The 2007 Devil Rays- They'll be Good in a Few Years...

[Brewers194]

It seems like people say the same thing every year... The Devil Rays are on an upswing and will someday overtake Boston and New York in the AL East. Well it seems like each year comes and goes, but they never get any better. So my goal is to really, have them better each year.

[Brewers194]

The 2007 Projected Lineup for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays:

Catcher

Dioner Nivarro
Last Year: 81 G, 268 AB, .254 AVG, 6 HR, 28 RBI
Nivarro is pretty much starting because he has to, because of the lack of depth at the catcher position. If Nivarro struggles, Josh Paul down in AAA could be a solid backup plan. We also have an interesting catcher down in AAA by the name of Steven Pickerell. If it weren't for his below average offense, he might be on the big club for the start of '07 but we're going to keep him in AAA until he starts to hit. Pickerell has amazing speed to go along with great baserunning instincts, both rare for a catcher. Pickerell also has a cannon behind the plate and won't allow many past balls. Past that we're pretty thin on catching throughout the system.

First Base

Carlos Pena
Last Year: 18 G, 33 AB, .273 AB, 1 HR, 3 RBI
Pena had a real disappointing short stint with Boston last year but he has stayed focusing and has working so hard this offseason. He has shown such great signs, he may even start the year hitting 4th for us. Pena has huge potential, a guy that could put up 40+ HR. Also, Pena is 28 so it's not like he's on the way out. Beyond Pena there is basically nothing, with no promising first basemen in the farm system. But you never know, maybe a guy against all odds can become a star.

Second Base

B.J. Upton
Last Year: 50 G, 175 AB, .246 AVG, 1 HR, 10 RBI, 11 SB
Upton is still only 22 which we are extremely excited about, and has a real bright future down here in Tampa. Upton didn't play much last year, but we except him to have a solid year this year, probably hitting second, as for minor league depth, Upton is our second baseman today and will hopefully be our second baseman in 10 years.

Third Base

Akinori Iwarmura
Last Year: N/A
Iwarmura, the small market Japanese import, is an Ichiro-like hitter with less speed. We don't expect the guy to hit .350, but he definitely has the capability to hit over .300. Iwarmura also plays pretty solid defense, which will add to our solid defensive team. With all that said, Evan Longoria is almost here, and may make the team before the September call ups. It will be a tough decision once Longoria is ready, and we'll see what happens.

Shortstop:

Ben Zobrist
Last Year: 52 G, 183 AB, .224 AVG, 2 HR, 18 RBI
Shortstop was the toughest position to detirmine yet, with both guys being about equal in ability. While Harris hits for a little more power, Zorbist has better speed and is a better defensive option. Not to mention, Zorbist is a switch hitter. On a good note, we have a very promising shortstop on his way up named Reid Brignac who will probably start the year at AA Montgomery. Reid is an above average fielder, runner and hitter, a solid 5 tool player. If all goes right, Reid will earn a September call-up.

Left Field

Carl Crawford
Last Year: 151 G, .305 AVG, 16 3B, 18 HR, 77 RBI, 58 SB
Carl, probably the most talented player in Tampa, may not end the year here. Crawford has a real back-loaded contract, not something we're thrilled about paying. We also have a real solid, younger left fielder. Elijah Dukes who can play all 3 outfield positions with ease. His hitting isn't all the way to hit potential, but it won't take very long. Crawford may or may not be traded before Opening Day, but expect a lot in return.

Center Field

Rocco Baldelli
Last Year: 92 G, ,302 AVG, 16 HR, 57 RBI, 10 SB
Rocco finally had the year most people expected out of him last year. He only played in 92 games but still had 110 hits. We have huge expectations for Rocco this year, and he may be our lead off hitter if Carl is shipped elsewhere. No real prospects co ming up behind Baldelli but considering he's only 25 that's not a big problem.

