Yanks get Mo's successor

and how many top picks have the Pirates and Royals blown?

 

All Carlos Pena could get (or eventually settled for) was a one-year deal, in an offseason of massive inflation. The Rays could afford to pay Pena but couldn't afford to watch him strike out 200 times. They wrung as much out of that grape as they could.

Book comes out in March, see what you think. And, no, I am not Jonah.

 

That has nothing to do with it.

Part of the problem wit hall three of these teams is that they've shied away from top picks that would be expensive to sign.

But, if you draft jamie Quirk and he doesn't pan out, there's not much you can do about it.

When you pick the consensus best player in the draft and he turns out to not be a stud, is that your fault?

If you pick the consensus best player in the draft and he does turn out to be a stud, does that make you out to be a genius?

Also, some of the best players on the Rays pennant winning team were drafted by LaMarr. I don't know why that gets overlooked when giving credit to the "boy genius".

 

I don't blame them for not retaining Pena at this point. You're right, they got the best years out of him. No reason to keep him.

But, they should have tried to keep their bullpen intact and their dismantling their starting rotation as well.

The fan base in Tampa Bay isn't great. The Stadium is a dump (though they've made improvements) and many think it's in the wrong place. And the economy is as bad in the Bay area as it is anywhere in the country.

But, the Rays have done very little to capitalize on their success. They're going to fall back to a lousy, unloved, team. Quickly.

 

Fixed that for you. Your argument basically comes down to saying that it isn't a bad thing for the Rays to lose Crawford because he might get hurt. Of course, you can argue that about any player in MLB, but you somehow still think that is a strong argument. :

 

Crawford was one part of the original argument. You repeated yourself in successive posts. Go and see for yourself.

I mean this politely, I'm finished until your reasoning shows a little more sophistication.

 

So you are allowed to latch on to only parts of arguments (see your post about Pena), but nobody else is?

Why don't you come on back when your posting shows a little more intellectual integrity?

And just to be clear, I am not ripping Rays management for letting Crawford go. I'm just saying that you are far too quick to dismiss the loss.

 

Pfffffft.

Tampa Bay has 12 of the first 93 picks in the June draft.

 

He's had a lot of little injuries, but mostly flukes outside of the wrist thing. More concerning to me if I were signing him to a monster contract is that he's been putting professional outfield seasons on his legs since he was 18.

 

Which will be spent on 12 players who have not proven that they can play at the major-league level, much less excell as Crawford has. Rebuilding is fine under the right circumstances, but not when you are coming off a division title. But those are the choices the small markets have to make.

 

Twelve cream picks in a richly talented draft. And they got Jennings in the 10th round, so they can spread it around.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/jon_heyman/01/14/overpaid.underpaid/index.html?eref=writers

The Rays likely will sign either Vlad Guerrero or Manny Ramirez, according to Heyman. Don't be too hasty to call it a traditional rebuild.

 

Call it what you want. A division champion took a big step backward due to finances.