2nd Annual David Price Sweepstakes: Devil Rays Clinch Worst Record In Baseball

Once again the Devil Rays are in the running for the first overall pick and have a very good chance at becoming the first team to ever have the top pick in the amateur draft two years in a row (until recently, the top pick alternated between leagues). Last season we tracked the race for the top pick and with the Devil Rays in the running again this season, we feel compelled now to make this an annual feature.

Last year at this time, the top pick was not a sure thing, but David Price appeared to be the clear favorite. Without an obvious top choice for the 2008 draft, we decided to name this feature after the inaugural namesake. While we plan on running this feature each year in September, we do hope that one of these seasons the Tampa Bay Rays are not among the contenders.

The 2nd Annual David Price Sweepstakes and the race for the top pick in the 2008 draft…

TEAM	W	L	GB	L10	STK	E#
Tampa Bay Devil Rays	65	95	—	2-8	L3	—
Pittsburgh Pirates	68	92	3.0	2-8	L2	E
Kansas City	68	92	3.0	3-7	L3	E
Baltimore Orioles	69	91	4.0	5-5	W3	E

Despite losses by Pittsburgh and Kansas City, The Devil Rays secured the worst record in baseball and clinched the top spot in the 2008 first year player entry draft by losing to the Blue Jays 5-4. Thus, the Rays have become the first team to ever have the top pick in the draft two consecutive years.

Champaign is for celebrating. I’ll have a Martini.

The Anti-Pennant Race: 2nd Annual David Price Sweepstakes

Once again the Devil Rays are in the running for the first overall pick and have a very good chance at becoming the first team to ever have the top pick in the amateur draft two years in a row (until recently, the top pick alternated between leagues). Last season we tracked the race for the top pick and with the Devil Rays in the running again this season, we feel compelled now to make this an annual feature.

Last year at this time, the top pick was not a sure thing, but David Price appeared to be the clear favorite. Without an obvious top choice for the 2008 draft, we decided to name this feature after the inaugural namesake. While we plan on running this feature each year in September, we do hope that one of these seasons the Tampa Bay Rays are not among the contenders.

The 2nd Annual David Price Sweepstakes and the race for the top pick in the 2008 draft…

TEAM	W	L	GB	L10	STK	E#
Tampa Bay Devil Rays	65	93	—	3-7	L2	—
Baltimore Orioles	68	91	2.0	4-6	W1	1
Kansas City	68	91	3.0	4-6	L2	1
Pittsburgh Pirates	68	91	4.0	2-8	L1	1

The Devil Rays could clinch the top spot in the draft tonight, north of the border. It was erroneously reported this morning that that the Rays had already clinched the top spot in the draft and last place in the AL East. That was simply a case of Premature Ejacabration. After the Rays loss last night, combined with the Orioles win, the Rays sit 3 back in the AL East with 3 to play, and their magic number is now 1, with 3 other teams that still have a chance to tie the Rays for the worst record in baseball.

We have the champaign on ice and will certainly keep on eye on the score while watching a game tonight that actually means something (for once).

The Hangover: Three More In Green

Yankees 3, Devil Rays 3.
The biggest game of the weekend is not one of the D-Rays games against the Jays. Surprise! Most would say that the biggest game is the Bucs tilt against the Panthers on Sunday for first place in the NFC South. But a case could be made that the biggest game this weekend amongst Florida teams, and maybe the biggest game in college football is Friday night when South Florida takes on West Virginia at Raymond James.

There is a promising new blog on the block and Bulls Index has coverage of the biggest game in the short history of the USF football program.

Bulls Index.

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

• Last night, Scott Kazmir struck out 10 and took over the league lead for strikeouts and is likely to finish the season on top of the leaderboard. [tampabay.com]
• Joel Guzman and Justin Ruggiano will start all three games this weekend against the Jays. [USA Today]
• Stuart Sternberg addressed the media Thursday night, the Rays final home game of the season. Among the topics covered, Sternberg stated that he expects the payroll to be increased about 20%. While that sounds like a lot on the surface keep in mind that 20% of “not very much” is still “not very much”. A 20% increase on a $30 million payroll is only $6 million. Carlos Pena alone will likely receive most of that increase, with the rest of the 20% increase likely going to other in-house players that will need pay increases due to existing contracts or arbitration eligibility. [Devil Rays]
• Stuart Sternberg also stated that he believes the Rays can be a playoff contender on 2008. [tampabay.com]

“This club is capable of being a playoff caliber club next year unfortunately we are certainly hindered playing in the division that we’re in and playing in the league that we play in,” Sternberg said, “but having said that I know that there will be teams in the playoff this year, and possibily one that wins the World Series, that I would love to have crack at in a seven-game series, or know that we can play on an even or better basis during the season. …

“I believe that by April 1 next year if we’ve done our job we’ve put our players in a position to contend for a playoff spot. It’s not a likelihood, it’s not obviously going to happen, but as long as we put them in a position to succeed we’ll have done our job and I believe we’ll be there next year.”

