[THE HANGOVER] Rays Acquire Third Baseman, Hope To Magically Make Him A ‘Super-Duper-Utility’ Guy

Tampa Bay Rays (27 days until pitchers and catchers report)

On Thursday, the Tampa Bay Rays acquired Willy Aybar and Chase Fontaine for Jeff Ridgway. Aybar, who will be 25 on opening day, missed all of 2007 due to a wrist injury suffered in Spring Training and a stint in a substance abuse program. Previously, he spent parts of 2005 and 2006 at the big league level, accumulating a .292-5-40 line (.803 OPS) in 105 games with the Braves and Dodgers.

Several outlets have reported that Aybar is the “super-utility” player that the Rays sought, including the St. Pete Times and the Bradenton Herald. This is curious as there is absolutely zero indication that he can play any position other than third base and short stop. Aybar is a third baseman by trade and occasionally played second base in the minors, with only one game played elsewhere (shortstop). And while he has shown a decent glove at second base, he is below-average at best at third base with a range factor (2.34) below the league average and 10 errors in 80 career games.

While the Rays may envision Aybar as their “super-utility” player down the road, the more likely scenario is that the Rays have acquired their opening day third baseman, and this is definitely nothing to get excited about. Aybar is a weak-hitting (45.2 ABs/HR as a pro), poor-defensive, shitty base stealing (50-103 SBs as a pro) third baseman…who hasn’t played organized baseball in over a year…is coming off a stint in rehab and an injured wrist. In other words Aybar has two months to get back into baseball shape and learn 4-5 new positions. This will be fun.

P.S. Aybar is out of options. He will be on the opening day roster.

Rays acquire Aybar from Braves [MLB]
Rays land utilityman; arbitration time looms [TampaBay.com]
Rays get super-utility player, solid bat in Aybar [Bradenton Herald]

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

• Future Considerations profiles the “other” player in the trade, Chase Fontaine. Even though Minor League Ball thinks his name sounds like that of a 1950s musical star, we prefer “1970s Porn Star” [Future Considerations]
  
• Scott Kazmir does not expect a deal to be reached with the Rays prior to the noon deadline. [TampaBay.com]

Kazmir said he would prefer to have his contract situation resolved, but understood going through arbitration was part of the business side of the game. Though hearings don’t take place until February, the Rays have a team policy to cease negotiations once salary figures are filed, which takes place at noon Friday.

• The Jonny Gomes deal has been finalized. Gomes will make $1.275 million in 2008 with a chance to up that total to $1.3 million with 500 plate appearances. With Gomes’ new contract, the Rays will now have 11 players in 2008 that will make at least $1 million. [TampaBay.com]
• Stacy Long takes a look at team payrolls from the past seven seasons. To no surprise the Rays have had the lowest average payroll over that span, including an average player salary of $1.1 million in 2007. [Talk Alabama]
• The St. Pete City Council has set three dates in which the public will be able to voice their opinions concerning the proposed $450 million stadium to be built along the St. Pete waterfront. Here is hoping for the sake of the City Council, that the Heckler does not show up. HEY COUNCILMANNNN! THIS IDEA IS TERRIBLEEEE DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT TRYING TO BUILD THIS NEW STADIUMMMMMM. MY VOICE WILL NEVER TRAVEL AS WELL IN AN OUTDOOR STADIUMMMMMM. HOT DOGGGGGG! [TBO]
• The St. Pete City Council voted 7-1 to request proposals for the New Stadium proposed by the Tampa Bay Rays. This does not mean the stadium has been approved. Only that the city is willing to see what ideas different developers can come up with and how much money each of those developers thinks the project will generate for the area…In other news, water is wet. [TampaBay.com]
• One blogger ranks the pitchers in the Rays organization (Matt Garza is #1?) and profiles Andy Sonnanstine. [Variables Don’t; Constants Aren’t]

[THE HANGOVER] The Tampa Bay Rays Are Promising As Much As $300 Million For Local Schools With New Stadium

Tampa Bay Rays (31 days until pitchers and catchers report)
The Tampa Bay Rays claim that as much as $800 million in new local taxes will be generated for St. Petersburg over the next 35 years due to the redevelopment of the Tropicana Field site. As part of the proposal for a new stadium along the St. Pete waterfront and the redevelopment of the land on which Tropicana Field sits, the Rays want 52% of those new taxes for building the new stadium. The other 48% would be distributed among local St. Pete agencies, with the biggest chunk (37%) going to the Pinellas and state school system. The remaining 11% would be split among other local entities.

The Tampa Bay Rays say the successful redevelopment of Tropicana Field and its parking lots could generate $5-million a year in new property tax revenues for state and Pinellas schools. If the redevelopment includes retail, millions of dollars more could flow into the city and county coffers each year through sales tax payments.

That money, which would not help build a new Rays stadium for the Rays, could be used to build new schools or new parks or pay teachers or police officers more, the Rays say.

If the $800 million turns out to be $400 million, the Rays would still get their stadium and the Pinellas and state school systems would get nothing. Therefore, the Rays hopes for a new stadium may be dependent on proving that the redevelopment of Tropicana Field can indeed generate the $800 million they are projecting.

