Julio Lugo Remains A D-Ray…For Now

As last season’s trading deadline approached rumors were rampant that a deal was imminent to move Julio Lugo to either the New York Mets or the Boston Red Sox. During the off-season, more rumors came and went. As this season began, it was considered a foregone conclusion that the free agent-to-be would be dealt to somebody before the July 31st trading deadline. After all, the team had one shortstop with a major league-ready bat waiting in the wings at AAA Durham. In addition, Lugo, who makes $4.95 million this season, would certainly command a very lucrative offer in the off-season. The Dodgers gave Rafael Furcal $39 million over 3 years and he is, at best, a similar player to Lugo. In fact, Furcal is Lugo without any power. And while the Dodgers overpaid for Furcal, Lugo will certainly seek a contract in excess of $8 million per season. That price tag is probably too rich for the Tampa Bay brass, given that there are other options in the minor leagues (Upton, Ben Zobrist, Reid Brignac).

So, as we approached this season’s trade deadline, the question was not ‘if’ Lugo would be traded, but ‘to whom’ would he be traded. The problem is…two of the big players in the past appear to no longer have any interest in Lugo. The Mets appear set at second base with the veteran Jose Valentin, and the Red Sox appear to be content with the defensive prowess of Alex Gonzalez (if unspectacular glove) at shortstop. Apparently that leave the Toronto Blue Jays as the only known team to show any real interest in Lugo. The problem is that the Devil Rays apparently have their eyes on 3 pitching prospects of the Blue Jays and Toronto is unwilling to unload any of them. The Toronto Star is reporting that the Jays are offering the team’s 2004 1st round draft pick, David Purcey who has struggled as a professional. Purcey is 2-7 with a 5.40 ERA in 12 starts for AAA Syracuse. The problem for Toronto, is that it appears they have no interest in Lugo past this season.

So it looks like the teams are currently at an impasse. There is still plenty of time to get a deal done before the deadline, but at this point, it is far from imminent. The Devil Rays do have a couple of other options. The first is obviously to try and re-sign Lugo at the end of the season. Lugo has made it clear that he likes playing in Tampa, and he loves playing with his brother Rudy Lugo. But if Lugo is to be a D-Ray past the 2006 season, it would take a very generous “home-town” discount. We can’t see the team offering more than $6 million per season, and they may not be willing to commit more that 3 years to a shortstop that is already in his 30s. The other option is to keep Lugo until the end of the season and let him walk as a free agent. In doing so, the team will be awarded a sandwich pick at the end of the 1st round in the 2007 amateur draft. The Oakland A’s have used this method to stockpile their organization with 1st round talent. At this point, this may be the best option for the Rays. If all the Jays are going to offer is a 1st round bust, then why not wait until next summer, take the extra first round pick and find a player that the team is truly interested in.

Earlier this season we would have never believed that Lugo would still be a Devil Ray past July 31st. Now we think it is at worst a 50/50 scenario between him staying and going.

Devil Ray Blogtopia

• Roberto Hernandez as the Devil Rays’ home town hero? [LiveJournal]
• If the Florida Aquarium is going to work with the Devil Rays and take their charitable donations, the least they could is get the name of the team correct. The Florida Devil Rays? [Aquarium Times]
• Rocco Baldelli is the 5th best baseball player to ever come out of that county masquerading as a state in New England. [A Large Regular]
• Rocco also has one of the best names in baseball. Although can you really go wrong with Manny Ramirez, who’s A-Rod-type nickname would be “ManRam”. Or what about Felix Heredia, who would be “F-Her”. We’re just sayin’. [Anything About Sports]
• According to one person in the Rays’ front office, Mitch Talbot was the key to the Huff deal. [H-Town Sports]
• Even Red Sox fans like to take an occasional shot at the Mets about the Kazmir deal. [Touching All The Bases]
• Apparently the guys over at Hooray, Beer! think that Kazmir needs a few more strong seasons before being considered for the Hall of Fame. Huh? Really? Don’t get us wrong. Kid K is awesome and we love him, but he hasn’t even won more than 10 games in a season yet. [Hooray, Beer!]