Right Field

Delmon Young
Last Year: 30 G, .217 VG, 3 HR, 10 RBI
We believe Delmon will have no problem winning the 2007 Rookie of the Year. He has proved to be an absolute RBI-machine and has a hand-cannon out in right. Delmon still has a little developing to do, but he just needs fine tuning now, and will start the year in the majors. He will more than likely hit in the middle of the order unless he starts to struggle, where he'll drop to 6 or 7.

The Ace

Scott Kazmir
Last Year: 10-8, 3.24 ERA, 144.2 IP, 163 K
This is the year for Scotty, where he'll emerge as our ace and contend for a Cy Young. Amazingly, he's still only 22 and he's become one of the top pitchers in baseball.His K/9 last year was awesome and hopefully he can keep it up for the rest of the year. As for prospects, we have star college pitcher David Price, who will the start the season in short-season A. He will not take Kazmir's job, but it will be one hell of a one-two punch in a few years.

The Closer

Al Reyes
Last Year: 4-2, 3 SV, 2.15 ERA, 65 G (in Japan)
Al is trying to bounce back for a stint in Japan. Al pitched real well over in Japan and we expect him to do the same here. Al is very under-rated and not your typical closer. Al only throws 89 MPH tops but changes speeds well and gets batters out.

[Brewers194]

Of course, in a baseball season, not much ever happens in January, but we did make a trade, however, it didn't involve Carl Crawford.

Traded 26-year old catcher S. Riggans to the Milwaukee Brewers, getting 31-year old minor league first baseman J. Dillon in return.


Made a few demotions and promotion too, Carl Crawford deal may come in February.

[Brewers194]

Well, we finally traded Carl Crawford, and got a ton back for him. Our budget improved real nicely, we improved our minor league's pitcher depth and got a few guys that can contribute in 2007. The final deal was:

Tampa Gets:

SP Franklin Morales


SP Ubaldo Jimenez


OF Dexter Fowler


OF Willy Taveras


Colorado Gets:

Carl Crawford


Jonny Gomes

[Brewers194]

February too was a boring month. Besides the Crawford trade, nothing really went on. We also managed to trade Ty Wigginton, getting 19 year old outfielder Joe Benson in return. Other than that, the rest was just getting ready for spring training. Among the noteables coming up from the minors for the spring:


(From left to right: Evan Longoria, Wade Townshed, Dexter Fowler, Ubaldo Jimenez, Franklin Morlaes, Reid Brignac)

[majormet]

Looks good thus far.... I might disagree with trading Crawford and yet to Colorado where he will show power, hopefully Fowler and Morales are the real deals.

[Brewers194]

Well, Week 1 of Spring Training is over, and it's only been 2 games, both of which we lost. We lost the first game 3-1 to Los Angeles, Lackey getting the win and Kazmir getting the loss. The first game we left all our lineup the same throughout the game (for the most part). We only mustered 6 hits and a run, even with our starting lineup. On a good note, Wade Townshed had an impressive debut, throwing 2 perfect innings with 29 pitches.

The second game which was started by James Shields was 1-1 in the 6th when Mike Lowell added a grand slam off reliever Seth McClung. Shawn Camp did a great job stopping the bleeding, throwing 3 perfect innings and fanning 4.

[darkcloud4579]

That Crawford deal could turn out to be a steal. It'll be interesting to see what you can do down the line. I tend to wonder how effective a young guy like Kazmir can be long-term as the ace on a team that's still a few years away, but maybe you'll lock him up long-term and if he keeps producing, he becomes the first TB legend.

Good luck with this one.

[Terpripken]

Watching with great interest. I have a D-Rays dynasty as well (although not on boards). I am too much of a fanboy to even consider trading CC...so it will be interesting to see how it works out for you. Looks like you got a boatload of good specs. Good luck!

[Brewers194]

Week 2 was just about as bad as Week 1. Good thing it's only Spring Training. We started March with a seven game losing streak, but ended the week by winning 2 in a row, which brings our record to 2-7. Dioner Navarro has continued to rake the ball, hitting .441 in his first 9 games. Elijah Dukes, Delmon Young and B.J. Upton also have contributed .320+ batting averages for the spring (minimum of 25 at-bats). Our two top position prospects, Evan Longoria and Reid Brignac have been struggling, hitting .231 and .133 respectively. So far as a team we only have 5 home runs, so the power scares me a little, but it's only Spring Training.

