Archive for the ‘Rays Prospects’ Category
Sunday, April 20th, 2008
ESPN.com reports that the Tampa Bay Rays’ 3B Evan Longoria agreed to a 6 year, $17.5 million dollar contract that could be worth as much as $44 million over 9 seasons. Pretty good for a kid who has only played 6 major league games. I’m not saying I disagree with locking him up for the future, but that’s setting quite a precedent for young talent. This could significantly affect contract negotiation for talented prospects in the future.
The Rays have become trend-setters with contract negotiation recently. They have agents throughout the industry upset about their new policy of tacking a few one-year club options on the end the guaranteed term. This is essentially a win-win situation for the club; if the player develops as expected they buy out a few years of arbitration and free agency on the cheap, or if the player falters they simply let the options expire. On the flip side, the young prospect gets the security these types of deals provide.
Tags: Evan Longoria, MLB Prospect News, Rays Prospects
Posted in 3B, Evan Longoria, MLBPN Top Prospects, Rays Prospects, Top 5 Prospects | No Comments »
Monday, April 14th, 2008
In the second huge call-up this week for the Tampa Rays, top pitching prospect Jeff Niemann was recalled from Triple-A Durham
to replace the injured Matt Garza. He allowed 1 run on 6 hits and 1 BB in 6 innings pitched, while striking out 5 and earning his first career W. The 6′9″ right hander, ranked 99th overall by BaseballAmerica, will more than likely be sent back down upon Garza’s return. Regardless, with skills like this and the new and improved Rays offense, Niemann is definitely someone to watch as a fantasy sleeper this year.
Garza is scheduled for a bullpen session on Tuesday, and if all goes well he’ll go on to make a rehab tune-up in the Minors prior to rejoining the big league club.
Tags: Jeff Niemann, MLB Prospects, Rays
Posted in 2008 Fantasy Draft Sleepers, Jeff Niemann, P, Rays Prospects, SP | No Comments »
Saturday, April 12th, 2008
Tampa Bay Rays prospect Evan Longoria will make his Major League debut today against the Baltimore Orioles. Opportunity knocked for Longoria when Willy Aybar was placed on the disabled list Friday after missing his second straight game with a sore left hamstring. Time to pick him up in fantasy leagues if he’s available because of the tremendous upside; if he plays well enough during this stint he could keep the job for good.
Tags: baseball prospects, Evan Longoria, Fantasy Sleepers, MLB Prospect News
Posted in 2008 Fantasy Draft Sleepers, 3B, Evan Longoria, Rays Prospects | No Comments »
Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008
Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com gave a nice status report on the 30 players drafted in the first round of the 2007 first-year player draft. He notes that because of a recent change in draft rules, players must sign with the teams that drafted them by August 15th or they have to re-enter the draft pool for the following year. Each first rounder did so, although some not early enough to play last summer.
Some highlights from Mayo’s article (draft position in parentheses):
- David Price (No. 1, LHP, Tampa Bay Rays): His elbow injury did not require surgery; he will make his pro debut in Class A, probably this May.
- Ross Detwiler (No. 6, LHP, Washington Nationals): Brought up late last September, Detwiler will start the year in the minors but looks to be moving up quickly.
- Tim Alderson (No. 22, RHP, San Francisco Giants): His unorthodox delivery made some clubs shy away from drafting him, but an impressive performance out of high school has the Giants starting him in Class A Advanced ball.
- Aaron Poreda (No. 25, LHP,Chicago White Sox): He can get his fastball into the high-90s, but the White Sox are having him spend time in the minors this year to develop his secondary pitches.
Tags: Aaron Poreda, Chicago White Sox Prospects, David Price, MLB Prospect News, Ross Detwiler, San Francisco Giants Prospects, Tampa Bay Rays Prospects, Tim Alderson, Washington Nationals Prospects
Posted in Aaron Poreda, David Price, Giants Prospects, MLBPN Top Prospects, Nationals Prospects, P, Rays Prospects, Ross Detwiler, Tim Alderson, White Sox Prospects | No Comments »
Tuesday, April 1st, 2008
Fox Sports columnist Ken Rosenthal writes that while many fans may be shocked that the Rays demoted Evan Longoria to Class AAA even after posting a 1.002 OPS this spring, it may turn out for the better. The Rays say they want to give Longoria a little more time to develop, a strategy that every fantasy owner can agree worked well with the Brewers and last season’s ROY Ryan Braun. So, rather than starting Longoria in the Majors with the possibility of him having an Alex Gordon-like slow start, the Rays will keep Longoria in the minors for at least three weeks to make sure he is ready (which he is) and more importantly to ensure that they get an extra year out of him before he becomes a free agent. Keep an eye on him if he’s available on your waiver wire.