A Look At The Future…Yesterday On The Farm

Columbus 9, Durham 1. Delmon Young continues to punish baseballs and opposing pitchers instead of umpires since his return from a 49-game suspension. Last night he went 2-3 with a double to raise his average to .343. Young is approximately 90 plate appearances short of qualifying for the league batting crown, otherwise he would be second in the IL. Darnell McDonald who recently had a 28-game hitting streak snapped, went 2-4 to raise his average to .310, which is good for 7th in the IL. He also has 11 home runs and 20 stolen bases on the season. B. J. Upton went 1-4 with his 8th home run to account for the team’s lone run. Unfortunately, the news of the day was that Upton also committed his 31st and 32nd errors of the season. Both were throwing errors. And this just in Doug Waechter has forgotten how to pitch. Last night? 4.1 innings, 10 hits, 7 runs (2 earned), 0 walks and 4 strike outs. Thanks to Upton and an error of his own, only 2 runs were earned and his ERA actually was lowered to 8.78 since being demoted. In 8 starts at Durham he is now 1-7 and is giving up more than 2 runners per innings.

Montgomery 4, Jacksonville 2. We are worried about Andy Sonnanstine. He gave up 2 runs last night! Sonnanstine, who had pitched 4 shutouts in his previous 7 starts, only worked 6 innings. However, he did pick up his 8th straight win, giving up 6 hits (2 solo home runs) 1 walk and 2 runs. He struck out 5.

Bakersfield 13, Visalia 5. Christopher Mason one of the Rays top pitching prospects in the low minors, was roughed up last night. In 4 innings, he gave 11 hits, 1 walk and 8 runs (7 earned). The loss drops him to 10-6 with a 4.33 ERA. The “Cajun God of Baseball”, Reid Brignac, went 3-5 to raise his average to .315, 7th in the CL. He also has 19 home runs, good for 4th. The “Dirtbag” Evan Longoria, had the night off, presumably to give the other team’s pitchers a night off.

SW Michigan 7, Quad Cities 3. With all the excitement at other levels recently we have not paid much attention to the the Big-3 pitchers for the SW Michigan D-Rays. Last night Jacob McGee did his best to grab our attention again. He struck out 11 in 6 innings, giving up 2 hits, 2 walks and 1 run. On the season he is 6-8 with a 2.71 ERA for a team with little offense, and leads the ML in strikeouts by a wide margin. In 113 innings, he has 140 strikeouts. His teammate Wade Davis (6-8, 3.20) is 2nd with 126 strikeouts in 107 innings. Interestingly, the third part of the trio, Michael Wlodarczyk is also 6-8 (3.33 ERA).

A Look At The Future…Yesterday On The Farm

Durham 15, Toledo 10. Heck of a night for Durham…heck of a night throughout the Devil Rays farm system, but more on that later…B. J. Upton 3-6 with 2 runs scored and his 41st stolen base. Ben Zobrist 2-5 with 3 runs scored and 2 RBI. Delmon Young was 3-5 with 3 runs scored, 3 RBI and his 3rd home run. Kevin Witt was 2-5 with his 26th home run and 5 RBI. Elijah Dukes was 2-5 with his 10th home run and 3 runs scored. Even Shawn Riggan was 3-5 with 2 doubles.

Montgomery 3, Jacksonville 0. Jeff Niemann is back with his best start ever as a professional and an excellent sign that he is returning from his year-long absence. Last night, Niemann worked 7 innings of 1-hit ball, giving up no runs and 2 walks. He struck out 3. Niemann was perfect through 5 before giving up a walk in the 6th. His only hit came on a lead-off single in the 7th.

Vialia, San Jose. Guess what…Evan Longoria hit another home run *yawn*. At this point we would be more surprised if he didn’t hit a home run. boooooorrrrringgggg.

