The Tampa Bay Rays - Installment 1--2/1/08 (James Shields Move)

Howdy. It's Felix again and I'm giving you the weekly update of the Tampa Bay Rays.

The Rays have done as basically as good of a job as their salary outcome allows them in the off season and are looking hopefully this year to end ahead of Baltimore-who has gotten worse.

Here's what we've managed recently.

The number one impact move: Signing James Shields

James Shields, 26 years old, is a fantastic player with a lot of potential who has recently put his potential energy into kinetic energy. He went 12-8 with a 3.85 ERA in 2007 and luckily for the rays "James Shields is going to be with the Rays for a long time." How much was this deal for and how long? Possibly up to seven years with a total of possibly 44 Million Dollars with incentives. Now, if James Shields does become the next Fergie Jenkins, this deal will be remembered as one of the luckiest breaks the Rays ever got. But if this turns out into a James Baldwin deal (who, you ask?) -- one of the most promising failures in baseballs pitching history--then it will simply be a waste of money. And in fact--in the past, long term deals tend to go for the worse. Barry Zito was signed to a record deal for a pitcher last year --around 18 million a year-- while he played a typical 4 million dollar year - 11-14, 4.53 ERA. Mike Hampton brought the same effects with his terrible pitching after a giant 8 year, 121 million dollar deal. What happened? After he got signed, he compiled a 53-48 record with a 4.80 ERA for just 5 more seasons. I'm definitely not saying this is going to happen to Shields, but I think the Rays need to let him prove himself a little more before signing him. For more on Shields, read this.

The number two impact move:
Resigning Scott Kazmir. BEST MOVE out there. Why? Well, Scott Kazmir is one of the only players to defy Billy Beane's rule of not picking high school pitchers by having an amazing E.R.A. on, yes, even I have to admit it, the worst team in the AL east (in the past). 34-29, 3.64....I pity the poor man as Mr. T would say. And we got him for ONLY 3.7 million for one year...Makes you wonder why we signed Shields to such a bigger contract, eh?

The number three impact move:
Resigning Carlos Pena-Untold hero finished third in MLB in Home Runs (46) and 4th in the AL for RBI (103). We nabbed him for just 6 million dollars this year, but will eventually pay him 24 in the next 3.

The number four impact move:
Well, I'm not a huge fan - although I like Josh Paul, the Rays signed three players to Minor League deals: pitchers Brian Anderson and Scott Munter and catcher Josh Paul. For more, check this out.

Here's the depth chart of the Rays for 2008.


-Felix