The Devil Rays brought up Kazmir pretty quickly last year after he was acquired from the Mets. Had Kaz stayed with the Mets organization, he probably would not have seen any type of major league action until sometime this season. I see Niemann being brought up late summer if he is tearing up AA with the Biscuits of the Southern League.
John Sickels recently stopped by SportsBlurbs for a chat and here is the Devil Rays related interaction:
Mark_Haverty: How soon do the Rays bring up Jeff Niemann?
Lets hope we see the Jeff Niemann of 2003, and that the injuries of his last season at Rice are a thing of the past.john_sickels: Niemann...biggest issue there is heavy college workload and injury possibility. If healthy, he could be ready within a year. But they thought the same thing about Brazelton.
The single A short season Hudson Valley Renegades of the NY Penn League have a brand new web site. It was just a few weeks ago I had the Q&A with the beat reporter of the Renegades.
This pretty much sums up Lou Piniella, the manager:
"I've learned he's not going to change the way he is," added pitcher Mark Hendrickson, from Mount Vernon. "You can expect confrontation. It's just going to happen. That's the way he is." Piniella is still Piniella, even in Tampa Bay, where he waits, not so patiently, for games that mean something.
Seth Stohs on Devil Rays Rule V pick Angel Garcia (who will need to stay on the 25 roster man roster if he is to stick):
So, who was it? RHP Angel Garcia. Garcia pitched in just seven games for Quad Cities (Low-A) in 2004 after having Tommy John Surgery in September of 2003. He was the Twins fourth round pick in 2001 out of high school in Puerto Rico. He is a tall (6-7) right handed pitcher who was throwing about 95 in his return this year. It is a tough loss for the Twins, but when I listed my top 26 Twins Prospects this year, which included X pitchers, I did not include Garcia, so the Twins aren?t hurt by losing him the way they would have been had West been drafted.
This is from a Twins perspective. I think it will be hard to find a spot on the roster all year long for Garcia. That is, unless the Devil Rays gets smart and cut AGone in Spring Training.