You know, today was really everything about being a Rays fan wrapped into one. From the anticipation to the tease to the ultimate letdown and now back to a bit of apathy of the day's events. Perhaps unjustly we all jumped at the rumor, but only because a MLB.com report should be, if nothing else, accurate. That's the unimportant thing though, because this wound will hopefully heal by Friday, but what we're faced with is the idea that our support is on the way with David Price and Rocco Baldelli.
Obviously I've stated that I'm not sure how much Rocco will help us this season, but if there's some sort of destiny this would be a pretty damn great situation for it to pop up. I also don't know what Andrew Friedman did outside of stick to "the untouchables" gun. Whether he and the rest of the front office made the right call or not won't be known for years, if then. We all should confidence in their ability to evaluate talent yet that's not going to take away the feeling of being gut punched.
Objectively looking at the deal that occurred I can't really blame Neal Huntington, he got a very good package of prospects that will help that team beyond simply Jeff Niemann and Reid Brignac. The Sox will gain about a win on defense and lose about a half win on offense, so they're going to come out slightly better, but not enough that I'm concerned. Add in the slight losses of Brandon Moss as well as Craig Hansen and the Sox seemingly gave both away for a marginal upgrade this season, and perhaps a bigger upgrade next season at a much cheaper rate. That frees up around 12 million for the Red Sox and that's not good news for the off-season, but there within itself lies the positive for us: it's post-deadline on July 31st and the off-season isn't the next thing to look forward to.
Initial reactions aside, we still have a team that will continue to give the division crown a run, with or without Jason Bay.
This one is to you Jason Bay, for those fifteen glorious minutes in which you gave us today, and then, well, this:
