[THE HANGOVER] Rays Lose Evan Meek In Rule 5 Draft

Tampa Bay Rays (66-96)

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

• The Rule 5 draft was held yesterday and the Rays selected Tim Lahey from the Minnesota Twins and then traded him to the Cubs. The Rays lost one player, as Evan Meek was taken with the second pick by the Pirates. [Baseball America]
• In the AAA phase of the Rule 5 Draft, the Rays selected Rashad Eldridge from the Twins. Eldridge was a 5th round pick in 2000 and has had a very unimpressive career to date. The Rays selected two other players in the Rule 5 draft that will never wear a Rays uniform so there names are unimportant. [Baseball America]
• Rays Anatomy takes a look at the players selected by the Rays in the Rule 5 Draft, including the two unnamed players from above. [Rays Anatomy]
• Most of us are familiar with the Rule 5 draft (not Rule V), but did you know that baseball’s amateur draft held in June is actually the Rule 4 draft? Baseball Prospectus takes a look at the Rule 4 draft and projects the first 10 selections, predicting that the Tampa Bay Rays will take Pedro Alvarez, a 1B/3B from Vanderbilt. The most eye-opening line is the last one, in which BP projects that Alvarez would eventually be the best bat in the Rays lineup. It isn’t like the Rays don’t have any good bats and Evan Longoria is knocking on the door. [Baseball Prospectus]

Pedro is still the class of this draft, but the top high schoolers closed the gap over the summer. You can bet Alvarez is going to have some huge bonus demands — if he regresses at all as a junior (like Matt Wieters did), Tampa will explore other options. In the end, though, this should be their guy. He could be great at first and probably even work in right, and he’ll be the best bat in their lineup at some point.

• Yahoo! Sports has named the Tampa Bay Rays as one of the winners of the Winter Meetings. Keep in mind that the Matt Garza trade was made prior to the Winter Meetings. [Yahoo! Sports]

The Elijah Dukes Experiment, which went about as well as metal in a microwave, is finally over, and GM Andrew Friedman even managed to procure a decent prospect from Washington in the trade. For too long, the Rays tolerated Dukes’ sociopathic behavior because his talent. His Crazy Factor – the formula for which is DTTW+JPD/BA (death threats toward wife plus joints per day divided by batting average) – finally spiked too high even for their liking, though, and somehow they found a willing buyer in the Nationals. This is six months late, yes, but better than never.

The Hangover: The Rays Are On The Bubble (What is their RPI again?)

• Another solid performance by one of the Rays starting pitchers. James Shields allowed only one base runner in two innings of work with two strikeouts. At the plate, Joe Maddon tried a new lineup with Carl Crawford and Delmon Young switching spots in the order. The move paid off in the first with Crawford stealing second and Delmon driving him home.
• Yesterday we speculated that one of the final two spots in the bullpen would go to Al Reyes and the final spot was up for grabs. Papa Joe Maddon indicated that there was a very good chance that Reyes would make the team and Juan Salas was the leading candidate for the final spot. One guy we might be forgetting about is Jeff Ridgway. Maddon went the first half of 2006 without a lefty in the bullpen. He has always said having a lefty is not a priority. Rather, he just needs a guy that can get lefties out. Still, if Maddon does decide to include a lefty in the pen (like the other 29 managers in baseball) Ridgway might be the guy.
• In a classic non-story-story, the Lakeland Ledger says that the Rays should not be tempted to rush Jeff Niemann to the majors. The Rays have one spot open in the rotation (two if Casey Fossum can’t go the first week or two) and five pitchers competing for that spot. Niemann is not one of those pitchers. The team has been emphatic that Big Righthander would start the season at AAA. Trust us, they are not tempted.
• Last season there was one of those classic New York sports stories (by typical we mean silly) that made a controversy over the use of the song Enter Sandman by the Mets new closer Billy Wagner. You see the song had been used by the Yankees Mo Rivera for years and for a lesser human being like Wagner to use it was heretical. Well, even though he is a starter, J. P. Howell’s favorite musician could trump them all. Who wouldn’t get fired up when Howell came jogging in from the bullpen with PA announcer blaring…Mozart?
• The Hardball Times ranks the top 3 benches in the American League. The Rays did not make the cut, but they did receive honorable mention. Now if the team could just get some pitching depth.
• Baseball Analysts takes a look at how often Rule 5 picks stuck with their new teams for an entire season from 1998-2006. Interestingly, outfield selections have the highest failure rate. Of the 23 outfielders chosen from 1998-2006, only five were with the team that selected them for the entire season. One of those to not stick with their new team was Rays farmhand Jason Pridie. Will Josh Hamilton become just the sixth? We thinks yes.
• Could the Rays be Major League baseball’s version of George Mason this season? Only if the league decides to allow 65 teams into the playoffs, and even then they better hope that the selection committee considers the Rays strength of schedule.