Too bad Friedman didn't work out a trade with Pittsburg to take Burrells along with Aki. Even if the Rays had to pay 1/2 Burrells salary for 2010, it would have freed up maybe 10 million in salaries. The 4 1/2 to Aki and maybe 1/2 of Burrells ( 5 1/2 million). With the money saved they could have gotten a real closer for about 10 million. Watching MLN showing the 2008 World Series with the Rays and Phillies, Pat Burrells appeared to be much thinner. Maybe if he loses some weight this off season he can start producing again. He will be in last year of the contract. That is when players really try to have a good season for future dollars. Jonny Damon of the Yankees is in his last year with the Yankees and the way he is playing in the world series he could get the MVP award. A big contract is a good motivation for having a good year.

This is one of the funnist things I have ever heard!

The FO would be untouchable and unhuman if they could send expensive Burrell to a team like the Pirates. Do you even know what the Pirates salary is? I don't want to be mean, but rethink your post for a minute.

AKI may do well in the National league..His problems with high pitches will be less as the Nat league is full of low strike pitchers...The Rays spent a lot of money to get AKI (paying big $$ just to negotiate with him)and AKI gave them solid play but with all the position players rusting in the minors he is expendable and lets not forget unafordable...But do the Rays ever get their monies worth out of big salary players???When AKI got hurt it gave Zobrist a shot to prove himself and at his salary I'm sure the Rays who have to pinch pennies made the decision to not resign AKI just about that time....Timing is a thing the Rays FO does not have..Better things happen to players the Rays give up on..Don't think AKI will be the last one to go from this years team...The Rays feel that a young pitcher that can throw in the 90 MPH range will be a better help....I think they thought that with a young pitcher they got from the Mets a while back...Well the Rays product sales in Japan and the kazillion Japaneese viewers that followed AKI will now spend their money on Pittsburgh (made in China) stuff..LOL

I'm not going to throw this Chavez kid under the bus just yet....

A few things that impress me, just by looking at the stats...

-he led the Pirates in apperances this year (73).... as a rookie!! it shows alot of faith to continue to run someone out to the mound in their first full year in the majors.

-Only 22 walks in 67.1 innings... that comes out to about 1 walk for every 3 innings pitched

-He can minimize damage when batters do get on base... 69 hits given up + 22 walks = 91 batters on base... out of those just 33 runs scored... not bad

Some things I don't like...

-11 homeruns given up

-0 saves in 4 chances

-for a guy the FO wants to be a swing-and-miss pitcher... only 47 K's in 67.1 innings (just hope the Rays aren't going to try to turn him into something it doesn't appear he is)

The Aki trade was just another salary dump. We take $4 million off the books.

We get a maybe grade reliever and we replace Aki with Sean Rodriquez at the minimum salary.
Does this trade make us a better team ... probably not, but it doesn't make us overall worse either.
We get more pop and lose some defense. Plus, S-Rod might improve his defense.

The overall effect is Stuie saves $3 million. And if you throw in the Kazmir part of this equation,
which brought in S-Rod. S-Rod and Chavez cost $800K. Stuie is saves $10 million. Basic WALL STREET math. Will the team WIN more. That part of the situation is NOT part of the equation and was no doubt never even considered.

On the otherhand, it would not be hard to win even without Aki or Kazmir. But with Maddon as manager and Hickey as pitching coach, it makes no difference who the players are, the team will lose many more games than they should. Until they fix that part of the equation, saving money or not is irrelevant.

Without trading Kaz and Aki there was no way to get the payroll to the $60 million goal of the organization.

Crawford, Pena & Burrell all have $2 million or more in salary increases and with BJ, Garza, Howell, JB & Navi all arbitration guys this year any savings from those trades will be all but used up.

The Rays are not lowering the payroll, which to me is what a salary dump is, they are using the money that they would have paid Kaz & Aki to keep productive and/or younger and more players available to the team.

Crawford, Pena & Burrell will take up close to half of the Rays payroll next year. I still think one or more of them has to go...

I agree more or less ... I doubt anyone is dumb enough to take Burrell, so Stuie is probably going to bite the bullet on that one. However, Crawford and Pena has some value. Neither on is going to get you to the promised land but they do help some.

People look at Pena's pop, but that is offset by his innate ability to strike out. His real value is on defense where he is a good defender. I would shop him all over the place to see what to find his real value.

