Thoughts on the Moves the Rays made this past offseason now

[deerayfan072]

Signed Pena -- turned out well
Signed Harris -- me and Raiders had no clue why they did this, dumb us good pick up
Signed Aki -- the man is a beast
Signed Reyes -- awesome move only stable arm
Re-Signed Seo -- bad move he sucks
Re- Signed Paul -- good vet backup
Signed Glover -- looked bad at first, but has come one to be a great 8th inning guy
Signed Dohmann -- bad he sucks and is in AAA
Signed Choi -- realeased him, didn't matter
Traded for Ryu --- did not pan out in AAA
Re-Signed Wiggy -- good move has been a great Util man for us and will be great trade bait for RP
Re-Signed Fossum --

Did not sign RP -- I honestly don't think they did a horrible thing and here is why. Go look at Balt 40 mill bullpen. There really was crap out there on the FA last year. Some like Dotel and Gagne we made a pass at, but they wanted to go elsewhere, not our fault.

I really think the Rays organization showed they are moving in the right direction. There will be some good RP out there this time and they said they will be pursuing them and i think people across the league have a new found respect and more people will be willing to come here.

[scr]

Signed Pena -- turned out well
Signed Harris -- me and Raiders had no clue why they did this, dumb us good pick up
Signed Aki -- the man is a beast
Signed Reyes -- awesome move only stable arm
Re-Signed Seo -- bad move he sucks
Re- Signed Paul -- good vet backup
Signed Glover -- looked bad at first, but has come one to be a great 8th inning guy
Signed Dohmann -- bad he sucks and is in AAA
Signed Choi -- realeased him, didn't matter
Traded for Ryu --- did not pan out in AAA
Re-Signed Wiggy -- good move has been a great Util man for us and will be great trade bait for RP
Re-Signed Fossum --

Did not sign RP -- I honestly don't think they did a horrible thing and here is why. Go look at Balt 40 mill bullpen. There really was crap out there on the FA last year. Some like Dotel and Gagne we made a pass at, but they wanted to go elsewhere, not our fault.

I really think the Rays organization showed they are moving in the right direction. There will be some good RP out there this time and they said they will be pursuing them and i think people across the league have a new found respect and more people will be willing to come here.

The smartest move the DFO made was to play their young players. Creating a "super utility role" for BJ was, in hindsight, unbelievably smart. Allowing BJ to focus on this offense and not worry about defense allowed him to excel at the plate without the mental block of his defensive liabilities. Leaving Delmon to master right field without the worry of being sent down, playing Elijah in CF when Rocco went down worked out pretty well for a while-we got to see flashes of his enormous potential as he helped us to a couple of W's with his bat (and his arm). Sending Gomes down was great on a two fold basis-he has busted it since his return, and may bring back quite a nice return in a trade because of it. Aki came to town with little fanfare and less expectation, so his spark, solid hitting and spectacular glove have proven to be a free agent steal. Kudos again to management. Even getting rid of Cantu's attitude was a great boost for the team. Now that he's back (Cantu), management may be able to package Jonny and Cantu for some real solid middle relief or a #3 starter. Harris was another fantastic signing, and in hindsight was a necessity due to the lack of offensive production from Ben Z. Of course, Al Reyes has been another gem out of the bullpen, with Glover a pleasant (albeit nailbiting) surprise.

Management tried to trade for SP, dangling Rocco without much success. Since we don't know what went on during trade discussions, nobody can fault the DFO. They did try.

The lack of a solid left handed specialist out of the bullpen is the only really glaring criticism I can fault management with. It's an obvious no brainer, that in order to compete night in and night out, you've got to be able to throw out a quality left handed reliever or two.

All in all, the DFO has been a breath of fresh air with a plan. I give 'em an A- to date.

[deerayfan072]

Love the analysis SCR

[raiders_umpire]

Signed Pena -- turned out well
Signed Harris -- me and Raiders had no clue why they did this, dumb us good pick up
Signed Aki -- the man is a beast
Signed Reyes -- awesome move only stable arm
Re-Signed Seo -- bad move he sucks
Re- Signed Paul -- good vet backup
Signed Glover -- looked bad at first, but has come one to be a great 8th inning guy
Signed Dohmann -- bad he sucks and is in AAA
Signed Choi -- realeased him, didn't matter
Traded for Ryu --- did not pan out in AAA
Re-Signed Wiggy -- good move has been a great Util man for us and will be great trade bait for RP
Re-Signed Fossum --

Did not sign RP -- I honestly don't think they did a horrible thing and here is why. Go look at Balt 40 mill bullpen. There really was crap out there on the FA last year. Some like Dotel and Gagne we made a pass at, but they wanted to go elsewhere, not our fault.

I really think the Rays organization showed they are moving in the right direction. There will be some good RP out there this time and they said they will be pursuing them and i think people across the league have a new found respect and more people will be willing to come here.

There definitely has been some nice suprises in that list. The main thing like scr stated though is playing the youngsters even through the growing pains. If Crawford can get it going and Baldelli come back completely healthy, our offense can compete against anybodys.

As far as going forward though, I think we need to sign the 3 or 4 big time draft picks we took this year. This year will be a lost cause if we pass on signing some of these better picks because of a few thousand dollars like in the past(ie. Miller from 4 years ago and several others). This offseason a decision has to be made to improve the pen tremendously. There are a few arms available that will be able to improve our team probably by a range of 8-12 wins a season if we can get 2 good stable arms signed.