• Carlos Pena was voted the Rays 2007 team MVP. [tampabay.com]
• John Romano argues that neither Carlos Pena, nor Carl Crawford are the best player on the team. Rather, he makes a strong case for BJ Upton and it is hard to argue. A year ago, we were hoping that Upton could just be an everyday player. Now he is playing like a 23 year old version of Alfonso Soriano. [tampabay.com]

And while Carl Crawford was making another All-Star team, Pena was setting a franchise record for home runs and Young was battling Dustin Pedroia for rookie of the year, Upton unobtrusively put together a stellar season. His batting average has not been below .300 the entire year, and he is the youngest player among the AL’s top 10 in OPS on-base plus slugging.

Combine the plate discipline, power and speed with a premium position defensively, and Upton looks like a Grady Sizemore-type franchise player.

The Anti-Pennant Race: 2nd Annual David Price Sweepstakes

Once again the Devil Rays are in the running for the first overall pick and have a very good chance at becoming the first team to ever have the top pick in the amateur draft two years in a row (until recently, the top pick alternated between leagues). Last season we tracked the race for the top pick and with the Devil Rays in the running again this season, we feel compelled now to make this an annual feature.

Last year at this time, the top pick was not a sure thing, but David Price appeared to be the clear favorite. Without an obvious top choice for the 2008 draft, we decided to name this feature after the inaugural namesake. While we plan on running this feature each year in September, we do hope that one of these seasons the Tampa Bay Rays are not among the contenders.

The 2nd Annual David Price Sweepstakes and the race for the top pick in the 2008 draft…

TEAM	W	L	GB	L10	STK	E#
Tampa Bay Devil Rays	65	93	—	4-6	L1	—
Baltimore Orioles	67	91	2.0	3-7	L2	3
Pittsburgh Pirates	68	91	2.5	2-8	L1	2
Florida Marlins	68	90	3.0	3-7	W2	2
Kansas City	68	90	3.0	4-6	L1	2
Chicago White Sox	69	89	4.0	5-5	L2	1

The And then there were six. Two more teams were eliminated last night. The Giants were eliminated on the basis of the Rays loss to the Yankees, and the Astros were eliminated after their win. The Rays magic number is now 3 with 4 to go. At this point it looks like the Rays best hope is to finish tied with the Orioles. If the Rays finish 4-0 they would need the Orioles to close out 1-3 to pass them. Not impossible. But asking a lot.

The Hangover: Baseball Is Just Fine The Way It is

Yankees 12, Devil Rays 4.
I can’t even believe I am going to waste my time discussing this shit.

Reason #4,312 that Americans hate soccer: Their fans are snobs and believe EVERYTHING in the world should imitate the “Beautiful Game”.

The guys over at Sauntering are the latest group to propose that Major League Baseball would be better off mimicking the English Premier League’s “promotion and relegation” system. In the EPL, the three worst teams in the league each year are kicked out of the first division and the three best teams in the second division replace them.

Being fans of the Devil Rays means this is not the first time we have heard that Major League Baseball would be better off with a “promotion and relegation” system. It was an idiotic idea the first 50 times we heard it and it is still an idiotic idea now. We are a rare American fan of non-American football, and we know that the system works for the EPL, but it would not work with baseball and especially under the IDIOTIC proposal put forth by Andy at Sauntering.

Under his proposal, the three worst teams in Major League Baseball would be replaced in 2008 by the three best teams in AAA. The problem, and this is just a minor thing…THE MINOR LEAGUE TEAMS ARE COMPOSED OF PLAYERS BELONGING TO THE MAJOR LEAGUE TEAMS. So, under Andy’s “brilliant” strategy, the Durham Bulls would be one of the teams to be promoted and the Devil Rays would be demoted. So the AAA players that aren’t good enough to be on the Devil Rays would replace the Devil Rays. F’in genius.

What is to keep the owner of the Devil Rays from just switching the players back up, only now you are making the organization play in Durham in a 5,000 seat stadium instead of in St. Pete. Major league Baseball in a stadium that holds 5,000. Sounds awesome!

Or what happens if the Durham Bulls were promoted and the Rays were not relegated? The organization would have two teams in Major League baseball? How does that make any sense? What would keep a 6 or 7th place owner, that is safe from relegation but out of the playoff hunt, from sending its best players back to AAA, so they could make a run at being promoted?

And take the case of the White Sox who recently won the world series and still have much the same roster. Would you relegate them because of one bad season when they could easily bounce back next year? Or the Rays that are an up and coming team and are a lot better than their record would indicate?

And we are sure there are 50 other reasons why this is a stupid idea, but we are too annoyed to spend any more time thinking about it.

Andy, why don’t you first educate yourself on how baseball works before you start telling us what is wrong with baseball. Thank you.

To all the real baseball fans out there, we apologize. We now return you to our regularly scheduled programming.

What if MLB had promotion & relegation? [Sauntering]

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

• Not everybody is happy that the Rays are dropping “Devil” from their name in 2008. Seriously. Some people are down right pissed and these are the type of people you DO NOT want to piss off. Just sayin’. I remember somebody once saying…”Sure, David Koresh was probably crazy…But what if he was the second coming of Jesus? Oops” [The Serious Tip]
• Joe Maddon stated that the chances of Evan Longoria being the Rays opening day third baseman is 50/50. Make no mistake, this means that the job is Longoria’s for the taking. In essence, the team wants Longoria to be that opening day third baseman but will only allow him to be put in a position to “earn” the job. If they say anything more than “50/50” at this point, then Longoria would be considered a disappointment if he struggles in spring training and the team decides he needs another month or two at AAA. [MiLB]
• Wade Davis was named the Rays minor league pitcher of the year and Ryan Royster was named the organization’s player of the year. The team also named the player and pitchers of the year for each of its six minor league affiliates. [tampabay.com]
• Danny Wild takes a look back at the highlights of the 2007 Tampa Bay Devil Rays minor league affiliates, from top to bottom. [Florida State League]

The Anti-Pennant Race: 2nd Annual David Price Sweepstakes

Once again the Devil Rays are in the running for the first overall pick and have a very good chance at becoming the first team to ever have the top pick in the amateur draft two years in a row (until recently, the top pick alternated between leagues). Last season we tracked the race for the top pick and with the Devil Rays in the running again this season, we feel compelled now to make this an annual feature.

Last year at this time, the top pick was not a sure thing, but David Price appeared to be the clear favorite. Without an obvious top choice for the 2008 draft, we decided to name this feature after the inaugural namesake. While we plan on running this feature each year in September, we do hope that one of these seasons the Tampa Bay Rays are not among the contenders.

The 2nd Annual David Price Sweepstakes and the race for the top pick in the 2008 draft…

TEAM	W	L	GB	L10	STK	E#
Tampa Bay Devil Rays	65	92	—	4-6	W2	—
Florida Marlins	67	90	2.0	3-7	W1	4
Pittsburgh Pirates	67	90	2.0	1-9	W1	4
Baltimore Orioles	67	90	2.0	4-6	L1	4
Kansas City	68	89	3.0	5-5	W1	3
Chicago White Sox	68	89	3.0	5-5	L2	3
Houston Astros	69	88	4.0	6-4	W1	2
San Francisco	70	88	4.5	4-6	L1	1

Despite Dioner Navarro’s heroics against the Yankees, the Rays magic number is now 4 after both the Marlins and the Pirates also won their games. The Buccos ended a 9-game losing streak. The Rays did pull within 2 games of the Orioles and still have a shot at 4th place in the AL East…Another one bites the dust as the Washinton Nationals picked a W last night and were eliminated from contention for the top pick of the 2008 draft. San Fran and Houston can both be eliminated this evening although Houston would need a win and a Rays loss.

The Hangover: The Emergence Of Dioner Navarro

Devil Rays 7, Yankees 6 (10 innings).

It is easy to talk about how good a hitter Dioner Navarro has been on the morning after he hit a walk-off extra-inning home run to beat the hated Yankees.

But exactly how good has Navi been in the second half? Since the All-Star break, Navarro is hitting .293/.348/.494. He has hit 8 home runs and driven in 31. He has the 3rd highest OPS (.842) of any catcher since the break, trailing only Jorge Posada (1.061) and Chris Snyder (.932).

Compare that to his first half numbers and we have the ultimate “Tale of Two Hitters”. At the break Navi was hitting .177/.238/.254 with 1 home run and 13 RBI. His OPS of .491 ranked 33rd among catcher with at 150 plate appearances…DEAD LAST.

