Update 5/30/13, 9:30 a.m.: The Rays have announced that Colome will start on Thursday, according to Jeremy Warnemuende of MLB.com. They will push Matt Moore back in the rotation and give Alex Cobb some extra time to recover from a cracked fingernail.
Colome has worked primarily as a starting pitcher throughout his minor league career and exclusively in that role this season, but he will likely be needed out of the bullpen at some point this week, making him unlikely to take Odorizzi's next start on Saturday. Odorizzi can't be called back up to the majors until the 10-day waiting period is passed, making Chris Archer the most likely candidate to make the start.
It's times like these when the Rays pitching depth becomes a huge benefit to the organization. Every team needs to call up additional pitchers at various times during the season, but few have the depth to continually funnel prospects as talented as Odorizzi, Archer and Colome back and forth between Triple-A and the majors in consistently ensure fresh arms on their staff.
Hernandez Makes Debut
WIth Michael Young heading to the major league bereavement list, the Phillies have called up infield prospect Cesar Hernandez, reports Todd Zolecki of MLB.com. Hernandez has played second base almost exclusively during his time in the Phillies organization, and Freddy Galvis and Kevin Frandsen will slide over to take Young's place at third base.
Hernandez doesn't offer a lot of projection for the Phillies. As a right-handed infielder largely limited to second base (the Phillies tried him at shortstop early in his career), he's limited off the bench. Offensively, he offers little power or patience at the plate, but has shown a propensity for hitting near .300. He's also had trouble staying on the field, but as a player who is already on the 40-man roster and is out of options next spring, it's good for the Phillies to see what they have in him. Of course, his stay could be short, as bereavement stints are typically between 3-7 days, depending on the situation.
Hernandez got a pinch-hit appearance on Wednesday night and, in fitting in with his new Phillies teammates, was retired after a one-pitch at-bat.
Bradley, Jr. Returns to Boston
After a rough start to the season in the majors, Jackie Bradley, Jr. went back to Triple-A to get his head straight. In 20 games with Triple-A Pawtucket, he put up numbers similar to what he did in spring training to make the team in the first place, hitting .354/.457/.544. Bradley has been recalled to Boston, but as Scott Lauber of The Boston Herald points out, the stay could be as brief as the Red Sox stay in a National League city.
As with most top prospects, it only makes sense for the Red Sox to keep Bradley around in the majors if he's going to play. With Shane Victorino coming off the DL soon, the Red Sox outfield will soon be too crowded for Bradley to get regular playing time.
Tony Cingrani continues to miss bats now that he's back in Triple-A, but the Reds lefthander has struggled with his control, as displayed in his latest outing in which he struck out nine in five innings, but also walked five.
Wil Myers has been red-hot this week, and he made his strongest case for a call-up on Tuesday when he hit a pair of home runs. I've been advocating that the Rays should call Myers up for almost a week now, and even that was probably a few weeks too late.
Astros right-hander Jarred Cosart earned his fifth win of the season despite walking seven batters in the outing. Control has never been a strength for Cosart, but this was the first start of the season in which it was this bad. Still, his issues throwing strikes are one of the reasons the Astros haven't called him up to the majors yet and why some still see him as a bullpen arm.
Perhaps just in time to take Jesus Montero's spot in the majors, Mariners catching prospect Mike Zunino is heating up again, hitting his 9th home run of the season on Tuesday.
Double-A
Zach Lee was strong again, as the Dodgers prospect threw six shutout innings and struck out seven to outpitch Diamondbacks prospect Andrew Chafin, who allowed one run in six innings of his own but got stuck with the loss. Chafin, who is often overlooked within the pitching-rich Diamondbacks farm system, has been the victim of poor run support this season, dropping to 1-4 in five starts since a promotion to Double-A, despite an ERA of 3.00.
Taylor Lindsey is giving the Angels something to talk about in their barren system, as the second base prospect hit his seventh home run of the season on Tuesday as part of a 3-for-4 day.
High-A
Yankees catching prospect Gary Sanchez hit his 9th home run of the season, but he was outdone by Cubs shortstop prospect Javier Baez, whose 7th homer of the year helped lead his team to victory.