Rays say schools gain in redevelopment [TampaBay.com]

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

• Stacy Long revealed his list of the Top 30 Tampa Bay Rays prospects. We have updated our Meta-Analysis of Rays Prospects to include Long’s list. Long’s list is of special value as he covers the AA Montgomery Biscuits and has seen most of these players first-hand. We are also now including a link to the meta-analysis in the side-panel. [Stacy Long’s Riverwalk Talk]
• Depending on the final numbers for the Rays final four remaining arbitration-eligible players, the Rays will most likely have an opening day payroll greater than $40 million. Based on our own projections, we place the final number just north of $41 million. This will be greater than the Rays promise of a 20% increase over their 2007 opening day payroll. Marc Topkin also includes his projected 25-man payroll and opening day lineup. The projection is very similar to our own, including Juan Salas not being on the roser. The only exception is giving the final roster spot to Justin Ruggiano and having Joel Guzman as the opening day third baseman in place of Evan Longoria. This is an idea that we are starting to warm up to. [TampaBay.com]
• Joe Maddon wants to emphasize fundamentals in Spring Training. [TBO]

“I’m going to apply a lot of pressure to the coaches and myself this spring training to make sure we get these fundamentals down appropriately,” Maddon said. “We’ve talked about them for two years; I believe this group is ready to put them into play. I believe this group is ready to take what we’re talking about and execute them. I believe this group will accept constructive criticism well and be accountable for their actions.

• Voros McCracken thinks the Rays still have a lot of work to do before they are ready to start competing. One of his biggest cautionary notes is that “Young pitchers (the strength of the Devil Rays system) will break your heart in a thousand different ways”. Everybody knows this, but the strength of the system is not just young pitching. It is the depth of young pitching. The Rays don’t need all their young pitching prospects to succeed. Just some of them. [Voros McCracken]
• The Rays have made official their plans to play a three-games series against the Blue Jays at Disney’s Wide World of Sports complex. The move is contingent on the approval of the St. Pete city counsel. [Bradenton Herald]
• John Sickels reviews his Top 50 pitching prospects from 2007 and how they performed last season. Matt Garza was Sickels’ #2 pitching prospect with four other Rays that were on the list. [Minor League Ball]
• He says there have been no problems, but it seems a bit worrisome that we are only a month from Spring Training and Rocco Baldelli is only running three days a week. [Rotoworld]
• We are not sure why we are posting a link to this because it is really not news-worthy, but it does make as chuckle a little bit. Turns out, two downtown St. Pete condo associations are opposed to the proposed stadium. Why? Because the new stadium will block their view of the water. Don’t get us wrong, we understand that will have an effect on the property value, but with the numbers that are being tossed around (ie. $800 million in new tax revenue) there is ZERO chance that the fate of the new stadium will rest on whether a few condo-owners can see Tampa Bay. [Tampa Bay Parent]

Down On The Farm: Evan Longoria Powers Bulls To Championship Series

Durham 5, Toledo 2 (Durham wins series 3-0). Evan Longoria just keeps getting better and better. On Friday the Dirt Bag powered the Bulls into the IL championship series with 2 home runs including a 2-out 2-run home run in the decisive 3-run 9th inning that broke a 2-2 tie. Jae Seo pitched 7 innings, striking out 7 and giving up 2 runs on 5 hits and 2 walks. Chad Orvella and Shawn Camp pitched perfect 8th and 9th innings to close out the game.

Mississippi 8, Montgomery 3 (Series tied 1-1). Jake McGee struck out 6 and walked only 1, but was touched for 3 rune (2 earned) in 5 innings. After tying the game in the top of the 8th on a Sergio Pedroza home run, the bullpen imploded and allowed 5 runs in the bottom half of the frame.

Columbus 7, Augusta 1 (Columbus win series 2-0). Jeremy Hellickson pitched the Catfish into the SALY finals with 6 strong innings. He allowed 1 run on 4 hits and no walks. He struck out 5. Three relievers combined for 3 hitless, shutout innings. Columbus scored all 7 runs in the 5th inning. Maiko Loyola had a 2-run home run in the inning and Quinn Stewart had a double and a triple during the inning.

Vermont 8, Hudson Valley 4.

Princeton

NOTES FROM DOWN ON THE FARM…

• Stacy Long was named Southern League’s Sportswriter of the Year. If you read this feature on a regular basis, you know that we link to “Stacy Long’s Riverwalk Talk” on a regular basis as a source for information on the Montgomery Biscuits. Both the Tampa Tribune and the St. Pete Times have “blogs” that cover the Rays. We read them all on a regular basis and we can tell you, without a doubt, that Long’s writing is far superior to anything that Times and Tribune writers produce. We understand that there are limitations to a “blog” associated with a newspaper, but if the Times and the Tribune want to know how to do it right, they need to look no further than Stacy Long. [Our Sports Central]
• The city of Durham renamed the DBAP following the Durham Bulls second game of the playoffs. It is now known as Goodman Field, in honor of the Bulls owner Jim Goodman. [Our Sports Central]