All this is makes for a neat story about a guy that finally found his stroke in the 2007 season, but at this point, of bigger concern to us is: What can we expect from Dioner Navarro in 2008? Will he maintain his second half pace into the 2008 season? Will he continue to develop and post numbers in 2008 even better than his 2007 second half numbers? Or…are the second half numbers the result of a “hot streak” and the true Dioner Navarro is somewhere in between his first half and second half totals?

On June 22, Navi was hitting .170 and we presented some numbers to indicate that Navi’s poor first half was just as much the result of “bad luck” as it was poor hitting. In short the number of line drives he was hitting should have been translating into more base hits. And in the second half a lot more of those line-drives started finding holes.

Also keep in mind that Navarro is posting an .842 OPS as a catcher in the second half of a season. The second-half of a season is when catchers are supposed to wear down and slow down. If Navi had posted an .842 OPS in the first-half, would anybody be clamoring for the Rays to bring in a free agent catcher next season? Not likely.

But the most telling stat about Lil Pudge is 24. As in that will be Navi’s age on opening day in 2008. Anybody want to take a guess as to what Jorge Posada’s numbers were when he was 23? Try .255-8-51…in AAA! *Broken Record warning* Catchers are notoriously slow developers as hitters.

So what can we expect in 2008? Can Navi develop a power game and hit 25 home runs? Not likely. He isn’t exactly threatening the catwalks or the center field restaurant with his home runs. Most of them are line drives that scrape the top of the wall. But we do believe that when Navi fully develops he is a .320-.330 hitter. He hits a ton of line drives and he has excellent plate discipline.

Our conservative guess for Navarro’s 2008 line is .300-15-70 with a .370 OBP. For a catcher that is above-average defensively, that is plenty of offense.

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

• No surprise here. Carl Crawford will not play in the final week. [Devil Rays]
• Joe Maddon met with Akinori Iwamura and asked him to work out at second base in the off-season. [TBO]
• Gary Shelton says that this last place finish feels a lot different from years past and that there is hope for the years to come. But the most telling question that Shelton asks is: “How in the heck did this team finish last, anyway?” [tampabay.com]
• Buster Olney brings up the possibility of Barry Bonds playing for the Devil Rays, suggesting that the Rays and the Royals could be his only options for 2008. We find it hard to believe that a 73 year old Bonds is going to sign a subpar contract to play for a non-contender. Not to mention is the upgrade to Bonds at $5-8 million worth it, when the Rays have Jonny Gomes and Rocco Baldelli (not to mention Elijah Dukes) at DH at les than half the price? This is a non-story. [MLB Trade Rumors]

The Anti-Pennant Race: 2nd Annual David Price Sweepstakes

Once again the Devil Rays are in the running for the first overall pick and have a very good chance at becoming the first team to ever have the top pick in the amateur draft two years in a row (until recently, the top pick alternated between leagues). Last season we tracked the race for the top pick and with the Devil Rays in the running again this season, we feel compelled now to make this an annual feature.

Last year at this time, the top pick was not a sure thing, but David Price appeared to be the clear favorite. Without an obvious top choice for the 2008 draft, we decided to name this feature after the inaugural namesake. While we plan on running this feature each year in September, we do hope that one of these seasons the Tampa Bay Rays are not among the contenders.

The 2nd Annual David Price Sweepstakes and the race for the top pick in the 2008 draft…

TEAM	W	L	GB	L10	STK	E#
Tampa Bay Devil Rays	64	92	—	3-7	W1	—
Florida Marlins	66	90	2.0	3-7	L3	5
Pittsburgh Pirates	66	90	2.0	1-9	L9	5
Baltimore Orioles	67	89	3.0	4-6	W1	4
Kansas City	67	89	3.0	4-6	L2	4
Houston Astros	68	88	4.0	5-5	L2	3
Chicago White Sox	68	88	4.0	6-4	L1	3
San Francisco	70	87	5.5	4-6	W3	1
Washington Nationals	70	87	5.5	5-5	W2	1

The Giants and the Nationals both picked up wins last night to drop their elimination numbers to 1. A win tonight or a Devil Rays loss and they will be eliminated. Baltimore also picked up a win to fall 3 games back with 6 to play. The victory may have ended the O’s last gasp and any thoughts of the Rays finishing out of the cellar for just the second time in the history of the franchise.

