Tuesday September 16, 2003

TWINS THOUGHTS

“EXPERT” PICKS

Rays of Hope

The Tampa Bay Devil Rays are 59-90 and 33 games behind the AL East leading New York Yankees. Their payroll is low and their roster is comprised of a bunch of young players, and a number of cheap veteran players. But, to me, there are three players on the team that I feel make the Devil Rays fun to watch.

Carl Crawford, LF

Carl Crawford is 6-2 and 220 pounds.  He was the Rays 2^nd round pick in 1999 out of high school.  He was also offered scholarships to play QB at Nebraska or PG at UCLA. With his size, power should eventually develop, but Crawford’s thing right now (and always has been) is speed. That’s evident based on his 50 stolen bases this season, which leads the American League. His speed also shows up in the OF where he is the Rays every day left fielder and has great range. He has plenty to work on yet. He rarely walks and strikes out too much for someone who will be a leadoff hitter. He may never have a huge RCAA, but that doesn’t make him a bad player, by any means.  He’s a player who is fun to watch, and should be for a lot of years!

Rocco Baldelli, CF

Speaking of players who are fun to watch, 21-year old, Rocco Baldelli would certainly fit into that category!  Earlier in the year when he got off to a torrid start and his batting average hovered around .400, comparisons were made between Baldelli and Joe Dimaggio. That’s not fair. He had been in the big leagues for less than 2 months.  That said, his size (6-4, 190), lankiness, speed and gracefulness in the outfield are very reminiscent of old footage of Dimaggio.

The Devil Rays took Baldelli with the 6^th overall pick in the first round of the 2000 draft. His athletic prowess in basketball and volleyball, as well as baseball, is the stuff of legends in Rhode Island. Baldelli struggled in 2001, his first season of minor league ball. But, in 2002, he progressed from Class A, through AA, and ended the season with the AAA International League Champion Durham Bulls. He was named the 2002 Baseball America Minor League Player of the Year.

Like Crawford, Baldelli still has plenty of room for improvement. He walks very infrequently and strikes out way too much, but other than that, he’s had a very solid rookie campaign!

Aubrey Huff, RF/1B

To be fair, 26 year old Aubrey Huff is a few years older than the other outfielders so he’s had more major league experience. That said, I think that if Baldelli and Crawford are putting up Huff-like numbers in another year or two, the Rays will be thrilled!  Huff took a couple of years to really get into the flow of the big leagues. But even in 2001, when he hit just .248, he had 25 doubles and 8 homers. He greatly improved in 2002, dropping down his strikeouts while increasing his walks. He also hit 25 home runs.  This year, Mike Scioscia chose RP Lance Carter as the Rays All-Star representative… Aubrey Huff should have been an All-Star. He not only is the Devil Rays best player, but he’s one of the top hitters in the American League this year! He has set numerous D-Ray single-season records in 2003 already, including most hits (181, passing Randy Winn from 2002), and doubles.

Not fleet of foot, Huff was moved to RF early in the season after struggling in the infield (although, he played 1B at the University of Miami). He’s not a great outfielder, but his bat more than makes up for it! Plus, with Baldelli and Crawford patrolling the rest of the outfield, maybe Huff just needs to take a small portion of RF!

Huff is eligible for arbitration this year for the first time and should really take a huge pay increase from the $325,000 he is making this year. But, he’s worth it. He’s put up 2 great years in a row and with the development of Baldelli and Huff in front of him in the lineup, his RBI numbers and production could continue to improve.

WHAT ELSE…???

A few years ago, the ownership of the Devil Rays decided they didn’t want to be patient with their expansion club. They went out and spent a lot of money. Money spent on the likes of Vinny Castilla, Greg Vaughn, Wilson Alvarez, Dwight Gooden, Jose Guzman, Fred McGriff and Jose Canseco. And none of them really contributed much. Last year, the plan changed. General Manager explained, “It will be a year or two before you see a tremendous turn in wins and losses. Over the next two years, it will be a building process.”

That’s why the Rays could be fun to watch the next few years. They won’t win a lot of games, but they will be doing it the right way! Developing their farm system and signing cheap veteran players who can contribute in more than one way and be a stop gap from now until some of the next wave of prospects are ready.

Josh Hamilton was the #1 pick in 1999. He had some personal problems this year and the Devil Rays decided to let him take the year off.

