Rays are here to stay, part one - hitting

With the ASB a couple days away, the best record in baseball belongs to the Tampa Bay Rays. As I write this, they are 3 games up on the Red Sox at 55-34, and they are good. They have been entirely irrelevant since their inaugural 1998 season, and while it took them 10 years to figure out how to field a competitive team, every single aspect of their ball club right now is very impressive. But these Rays are kinda puzzling, as they sort of burst onto the scene this year after so many years of sitting in last place in the AL East. Their fans are actually starting to show up at Tropicana Field and actually root for the home team (Red Sox Nation, ugh). This team is built for the present and future, they are not a mirage, they are every bit as good as the Red Sox, and they will force the Yankees into 3rd place for at least a few years. This will be a three parter dealing with the Rays hitting, pitching, and minor league system/prospects.

Hitting:

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I love the Rays lineup. They have legitimate speed at lead off and at the 2 spot in Aki and Crawford. They both hit for pretty decent average and steal a ton of bases. Crawford is finally able to shift to 2nd in the order, and sometimes lead off, following the emergence of Upton. It's nice to see the Rays finally be able to do this after being basically forced to bat him third in years past because he was just so obviously their best hitter. It did not play to his strengths, however. Yes, his numbers every year have been good, but he is not a prototypical 3-4 hitter. While he is a good situational hitter, he is not an RBI guy and he is not a big power guy. He has double power with triples speed; something best utilized at the top of the order. He is guy you want on base for the meat of your lineup to drive in, not the other way around. The guy has 50+ steal speed and has been the only consistently productive player in their lineup for the past 5 years. His patience of hanging around losing season after losing season is finally paying off. The Rays also have another plus speed guy batting in their 3 spot in BJ Upton. Last season at just 23 he put together a 20/20 season. This year he is still flashing his above average speed leading the team with 27 steals. The home run power he showed last season seems to be absent this year though. It is difficult, when looking at his numbers, to pinpoint the reason for this. It would be reasonable to think that he is hitting more grounders this year, but he's already smacked 20 doubles and his BABIP is pretty ok; he is still driving the ball well. He has also significantly improved his plate discipline while his K:BB last season was at 154:65 he is sitting right now at 74:61. Upton is still a kid and his best baseball has yet to come; that being said, he is a very exciting and productive player who will be batting third in this lineup for many years to come. The Rays just got back Carlos Pena a few games ago who is coming off a career year. This year, however, has been forgettable so far. He hit 46 dongs last year and managed somehow to keep his avg at .280, which is way out of line of his career numbers; good job Carlos. He is really a .250 hitter, but he walks a ton so his OBP has always been ok. He has always had huge power potential and he finally put together a season filled with bopping. His power, despite his '08 struggles, still makes him a very scary hitter to face. He also gets the added benefit this year of being protected by rookie phenom Evan Longoria. Longoria has obviously been dominating since being called up and might even make the all star team in the final ballot voting. He struggled a little bit for the first month or so after being called up at his first sight of big league pitching in meaningful games. He adjusted quicker than most rookies do, however, and he has been on an absolute tear lately. He is always going to be strikeout prone but he should be able to hover around .280 for his career to go with 30+ dongs and lots of ribs. He's a hot, steaming stud and the Rays have already locked him up to a long term deal after like a month in the bigs-genius. They have a good mix of veteran outfielders who Manager Joe Maddon switches around, platoons, and generally amuses himself with at the corner outfield spots. These guys have, collectively, been surprisingly productive. Hinske is donging like its 2002. Gomes and Floyd are both veteran players capable of producing solid and valuable at bats whether they are DHing or playing the field. Navarro is also a very good young catcher who after having a good second half last year is batting over .300 on the season. He's an all-star, admittedly in the weakest pool of AL catchers in recent memory, but the kids an all-star nonetheless. And he's just 24. Navarro has so far has done an excellent job handling their equally young pitching staff while proving to be one of the better offensive catchers in the AL. Bartlett is more than serviceable batting last, and he runs around sort of a lot so that gives them a nice speed guy in the 9 spot as they go back to the top of their lineup. Injury just struck upon Bartlett, however, and one time uber-prospect Reid Brignac has been called up to start in his stead. Brignac was once seen as the Rays' SS of the future as a former top-25 prospect (in all the land). But his future with the Rays organization has got to be in doubt right now. After acquiring Bartlett from the Twinkies this past off season, it was clear that they didn't see Brignac as being capable of stepping up into the SS role in the immediate/near future. Further, they just spent their #1 draft pick on wonder kid Tim Beckham which shows that the Rays don't think Brignac will ever be their SS in any capacity. It doesn't really make sense to try and shift Brignac to a corner outfield spot because he was batting just .265/.312/.431 with 7 HR and 38 RBI at Durham. His bat has clearly not developed yet. He is still an intriguing prospect though and they might be showcasing him or something like this in an effort to deal him; it doesn't look like he has much of a future with the organization. OK- so this is my take on Rays hitting. They are young, good, better, faster, and stronger. Pitching should be up tomorrow.