Marc Topkin runs through the Rays roster to identify six players who have made the most of opportunities to provide surprising value this year in Tampa Bay. Logan Forsythe, added via trade before the 2014 campaign, has arguably been the best of them, putting up a .279/.360/.434 slash with 14 home runs and nine steals while playing multiple infield positions. Forsythe has lined himself up for a nice raise on his $1.1MM arb salary from this season. And a player added just before this season, righty Erasmo Ramirez, has somewhat quietly compiled 123 innings of 3.66 ERA pitching on the year. Ramirez won’t even reach arb eligibility until 2017, making him a nice asset for the future.
Here are a few more notes from around the American League:
- When the Indians managed to pry young lefty Rob Kaminsky from the Cardinals in the Brandon Moss deal, reactions were overwhelmingly positive for Cleveland. Indians GM Chris Antonetti tells Jim Ingraham of Baseball America that he likes Kaminsky’s fastball life, groundball tendencies, command of the zone, and overall pitch mix. Cleveland is not concerned about Kaminsky’s light frame, and intends to give him every chance to reach the big leagues as a starter. The 20-year-old southpaw has pitched to a 2.24 ERA in 104 1/3 innings at the High-A level on the season.
- The Athletics have named Ron Washington as the team’s third base coach to replace Mike Gallego, as Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reports. It was somewhat curious to see the move made now, but the team has struggled with baserunning issues of late and Washington will now have a chance to coach in uniform during games. (He had been prohibited from doing so because of rules limiting the number of uniformed staff.) Nothing more should be read into the decision, writes Slusser, as manager Bob Melvin is still expected to be locked up to a new deal after the season.
- The Twins have scouted Korean slugger Byung-ho Park “a lot” ever since he was a sixteen-year-old, tweets Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN. But the increasingly interesting first baseman still seems likely to land elsewhere if he’s posted this winter, Wolfson adds.
Getting a possible future MLB contributor for Brandon Moss was solid for Cleveland. At minimum, Kaminsky, sounds like he’s Tim Collins
The fact that they turned the completely terrible, non-prospect Joey Wendle into Kaminsky should be applauded. Beane sold too low on Moss.
As weird as it sounds, Ron Washington is one of the greatest 3B coaches of all time. A’s will be in tremendous shape if they can keep him there for a few years.
Washington’s ability must lay in his infield and baserunning coach abilities… Because if a team wants to count on.a discernable contribution from a 3B coach then they’re possibly in trouble.
Wash is a great example of being put above your abilities when the Rangers made him manager. Also hide the young ladies.
Rangers players seemed to respond to him. But, yeah, his downfall seemed to be maybe being the top guy on the totem pole on a personal level. Some guys work fine in one organization… Washington seems to do well with the A’s