In case you missed them, you can check out my pieces on Durham and Montgomery.

Catcher - Luke Bailey, Mayobanex Acosta

While Bailey struggled with injuries -- he played in just 74 games -- and performance -- he hit just .223/.294/.385 -- the Rays were aggressive in promoting him from the GCL to the Midwest Legaue from 2010 to 2011, and I think they'll continue that this year. There were some silver linings in Bailey's performance with the Hot Rods: The power was good, as he had 17 doubles, a triple, and seven home runs out of 55 hits. And he had weirdly extreme reverse splits as a right-handed hitter: Against lefties, he hit .125/.171/.181, but he hit .263/.342/.469 against righties. If he can repeat that vs. RHP line, or even improve upon it, while bringing with vs. LHP up from "hideously awful" to "below average," then he'll start to more closely resemble his pedigree, as he was thought of as the top high school catcher in the 2009 draft class before Tommy John surgery. Defensively, Bailey was strong, throwing out 40% of attempted basestealers. Mayo Acosta will probably ride the shuttle between Charlotte and Montgomery.

First Base - Phil Wunderlich

He doesn't have a typical 1B body at 6-0/225, but he's able to pack good power into that frame. Last year with the Hot Rods, he tied for the team lead in doubles with 34 and was second with 17 home runs. The Florida State League historically suppresses power, but his should still be able to show through. Overall as a prospect, however, his power doesn't quite measure up to where the top 1B prospects are, and his pure hit tool is a little short. After a .330 batting average in his debut with Princeton, he managed only .263 as below-average plate discipline/patience (just 34 walks in 132 games) held him back.

Second Base - Hector Guevara

Let Guevara serve as a bit of an enthusiasm-dampener for Oscar Hernandez. Guevara was the last heralded player to come through the Rays' VSL complex, hitting .330/.374/.534 in 2009 as a 17-year-old (though to put Hernandez's nutso season into context, Oscar's OPS was more than .300 points higher than Guevara's). But he's followed it up with two mainly disappointing seasons stateside, hitting .251/.308/.363 with Princeton and .248/.291/.372 last year. Expected to hit for good power, he's hit just five home runs since his eight in Venezuela, although injuries limited him to 69 games in 2011.

Shortstop - Derek Dietrich

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Now that Yoenis Cespedes is off the market, Roy Oswalt is essentially the Last Man Standing of the off-season. I'm not entirely sure where he expects to land at this point, but the latest rumor is that he's waiting for the Rangers to clear some payroll space and sign him. Uhh, I hate to break it to you Roy, but the Rangers have a pretty full rotation as is. I'm sure Oswalt will end up latching on somewhere, but it would certainly help if he stopped being so picky.

But anyway, on to the links:

• Ever wonder which pitcher has the best fastball in the game? There's a series running at FanGraphs this week, looking at the best pitches in baseball, and Carson Cistulli kicked things off by looking at the best fastballs. The first two pitchers aren't that big a surprise, but I certainly didn't anticipate #3.
• In the wake of the Yoenis Cespedes signing, R.J. Anderson wrote about Billy Beane's recent success (or more to the point, lack thereof) and tried to untangle if he's lost a step over the years (sub. required). And over at FanGraphs Audio, Brad broke down the deal with Cistulli.
• Rob Neyer put together a piece on the history of prospects ranked at #31 in their organization by Baseball America. Do these prospects ever amount to something, or are they completely irrelevant? The answer is about what you'd expect: there are some successes, but they are quite rare.
• Over at The Rays Way, Yossi Feins put together a piece looking at why Matt Moore has the potential to be even better than David Price. It's a good piece, including some Pitch F/x data, and it drives home how special this year's rotation could be.
• USF has had a rough couple weeks. First the news about Memphis coming to the Big East, and now Senator J.D. Alexander is trying to cut their entire school's budget state funding by 72%. I hope there's little chance the bill passes, but it's frustrating enough that this sort of proposal ever sees the light of day.

I don't know much about popular culture, so you'll have to tell me: is there a New Hot Thing out there at the moment? I know Jeremy Lin has quickly become the new Tim Tebow, but when it comes to anything outside sports, I'm at a loss. I'm actually somewhat proud of the fact that I know who Adele is, but that's around where my knowledge base evaporates.

I bring this up because in recent weeks, I've quickly become addicted to the New Hot Thing in the saber-sphere: the Brooks Baseball player cards. Brooks Baseball has always been a great tool for evaluating pitchers on a game-by-game basis, and we include their charts in our game recaps frequently. They've taken their site a step further, though, and their player pages are a treasure trove of Pitch F/x data.

In particular, I like to look at the stat Whiffs/Swing. In general, the more swings and misses a pitcher generates, the more strikeouts they should get. FanGraphs lists a pitcher's total Swinging Strike rate, but there aren't many places where you can find swings and misses broken down by pitch type. Brooks Baseball and the Joe Lefkowitz Pitch F/x Tool are the two places to find this data, but since Brooks has manually classified pitches, I feel more confident in their pitch classifications and results.

Why should we care about swings and misses? Whiffs are a good proxy for a pitch's "nastiness", and they can help us understand the strength of a pitcher's arsenal. Does Pitcher X only have one good out-pitch? Or is his entire repertoire above average? Is he using his pitches correctly? I may be a nerd, but I find this stuff fascinating.

Below the jump, you'll find the Whiff/Swing data from Brooks Baseball for the majority of the Rays' pitchers. But before you peek ahead, vote in the poll...who do you think has the single "nastiest" pitch on the Rays' pitching staff*? I'm curious to see how many people will be correct.

*At least, according to 2011 data.

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Not much has happened in the world of baseball over the past few days. The Yankees have continued to talk with the Pirates about trading A.J. Burnett, and the Marlins have made an offer to Yoenis Cespedes. That's about it. And unless something radical and unforeseen happens, we could be in for a long last week before Spring Training.

Burnett will get dealt by the Yanks; they have too much incentive to offload his contract that I can't see this deal getting permanently held up by quibbles over how much money to eat. And eventually, Yoenis Cespedes will sign with a team...at this point, likely the Marlins. The Cubs have reportedly dropped out of the running, and without them, there are few teams ready to jump into the fray and offer him significant money. Maybe the Nationals make a play, after losing out on Prince Fielder? Only time will tell, and sadly, it's one of the juiciest story-lines to follow right now.

• If you're looking for a morning dose of amusement and entertainment, be sure to check out this article by Jeff Sullivan: 2011 In Extreme Home Runs. Sullivan highlights some of the weirdest pitches to be hit for homers last season -- the highest pitch, lowest pitch, most inside, outside, etc. -- and the videos and gifs are a ton of fun. Right now, any glimpse of baseball being played is a good glimpse.
• Joe Poz recently threw together an unofficial study on how players age, and as with most everything written by Joe, it's worth a read. There are many ways to prove that batting Chone Figgins at lead-off would be rather nuts, and while I'd have focused on his declining walk rate, this works too.
• After there was such an uproar after Buster Posey was injured last season, I feel like I haven't heard a word said about him or his recovery. Maybe that's because I live on the East Coast? Because Posey fell off the radar of the national media? I'm not exactly sure, but from recent reports, he's well enough to be hoping to play Opening Day.
• Can you imagine a time before sports scores were available instantaneously via your phone, the internet, the radio, and/or your TV? Yeah, me neither.