Jonathan Singleton homered in his first game back from his 50-game suspension for smoking weed, playing against inferior competition as he works his way back up the Astros organizational ladder. Cubs first base prospect Dan Vogelbach homered in the shortened game as well, his seventh of the year.
A significant portion of the time I spend filling this space is used arguing that organizations need to be more patient with their prospects. In general, I fall on the slower side of the developmental spectrum, believing that the best use of resources, especially for the less-wealthy organizations, is to hold prospects off from the majors until they are the closest versions of their finished product as possible. I'm also a strong believer in the damage that can be done to prospects who are promoted too quickly, whether from minor league level to minor league level or all the way to the majors, and firmly believe that the worst thing an organization can do is yo-yo a prospect up and down from the majors. We'll call it the Travis Snider Consequence.
But then there's the Tampa Bay Rays, who by comparison make me look like Julia Roberts' roommate in Pretty Woman, willing to give it away for $50 to get a top prospect into the lineup on a Friday night.
The Rays have taken an approach to promoting prospects that can only be described as glacial, and given their success developing prospects during their five-year stretch of being competitive, they have become something of a symbol for the argument of patient development. For them it's a necessity, needing to hold off their young talent until they are truly ready to make an impact, while simultaneously spacing out the inexpensive years of their top talents.
Which is why Wil Myers began the year in Triple-A, despite coming off of this season last year:
The Rays have still yet to call up Myers, who admittedly is struggling this season back in Triple-A, hitting just .242/.337/.385 on the season. His walk rate is actually at 12.1 percent, up from last year, and his strike out rate is at a not great but manageable 26.8 percent. It's just his power that hasn't been there, as shown by his .143 ISO. And hitting .242 with neutral luck doesn't help either.
But he'd still be a better option than a lot of what the Rays are trotting out in their lineups these days. Winch is the exact argument I hate when teams so frequently make, yet am about to now make myself.
For most teams, the argument of "our prospect may not be ready but he's better than what we have" is a near-sighted philosophy at should only be employed by teams near the end of a competitive run who are on the verge of rebuilding. The Phillies, for instance, could be defended if they were to rush a prospect to the majors to give it one more go with Utley, Lee, etc. Of course, they don't have any such prospects, but that's a story for another day.
It's difficult to make the case that Myers is not ready for the majors. Despite his struggles this season, he's now had almost a full year of plate appearances at the highest level of the minors and has hit .286/.366/.505 while there. Most of that success came last season, but it's also understandable to see a 22-year-old kid play somewhat unmotivated baseball when he knows he's ready for the next level, so I'm not too worried about Myers' performance this season. He has enough of a track record.
As a potentially contending team in desperate need of another impact bat, the Rays can only justify Myers' current status as a minor leaguer with financial arguments. These are the same arguments that have kept them in contention for a half-decade despite a payroll annually near the bottom of the league, making them tough to argue with. But the despite an overwhelmingly successful organizational philosophy that has kept the Rays in contention, the 2013 Rays must look also consider what is specifically best for them, and that means Wil Myers.
The Rays currently sit at 24-22, but in fourth place in the highly competitive American League East. They are in the thick of the race, but even if they rise to the top of it, they are unlikely to run away, especially within their own division. That being the case, one win might make all the difference, perhaps between winning the division or not, perhaps between having to appear in the coin-flip of a one-game playoff, or perhaps from playing in October altogether.
The Rays are undoubtedly keeping Myers in the minors until June for Super-2 reasons. If he develops as expected into one of the better hitters in the game, holding him off for another 2-3 weeks could save the Rays $2-3 million in the 2016 season and roughly $10 million over the course of his first six years of team control. That's no small potatoes. For a team like the Rays, that's an infielder.
But the clock is ticking on the Rays. Gone are James Shields, Matt Garza and Carl Crawford, and David Price is soon to follow. They've done a good job of replacing every departed veteran to this point, but the task becomes more difficult with each passing draft in which they now select at the bottom of the first round instead of the top. Voluntarily making Myers more expensive won't make it any easier to keep their core in tact, but it could be the difference between whether or not they get Evan Longoria and Ben Zobrist a title.
