Yardbarker: Justin Ruggiano

Building the 2008 Rays

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 19:20:33 -0500

So how exactly did the Rays get their World Series roster? Here's how.

Doin It Through the Draft

You know what sucking for a long time gets you? It gets you a lot of draft picks in the top 5. It gets you the "can't miss" prospects. Start with a core of top 50 draft picks and sprinkle in some late round steals and you've got the biggest building blocks.

David Price 2007 Round 1 Pick 1
BJ Upton 2002 Round 1 Pick 2
Evan Longoria 2006 Round 1 Pick 3
Rocco Baldelli 2000 Round 1 Pick 6
Carl Crawford 1999 Round 2 Pick 52 (1st pick of the 2nd round)
Fernando Perez 2004 Round 7 Pick 195
James Shields 2000 Round 16 Pick 466
Andy Sonnastine 2004 Round 13 375

Tradin Garbage for Gold

What's another step to forming a great team? Pulling off trades in which you completely rip off the other squad.

Scott Kazmir & Joselo Diaz from the Mets for Victor Zambrano & BartolomA(c) Fortunato. Nothing says rip off like 20 year old beast Scott Kazmir in 2004 for Victor Zambrano.

Matt Garza, Jason Bartlett & Eduardo Morlan from the Twins for Delmon Young, Jason Pridie & Brendan Harris. The Rays decided to go with pitching over hitting and traded top prospect Young and a solid shortstop for Top Prospect Garza and a solid shortstop. Not a complete ripoff.

JP Howell from the Royals for Fernando Cortez and Joey Gathright. Joey Gathright is fast that's it.

Edwin Jackson & Chuck Tiffany from the Dodgers for Danys Baez and Lance Carter. The Rays brought in Jackson hoping he would regain the form that made him a top prospect. He's been good at times but not great.

Willy Aybar & Chase Fontaine from the Dodgers for Jeff Ridgway. Never heard of any of these other guys.

Dioner Navarro, Jae Seo and Justin Ruggiano from the Dodgers for Mark Hendrickson & Toby Hall. Navarro was the starter over Russell Martin until he got hurt and when Martin played out of his head in 06 the Dodgers didn't need him anymore.

Grant Balfour from the Brewers for Seth McClung. Seth McClung was ok for the Brewers but I'm sure they would rather have Balfour back.

Ben Zobrist & Mitch Talbot from the Astros for Aubrey Huff. Huff was gonna be a free agent so they spun him off for 2 players. Not a ripoff really just a rebuilding move.

Dan Wheeler from the Astros for Ty Wigginton. Pretty even, but again trading hitting for pitching.

Chad Bradford from the Orioles for John Cass. Beat out other squads for Bradford's services.

Gabe Gross from the Brewers for Josh Butler. Never heard of Butler but I don't think Gross is really good.

Michel Hernandez from the Pirates for Cash. They essentially needed a backup catcher and got Hernandez on August 31st this year.

The Free Agent Market? Really the Rays do that?

Trever Miller 1 year 1.6 Million: They brought back old man Trever Miller and well, he's not that important.

Carlos Pena 1 Year 0.8 Million + 3 Year 24.25 Extension: Pena was signed off the scrap heap of both the Red Sox and Yankees in the 2007 offseason. He was signed to a Minor league contract and because of the great 2007 campaign was given a massive extension in January of this year.

Cliff Floyd 1 Year 3 Million: Clifford is a solid role model for the youngster but his time as a stud is long gone.

Akinori Iwamura 3 Years 7.7 Million: Not a superstar but an all around solid player. Gets the job done at leadoff and has a great glove.

Andy Sonnanstine, Jonny Gomes, Ben Zobrist, Rocco Baldelli and Justin Ruggiano have mohawks

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 23:19:10 -0500

How can you not love this ball club? How can you not love this ball club's hair? I pity the fool who is too old or too jaded to appreciate the glory and the beauty of the Devil Rays and their mohawks. To my eyes, starting pitcher Andy Sonnanstine, enforcer Jonny Gomes, utility man extraordinaire Ben Zobrist, inspirational [...]

Futures Watch: Week 20

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 22:46:35 -0500

Tampa Bay, 7.75:1 (5Dimes)
Current Record: 71-47
PECOTA Playoff Odds: 94.7%

The Yankees' struggles have caused the Rays' playoff odds to increase a few percentage points over the last week, but the last few days haven't been kind to Tampa.