D-Rays vs. Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim Near Disney Land Tidbits

• The Rays enter this series 41 and friggin’ 58, 3.5 games behind the Horioles and 6,242 games behind the Red Hose in the AL East. The Rays are so far behind Boston right now, they should just move the team to Anchorage, Alaska. When the season started, we hoped for a .500 season…Then the goal was to finish ahead of Baltimore in the highly competitive AL East…Now we just want the team to stop embarrassing themselves.
• The Angelinos are 50-48, in 3rd place in the AL west but only 1 game behind Oakland and a half game behind Texas, both of whom are about as scared as a fastball approaching Vlad Guerrero’s thunder stick.
• After James Shields won his big-league debut against the Angels, on June 5, the Angels have won the last 5 match ups, including a 3-game sweep last week.
• Last time the Devils faced the Angels…no not that time…the last time the Devil RAYS faced the Angels, we got on Halo’s Heaven for calling for the promotion of Howie Kendrick, to replace the veteran Adam Kennedy during the pennant race. Well, we must eat at least a little crow for that one. Since then, Kendrick has been recalled and is platooning at 2B. He has handled himself very well so far, with 3 hits in his first game back and hits in each of his 4 starts and 5 RBI. We still think that Mike Scioscia (one of our all-time favorite players) is too smart and too old-school to give Kendrick very many starts and ABs down the stretch.
• Speaking Halo’s Heaven and platooning. They are now calling for an all-platoon lineup. By all-platoon, they of course mean that Super-Vlad would start against righties and Mega-Vlad would start against southpaws.
• Vlad, Vlad, Vlad…blah, blah, blah…Juan Rivera has 8 home runs this month and 3 multi-HR games in July.
• Its good to play at The Pit…The Rays have the 2nd biggest disparity between home and road record in the Majors. They are 24-21 at The Pit and 17-37 on the road. The Twins have a 37-11 record at home and 19-30 on the road.

Probable Pitchers
Monday, 7:15 et
Los Angeles John Lackey, LHP (8-6, 2.93)
Devil Rays Jae Seo, RHP (2-8, 5.44)

Tuesday, 7:15 et
Los Angeles Ervin Santana, RHP (11-3, 4.03)
Devil Rays James Shields, RHP (4-4, 5.75)

Wednesday, 12:15 et
Los Angeles Bartolo Colon, RHP (1-5, 4.55)
Devil Rays Casey Fossum, LHP (4-3, 4.84)

Devil Rays News And Notes

• If you are a regular visitor to RI, you know that we don’t spend a lot of time commenting on trade rumors, but as the trade deadline is approaching we keep getting asked where Julio Lugo is going to end up. The two teams that were mentioned most often early on were the Mets and the Red Sox who have both reportedly expressed interest in Lugo for quite some time. However, neither of those teams seem likely to be a future home of Lugo. Jose Valentin is having a great season for the Mets, who now look like they are more interested in shoring up their pitching staff. The Red Sox have been greatly impressed with the defensive play of Alex Gonzalez and may value his glove over Lugo’s bat. The team most often mentioned now is the Toronto Blue Jays. Lugo appears to be a perfect fit for the Jays. They are in need of a good leadoff hitter and the team lacks a lot of team speed. In addition, the Jays have a very young an inconsistent Aaron Hill playing second base now. There is no word yet who would be included in the package from the Blue Jays.
• Andrew Friedman was recently quoted as saying that no player was “untouchable”. That may be true, but we are having a hard time even imagining what it would take for another team to get Scott Kazmir. Is Victor Zambrano available? [tbo.com]
• Kid K hitched a ride to the All-Star game. [WCBS radio]
• The 1998-2000 Devil Rays uniforms were named one of the 10 worst in the history of ALL PROFESSIONAL SPORTS. We couldn’t agree more. [ESPN.com]
• Justin Ruggiano was acquired from the Dodgers to complete the Mark Hendrickson and Toby Hall deal. [devilrays.com]
• Anybody know who this is? And why does he have a gigantic ‘W’ on his warm-up jacket?
  

A Look At The Future: This Past Weekend On The Farm

Durham Bulls. On Thursday, the Bulls lost to Scranton/Wilkes Barre 8-5. Delmon Young had 3 hits and Doug Waechter still sucks. Juan Salas and Seth McClung each pitched a scoreless inning. On Friday night, Durham lost to Toledo 4-3. B. J. Upton, Ben Zobrist and Delmon Young went a combined 0-11 with 2 errors. Kevin Witt did hit his league-leading 24th home run, a solo shot. Jason Hammel only lasted 3 innings before being pulled after allowing 3 runs. Saturday, the Bulls beat the Mud Hens 5-1. Young added 3 more hits, including a double and a triple to raise his average to .337. J. P. Howell, added another strong start to his resume by pitching 5.2 innings of 6 hit, 1 run ball. He also had 10 strikeouts and no walks. Howell is now 3-2 with a 2.69 ERA in 6 starts for the Bulls. Last night, Witt added another home run (25) and Zobrist added 2 more hits as the Bulls beat Toledo 4-3. Chris Seddon pitched 7 strong innings for the win (7-5).

