I’m of two minds about how to put this out in the blog, but seems like most of the readers of WDBB understand the uncertainties. And I will make every effort to keep my focus on the Bulls, not the Rays.
Here’s what’s up.
Tomorrow the Rays can “expand” to have with the team in St. Pete up to 40 players (from the usual 25). Those players are listed on the Tampa Bay “40-man roster.” Current Bulls on the 40-man are:
- Desmond Jennings
- Dioner Navarro
- Jose Lobaton
- Leslie Anderson
- Justin Ruggiano
- Fernando Perez
- Mike Ekstrom
- Jake McGee
- Dale Thayer
Rocco Baldelli is not on the 40-man, which means the Rays will have to do some bookkeeping razzle-dazzle (if Topkin is right) before Rocco gets to St. Pete.
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With this diminished roster do you think the Bulls will make it past the 10th of Sept playoff wise?
ReplyDeletePretty sure that JP doesn't count against the 40 man due to the 60 day DL, in which case the Rays are only carrying 39 players, so adding Rocco won't need book keeping.
ReplyDeleteThe reason for Lobaton callup is because they need to figure out catcher next season. Navarro is likely gone (contract, trade, etc). And Shoppach has basically sucked. This means next year the ideal is to have Jaso and Lobaton as the Rays catchers if it works out for them. They need to figure it out now if they can.
As to Fritz...I think we'll be ok. With the exception of Columbus, all the other playoff teams have major league teams that are in contention, so we'll see watered down rosters across the board.
The reason that calling up Lobaton both does and does not make sense is because he is on the DL. My theory is that they don't have any plans to play him at all. The rule is that a player has to be on your roster August 31st in order to play in the postseason, unless you have to put a player on the 60 day DL, then you are allowed to replace him later. The Rays don't know exactly who they want on the postseason roster. So, they have Jose that they can move to the DL later, giving themselves more time to make a choice.
ReplyDeleteMy best guess of a player that didn't get the call-up today but they Rays may want on the roster is Jake McGee. Actually, now that I think about it, they may know that they want Jake for the postseason, but want to leave him with us for more work now. So, Jose up and to the 60 day DL.
I was OK thinking about our future because I thought the starting pitching was pretty much covered. But that was before Ortiz’ behavior last night. I wasn’t there and the TV didn’t cover it well. But Charlie is famously not tolerant of arguing with the umpire. So we may have some starting pitching problems.
ReplyDeleteThe Biscuits season ends on the 6th and they don’t look to be in the playoffs. There’s quite a bit of talent there, although they are short on outfielders. Nevertheless, if we keep our core — Johnson, Richard, Dillon, Chavez, Ruggiano, Perez, Furmaniak — I think we’ll be OK. You guys see it that way?
That sounds like a fair assessment to me. I agree that the core of our lineup is safe from callups and should be fine. Pitching is interesting, partly because I haven't been to a game for a while and, therefore, don't have a good feel for it.
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the club! But they’ve only played three games here in the last couple of weeks. So none of us has really seen the two key new guys. De Los Santos, Rodriguez, and Baker we’ve all seen. Ortiz and Livingston are pretty much unknown quantities. They’ve each pitched one game at the DBAP. Up until yesterday I thought they would be OK. Now I’m not so sure.
ReplyDeleteI will admit, I don't feel as confident with this squad as I do last year. At this time last year, Hellickson had just come up and was amazing, so you knew we were almost guaranteed a game 1 victory and a game 5 victory if it went that far.
ReplyDeleteBy contrast, De Los Santos is now our best pitcher and has pitched far more innings than ever before in his career (146 innings this year, 86 most prior).
And then who are our next best starters? I'm not sure I even know our rotation right now. Is it Ortiz and Rodriguez as #2 and #3?
Still though, I think our veteran experience at least gets us to the championship. If we meet Scranton there, I think we might be done though.
Oh yeah, Baker. That's another case of a not-starter playing starter. I'm worried about his wear and tear too.
ReplyDeleteIt's a little bit of a shame that the Rays want McGee as a reliever for the playoff run. I think in the grand scheme of things, he's going to replace whichever of the starting 5 the Rays dump over the offseason (probably Shields or Garza). But for now they want him around to pitch to lefties, so we can't use him to start for us.
Ugh, sorry for keeping commenting, but above I forgot about Hellickson. He's the 5th Rays starter next season. McGee probably starts as our #1 next season, but not for the playoffs.
ReplyDeleteMost bloggers think that McGee is in line to be a reliever/closer eventually, not a starter. Haven't been following the Rays closely enough to know why that is.
ReplyDeleteAgree that all our guys could be tired. But there's a couple down in Montgomery. Maybe not Hellickson quality but not bad either.
Lobaton's callup is a technicality. They put him on the big-league DL today, which allows them to swap him out and replace his spot 40-man with another position player in time for the playoffs. That could be Baldelli, or Brad Hawpe, or even Elliot Johnson. It's certain, though, that Lobaton isn't being called up so they can see him catch.
ReplyDeleteThayer was out righted to Durham to make room for Rocco apparently. Good to get him back for the playoffs.
ReplyDeleteThat means that recently Dale was put on waivers but we never heard about it. Not surprised that no one claimed him. He's not having his best year. But, with you, I'm happy to have him here for the playoffs.
ReplyDeleteSaw Lobaton at game last night, so Adam's assessment essentially on target, I think.
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