Peter Gammons 4 thoughts on a bad Wednesday Morning

Peter Gammons: Four thoughts for a miserable Wednesday morning

April 30, 2014 by Peter Gammons 0 Comments

1. The Rays are 11-16, in last place, 4 ½ back.
Joe Maddon believes they’re going to hit, and, hey, they’ve scored more runs than the Yankees, Matt Joyce has a .961 OPS, Desmond Jennings has been on base 38.2% of the time and Evan Longoria and Wil (Ricky Bobby) Myers haven’t gotten hot…yet.
But when Maddon says “we have to get our starting pitching going,” he’s absolutely right. Since Alex Cobb went down on April 12, they’ve had 2 quality starts in 15 games, 3 wins and a starter’s pitched into the 7^th inning once. They opened a three game series in Boston last night with Erik Bedard.
Now, Cobb and Jeremy Hellickson began their throwing programs this week, Cobb coming off a lat pull, Hellickson off elbow surgery, and could be together in the rotation in June. OK.
But if they’re still near the bottom of the standings and close to double digits back, will they make a decision on whether or not to trade David Price a year-and-a-half before free agency? Price’s velocity has been down a couple of miles per hour from two years ago, but the Rays aren’t concerned about that.
But because of the drafts of 2010 and 2011—when they had three first round picks in 2010 and 10 of the first 60 in 2011 and essentially have nothing to show for either—their system no longer has pitching prospects lined up on the Skyway Bridge.
And who would trade three top prospects for 1 ½ years of Price?
The Rays would turn to the Dodgers and ask for OF Joc Pederson, infielder Corey Seager and 17-year old lefthanded pitcher Julio Urias, but there is apparently a limit on Dodger Stadium becoming a mercenary territory. Stan Kasten has said he wants to build the system. Mattingly wistfully looks to Pederson and Seager being regulars. Don’t think it would happen.
The Giants? Maybe for a two year run, and with Kyle Crick and another three or four big arms in double-A could possibly do it, but at a big cost considering they have Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum signed to big deals.
The Rangers? Maybe. Great farm system, with pitchers like Luke Jackson and Alex Gonzalez and a middle infielder in Rougned Odor who could play right away.
With Max Scherzer and Jon Lester on the market this winter, it’s a gamble to trade three prospects AND risk losing Price at the end of next season.
2. Xander Bogaerts? 
Xander Bogaerts is 21 and a month into his career as a major league shortstop. His minor league history indicates slow starts, although he’s second among American League shortstops in on base, third in OPS. Add in defense, and he’s actually third among AL shortstops in WAR.
His defense, however, has been a work in progress, sometimes having trouble with his footwork on balls hit up the middle, and has four errors, one fewer than Elvis Andrus. But infield coach Brian Butterfield and mentor Dustin Pedroia are convinced he will settle down, get the footwork and be fine, and that right now, where he has no anxiety at the plate, he has in the field.
That started a drumbeat to bring back Stephen Drew, who turned down a $14.1M qualifying offer in November, and rejected further discussion the first of January. Once that time came, the Red Sox were committed to Bogaerts at short and Will Middlebrooks at third, and they are not turning their backs on their best prospect—who is 21—one month into the season and move his position for a guy—Drew—who has batted .243 since he hurt his ankle in 2011. If Bogaerts were to go down for a couple of weeks, they would probably turn to former no. 1 pick Deven Marrero, who is hitting .300 in double-A and is considered a top defender.
What they love about Bogaerts is that he’s 21, a top-rated prospect by every rating service, and never makes an excuse and always is accountable. ”He’s going to be a really good player ” says Pedroia. “Don’t worry”.
3. With Don Sterling smudged across the national consciousness, many in Boston have reminded us that the Red Sox of Tom Yawkey, after whom a street is named is enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame, owned a team that was the last of the original 16 to have a minority player. Yawkey was not a Southerner; he was from Tarrytown, N.Y., and those who knew him felt that he was not racist, but was guilty of poor judgment in those who ran his teams, men who belittled Jackie Robinson and Sam Jethroe after their Fenway Park workout in the Forties and who did not accept the signing of Willie Mays by the team’s legendary scout George Digby.
After his death in 1976, his widow, Jean Yawkey, and John Harrington, head of the Yawkey Foundation, worked hard to right the perception of the Red Sox and Yawkey in the minority community.
But it has been the current ownership that has made deep, legitimate strides in Roxbury and all sections of Boston. Tuesday, at a Community Leadership Breakfast put together by Frank Jordan, the Boston Area Church League, community leaders like Dr. Charles Ogletree, police, city and Red Sox officials honored Sarah Collins Rudolph, the lone survivor of a KKK bombing of a church in 1963.
Through the work of Larry Lucchino and Dr. Charles Steinberg, the Red Sox brought in Frank Jordan from San Diego to build the alliance of churches, police and community organizers to build the league and help children. To meet Ms. Rudolph and recall the horrific bombing of a church and its children awaiting Sunday School was a celebration of now, and where we have come.
4. The Rays had intended to take batting practice Tuesday in shorts and t-shirts. The wind and the cold made it impossible.
They came from Chicago, where it had been frigid and wet. April can be summed up in Cincinnati, where they have played 11 home games, and in seven of them had rain delays.