Montgomery Biscuits. On Saturday, Mitch Talbot, had his second strong start in as many starts since being acquired from Houston. He went 7 innings, giving up 4 hits, 3 walks and 2 runs. He struck out 2.

Visalia Oaks. Who does Evan Longoria think he is? Albert Pujols? On Thursday, he added 3 more hits and then Saturday he hit his 7th home run in 80 at bats for the Oaks. But just to show everyone that he is human, he went 0-3 last night. We hope that somebody gave him the riot act.

The Hangover: This Past Weekend In The AL East

Tampa Bay D-Rays. The D-Rays ended a nearly week-long hitting strike in which they were apparently protesting Carl Crawford’s all-star snub, by taking out their frustration on their division rival, the Baltimore Horioles. In their first 7 games out of the break, the Rays scored a total of 21 runs in being swept by the Angels (3 games) and the Twins (4 games). On Friday and Saturday night, they combined for 27 runs. In doing so, they accomplished a couple of rare feets. On Saturday night, Julio “trade bait” Lugo put his value on display by becoming only the second shortstop ever to hit 2 home runs in a single inning. In addition, the Rays and the O’s became only the 4th set of teams and 1st since 1933, to each score 9+ runs in a single inning in a single game. By doing so, Tampa nearly blew 13-3 lead and had to hold on for dear life when Brian Meadows had to come on to record a 5-out save including pitching out of a no-out, bases loaded jam in the 8th inning. But then the bats went cold again yesterday, as the team lost 4-2 and only managed 3 hits, and didn’t get their first hit until the 5th inning. Lugo sat out Sunday afternoon for the first time since returning from the DL on May 5th. Of course, this move imediately sent up red flags everywhere as speculation that a deal was in place for Lugo spread like wildfire. Needless to say, Lugo is still a D-Ray, for now. However, if anything good came out of the O’s win on Sunday, it was the O’s fans coming back from the edge. We guess the thought of being swept by the Tampa ‘Frickin’ Bay would have been just too much to handle. The Rays (41-58) are suddenly 19.5 games behind the Red Sox and 3.5 games behind the Orioles (45-55).

The Boston Red Devils (59-38) lost the rubber match of their series with the Mariners in bizarre fashion on Sunday and Red Sox nation is not taking it very well. In the bottom of the 8th inning Adrian Beltre hit a go-ahead, 2-out inside-the-park home run to give the M’s an 8-7 lead. In the top of the 9th, Jason Varietek hit a 2-out game tying solo home run, only for Richie Sexson to answer in the bottom of the 9th with a lead-off, walk-off home run to give the M’s a 9-8 win.

The New York Yankees (56-40) were unable to capitalize on the Red Hose’s loss, as they lost 2 of 3 to the Toronto Blue Jays (55-43) and are providing lessons on a new way to play the game. Recent pickup Sidney Ponson was hit hard in his second start with the Spankees, giving up 6 runs before being pulled in the 3rd inning.

A Look At The Future…Yesterday On The Farm

Thank goodness for the new fortunes that can be found among the Devil Rays’ farm system. There are strong prospects at every level and as poorly as the parent club is playing right now, at least there is hope in reading minor league boxscores every morning.

