As I went to bed last night, I had a couple of tentative ideas on how I would spend my Saturday morning. First on the list was running a couple of much-needed errands. This morning, I sat up in bed and glanced out the window. Approximately one foot of snow engulfed my car, covering the wheels and threatening to reach the windows. Lacking a snow shovel and any real desire to go outside, I quickly dismissed that idea. Plan B was to write an article that had been bouncing around in my head for the better part of a week. It required a decent amount of research, so I shouldn’t waste any time getting started. I glanced around my bedroom. Power was out. I laid back down and considered just going back to sleep.
After a while, I picked up my copy of Baseball America’s 2010 Prospect Handbook, which had arrived the previous day. Eventually, I found myself in the Tampa Bay Rays section. The Rays are BA’s top system for the third time in four years. Glancing through, I noticed that five of the team’s top ten prospects are pitchers that were drafted out of high school. Not one was selected higher than the third round.
I pulled out the 2008 Handbook and flipped to the Rays’ section. Some of these pitchers, such as Wade Davis, Jeremy Hellickson and Jake McGee are a little older and were also in the top ten two years ago. Matt Moore, who was drafted in 2007 and ranks 4th this year, was never mentioned in the 2008 publication.
Anyway, my point is that the Rays are going to live off their collection of young arms for years. They have more pitching right now than they know what to do with. This is due to the high school pitchers they drafted between rounds three and eight in the 2004-2007 drafts. Hopefully, in a few years, we will be saying the same thing about the Pirates.
And immediately after I finished typing up this rambling post on my Blackberry, the power came back. Great. That wouldn’t have been easier on a computer or anything.
