Rays, Burrell Agree To Two-Year Deal

Nice deal for the Rays if true.

seems a bit under-value, doesn't it?

hes taking a paycut....the phillies could have spared that to have another right handed bat in the lineup.... maybe they just want the left handers to smash the mets with...who knows...thats dumb if so

How does this influence the market for Dunn, Manny, Abreu, et al?

It's not looking too good for corner outfielders. Ibanez was smart to sign when he did.

WOW.

Awesome move by the Rays. I simply love it.

They land a bat that is simply perfect for their lineup (RH, pop, lots of walks), and get him at a very, very reasonable price.

The risk on this deal is extremely low, as Burrell isn't much of a health risk, and you pretty much know what you're getting with him.

This is EXACTLY the type of the move the Rays needed to make to keep up with Boston and New York.

A lineup that includes Longoria, Upton, Crawford, Pena, Burrell, Bartlett, Navarro and Iwamura, with that pitching and defense?

The Rays will be alright, everybody.

And can we please agree now that the Phillies signing Raul Ibanez for 3/31 was a simply HORRIBLE move!!!!!

Gheez...I wished Wren get his head out of his arse and sign Burrell. 2/16 is worth to have that Needed Power RH HR/RBI guy between Chipper to protect and Mac. What a Bargain!

I DONT WANT MILTON BRADLEY ON THE CUBS I WANT ADAM DUNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Very nice! Burrel must really want to play there. Wish the Cubs could pull off this kind of deal.

Great signing for the Rays. Burrell is very good at working the count and driving up pitch counts, which will fit nicely in that line-up.

So who are teh highest paid players on teh Rays now? Burrel/Pen @ 8m each

Why would Burrell wanna go the loser reds when he can sign with the AL champs?

sweet signing if rosenthal has this one right. a 3-4-5 of longoria, pena, and burrell will be solid.

Very good signing. Rays are good no doubt. But I was never doubting their offense. They were blessed last year to not have any injuries to their starters. Good team, should be a lot of fun to face.

I'm hoping that this means that the Cubs can get Bradley at < 8 mil. He was asking for 10, but with Burrell only getting 8...well, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to give it to him.

Dunn can still be had for a similar contract.

I DONT WANT MILTON BRADLEY ON THE CUBS I WANT ADAM DUNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I knew he'd b the first one to sign this week

great move for Rays if they get him

i dont know what the hell Frank Wren is thinking - he would of been a great fit for the braves.. they should offer 2/18 - that would still be a bargain

annnnnnnd here come the Yankees.

Posted by: Gosser128

The hell?

Wren didn't sign Burrell because he values defense. Sure he would be great between Chipper and McCann but he just doesn't cut it in LF, hence the DH signing. I can see something like a Abreu one year signing or something like that for the Braves.

Yes the Braves need a RH power bat but i dont think they wanted it at the expense of having horrid DEF in LF. I really think FW is trying to cook up something for Swisher/Nady from the Yanks

Is floyd retiring??

The scary part is that Crawford, Upton, Pena, Bartlett, and Iwamura all had down years offensively. Crawford, Upton and Bartlett should all bounce back in a big way. Even Longoria was out for over a month and would have likely hit 30+ HR as a rookie last year. Good bet for 35-40 this year.

"Is floyd retiring??"

The Rays declined his option for 09. He said that if he needed surgery to repair his shoulder he would retire, but instead has opted to rehab it and try to play next year. With this DH market, its unlikely he will get any good offers. Hopefully find a team who needs a big bat off the bench.

yea Swisher with his 219 batting avg - better off spending a couple more dollars and not give away any prospects and sign Dunn who will crush you 40 hrs.
- Nady would be nice.

Burrell's 6 year/$50M contract with the Phillies payed him $13M in 07 and $14M in 08 so that's a huge pay cut if Rosenthal is correct.

Another AL East team gets better while my Jays do nothing :(

I don't think people realize how good this lineup could be.

Upton, Longoria, Pena and Crawford are all stars, and the depth is awesome now.

They have speed in Upton, Crawford and Iwamura. They have lots of power with the additions of Burrell and Joyce.

