Rays Lose 9-6 to Tigers as Niemann, Rodriguez Impress

I forgot about him.

This is all speculation at this point. He’s going to spend the season down in Triple-A regardless.

It is a small sample size also influenced by big league pitchers working on mechanics, new pitches, possibly holding back and also minor league pitchers. Because of these facts, outcomes would need to be so severely regressed that statistically they are somewhat meaningless in predicting the future. However, if Ruggiano were striking out in 35% of his PA and not driving the ball, it would be easy to say “same ol Ruggs”. His performance has been cautiously encouraging in the same way I felt about Nevin Ashley’s AFL campaign and to a much lesser degree Zobrist’s 2008. I certainly wouldn’t bet on Ruggiano becoming a big league success but I do feel better about the possibility than I did at the end of 2008. TO be fair, I feel this way more because of his work with Cevallos followed by a nice small sample. Without Cevallos, I’d be quicker to dismiss it.

It’s also nice to see continued pop fro S-Rod. There was concern in the baseball community that his power was a by-product of his league in the Angels org. I think at a minimum, he’s displayed he does possess true pop.

Here, this is worth checking out, though.

At no point ever, never ever, should you attempt to draw meaningful conclusions from that data.

Pitchers are nearly impossible to evaluate in spring training anyways. They’re either working on things or not throwing full speed, and when they do throw full speed, it’s usually against various competition levels.

With Balf, I’m hoping to see something out of him this spring training that tells me that he’s closer to the pitcher he was in 2008 then he was in 2009. Grant had a nice little run of efficiency in the middle of the season last year, but he book-ended that with a pretty cruddy start and a disastrous September.

As it stands right now, processes aside, his 2008 results appear to be more the exception then the rule, and regardless of performance, he’s going to have a roster spot. I’m hoping to see something out of him during spring that indicates that he’s not going to be a victim of players who are just going to sit and wait for his fastball to creep up in the zone. If not that, then I want to see someone who’s going to be stored in AAA show that if Balfour falters, that he’s going to be able to step in and get outs without giving up runs, much as Balfour eventually was the reason why Al Reyes was sent packing. Right now that guy is supposed to be Benoit, and so far, he hasn’t shown that he’s there yet.

Davis’s struggles don’t concern me anywhere near as much, between he, Sonnanstine, Hellickson and Carlos Hernandez, there’s more then enough depth in AAA to cover a hole at the #5 starter spot if the Rays run into problems.