The Rays Tank: More Organizational Rankings

It was another slow news day in Rays land, but ESPN.com's Keith Law released his 2013 organizational rankings. That's news enough for me. He has the Rays third behind the Cardinals and Twins. The majority of the post is behind a pay wall but here's what he had to say about the Rays:

The Rays had some setbacks among their highest-profile prospects this past year, but added a top-10 prospect in Wil Myers, a top-100 prospect in Jake Odorizzi and a former top-100 prospect in Mike Montgomery in the James Shields trade. They're deepest in power arms, although many of them are a grade or two of command below where they'll need to be to profile as starters, and right now their next impact bat after Myers would be in low Class A or short-season ball.

Fair assessment.

As for the other teams in the AL East, the Yankees came in 10th, Orioles 13th thanks to Dylan Bundy, Red Sox 17th, and Blue Jays 24th. Law added for Toronto:

A top-10 system before the big offseason trades, probably top five, but Alex Anthopoulos pushed his chips to the center of the table, stood up and said "Boo-yah!" … but in the politest way possible.

It's no secret the Rays must have a strong farm system to keep contending year after year. With Wil Myers and Chris Archer likely to graduate from prospect status this season that leaves the cupboard more bare than the team would like. That is, until they trade David Price.

Links:

-Former Cy Young winner Brandon Webb has decided to retire. Shoulder injuries forced his hand at age 33, which is sad because he was one of the best pitchers in the league up to that point, winning the Cy Young in 2006 and finishing runner up the next two seasons.

-In response to an ESPN.com article that ran last week, Dave Cameron explains what exactly WAR is good for.

-Delmon Young struck out looking only four times in all of 2012. That's amazing.