Carl Crawford the TEN MILLION DOLLAR man!

Earlier this week the Rays picked up the $10 million dollar option for the 2010 season of Carl Crawfords contract. You can read all about it here. I happen to agree with the author of the article by the way. This is a very good thing for Rays fans! I do not think that Carl will finish the 2010 season as a Ray, and I will be really upset when he is traded, but the fact is he will be traded. Carl will be a FREE AGENT in 2011. If there is no extension signed in the off season, or before the end of Spring Training, I just do not see anyway CC puts on the number 13 for the Rays to start the 2011 season.

The Rays simply will not be able to afford to pay Carl what he will be worth on the free agent marked in 2011. If you look at the 2009 salaries of the top ten paid outfielders in the MLB you will see that even at $10 million Carl is under paid. Numbers do not lie, they don't always tell the whole story, but they do not lie. Carl will make more then the Rays can afford. The Rays also have a number of young prospects in the farm system that could fill the gap in the outfield if Carl was traded. Desmond Jennings, Frenando Perez, Justin Ruggiano and lets not forget Matt Joyce.

Here are what the 2009 salaries of the top ten outfielders in baseball made in 2009. When I look at this list I do not see 10 players better then Carl Crawford.

Manny Ramirez $23 million
Carlos Beltran $19 million
Carlos Lee $19 million
Magglio Ordonez $18.9 million
Torii Hunter $18 million
Ichiro $18 million
Alfonso Soriano $17 million
Vlad Guerrero $15 million
J.D. Drew $14 million
Matt Holliday $13.5 million

The Rays are not going to be able to spend that kind of money for a left fielder. Hopefully the front office will put together the kind of deal they did for Delmon Young and not the kind of deal they did for Edwin Jackson. Carl will have a good year next year for the Rays until about the mid point of the season and then I look for the Rays to unload him to a contender, who hopefully will not be in the AL East, for picks and prospects. I will curse them and be upset, but that is what happens when you root for a small market team. You get high draft picks, develop them into All Stars, and then ship them off to New York, Boston, or LA. Durham is our farm system, the Rays are the big money teams farm hands.....and that is what is wrong with the current system we have in Major League Baseball. Go Rays, and Carl, I will root for you where ever you go unless it is to the Yankees, or Red Sox.

The Card Addict

Reloading on a budget???????

I slept on it, and when I woke up it left a bad taste in my mouth. Yesterday when I heard that the Rays had traded away Scott Kazmir I was not happy. My thoughts immediately went to the offseason trade of Edwin Jackson to the Tigers for Matt Joyce. So now between Jackson and Kazmir we have traded away two under 25 year old starting pitchers that accounted for 26 wins in 2008. What have we received in return? A Triple-A lefty hitting outfielder batting .274 with 15 HRs, a class A advanced lefty hitting third baseman batting .296 with 9 HR, a double A pitcher who is 13-4 with a 2.75 era, and the dreaded player to be named later.

The Joyce trade made no sense to me. Yes the Rays needed an outfielder when they traded for Joyce. The only problem is.... they still need an outfielder. Joyce did not play well when he started the season in the bigs. He also does not provide a right hand power bat which the Rays certainly could use, see Pat Burrell. He is an average defensive outfielder at best with little speed. Giving up Edwin Jackson, a 14 game winner, did not make much sense.

The Kazmir trade makes a little more sense to me. Dollars and Cents.......

I actually like Torres as a prospect, he is almost a mirror image of Kaz. He has 149 K's in just over 147 innings pitched. He is a lefty and is only 22 years old. He also is not owed 20 million + over the next three years. Matt Sweeney however better not unpack his bags, because I do not see any reason for the Rays to keep this guy. Longoria is the face of the Rays, and at only 24 years old most likely will not be going anywhere anytime soon.

Overall, I think the Jackson deal was done to improve the team, and it just didn't work out. The Kaz deal was made to save money!!! It looks to me like the Rays have decided to pack in this season and start trying to figure out how they are going to make payroll next year. Hopefully Torres will become a quality major league starter, and the Rays will get something in return for Sweeney and the dreaded PTBNL......

Are the Rays headed in the right direction? Will this be another Young for Garza and Bartlett move, or could it be another Jackson for Joyce? Only time will tell. Like Cubs fans always say, "There is always next year!"

The Card Addict