The Hangover: It Will All Be Over Soon

Devil Rays (off day)

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

• This just in…Evan Longoria is good. Longoria plays third base. Akinori Iwamura plays third base. Aki ranked 23rd (out of 35, min. 250 PA) of major league third basemen in OPS. Aki has a weak arm. Aki may need to move to a new position in 2008. The writers that cover the Rays must be praying for Elijah Dukes to do something stupid. 3…2…1…. [Devil Rays]
  
• Rays of Light makes an argument that Carlos Pena has been more valuable to the Rays than Alex Rodriguez has been to the Yankees. Scott takes a look at the WARP values (number of wins a player is worth) for each player. While A-Rod has a higher WARP (10.5 to 9), El Gato’s WARP represents a higher percentage of the Devil Rays wins and hence he is “More Valuable”. It is an interesting argument and not necessarily “wrong”. We don’t pretend to know all the math behind these numbers, but the problem with using WARP for this argument is that in theory it is team independent. Therefore, if A-Rod was playing for the Rays (and posted the same numbers) he would still have a WARP of 10.5 and if Pena was on the Yankees, his would still be 9.0. In essence, to use WARP as a percentage of team wins, penalizes a player on a good team and gives a HUGE advantage to a player on a team that has very few wins. In an absolute sense, A-Rod is worth more wins and in the end W’s are the only stat that really matters. [Rays of Light]
• Why does John Donovan of SI.com think that the Devil Rays deserve to be ranked last in his latest “Power Rankings”? Is it because they have the worst record in baseball? Nope. Worst pitching? Nah. They are the worst team in the league because “Boston’s Dustin Pedroia is the AL’s Rookie of the Year. It shouldn’t be all that close.” [SI.com]
• John Sickels takes a look at the crash-and-burn that was Dewon Brazelton and tries to answer the question ” What the hell happened here?” [Minor League Ball]
• Roger Clemens will make his scheduled start tonight, despite speculation to the contrary. If we are lucky, Clemens will talk to reporters and support Carlos Pena Comeback Player of the Year. And of course that will be Rocket’s secret code for wanting to pitch for the Rays in 2008. [TBO]

Why The Devil Rays Columnists Suck: Marc Lancaster

Marc Lancaster gets paid to write this shit? Makes us wonder why we went to college and grad school. Instead of applying to McDonalds when we were 15, we should have sent a resume to the Tampa Tribune.

In his latest blog entry, Marc Lancaster shows us exactly how desperate he is to find an interesting topic to write about the Devil Rays or he gets a kick out of showing somebody a pile of shit and telling them it’s gold.

The latest entry on Curt Schilling’s blog details his votes in the MLB Players Choice Awards.

Keeping in mind that players aren’t allowed to vote for anyone on their team, which in this case is particularly applicable to rookie of the year, Schilling tabbed Delmon Young as the top rookie and Carlos Pena for comeback player of the year while also voting for Pena as the top first baseman. Carl Crawford also gets a mention in sort of the “others receiving votes” category among outfielders.

I still have a very difficult time picturing Schill in a blue & sunburst Rays uni next year, but there you go.

We shouldn’t have to waste time pointing out how idiotic it is to go from “Carlos Pena for comeback player of the year” to “Curt Schilling wants to pitch for the Devil Rays”, but let’s do it anyway for shits and giggles.

1. Yes, he picked Pena for CPOY and top firstbaseman. What were his other choices? and let’s look at what Schil said about Pena…”Another accolade for an outstanding season by an outstanding person”. That’s right. Pena was with the Red Sox last year and even though he only spent the Spring a small regular season stint with the Sox, Schilling obviously got to know him well enough that there appears to be a personal bias towards a friend.
2. As Lancaster pointed out, Schill can’t vote for teammates. Everybody that knows baseballs are white with red stitches knows that the two top candidates for rookie of the year are Dustin Pedroia and Delmon Young. And what “praise” does Schill bestow upon Delmon and the Rays in this category?…”He’s going to drive in close to 100 runs and hit close to 300, not sure there are many guys outside of Dustin who can challenge that. Dustin, imo with a lot of obvious bias, deserves to win it. He’s had a phenomenal season on both sides of the ball”. That’s right, he praises Pedroia.
3. Schilling also names Alex Rodriguez for player of the year and top third baseman, along with Jorge Posada for top catcher. Is that Schilling’s way of expressing “love for the Yankees”? Or is he indicating he wants to pitch for the Yankees in 2008? And what is more likely. Schilling in a Red Sox or Yankees uniform in 2008 or Schilling a Rays uni? If you have to even spend more than 1 katrillion millionth of a second thinking about it, you need to need to reevaluate whether or not you should be a baseball fan.

More love from Schilling [TBO]
One celebration down, 4 to go. [38 pitches]