They're probably the best defensive club in the game, and their pitching is stacked.

I don't think we've ever seen a division with three teams this good before..

"They (Yankees) do need a DH. My guess is Manny."

My guess is Posada.

This is the biggest steal off the hot stove season not just for this year, but from the last couple of years. Pat the Bat is worth exactly twice what he took, and his value will skyrocket by not playing in the field too.

So Ibanez is worth 15.5M and a year more than Burrell?....unreal. AND Burrell can DH?

As will any club.

Fyrenight,

If the Phillies are a better club in 2009 than they were in 2008, it won't be because they swapped out Burrell for Ibanez, which is a downgrade no matter how much you love counting stats. If they're better, it will be because they won't have Eaton and Kendrick tossing 262-odd innings of batting practice for the first half of the season.

"They have speed in Upton, Crawford and Iwamura. They have lots of power with the additions of Burrell and Joyce.

They're probably the best defensive club in the game, and their pitching is stacked."

Dont forget about Bartlett. 20 SB in 454 AB. He was actually leading the team in SB before a hip inury and he didnt steal much after that. Still, thats three guys (crawford, upton, and bartlett) all good for 30+ steals.

Power wise, Upton, Pena, Longoria, Burrell, and Joyce are all good bets for 20+ HR. Even Crawford should jack 15-20.

They were officially the best defense in baseball last year.

"Gheez...I wished Wren get his head out of his arse and sign Burrell."

I couldn't agree more. I have said this several times this off season, Wren and his organization have so poorly managed these signings and trades that you can be almost certain that with the Met's, Phils, s^$t even the Nat's and Marlins are making better moves, that the braves are last place this year. I mean they are just standing around like a deer in headlights. The lights are on and they can't find the door. Can someone please show them. Horrible management. A shame too, they have the tools to put something together. Is he intentionally running that team into the ground. I know, I remember now, they got lucky with the draft and think their 4 or 5 good prospects are there to save them. They are making the Pirates look good right now and that is no easy task.

Can we just say holy s#it

Wow. Awesome deal for the Rays. And, this has set the DH market. I could see Giambi settling for 6MM/yr, or a 1 year deal.

Ruben Amaro just got OWNED.

I'll bypass the expletives and just say I'm raging and furious right now. Makes the Ibanez signing look even worse.

Makes Amaro look even dumber. I want to vomit.

kazmir will either totally revive his career or totally suck, he started to slip big time last season from a guy who looked like a future ace

"I'll bypass the expletives and just say I'm raging and furious right now. Makes the Ibanez signing look even worse.
Makes Amaro look even dumber. I want to vomit. "

that's stupid, once the high payroll teams leave the market the price always drops. Lowe was looking for 4yr/9m, the yankees sign Burnett and hes look at 3yrs/36m

I couldn't agree more. I have said this several times this off season, Wren and his organization have so poorly managed these signings and trades that you can be almost certain that with the Met's, Phils, s^$t even the Nat's and Marlins are making better moves, that the braves are last place this year. I mean they are just standing around like a deer in headlights. The lights are on and they can't find the door. Can someone please show them. Horrible management. A shame too, they have the tools to put something together. Is he intentionally running that team into the ground. I know, I remember now, they got lucky with the draft and think their 4 or 5 good prospects are there to save them. They are making the Pirates look good right now and that is no easy task.

Posted by: yankee77 | January 05, 2009 at 02:26 PM
=======================

huh??

IMO Wren is doing a fine job.

Peavy obviously wanted to be a Cub and even if he wanted to be a Brave his GM kept switching up the trade

We lost on Burnett cause of Geographical reasons not 2.5 mil. we cant help that his wife doesnt like flying.

We lost out on Furcal not by our own reasons. his agent shopped the term sheet back to the dodgers and they signed him. his agents broke that "hand shake" agreement.

FW is not to blame for the more publicized short comings the braves have had this offseason. as been reported by David O'Brien he has been very active in trying to get things done so dont be surprised if this week the Braves are as active as the Cubs were last week.

If FW were to get Swisher from the Yanks that would be amazing. Then i wouldnt be so hard pressed on an ace if we could get two more guys to go with Jair and Vazquez.