Losing Crawford wasn't the end of the world, but Longoria hitting the DL really hurts. Their lineup wasn't great to begin with, and now they've got a 5-6 combo of Willy Aybar and Justin Ruggiano. Their defense is also dramatically worse now, as Crawford and Longoria are two of their best fielders.

Meanwhile, the Red Sox have won the first three games on their seven game homestand. The division will likely come down to the wire, although it may not matter, beyond home-field. The Rays are currently 8.5 games ahead of the Yankees, and 5 up on the two Central leaders. There are two scenarios in which Tampa could miss the playoffs: either BOS and NYY would both have to pass them, or BOS, MIN, and CHW would all have to finish with better records. That's a lot of pieces that would have to fall into place; it would take a pretty significant collapse by Tampa, which is why they reach October almost 19 times out of 20.

Milwaukee, 15:1 (Bodog)
7:1 to win the NL (Bodog)
Current Record: 69-51
PECOTA: 87.9%

I'm not sure why this is so high; they're +375/-490 to win the NL at Matchbook. It'll be tough to catch the Cubs, but they're in very good shape with the Wild Card. If they do make the playoffs, they won't have to play the Chicago in the first round, which is a nice break. Their rotation obviously sets up well in October with Sabathia and Sheets. They're pretty clearly the second most likely NL team to reach the World Series; Bodog has them behind not only the Cubs, but also the Phillies, Mets, and Dodgers.

What Do We Want For Blake?

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 10:52:49 -0500

As the trade deadline looms, baseball writers everywhere have been consuming themselves with the seemingly endless list of players that could be on the move before it is all said and done. Since dealing CC Sabathia, the Indians have fallen out of the trade spotlight a bit, since names like Matt Holliday and Mark Teixeira have vaulted to the top. But while we do not have any power sources like the two aformentioned, we do have a few names that have apparently continued to stir interest among the MLB ranks. From Tim Brown's recent article at Yahoo!: After moving Sabathia, the Cleveland Indians remain in sell mode and are listening to offers for Blake, Paul Byrd and Jamey Carroll, and they could be convinced to discuss shortstop Jhonny Peralta. The Dodgers, who would prefer to acquire a true shortstop and move Nomar Garciaparra to third base, are in on Blake and McPherson, the former Angels prospect who is healthy again and has hit 32 home runs in Triple-A for the Florida Marlins. The Dodgers also need help in the bullpen but are not believed to be interested in Street. The Tampa Bay Rays would love to have Blake cover right field for them, but so far no one has met the Indians' price. Now given the recent play by Peralta (as well as his very, very friendly contract), I would assume that it would take one heck of an offer to pry the (gulp) shortstop from our fingers. But the one part of the above that caught me by surprise is that no one has "met our price" for Casey Blake thus far. What could our price be? Aside from the Rays, the Mets have reportedly expressed interest in the third baseman/right fielder/first baseman. We're obviously not asking for an Evan Longoria in return here, but if the demand for Blake's services continue to rise (read: Twins, Dodgers), we could be seeing a case of last-minute moves with this one even though he did not play in yesterday's game. But given the fact that Blake will be a 35-year old free agent at the end of the season, and would likely demand something more than his current deal of $6.1 million, what sort of market is there? If we hold him, and he walks, we get a first-round supplemental draft selection. But so would any team that would acquire him - increasing his value. He sees over four pitches per plate appearance - something teams love. He can play a bevy of positions - always a plus. Focusing on Tampa Bay, their rotation is going to be full of young, very good arms. Perhaps they would be willing to give up one of their minor league arms? I doubt we can nab Jeff Niemann for Blake, given the whole one-year thing. Other names that have been floated around message boards and rumor mills have been Reid Brignac (a 22-year old shortstop) and Justin Ruggiano (a 26-year old outfielder with speed). Ruggiano fits the "lower level prospect" mold that could garner someone like Blake. Brignac is typically considered a top-five prospect within the Rays' system, so that may be a bit tougher to pull off without adding a few more pieces on our side. What's good to see is that Shapiro isn't just shelling out chips to anyone who makes a phone call. While the Indians are definitely on the sell-side of things, we continue to look for the best offer out there.