So far in 2013 at Triple-A, Odorizzi has put up good numbers, going 4-0 with a 3.83 ERA, a 9.5 K/9, a 3.0 BB/9, and a 1.4 HR/9 in 8 starts and 44.2 innings pitched. He had a 2.97 ERA with under 1 homer per 9 innings before struggling in his last two starts following 7 no-hit innings on May 5th. Odorizzi is not entering the major leagues pitching his absolute best and he’s really just making this start as a product of circumstance. But the fact that Odorizzi is coming to the major leagues not quite on a roll may in fact be a good thing. Odorizzi isn’t coming to the majors thinking he’s going to dominate and can just head to the mound, be himself, and do the best that he can. And if he does that, he can be a very good pitcher. Should be fun to see Odorizzi take the mound, and the Rays may have themselves yet another impressive young pitcher.

Buster Olney of ESPN Insider talked about the “bind” the Rays are in now that Price is hurt. Olney quotes rumors across baseball that Price’s triceps injury is really a euphemism for his shoulder and that the injury combined with his reduced fastball velocity and usage could be a cause for real concern. And if Price fails to regain his 2012 form after he comes back, Olney states that the Rays would be stuck in a situation similar to the spot to the one that the Minnesota Twins were in with Johan Santana. Should that happen, the Rays may be forced to either trade Price for a lesser return or keep him and his high salary for one more year hoping he will reestablish his value, risking his value dropping even more should he not return to ace form. Could this injury be the start of a disastrous series of events that leaves the Rays with a pitcher they thought was an ace that suddenly no one wants to trade for?

The big thing to notice about Olney’s comments was that they only pertain to a particular scenario: that Price comes back and still isn’t the same. Olney talks about how the Rays don’t have much time for him to reestablish his value before the trade deadline. However, that’s almost entirely irrelevant. Who said the Rays are going to be out of contention by the trade deadline? They’re at .500 now, everybody. It’s far too early to count this team out. It was always exceedingly unlikely that the Rays were going to trade Price at the trade deadline. Really, Price has the rest of the season to get back on track if he needs its–and there’s a good chance that he’ll come back and resume looking like a topflight pitcher anyway.

But it isn’t just a matter of performance–Santana managed a 3.33 ERA in 219 innings pitched in his final year as a Twin. Doesn’t Price have to not only pitch well but show improved velocity to restore his trade value? Yes, but the probability of that happening is much higher than you might think. Olney quoted a stat that Price’s fastball velocity was down form 95.5 MPH to 92.8–but that’s a misleading stat because that’s the four-seamer that Price rarely uses. His two-seamer has seen a more modest drop from 95.3 MPH to 93.6 MPH, still noticeable but more modest. And whatever is causing Price’s reduced velocity, whether it’s his triceps (or shoulder) or otherwise, now he has time to get it back to 100% and hopefully return at full strength. Price will be fine performance-wise, and the chances of him getting his velocity back are relatively high as well.

The Rays have reason to be concerned about David Price both as a pitcher and as a trade chip. It’s certainly not a good thing that Price is going on the DL and that his velocity has been reduced all season. However, it’s certainly too early to think that his trade value is going to be diminished significantly by what’s going on and the Rays have to expect that Price will revert back to normal when he returns. If Price comes back and still isn’t the same, then the Rays will be in a tough spot. But let’s see if that actually happens before we speculate about how this injury pertains to the return the Rays will get in a deal and just worry about how he will do when he returns to the mound for the Rays.

Torres began the 2013 season by dominating as a starting pitcher at Triple-A, going 2-2 with a 2.39 ERA, an 11.7 K/9, a 3.3 BB/9, and a 0.3 HR/9 in 7 starts and 37.2 innings pitched. Torres turned 25 years old in December and isn’t nearly the prospect he used to be, but he still has the potential to be a good major league starting pitcher. Despite appearing in Thursday’s game, Torres may start for the Rays on Monday in place of the injured David Price. Even if he does, though, he would likely be a placeholder until Chris Archer or Jake Odorizzi is ready. Torres was a top prospect for years in the Rays organization, but after his struggles last season, his time may have passed. To Torres, though, that doesn’t matter much–he’s a different pitcher now and he’s more than willing to accept that.

In the minor leagues, Alex Torres has made 151 career appearances, 128 starts. The last four years, 79 of Torres’ 91 appearances came in a starting role, all except 12 from an ill-fated relief stint last season that went so badly that he was brought back into the rotation. In the minor leagues, Torres has been a starting pitcher and he has been uncomfortable coming out of the bullpen. The major leagues, though, has been a different story. Torres has appeared in five games, all in relief, and pitched quite well, managing a 3.24 ERA in 8.1 innings pitched. Whereas Torres struggled to adjust to the bullpen in the minors, he has thrived there in his brief big league time. Why? Maybe because the mind-set is so different. In the minors, relieving felt like a demotion to Torres after he faltered in the rotation. In the majors however, it’s a new challenge and a fulfillment of Torres’ lifelong dream to pitch in the major leagues.

Alex Torres was always a pitcher with incredible stuff but no idea where it was going. In the minor leagues, Torres struck out an impressive 9.8 batters per 9 innings, but he failed to even register a 2-to-1 strikeout to walk ratio as he walked 5.2 batters per 9. Maybe Torres still has some wildness within him, but he has made a breakthrough from the end of last season to Winter Ball to spring training to the start of this year, and describing him that way would no longer be accurate. He enters games throwing strikes and blowing hitters away like everyone knew he always could if he ever found some control. He throws each pitch like it may be his last knowing how close he was to letting all his talent slip away, and understands what will happen if he loses his focus again. In his relief outing on Thursday, Torres’ first pitch up and out of the zone was just 90 MPH. But after that pitch, he realized that he had a job to do and that nothing mattered beyond the batter he was facing. He got his velocity up to 94 MPH to put Ellsbury away and his pitches looked downright nasty as he did so.

At the end of the day, Alex Torres could probably become a pretty good major league starting pitcher and maybe more. Moving to relief, though, will suit him even better. Hitters from both sides of the plate will have themselves an awfully hard time contending with his mid-90′s fastball with late life, his sharp slider, and even his changeup, and tying it together with newfound command and the perfect relief mentality will just make him even more dominant. Torres doesn’t let the ball go and see what happens and he doesn’t nibble at the corners scared of what the hitter will do. Torres may be nervous on the mound, but he knows that he has the talent to beat any hitter on the planet and that the only one that can stop him from doing that is himself. And after the way Torres has made a breakthrough locating his pitches, him beating himself is not something that will happen too often anymore and dominance should be a much more common occurrence. Maybe Torres moves back into a starting role and maybe he heads back to the minor leagues if someone else is called upon to start. But in the long-term, the Rays have found themselves a keeper for the bullpen in Alex Torres.