I think you could get a good deal for Pena Boston for Ellsbury. Ellsbury is more valuable to winning than either Pena. Pena is easily replaceable at much lower salaries. Jennings is better than CC right now except for the experience part. Chris Nowak is as good as Pena with the glove
although he is a gap type hitter. He will do as least as well overall as Pena if they give him the chance. Surely he will strike out 100 times less often.

Crawford is no more worth $10 million a year than a statue. Sure he is a good player, but as long as he refuses to play anywhere but left field, the team will be out in left field. Plus, while he is a good base runner, he is in NO WAY a good 2 hole hitter. He needs to hit 5th or 6th, not 2.

Either way, if Crawford goes or stays, it does not really effect the team from a negative point.
Zobrist in LF, Jennings in CF and BJ in RF is a solid OF.

I really don't want this to come out as sarcasm, so please help me understand. I have read many of your posts, over some time now, and am very confused.

I beleive you to be a solid Rays fan. You are obviously knowledgeable about the game and the team.

I know you don't like Hickey, you don't like Maddon, you don't like the ownership, and now it seems you don't have confidence in our core "franchise" players to take us to the World Series.

I know there are many out there like yourself. That said, I ask one simple question to you and others who feel similar to your views...

What is it you do like about the Rays that keeps you as a fan?

He'a a baseball fan. The Rays are the local team.

This is where we disagree coach. Anytime you trade a player in order to get the salary off the books it is a salary dump. This was a salary dump with a little window dressing of Chavez thrown in to make it look a bit less like a dump but a dump it was none the less. The goal of the trade was to not have to pay his salary OR his buyout, which is why there was such a limited marklet and poor Aki got sent to Oakland, I mean Pittsburgh.

They may need to dump salary to get payroll down but that was RFO managements fault for signing Fat Pat when they knew they would be over payroll this year because of it. Great decision there. Can't wait to see what they have in mind this year. Oh yea, resigning Kapler for a million plus.

When one stops and thinks about it, CC has probably done as much for the Rays as he can or ever will do..If the Rays can get a couple of good young players a little better than prospects ,I say go for it...I love the guy and I'm sure some team would give a lot to get him..Jennings is almost ready,Matt Joyce is projected to be on the team this year and we have Zobby....I even think Zobby could learn to play first base....And then Theres BJ...Maybe it is too soon to give up on him....Lets see who shows up to play this spring....

When we are all operating on different definitions it does make the clarity a bit less, which probably is at least a part of the reason that there are so many different discussions going on about one subject. To me if the Rays trade a player because they believe they can get equal production for a player who is younger and makes less money I call it good business, not a salary dump.

When the GM is given a budget and payroll limit he has no other option than to trade higher salaries if he believes he has a younger player who can step in to that role.

Every team in MLB gets rid of high-salaried guys, in fact this week the White Sox just turned down the $12 million option on Jermaine Dye, who was the team MVP in '08 and acquired Mark Teahen (younger & cheaper) to fill RF. They also had to pay Dye $990,000 to buy out his option. Do you think if they could find a team to take him in trade they would have done it?

If the trade is because of an excess of players at a particular position I would not consider it a dump if they got equal or close to equal value on the trade. The player being traded may be excess to the Rays but the player does have value on the market. When they get very little in return and the main reason for a trade is to reduce payroll I would consider that a dump.

The only issue I have with this business pracitce is the rest on MLB seems to understand the Rays desperation to reduce salary making a trade for eqaul or close to eqaul value much more difficult, even if the player traded has real value on the market. Why cough up real value for value when you know the Rays driving force is to reduce payroll??? They can get a player they were going to have to pay anyway for next to nothing instead of coughing up some real value to get him.

Aki was not worth over $4 million to the Rays. They were not going to pick up his option.

The Rays have other viable options at 2B.

The Rays got something for him rather than paying him the buyout.

Again to me that sounds like good business, better than paying him the $550,000 to buy him out and get nothing in return.

The Pirates are now gambling that some team will want him enough to give them a better return in trade. They may get more, but gambling with that kind of money is more of a Pirates thing than Rays thing. If he reinjures his knee or cannot come back at full speed then the Pirates made a big mistake.

As far as risk/reward, I like what the Rays did.

I enjoyed Iwamura and while he admittedly was one of my favorite Ray players, I'm excited about whoever will play second base this season.

The Rays will have a different look and feel to the team in 2010 and you never know when a team will again catch that same magic that propelled them to the 2008 American League Championship.
We're going to need good pitching, hitting and solid defense but the Rays have a lot of talent assembled. The trick is always to put the pieces together in such a way that you get the most wins possible.

The other piece of the puzzle is management. My philosophy is stay out of the way and let them play.