Think of it this way. if Derek Lowe signs for 14 mil per year everyone elses prices will drop. then the Braves might be able to get two arms for the price of one Burnett. Say Jon Garland for 9/yr and Wolf for 8/yr. that right there is only a million more than what we would have paid Burnett by himself.

i would be satisfied with

1. Shafer/Anderson CF
2. Escobar SS
3. Chipper 3B
4. Swisher LF
5. McCann C
6. Frenchy RF
7. Kotchman 1B
8. Johnson 2B

then a rotation of

Vazquez
Wolf
Jair
Garland
#5 Starter

not the greatest rotation but its solid and with the addition of Swisher and any sort of bounce back by Frenchy we will be able to put up runs for those starters.

BTW Burrell is not worth horrid DEF no matter how many HRS

Lowe was looking for 5yr/90m*

Good move for Rays. Must put up with SO's
Just wait a couple of weeks and what the other FAs get.
Still got to like the Rays and Sox over Yanks. Yanks station to station. No middle relief. AJ on DL by June. Good-bye Joe at All-Star break.

Who would have thought Adam Dunn would be the guy left standing after all this? Hopefully that means the Braves will finally consider him.

Thedavid---

Ibanez is only marginally better defensively than Burrell. Very, very marginally better. They're both bad defensive OFers.

Take into account that now the Phillies are lefty heavy...

rockford- no middle relief for the yankees? wow you really have no clue about the yankees roster.

yeah and Damon, Jeter, Gardner, ARod & Cano are station to station

"As for the offense, Iwamura is not a speed guy, Pena has to prove '08 was a fluke and '07 wasnt, Upton has to put a healthy seasn in, Burell has to be consistent for a whole season.

For pitching, Kazmir has to stay healthy, the other young arms have to respond well to pitching an extra month in october, Price has to actually pitch a game in the majors, and your bullpen-by-comittee has to be successful"

Iwamura said before last season he wanted to steal 20+ bases, but i doubt that will ever happen. Although he is quick enough for it.

Im not confident Pena will ever hit like he did in 08, but somewhere between 07 and 08 would be nice. He started off really show but was one of the best hitters in baseball the last couple months (20 HR second half) and carried the team. Plus that gold glove was pretty nice too.

Now that Upton had shoulder surgery, he should be an instant 30/30 threat. Because of his shoulder injury, he became weary of pulling the ball, esp on inside heat. But after talking with Cliff Floyd towards the end of the season, and after that talk, he really started pulling the ball with some authority. In the postseason, we saw a glimps of what he is capable of.

The problem with Kazmir was all related to his slider. Because of his elbow tenderness at the beginning of the season, he was reluctant to throw his slider as much, which pretty much turned him into a fastball-change up pitcher. As long as his elbow his healthy, he shoudl return to Cy Young form.

Lastly, Price actualy has pitched in the majors, including two starts. Well one was kind of a long relief appearance against the Yankees, in which he held the Bonbers to 2 runs over 5+ IP in his major league debut. In his next start, he held the Orioles to 1 run over 5.1 IP. In all, he had a 1.93 ERA in 14.2 IP in the regular season and 1.59 ERA in the postseason.

"I dont get how Upton's shoulder is to blame for his low power numbers for the season, yet he jacked 7 playoff homeruns?"

Because he changed his approach at the plate. Because of his shoulder, he was trying to hit everything opposite field. He would let inside strikes go by or try to muscle them to right field, ala Jeter. After a talk with Floyd, he started attacking inside pitches and pulling the ball with authority. Even his 24 HR in 07, witch a health shoulder, was not even a full season.

and since I have not said it, this is a great move for the Rays. I encourage the competition within our division.

that rotation is just nasty, too nasty not to take the wildcard away from the redsox

"Correction

Tampa Bay 09 = Colorado 08

Good luck !"

It has been said many many times that these two are not related. No one thinks the 08 Rays were a fluke and no one had career years, except for maybe Navarro. They will be a top team again. Pitching (which the Rockies never really had), defense (which the rockies had) and timely hitting (the Rays were actually extremely unlucky with RISP last season) are what wins. Nothing points to 08 being a fluke.