2001 #1 pick (3^rd overall) Dewon Brazelton has struggled in a couple of brief stints with the Rays, but in time should be successful.

Chad Gaudin was a 34^th round pick out of high school in 2001 and was amazing right away. He went to instructional league and didn’t give up an earned run in 38 innings. In 2002, he set the Rays minor league record for lowest ERA. He started this season at High-A ball, and was 5-3 with a 2.13 ERA before being called up to AA Orlando. There, he went 2-0 in 3 starts (1 CG) with an ERA of 0.47. In 19 IP, he had 3 walks and 23 strikeouts.  That warranted his callup to the Rays where he has pitched 30 1/3 innings (12 games, 3 starts). He is 1-0 with a 4.15 ERA. Not bad for a 20 year old!

2002 #1 pick, high school SS BJ Upton played his first professional games this year. After surprising many and really playing well in 100 games at Class A ball, Upton was moved up to AA for another 29 games and held his own, hitting .276. He surely is the Rays #1 prospect going into next season. But, he’s probably another year or two away from the big leagues.

This summer, the Devil Rays had the #1 overall pick and used it on another high school position player, OF Delmon Young, the brother of the Tigers lone bright spot, Dmitri Young. He just recently signed, so he will begin his professional career next spring.

So, as you can see, the foundation is being laid, but it will be a number of years before this team will be able to compete with the likes of the Red Sox and Yankees for a division title. Lou Pinella will make sure they are at least competitive until then!

I’m a Devil Rays fan, I admit it!  Are you? Will they ever be good? Send me you thoughts!

TWINS THOUGHTS

It wasn’t pretty. As a matter of fact, it was pretty much ugly. I might even say that it was a terrible baseball game. It was pretty obvious that it was the final game of a road trip as neither team played real crisply. But, the Twins got the win, and in doing so they are now in first place all by themselves.

Down 2-1 heading into the 6^th inning, the Twins were finally able to get something going against Indians starter Jason Davis. Jacque Jones singled in Shannon Stewart to tie the game at 2, however Luis Rivas was thrown out easily at home by Alex Escobar. But, the Twins got the bases loaded, when the Indians intentionally walked Corey Koskie to get to Torii Hunter (a move that Dick Bremer didn’t understand, but totally made sense to me). And again, Torii Hunter came through for the Twins. Something he really hasn’t done all year, until this series! Hunter drilled a double down the left field line that scored two more runs. AJ Pierzynski singled in Koskie. Mike Ryan then singled in both Hunter and Pierzynski. Then Cristian Guzman hit a 2-run homer (yes, seriously!!) to cap the 8-run inning and give the Twins a ‘comfortable’ 9-2 lead. 

Johan Santana was far from the top of his game last night (but did improve to 11-3 on the season).  When he walked the first two batters of the 6^th inning, Gardy brought in Grant Balfour, and although he allowed those runners to score, kept the score at 9-4. A Mike Ryan “Web Gem” robbing Victor Martinez of at least a double helped his cause.

The Twins got one to make the score 10-4, but then Balfour struggled in the 7^th allowing baserunners to reach second and third. Jesse Orosco was brought in and allowed the two inherited runners to score, but did hold the lead at 10-6. Juan Rincon pitched a great 8^th inning. Then in the top of the 9^th, Torii Hunter put in the dagger, a 3-run homer giving the Twins the final 13-6 lead and victory, and sole possession of first place in the division.

Here are the standings in the division:

Here are the pitching matchups:

Tuesday night - Brad Radke (12-10, 4.79) vs. Esteban Loaiza (19-7, 2.73)

Wednesday night - Kenny Rogers (11-8, 4.79) vs. Jon Garland (11-11, 4.29)

Thursday night - Kyle Lohse (13-11, 4.76) vs. Bartolo Colon (14-12, 3.83)

That’s three pretty good pitching matchups! Hopefully the Twins can win 2 out of 3! But how do you think the Twins will do? E-mail me your thoughts!

“EXPERT” NFL PICKS

Well, Week 2 is over after another crazy overtime game last night where the Cowboys gave up a huge 2^nd half lead to the Giants, but were able to win in overtime (all 9 of us got that one wrong!).  Here’s how our panel fared this week! Be sure to check the “Experts” Page to see specific picks, bios of the panel and more.

Check back on Friday for our Week 3 picks!

Any thoughts on anything you’ve read today, send me an e-mail. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the Devil Rays, the Twins, or the NFL!

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