t have a chance at sticking at catcher, just that there isn’t a precedent for a catcher his size in the past 80 or so years. He’s not GREAT defensively either, but I really think that it has more to do with it that he’s 5’7" 150 soaking wet and in high heels.