Could someone please call down to the Tampa / St. Petersburgh area of Florida and see if the assistant to the assistant traveling secetary was the only one in the office last couple of days.
How else can we explain the trading of Scott Kazmir from the Rays to the Angels in exchange for two minor leaguers and the dreaded player to be named later? Do the Rays realize they have six games left with the wild card leading Red Sox? Obviously, this move helps the Sox in their bid to make the playoffs. But you have to wonder what the thinking is behind this move.
One would think that the Rays would be buyers rather than sellers at this time. Though the Angels do have a couple of big time prospects in their minor league system, I doubt the Rays will be getting any real value for this swap. The biggest factor in this move is the team saved itself $24 million by letting him go. Kazmir is still only twenty-five years old. He has proven to be one of the better left handers in the American League winning at least ten games each of the past four years.
Sox Nation should be as weary of the Rays as we are the Yankees. The amount of young talent (Crawford, Longoria, Garza, Sheilds, Upton) they have is impressive. Plus, the have played their best baseball versus the Red Sox over the last two years. One could only hope Kazmir's trade hurts the Rays as much as it hurt the Mets when they traded Kazmir straight up for Victor Zambrano.
All is not good news for the Red Sox, their possible first round opponent in the playoffs just got better.
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This team crys poverty but rest assured they are making plenty of money and attendance is up significantly from last year. The real contenders have made great roster improvments. The Rays seek journeymen pick ups (i.e. the "Gabe Boys") and young unproven talent and ownership continues to pad their wallets. This strategy will never lead to being perenial contenders, just pretenders. Other teams should stay tuned, many other great players will become availabe for next to nothing as soon as they become too expensive for this ownership.
Ran -- Good to hear from a new follower of the blog. Sounds like you are from the Tampa area. I read from a paper down there that that losing Kazmir means keeping Crawford. Does that make it okay? I am still perplexed by the Kazmir move. They made their possible first round playoff team better.
I still think the Rays are the Sox' biggest competition for the wild card. The upcoming series down in Tampa will be huge.
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