-Dad (Cowbell Clankers contributor Wayne to the rest of you) sent me a text yesterday after visiting the zoo. While looking at bats hanging upside down, he couldn’t help but think of the Rays offense.
Bats just hanging around, not being productive. The offense is the biggest question for the Rays heading into the 2012 regular season. » Continue reading “Rays: Missing Bats, Farnsy, And Minor League Decisions”
-Y’all, I love Twitter. I’ve dialed back on my use of Twitter this offseason, but I’ll be Tweeting as often and my little fingers, and “real” life, allow once we get to Spring Training. (BTW: PITCHERS AND CATCHERS REPORT IN LESS THAN TWO WEEKS.)
I am far from being the only young professional to embrace the land of thoughts expressed in 140 characters or less. John Gregg of Rays Digest has a rundown of the team’s Minor Leaguers who can be found behind an @. Consider yourselves followed, guys. In the Twitterverse, I’m known as SarahSeesSports.
-Guess what? David Price can dunk. I’m not terribly surprised by this, but I still enjoyed watching the video on Rays Index.
-I am not currently paying to be an ESPN Insider, but luckily it looks like some people are! Keith Law wrote a piece for Insiders in which he ranked the farm systems of Major League teams. The Rays were ranked second, behind only the San Diego Padres.
The things that happened while I had no wifi were mostly happy.
Things that happened on a day I had no access to wifi:
-The Rays added Burke Badenhop to the bullpen. My, oh my, I love alliteration. This is going to be a fun season. Badenhop comes from the Marlins. In exchange, Miami picked up Rays’ minor league catcher Jake Jefferies. Matt Snyder of CBS Sports called the move “vintage Andrew Friedman.” I like the sound of that.
Snyder also states:
Badenhop, 28, had a 4.10 ERA and 1.40 WHIP in 63 2/3 innings last season for the Marlins. Sabermetric stats showed he pitched much better than those numbers and suffered from bad fortune. His FIP was 2.95 and BABIP allowed was a high .327. So if things regress to the norm, Badenhop’s numbers will come down.
Fingers crossed.
-In addition to Badenhop, the Rays tendered B.J. Upton, David Price, Jeff Niemann, Joel Peralta and dun…dun…dun….J.P. Howell. I’m going to have to keep my faith in Friedman who had this to say to the St. Pete Times regarding Howell:
“We’re big believers in who J.P. is and what he’s done to put himself in position to have a good 2012 season. J.P. is one of those guys you bet on.”
See you soon?
-As you’re reading that list of tendered players, you might notice that the name Andy Sonnanstine is missing. Sonny was non-tendered. Steve Slowinski of DRaysBay has put together a lovely ode to Andy, one of the last true Devil Rays.
-Rays Digest is still rolling out their list of the top prospects for Tampa Bay in 2012. Yesterday’s profile featured Lenny Linksy.
Linsky, a righty reliever out of the University of Hawaii, comes in at number 18 on Rays Digest’s list of the team’s top 50 prospects for next year.
Fun fact: I got to meet Linksy in St. Pete on the day he signed. Yes, he had seen the piece I wrote following the draft in which he was a co-recipient of the “Most Likely to Make Me Feel Like a Cougar” award. Our meeting was much less awkward than one might have guessed based on that tidbit of information. He was a nice guy who was genuinely excited to start his journey to the bigs.
The Rays haven’t made waves during the Winter Meetings and for whatever reason, I don’t have the feeling that this is just the calm before a storm.
Thankfully, I have a lot more faith in Andrew Friedman and the front-office staff than I do in Elmer Fudd. I think they’ll hunt down the pieces the team needs going into 2012.
Here are a few pieces you might like to check out today:
DRaysBay: The Rays Tank: Marlins Continue To Go Nuts, Rays Riding The Waves
Tomorrow’s post might include that the Angels started going nuts. The deal they made with CJ Wilson (5 yrs, $77.5 million) is reasonable by pro sports standards, but 10 years, $250 million for Albert Pujols? No. That’s crazy talk, and yet it’s the truth. I would not offer that kind of cash and lengthy commitment to a guy who’s already over 30.
Rays Digest: Rays 2011 Rule 5 Wrap-Up
As far as today’s Rule 5 draft goes, I feel just fine where the Rays are concerned. Didn’t hurt at all when I heard that they had passed from the live audio feed that MLB had on their site. Also, kudos to MLB for putting video that was compatible with iOS. Team iPhone thanks you.
-What real-deal rookies do I speak of? Jeremy Hellickson and Desmond Jennings, of course. They were each named to the 2011 Topps All-Star Rookie team. With the way their Major League careers have started, I wouldn’t be surprised to see them in the MLB All-Star game sooner rather than later.
-Jim Holland, general manager of the Princeton Rays, Tampa Bay’s Rookie Affiliate, gave an interview to Rays Digest. It’s worth a read if you’d like to learn a little bit more about where some of our guys get their start in the Rays’ organization. If you’re the tweetin’ type, you can give the P Rays a follow on @PrincetonRays.
-Bullpen coach Bobby Ramos is the odd man out. He was the only coach who did not receive a deal for next year. Stan Boroski, who filled in for Ramos while he was sick for a good part of last season, will take over the ‘pen. Skipper Joe Maddon has one year left with the team and I am praaaaaying that he signs an extension.
-Speaking of the ‘pen….James Phillip Howell might be the odd man out of that group. DRaysBay takes a look at the recent disappointing years we’ve seen from JP. Please note: The graphic to the right represents how JP might feel about this. Watching Howell made me so nervous last season, I’m inclined to agree with DRaysBay.