Myers is likely going to be called up to the majors within the next three weeks. For him to have a one-win difference for the Rays between now and then, Myers would have to be the equivalent of a 8-win player over that stretch. Myers is not an 8-win player, not as a rookie and probably not ever. But that's the issue we sometimes forget when we break things down sabermetrically - the difference in one additional win over the next three weeks for the Rays may come down to just one additional hit in the right situation, and Myers is a better option to get it than Ryan Roberts, Shelly Duncan or Sean Rodriguez. Playing at an 8-win level isn't something Myers can do for six months at this point in his career, but he could do it for three weeks.
Wil Myers is a a solid outfielder and has seen some time at third base should the Rays decide to explore his versatility, but most importantly, he is a talented hitter in an organization that consists of a number of hitters who are not. The additional cost of calling up Myers could slightly handcuff the Rays in the future, and it's a move that probably should have been made about a month ago, but it's not too late. Even one extra month of Wil Myers in the majors could be the difference in the AL East.
With reigning Cy Young winner David Price on the disabled list, the Tampa Bay Rays have promoted right-hander Jake Odorizzi to take his place in the rotation, reports Bill Chastain of MLB.com. Odorizzi will take Price's turn in the rotation today.
Odorizzi, acquired by the Rays in the off-season in the James Shields trade with the Royals, is perhaps the most heralded of the Rays impressive upper-minors pitching depth. He was considered the most major league-ready pitcher in the Royals system at the time of the trade and made two starts in the majors towards the end of last season. Odorizzi was 4-0 with a 3.83 ERA and a 4.21 FIP in eight Triple-A starts this season.
Odorizzi is not an over-powering pitcher, featuring a low-to-mid 90's fastball to go along with a curveball, slider and change-up. It's a basic repertoire, but he gets the most out of it and should have no problem establishing himself as a reliable big league starter, although he's not in the Price/Matt Moore/James Shields class of upper-rotation starters.
With Roberto Hernandez struggling, Odorizzi's time in the rotation while Price is out could serve as an audition to stick around upon the return of their ace. If not, Odorizzi, along with Alex Colome, Alex Torres, and Chris Archer, continue to provide the Rays with the best pitching depth in baseball.
Zack Wheeler put together the best start of his season, throwing six shutout innings and walking just one, according to Jonathan Raymond of MiLB.com. Wheeler has now put together back-to-back solid starts after struggling to begin the year.
Dellin Betances threw five no-hit innings on Sunday, reports Ashley Marshall of MiLB.com, but true to form for the Yankees right-hander, he walked four in the outing. It was a season-high in walks for Betances, who has given out 16 free passes in 24 innings.
A two-run double for Mike Zunino proved to be the difference on Sunday, notes The Seattle Times. The Mariners catcher got off to a hot start at the beginning of the season, but is just 3-for-30 over his past eight games.
Jake Odorizzi and his Rays teammates combined on a no-hitter on Sunday, says Jake Seiner of MiLB.com. Odorizzi struck out three and walked four in the outing, lowering his ERA to 2.65 on the season.
Double-A
Dodgers outfielder Joc Pederson, often times over-shadowed within his own organization, broke out of a early-season slump on Sunday with a 4-for-6 day at the plate that included a home run, notes Raymond.
Aaron Northcraft lowered his ERA to 3.46 on Sunday with five scoreless innings and six strike outs. The Braves prospect broke out last season in the Carolina League, but has alternated good starts with poor ones so far in the Southern League.
Kevin Gausman dropped to 1-4 on the season despite allowing just two runs in seven innings of work. The Orioles 2012 first-rounder has now allowed two earned runs or less in his last three starts.
High-A
Domingo Tapia threw six innings of two-hit ball, reports Seiner, lowering the Mets right-hander's ERA to 2.23 on the season. Tapia has been strong this season in his second year in full-season ball, striking out 28 batters in 32 1/3 innings.
Giants slugger Angel Villalona hit his sixth home run of the season and now has his batting average up to .214 thanks to 11 hits in his last 10 games.
Gregory Polanco raised his batting average to .321 on the year with a 3-for-5 day at the plate that included a double and a home run. The Pirates outfielder is now slugging .486 on the season and also has 10 steals.
Low-A
Twins prospect Jose Berrios advanced to 3-0 on the season after striking out eight batters in six innings of work. The 2012 first-round pick now sports a 2.55 ERA on the season with 21 strike outs in 17 2/3 innings.
