What I’m Reading
• The Rays might be built for 2010, but what about beyond that? Carlos Pena and Carl Crawford might be skipping town after the season is over.
• Brandon Webb still has yet to throw again since the beginning of spring training. It’s a good thing D-Backs fans didn’t have high expectations for 2010.
• Apparently there’s an upside to losing one of the best pitchers of the past decade. The Blue Jays feel they’re better off without Roy Halladay.
• Yovi’s gettin’ paid, gettin’ paid. Like, largest contract ever for a pitcher with his service time, gettin’ paid.
What I Think About It
Rays
• What’s scarier than a loaded team with something to prove?
A young loaded team with something to prove.
With an average age of 28.1, the Rays come into 2010 as the sixth youngest team. And guess what? The top five aren’t exactly considered to be contenders this year: Oakland, Cleveland, Florida, Arizona, and Texas.
Now, what this means is that while Tampa Bay is obviously going to be in the hunt for a playoff spot in 2010, they’re also going to be sticking around most of this decade. No more shooting fish in (the bottom of) a barrel when in St. Pete.
But two key contributors to Tampa’s recent successes are free agents at the end of the season: Carl Crawford and Carlos Pena.
There has been a lot of speculation that Crawford is as good as gone and might as well already head to the tailor to get fitted for his Yankee uniform.
Unfortunately, I tend to add to that speculative pool when I write material such as this.
But as for Pena, well, he might be staying for the long haul.
After bouncing around for the better part of his career, he has seemed to nestle right in to Tampa Bay quite nicely.
The biggest benefactor for the Rays in their hopes of keeping him? Mark Teixeira.
The Yankees already snagged their first baseman last offseason.
So, to me at least, it looks like Crawford is out, Pena is in.
One out of two ain’t half bad, right?
Webb
• All I can say is that I’m glad I didn’t draft Brandon Webb in my fantasy league. Trust me, I considered it.
It has to be frustrating to everyone in Arizona to see their former beloved, untouchable Cy Young winner issue so much false hope on a regular basis and take it away as often as he has seemed to over the past year.
I suppose he technically isn’t pushing things back and pushing things back as we saw last season, when he was supposed to return after the All-Star break. But in reality that is easy to do now that no set date for his return is intact.
"We're still going through the exercise and strengthening parts of his program," D-Backs manager A.J. Hinch said, according to MLB.com. "We didn't really circle a date to play catch. He's not missing a date or anything like that."
Not even a date to play catch. What a shame; Hinch isn’t even talking about pitching a simulated game or pitching off a mound. Just catch.
At age 70, I still full well plan to be able to play catch. What’s his excuse?
(All right, I guess it is fair to say his excuse is shoulder surgery. But still. Disheartening.)
Halladay
• Better off without Roy Halladay? Preposterous!
While his on-the-field additions were clearly vital to Toronto’s...uhh...success, apparently his locker room presence was somewhat of a downer.
No, he wasn’t a hothead or a complainer, just a loner.
And often when the only player on your team that has a face and a name to the general public is the one guy that subtracts from a team’s chemistry, things need to change.
“Everybody’s a lot more loose and relaxed and laid-back, myself included,” said pitcher Shawn Marcum, according to the Toronto Sun.
It just seemed to set a tone, I guess.
Hard to argue with the logic either.
The Jays have come out hot to begin 2010, pounding the Rangers in three games and coming away with a 2-1 record.
A peanut-sized sample, sure, but Vernon Wells seems to be miraculously revitalized (four homers in the series alone), and one has to wonder if the two are connected.
Wells was next in line to be viewed as the leader of the team and seems predisposed to stepping up and filling the role, which is just what Toronto needed.
(Along with better players.)
Yovani Gallardo
• Very interesting numbers across the board regarding service time and financial numbers.
We can only hope that Gallardo leans more towards the CC Sabathia/Justin Verlander category rather than the Fausto Carmona side of things.
It’s unlikely that Yovi will be a bust like Carmona was/is. Despite the 13-12 record last year, I was head over heels impressed with the kid.
His other numbers aren’t spectacular—for example, his 3.73 ERA, 21 home runs allowed, and 94 walks—but he’s still finding his way in the Bigs in a more “offensively-minded” division of the National League.
With over 200 strikeouts, his stuff is among the tops in the NL; he’ll just need to fine-tune his control.
It’s a sign of the times for the Brewers, willing to make a splash and sign their ace long-term with a rich deal.
Next on the docket: Prince Fielder.
PD
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