Montgomery 7, West Tennessee 0. Normally we would begin with the Durham Bulls, but we need to introduce you to the greatness that has become Andy Sonnanstine. First baseman Michael Coleman hit a 3rd inning grand slam, his 11th home run of the season and that was all the Biscuits needed. Sonnanstine pitch a complete game 2-hit shutout, with 1 walk and 5 strikeouts. Sonnanstine is now 10-6 on the season with a 2.79 ERA. The shutout was his 4th complete game shutout this season. Even more impressive is that the shutout was his 4th in his last 7 starts. Over that span of 7 starts, Sonnanstine has compiled a 7-0 record. In those starts, he has thrown 57.2 innings, surrendering 28 hits, 7 walks and 7 runs, for an ERA of 1.09 and a WHIP of 0.61. He has 39 strikeouts over that span. Sonnanstine is leading all minor league baseball in shutouts (nobody else more than 2). In fact, according to the Bulls broadcast team, nobody has pitched more than 3 complete game shutouts in AA or AAA in the past 3 seasons. Andy was a 13th round draft pick in the 2004 amateur draft out of Kent State University, the same draft that produced Jeff Niemann, Reid Brignac, Wade Davis, Jacob McGee and Matt Walker. Sonnanstine is not a dominating pitcher, but he has dominated at every level and it is probably time to see what he can do at AAA.

Scranton 8, Durham 6. A 9th inning rally came up short for the Bulls last night. After tripling home 2-runs to cut the deficit to 2 with nobody out, Delmon Young was thrown out at the plate on a sacrifice fly by Kevin Witt. Earlier in the game B. J. Upton hit his 7th home run of the year. Upton went 3-4 and scored 3 runs, but he did commit his first error since being moved to third base. Young went 2-5 with 3 RBI. Newly acquired Ben Zobrist continues his torrid streak. He had two more hits last night and is now hitting .417 (10-24) with a 4 to 1 walk to strikeout ratio and a .500 OBP in 7 games with the Bulls. Let’s hope that the franchise’s new shortstop is not teasing us. When the trade was first made, we thought young Ben had the chance to be a serviceable and dependable major league shortstop. Maybe hit .270 and hit a dozen home runs with a solid OBP and sharp if unspectacular glove. It is only seven games, but we love what we see so far. Will Zobrist be the Rays shortstop this season if Julio Lugo is traded? Probably not before September 1st. Unfortunately, we will still have endure a month of Tomas Perez playing shortstop.

Visalia 4, Modesto 1. We sure hope that the players and staff can keep Evan Longoria as far away from any water as possible, because the kid is on fire. Seriously…he can’t keep this up can he? Longoria continues to treat California League pitchers like little leaguers and right now that baseball must look as big as a beach ball. Three more hits and an RBI last night for Evan and he is now hitting .385-6-18 in 17 games with Visalia. James Houser picked up his 7th win, going 6 innings with 3 hits, 1 walk and 1 run. He struck out 6.

SW Michigan 9, Cedar Rapids 3. Another member of that stellar class of 2004 is Matt Walker. Walker, a 10th round selection, struggled in his first season last year. This season has been a different story. Last night Walker improved to 3-2 with 1.76 ERA by striking out 10 over 6 innings with 5 hits, 2 walks and 2 runs.

Mahoning Valley 4, Hudson Valley 3. Josh Hamilton went 1-3 with a single and 2 strikeouts.

Some Things Change, And Some Things Stay The Same

Minnesota 7, D-Rays 2. Shake, Shake, Shake your lineup…Manager Joe Maddon shuffled the lineup last night in an effort to awaken the team’s bats. We have long be advocates for moving Carl Crawford into the 3-spot of the lineup, but we knew there was really not a legitimate #2 hitter on the roster (the reason the acquisition of Ben Zobrist was so important). Well, Maddon solved that problem by moving, at least temporarily, by moving the slumping Jonny Gomes up to the second spot. The move gives Gomes an order of protection from C. C. that he wouldn’t normally receive from someone like Damon Hollins. The move could also take pressure off of Gomes so that he doesn’t feel the need to hit a 5-run home run every time he is at the plate. Well, the move worked for Gomes last night as he hit only his second home run in over a month. Unfortunately the lineup shuffle generated the same results for the rest of the lineup as the team’s offense continues to struggle. And the pitching is not helping. Last night, Jae Seo gave up to home runs to a guy that had only hit 1 home run all season. The team has now lost all six games since the break and nine of ten overall. And the schedule does not get any easier from here on out. Tonight the team faces the best pitcher in the AL in the form of Johan Santana. Then after a series against the Orioles, the Rays must play consecutive series the Angels, the Yankees, the Tigers and the Red Sox. Yesterday we feared a 5-25 stretch. Now we are afraid that prediction was too optimistic.