Several weeks ago, the fellas over at The Platoon Advantage, decided to embark on a pretty cool project. They expanded Major League Baseball to create the Brooklyn Hipsters and Portland Webfoots. This not only ended all talk of Rays’ relocation (anyone sick of that conversation?) but it also moved the Rays into the new AL East with Cleveland, Toronto, and Detroit.
Unfortunately for Rays fans, I got to stand in for Andrew Friedman and create the Rays’ list of protected players. I gotta tell ya, that was a really freaking hard job. Turns out, the Rays have A LOT of guys I’d be sorry to lose. Here is the list of protected Rays I submitted with a few explanations: (The Rules are explained in the draft post linked to above)
First Round
BJ is the Hipsters' 1st pick, Centerfielder, and Mascot.
- Evan Longoria
- Ben Zobrist
- Matt Joyce
- David Price
- Wade Davis
- Jeremy Hellickson
- Brandon Guyer
- Desmond Jennings
- Robinson Chirinos
- Alex Torres
- Sean Rodriguez
- Jake McGee
- Matt Moore
- Chris Archer
- Hak-Ju Lee
Second Round
- BJ Upton (this turned into Henry Wrigley when BJ got drafted)
- Alex Cobb
- JP Howell (he had not come off the DL when I submitted my list. So, I was unaware that he would never get another guy out when I protected him. I might still have done it, just later.)
Third Round
- Jeff Niemann (I have no explanation for this. Especially as much as I complain about Niemann. I am telling you, this thing is hard as heck.)
- JP Howell (yes, I have JP twice because I’m an idiot. Luckily The Common Man is benevolent and let me sub JJ Furmaniak here).
- Dane de la Rosa.
You’ll notice I did not protect James Shields, BJ Upton, or Tim Beckham. On Upton and Shields, I took a calculated risk that almost paid off. I was hoping that expansion franchises starting play in 2012 would be turned off by BJ’s contract status and not want to waste a pick on a one-year guy. Shows what I know, BJ went first overall. (In my defense, no one told me that one of the teams would play in Brooklyn and be called the hipsters. Had I known what a natural fit BJ would have been for that club, I might have reconsidered and protected him). But, the BJ era is going to end soon anyway so, a year less Upton is nothing I am going to lose sleep over.
Same goes for Shields. I wasn’t sure if either team would take him as he nears the end of his deal. Also, I figure he is going to walk anyway so, why not take the long view and protect guys that will help the Rays in the next 5-7 years? Of course, Shields went on and threw 61 complete game shutouts between the time I submitted my list and the time the draft was completed making it look like I just fell off the turnip truck. Keith Law even called me an idiot…and rightfully so. Lucky for me, no one drafted him. So there.
But, if I was taking the long view, why not keep Beckham or Reid Brignac (who also got drafted)? Well, like I said, this thing was hard. Beckham has turned it around but, in my mind, I have already written him off. If he turns into a good Major Leaguer, I’ll eat my words, but someone had to be hanging out there and I’d rather protect all the good young pitching (that has served us so well) rather than a high-risk-high-reward guy like Beckham.
As for Brignac, he has looked utterly replaceable this summer but, more importantly, we have a guy that plays his position and I value pitching over position players. So, I stuck with the pitching and lost Briggy. If I had it to do over, Briggy probably makes it into one of the JP Howell spots or maybe the Niemann spot (which would have been too late anyway).
There you have it. Go forth and critique. There is a lot to digest and argue about.
I bet TCM wishes he had known about that picture. Too perfect.
Feel really dumb about letting Shields slide. We realized our mistake during the third round (after I took Brignac) and could have corrected it, but we’re just too damned honest.
You crazy midwesterners and your honesty. God love ya.
Scrappers till the end. No one is scared of BJ Upton. He leads the team in homers, but he also bombs at the plate way too often. I think at some points in the season, he’s lead the league in strikeouts swinging as well as looking. That’s what Carlos Pena gave you. A bat to fear. I’ll give my props to Casey Kotchman for giving clutch hits, but he’s going to be pitched to. So I don’t know since Man-Ram is gone and Longo’s been spotty this year, who’s going to be your power threat?
Matt Joyce and Ben Zobrist are streaky at best so who out there in that bargain bin pile can you get or has 1 year left on their contract you can trade for?
It’s a shame that James Shields as much of a career year he’s having is being talked about as potential trade bait. At once he was thought to be “Scott Kazmir-ing” his way out, has found a renewed vigor doubling up his complete games from his career total this year.
The starting pitching is the only thing keeping this ship afloat (like every other year) much to the efforts of one Johnny Damon has filling up the Crawford production spot. Not that I would question the efforts of Friedman, Sternberg or Maddon, but I’m not so sure you can recover from the loss of a Shields this year if you decide to pull the trigger.