The Greatest (Devil) Rays to Ever Wear... #16

Felix Martinez played in 183 games where he had 118 hits, 24 hits, 5 triples, 3 homeruns, 31 RBIs, 15 stolen bases, and batted .228. Martinez ranked 4th in the major leagues with 12 sacrifice hits in the year 2000.

Travis Lee played in 388 games where he had 336 hits, 70 doubles, 7 triples, 42 homeruns, 150 RBIs, and batted .261.

Brendan Harris played 137 games where he had, 149 hits, 35 doubles, 3 triples, 12 homeruns, 59 RBIs, 4 stolen bases, and batted .286. Harris was traded by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays with Jason Pridie and Delmon Young to the Minnesota Twins for Eduardo Morlan (minors), Jason Bartlett and Matt Garza in 2007.

Willy Aybar was traded by the Atlanta Braves with Chase Fontaine (minors) to the Tampa Bay Rays for Jeff Ridgway. Aybar has played in 200 games where he had 157 hits, 29 doubles, 2 triples, 22 hits, 74 RBIs, and batted .253.

Poll

Who was the greatest (Devil) Rays player while wearing the number "16?"

Tim Laker

1 votes

Dwight Gooden

3 votes

Felix Martinez

1 votes

Travis Lee

31 votes

Brendan Harris

3 votes

Willy Aybar

25 votes

64 votes | Poll has closed

0 recs | Comment 9 comments |

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Comments

I voted for Travis Lee

The man had the best glove, for a first basemen, that I have ever seen. W/ out Travis Lee Julio Lugo would have had 40 errors easily at shortstop.

Let's go Largo!

by thebaddancingraysfan on Nov 25, 2009 3:19 PM EST reply actions

And the fact he is a Boss

by SRQman on Nov 25, 2009 4:45 PM EST up reply actions

I wonder

Can a (Devil) Rays player be considered great because of whom he brought back in a trade? For example, Harris was part of the deal that returned Bartlett and Garza to the Rays. Does that fact, however indirect his contribution to those acquisitions was, count towards his greatness as a Ray?

by bobr on Nov 25, 2009 4:51 PM EST reply actions

Yes, you can.

If you close your eyes and you see the jersey number “16” and you see Brendan Harris in that jersey. Then, my friend, Brendan is your choice. I your point and I do think, to some degree, that goes into a players weight. Doyle Alexander was a decent player, but he was the player that landed Atlanta John Smoltz, so, I feel that adds to his value.

Honestly, Brendan Harris would have been my next choice after Travis Lee. Aybar is good, not great. Lee was fantastic with the glove, and Harris was so damn scrappy.

Let's go Largo!

by thebaddancingraysfan on Nov 25, 2009 9:26 PM EST up reply actions

Just a gut thing

And I know gut isn’t always great, but I get the feeling that Aybar is wildly overrated around these parts. He had a good month, and he’s mediocre defensively. Take away his one good month, and he’s a well below average hitter for his position.

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by Brickhaus on Nov 26, 2009 3:26 PM EST up reply actions

I am not sure this is entirely true.

Perhaps some of us overrate him, although in 2008 Dave Cameron was very complimentary to Aybar. In any case, while I don’t think looking at monthly splits is particularly enlightening (it is an artificial categorization), as long as you mention 1 month (even if not specifically a named month), if you look at his monthly stats he has quite a few good to excellent streaks.

In 2008, in 27 PAs in April, he hit .292/.370/.500 for an OPS+ of 136

He then got 4 PAs in May, but in June he hit .256/.363/.385, an indication of good plate discipline in 92 PAs.

With 102 PAs that August, he hit .286/.346/.490 (OPS+=119) and in Sept. hit .264/.341/.403, not good but not terrible either.

In 2009, he had two big months. May was .306/.346/.486 in 87 PAs and in June .341/.434/.636 in 53 PAs. Then in July he got just 26 PAs and 54 in Aug before climbing to 86 in Sept when he rebounded a bit, albeit still not hitting particularly well.

All in all, given his erratic playing time, I don’t think it fair to call him a well below average hitter, and as his position is not established, it is hard to measure him against any particular position average.

Also, I think there was some evidence that his defense was pretty good at 2B in 2008, again probably with too small a sample to be confident in the numbers. But if anything, he has shown some patience and pop at the plate in his time in TB, and as a reserve seems quite good. Whether he could translate that into average or better production as a regular I don’t think anyone can really know at this point. I do know that watching his ABs he seems recognize pitches, refrains from swinging at bad pitches and is able to adjust to get his bat on the ball when the object is to hit the ball hard somewhere.

In fact, for his career his BB rate per PA is 10.36% while his K rate is a very manageable 13.4%. Both are slightly worse in TB. but still, he does not strike out much, a trait useful to a team like the Rays who do K a great deal, and he does walk at a solid rate.

I think also, in relation to this poll, that for some people his contribution to the team while filling in for injured players, particularly his role in 2008 when his hot streak made Longoria’s absence less disastrous, makes him a great Ray in comparison to others on this list. Say what you will about Lee’s defense, in his 3 years here his offense went from mediocre for a first baseman to terrible to approaching Castilla horrendous.

by bobr on Nov 26, 2009 7:32 PM EST up reply actions