On the hill, so far J.P. Howell, a guy we have big expectations for, has been stealing the show. Howell has made 2 starts, threw 8 innings and only allowed 3 hits. He has also fanned 9 while only allowing 3 walks. Our other 3 prospects up in Spring Training, Ubaldo Jimenez, Franklin Morales and Wade Townshed, all haven't had great springs thus far. They have a 9.00, 5.40 and 7.72 ERAs respectively.

Also, as spring training starts, the college and high school leagues are getting ready to start as well. Since we have the first pick in the 2007 First Year Player Draft, keep an eye out for the big board.

[Brewers194]

Week 3, the total opposite of Week 2, started well and ended bad. Like I said before, Spring Training doesn't matter, but we still rattled off 6 in a row, including the two last games of Week 2. Then we ended the week dropping 2 in a row. Dioner Navarro has dropped off a big, struggling in his last few games to drop under .400. J.P. Howell was impressive in his start this week, going 4 scoreless again. He now, through 3 starts, has a 0.75 ERA in 12 innings with 10 Ks and allowing only 7 hits. Evan Longoria has stepped up his game a bit, bringing his average up unlike Reid Brignac, who i snow hitting under .100. Now that we're about half-way through spring training we're going to make a few roster moves. We took up way too many pitchers and have been having a tough time getting innings and we would like to get a few more guys some at-bats.

[Brewers194]

Only one more week until they finally count. Well, we have a average week, bringing our record to 10-12. J.P. Howell continues to amaze, adding another great start. He gave up a run, but still only has an ERA of 1.13 in 16 innings. Evan Longoria has also been playing real well. Longoria is hitting an even .300, while Akinori Iwamura is only hitting .200. It's simple math, Longoria is hitting a whole 100 point higher. It could be interesting in Longoria stays hot through the last week of the spring and Iwarmura doesn't produce.

[Brewers194]

Opening Day is finally upon us and fans across the country cannot wait for their favorite team to kick off the season with a win. We have a tough first series in New York. The probables for Opening Day are Scott Kazmir vs. Andy Petitte. The cutting of the rosters wasn't too hard and Evan Longoria is actually starting the season in the majors. He will play third and Akinori Iwamura will DH. Here is the opening day lineup:

Vs Both w/DH
1.
B.J. Upton, 2B
2.
Rocco Baldelli, CF
3.
Delmon Young, RF
4.
Carlos Pena, 1B
5.
Evan Longoria, 3B
6.
Elijah Dukes, LF
7.
Akinori Iwamura, DH
8.
Dioner Navarro, C
9.
Ben Zorbist, SS

Rounding out the Bench:

Joe Dillon, UT


Willy Taveras, OF


Steven Pickerell, C

The Staff:
1.
Scott Kazmir
2.
James Shields
3.
J.P. Howell
4.
Andrew Sonnastine
5.
Casey Fossum

Bullpen:


Chad Orvella, MR

Shawn Camp, MR

Brian Stokes, MR

Scott Dohmann, MR

Jae Kuk-Rye, Mop-up

Jeff Ridgeway (L), Set-up

Steve Andrade

Al Reyes, Closer

[majormet]

How is Crawford doing after 4 weeks in Colorado. He is the heart of my Las Vegas franchise in 2011, I locked him up for 6 years, seems to be do well in OOTP with his speed, glove, and power as he gets older.

[Brewers194]

Well Crawford made me look like a complete idiot in Spring Training, hitting .397 in 63 at-bats, but after 2 games in the regular season he's 0-5. Way too small of a sample size, it'll take until like July to see how good of a year he has.

[Klew1986]

Good luck with the D-Rays. Do you have AOL or MSN?

[Brewers194]

Originally Posted by Klew1986

Good luck with the D-Rays. Do you have AOL or MSN?