Tags: Fantasy Sleepers, MLB Prospect News, MLB Sleepers
Posted in 2008 Fantasy Draft Sleepers, 3B, Evan Longoria, Rays Prospects | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 25th, 2008
Yesterday we brought you news that top overall pick in last year’s Rule 4 Draft, David Price, had left a game with stiffness in his elbow. Well today comes news that Price will miss 6 weeks because of the injury. Executive VP Andrew Friedman said that the injury was definitely not serious, but that the Rays’ medical staff determined that Price would need this amount of time to work his way back into playing shape. It sounds like the stiffness Price experienced was simply a result of Price not having pitched a game since last May with Vanderbilt before starting a few spring games. Cross your fingers Rays fans.
Tags: David Price, MLB Prospects, Rays
Posted in David Price, MLBPN Top Prospects, P, Rays Prospects, SP | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 25th, 2008
Lost amid news of top overall prospect Evan Longoria getting optioned to Triple-A was news of another top Rays prospect getting cut. Rays SS of the future, Reid Brignac was optioned to Triple-A Durham as well. It seems the acquisition of Jason Bartlett from the Twins in the Delmon Young trade has delayed the big league appearance of Brignac for a while. The young shortstop handled the news well:
“I’m not disappointed at all… I just got to go down to Triple-A and keep working until I get where I need to be. They’ve seen me, they’ve seen how I play. Just going to keep playing hard, keeping working hard and see what happens.”
At only 22, Brignac still has plenty of time to develop his skills and still come up to Tampa as the offensive SS he projects to be. Even if he does get the call-up this year, he probably won’t be fantasy relevant until 2009 or later.
Tags: MLB Prospects, Rays, Reid Brignac
Posted in Evan Longoria, MLBPN Top Prospects, Rays Prospects, Reid Brignac, SS | No Comments »
Monday, March 24th, 2008
We’ve been anticipating it for a while now, but still holding out hope that the Rays wouldn’t do it. The Rays informed Evan Longoria that they were reassigning him to minor league camp after the Rays game on Monday. Longoria said that he was “a little bit let down” by the decision, and that the Rays did not give him any kind of timetable for his return to the show.
The Rays pointed to the fact that Longoria has only had 104 ABs above the Double-A level. They say they want to avoid a situation similar to how the Alex Gordon call-up played out last year. Really, though, it all comes down to the economics. If Longoria stays in the minors for even a few weeks, the Rays can delay his free agency until after 2014. If they wait a few months to call him up, similar to Ryan Braun’s situation last year, then they can avoid Longoria qualifying for Super-Two early arbitration eligibility. While there’s no question about whether Longoria can succeed in the majors, it becomes a question of whether or not the Rays can succeed this season even with Longoria for a full season. In the stacked AL East, not many people think the vastly improved Rays can compete in 2008-2009, with or without Longoria. If the Rays are targeting next year or the year after as the year they start to compete, why not delay the arbitration clock on Longoria as much as possible. In short, while any true baseball fan would love to see what this kid could do this with a fulls eason, this move made all the sense in the world for the Rays.
Tags: Evan Longoria, MLB Prospects, Rays
Posted in 2008 Fantasy Draft Sleepers, 3B, Evan Longoria, MLBPN Top Prospects, Rays Prospects, Top 5 Prospects | No Comments »
Monday, March 24th, 2008
2007 top overall draft pick out of Vanderbilt, David Price, left a minor league game with stiffness in his throwing elbow. The left-hander will see a specialist today. MLB.com’s Bill Chastain mentions that Price did not throw in a game situation for a long time between his last game with Vandy and beginning work with the Rays. Rays officials are optimistic, hoping that it is a minor setback, and will start Price in the minors for a while before considering moving him to the big league club.
Tags: David Price, MLB Prospect News, Rays Prospects
Posted in David Price, MLBPN Top Prospects, P, Rays Prospects, SP | No Comments »
Saturday, March 22nd, 2008
The Rays announced today that they have optioned SP Jeff Niemann to Triple-A Durham. This leaves only four Rays pitchers to fill the three remaining spots in the rotation. While Niemann was disappointed by the decision, he understands why the decision was made. Niemann still has options remaining, which isn’t the case with all of the Rays pitchers. Niemann feels like he is pitching as well as he ever has right now.
Tags: Jeff Niemann, MLB Prospects, Rays
Posted in 2008 Fantasy Draft Sleepers, Jeff Niemann, P, Rays Prospects, SP | No Comments »
