Zach Britton certainly hasn't been surrounded by as much hype as Stephen Strasburg was last year, but, like the Nationals' youngster, Britton is "must-see TV," according to ESPN.com's Buster Olney (Twitter link). In today's Insider-only blog, Olney says the Orioles lefty looks like the best of 2011's rookie class so far this year. Here are some other items of interest from the piece:
- The Yankees are trying to get 20 to 35 starts from their fourth and fifth spots in the rotation, before the trade market really takes shape. At that point, the team could try to pursue an arm like Brett Myers or James Shields, if they're available.
- Olney is hearing from clubs that they will now "warily approach" making any trades with the Rays, who are considered a "savvy organization." While it's too early for the Cubs to worry about offseason acquisition Matt Garza, particularly given his impressive strikeout rate, the right-hander isn't happy with his first two starts.
- Olney agrees with Marc Topkin of the St. Petersburg Times, who says that the Rays and their fans are the ones who Manny Ramirez's retirement hits the hardest. Not only will the Tampa fans miss out on watching Manny, but continued struggles by the team could result in key players being placed on the trade block.
james shields would be a good fit for the yanks
Ya if you want him to give up 40 homeruns lol
The Rays are considered savvy because of their trade with the Cubs? There’s another side to that trade. Maybe the Rays weren’t so much savvy as lucky. Still, it’s too early to guage the trade, give it a few years. Garza was far and away the best player in the deal.
Lucky? I guess they’re lucky Jim Hendry’s the dumbest person to be put in charge of anything bigger than a McDonald’s.
They’re smart because they don’t make trades for the sake of making trades or getting attention. The trades they make bring young talent that’s cheap, which fits their ideal style of team.
….That depends….Do you mean a single McDonald’s or the entire franchise?
As if it matters.
Jim Hendry’s dumber than the illegitimate love child of Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus.
They may be savvy, however the Cubs have proven for the past 100 years that they are more than capable of making bad trades and bad signings. When they deal with a savvy club the odds are just greater.
Britton does look awesome so far, but the 2011 AL ROY is going to be an interesting race to watch.
Britton-2 GS, 2-0, .66 ERA 6 BB 8 SO
Drabek-2 GS, 1-0,1.38 ERA, 7 BB, 12 SO
Arencibia- .368/4.29/1.000- 2 2B, 2 3B, 2 HR
as a fan of the game, it’s really awesome having britton drabek and hellickson all in my team’s division
and price, hughes, bucholz, romero, and matusz
never heard of em
Let’s not forget Jeremy Hellickson, who has yet to make his second start.
ahh correct! shame on me for forgetting.
All MLB teams should tread carefully with their potential trading partners. TB is no different, just better than most. Can’t fault them for other teams being hasty/stupid/whatever….
I assume, “hasty,” is a typo for, “Hendry?”
IDK that I will ever appropriately express my disdain for that, “person.”
You can rip his signings all you want, and goodness knows I have in the past. But his history of trading prospects for veterans is quite good. And even though he was dealing with a sub-incompetent GM in Littlefield, the Jose Hernandez/Bobby Hill for Kenny Lofton/Aramis Ramirez trade was one of the best trades of the past 15 years, both as a win now move and a build for the future move.
He also dealt Hee Seop Choi for Derrek Lee.
Seriously. Go back through and name an instance where he traded prospects for a veteran player (or other prospects) and it didn’t work out in the Cubs favor, or work out to be a draw.
Like I said, he has his flaws as a GM, and if he were fired tomorrow, I’d be more happy than sad. But losing on trades like this isn’t one of them.
I still see Dempster going to Yanks in June. Rays still a very good team – pitching wins offense will come.
you tell ’em, ace
-j. zduriencik
excuse me for being rude to buster olney but i don’t think manny going 1-17 with 1 rbi is going to tie the team down and help the rays win games. You can ring up any guy from AAA over manny and you are more likely to see the rays win games and therefore have more guys off the trading block. So in a sense, manny retiring is like a blessing to the rays (and baseball in general)
johnny damon, bj upton, dan johnson and james shield are likely to go. what is the combined WAR of all those guys like 10 anyways?
I’m surprised that Tampa even let Manny struggle for so long.. I mean 18 AB’s for a guy with no results. Unbelievable it dragged on for that long .
Hopefully they will free Matt Joyce now. The thing about the Rays offense though, is that other than Longo and Upton (who is inconsistent but still a quality bat), they have a bunch of guys who are all unproven or just complimentary players. People say to keep waiting for the offense to pick it up, but they don’t have anyone with a proven track record so they shouldn’t just expect these guys to pick it up.
I can see Upton getting traded for a solid haul and Jennings roaming CF, then by next year the Rays will be improving and will be able to make an impact for another few years.
Hahaha good luck getting Shields from a division rival. Myers is way more likely, plus the Astros/Yankees have a trade history.
if they think Shields is on the same path as Kazmir, they’d probably give him away to the Yankees. get his salary off the books and screw up a division rival’s rotation just for fun :)
EDIT: that said I watched his first start against the O’s, he looked good. not saying he’s likely to be on that path.
Sad for the Rays. They did such a great job in putting together a great team with very little money to spend. If this year is star-crossed, I hope they’ll recover in the future and make some more runs at a title. I have nothing but respect for the baseball people there who have done a wonderful job.
Don’t feel too bad. They’ll be close to the top of baseball once again very soon. Like the article says, they know what they’re doing.
the Rays know what they are doing but their big problem remains not WHAT they are doing but WHERE they are doing it
Too bad guys like Longoria and Price aren’t gonna be on the trading block, even though they are not happy playing in Tampa. Longoria has to be kicking himself for signing that 6 year contract.