Yes, I do, GO BrewCrew11

[Brewers194]

Well the first week of the 2007 season started horribly, but ended with a pleasant bang. After getting swept by the Yankees in New York, we traveled back home to face Toronto. We lost the first game, but then won the second game of the series on a walk-off single.

We lost the first game 4-1. Petitte was on and we couldn't get much started offensively. Evan Longoria was responsible for the only run with a homer. The second game we dropped by a score of 8-4. Shields had a rough outing buy Jae Kuk-Rye did a nice job stopping the bleeding. Pena also cracked a home run for his first of the year. Nothing went right the game we were swept. We lost 10-3, and none of our pitchers were on. Then game 4 we were finally back home, but that didn't help as we lost 8-6. Sonnanstine spread out 12 hits over 5 innings and gave up 4 runs and Rye did a good job pitching in relief. Then, finally game 5. We were facing Roy Holliday so we knew it'd be a tough one. We were down 4-0 n the bottom of the sixth. Then Dioner Navarro came up, 0 for his last 15. With two men on and two out, Navarro cracked a 3 run homer to cut the lead. Then in the bottom of the ninth, we managed to rally against Jeremy Accardo and Delmon Young put a single in between Glaus and Adams, scoring Upton to win the game. Chad Orvella and Shawn Camp combined for 3 innings of relief, surrendering two hits and Shawn Camp got the win.


Draft Board:
1. Ivan Garcia, SP-Clemson 1-0, 1.32 ERA
2. Don Langley, OF-Navy .250, 1 HR, 6 RBI
3. Shawn Milton-OF-Iowa .464, 1 HR, 5 RBI

[Brewers194]

The second week of the 2007 season has been much better than the first. Though we had to send Evan down to AAA, some guys have stepped up nicely this week. We went 5-2 this week, leveling our current record off at 6-6. The most impressive thing has been our club's ability to grind out game and win them late. We're 3-0 in one run games and 2-0 in extra inning games, a promising stat for the rest of the year. We hit the ball well this week as well, averaging 6.3 runs a game. Rocco had one hell of a week. He hit .469 in the week, raising his season average to .429. He is having the type of year just about everyone has expected from him for many years. As I said before though, we had to send down Evan. He was real understanding of the whole situation and promised to work real hard to get back with the big club. It may have been a short leash, but he was only 4-26, so we sent him down to give him some confidence. We may have rushed him by bringing him up for Opening Day and are now trying to compensate for it. Scott Kazmir finally had one of the great outings we've been expecting. He allowed only 3 hits and 3 walks in 8 innings of work in a win over at the time the best team in baseball the Minnesota Twins. Now, after took the series from Minnesota in Minneapolis, the Twinkies may have to work a little harder to keep that title.


Draft Board
1.Ivan Garcia, SP-Clemson 2-0, 1.23 ERA
2.Micah Marshall, OF-Seton Hall .408, 6 HR, 15 RBI, 4 SB
3.Don Langley, OF-Navy .260, 2 HR, 9 RBI

[Brewers194]

Our third week of the season was another successful one, going 3-3 on the week. We're now 9-9 and it's still early, but so far it's been a success. Rocco has come back down to Earth, but with it has come the emergence of some other hitters. Willy Taveras, Ben Zorbist and Dioner Navarro have started hitting the ball well to go along with out regular hitters. One point of concern is B.J. Upton. He only hit .107 in the week (3-28). Another sign that I love from this week was the dominance of our bullpen. Our pen had a great week, particularly Shawn Camp who had a 3 inning outing in which he only threw 23 pitches. We had two dramatic wins this week, back to back too. On Friday, we were being no-hit by Paul Byrd until Akinori Iwamura came up to lead off the bottom of the 7th. Iwarmura led off with a solo shot, then we erupted from there, scoring 3 that inning and 2 more to win 5-3. Then, on Saturday, as we were down 4-0 in the bottom of the 6th, we exploded with 5 runs, then added 2 more to win it 7-4. So two late inning come back wins capped a nice week.

Also this week, there's no draft board, but I'm traveling to a few college games to get a first hand look at some potential first picks.