Trevor Shull, who turned 22 in August, was the Rays’ 18th round pick in 2008 and has become a waiting game for the Rays for the last five years. They’re still waiting. In 2012 for the Hot Rods, Shull went 5-7 with a 5.05 ERA, a 6.0 K/9, a 5.3 BB/9, and a 0.3 HR/9 in 13 starts, 15 relief appearances, and 82 innings pitched. Shull remains a 6’4″, 200 right-hander never really growing into his frame as of now and failing to get his fastball velocity up to the level the Rays thought he would be at by this point in his career. Shull’s fastball hits just the high-80′s at this point, and while he does get good sink on it, as evidenced by his great HR/9 and his 47.7% groundball rate in 2012 per Minor League Central, and has never been a swing-and-miss pitch and his secondary pitches have never developed as good enough offerings for Shull to overcome that. Shull throws a changeup and a curveball, with the changeup occasionally flashing plus with good arm action and nice sink, but he fails to command it consistently, sometimes leaving it up in the zone and hittable and at other times failing to make it look anything like a strike. The curveball has its moments but gets slurvy far too often without Shull being able to control it either, and that has led to Shull being in the frustrating position of being a right-handed pitcher who’s more effective against left-handed batters. Shull still has promise- he’s doing fine on the age relative to level curve and he still has plenty of room to grow as a pitcher- but it seems less and less likely that he’s ever going to amount to anything as a pitcher after he has made so little progress so far. Shull will look to defy the odds as his professional career continues.

Lefty Jacob Partridge, who’ll turn 22 this month, was drafted in the same round as Shull one year later, in the 18th round of the 2009 MLB Draft, and has shown significantly more progress the last few years. Partridge was the Hot Rods’ long relief ace in 2012, going 5-1 with a 2.51 ERA, an 8.7 K/9, a 3.5 BB/9, and a 0.2 HR/9 in 3 starts, 31 relief appearances, and 96.2 innings pitched. Partridge, 6’3″, 200, gets his fastball up into the low-90′s with enough late life to miss some bats and force weak contact, although too much of it in the air as he struggles to command it. Where Partridge has most progressed since signing is his changeup, which has evolved into a weapon for him against right-handed batters thanks to late action that makes the bottom fall out of it, but Partridge found himself relying on it too much against righties as his fastball didn’t have nearly as much deception against opposite-side hitters and hitters were able to lay off of it as they saw it more. Partridge also needs to figure out how to throw his changeup for strikes as opposed to simply using it for a chase offering. Partridge’s third pitch, a slider, also shows promise, although Partridge doesn’t get enough break on it consistently and uses it more as more of a groundball pitch. Partridge didn’t start in 2012, but he threw 96.2 innings, 6th on the team after the five starters, and after a promising season he could be placed into a starting role next season at High-A Charlotte. Partridge’s upside is likely a mid-rotation starter, but he continues to progress as a pitcher and we’ll see just how far he can go.

Andrew Bellatti, who turned 21 in August, was drafted 6 rounds ahead of Partridge in the 2009 MLB Draft and paired with Partridge to give Bowling Green a great left-right relief combo. Bellatti went 7-3 with a 2.97 ERA, a 9.8 K/9, a 3.0 BB/9, and a 0.9 HR/9 in 39 relief appearances, 1 starts, and 91 innings pitched. Unlike Shull and Partridge, Bellatti isn’t a prospect with all that much projection at 6’1″, 170, but he still has an interesting arsenal. His fastball stays around 90 MPH, and Bellatti is able to throw it for a lot of strikes, and like another Rays pitcher who’s 6’1″, Jeremy Hellickson, Bellatti gets good late movement and was able to force a lot of weak contact in the air in 2012. The question is whether that will persist. His groundball rate was an alarmingly bad 29.6% in 2012, the worst rate in the Midwest League minimum 50 innigs pitched, certainly not a good sign. With fastball velocity that isn’t that great, Bellatti has to improve his fastball command and gets his groundball rate up into reasonable levels. The Hellickson comps end with the fastball as Bellatti’s best pitch is not a changeup but a slider, a pitch that flashes plus with tight late break and is particularly effective against right-handed batters but also works against lefties. Bellatti gets into trouble when he tries to overthrow it and ends up losing command of it and leaving it up in the zone. His command of it is going to be even more important moving forward as his fastball will continue to play down and it will harder for Bellatti to sell it, necessitating him to make his slider a more consistent pitch for it to continue being effective. Bellatti does throw a changeup, but he has never gotten ahold of it and can’t throw it for strikes on a regular basis. Even though he gave the Hot Rods length and is a year younger than the two guys above, Bellatti’s upside appears to be in a relief role, but with his sharp slider he has a chance to be solid bullpen arm for the Rays someday even without a premium fastball if he can continue improving his repertoire.

The Rays had seven players test positive for various drugs, some recreational and others performance-enhancing, in 2012 and receive 50-game suspension from Minor League Baseball. Four of them remain in the organization. Three of them being retained make sense- Tim Beckham, Josh Sale, and Ryan Brett are all top prospects for the Rays, and although their suspensions cannot exactly inspire confidence, you hope that they’ll be able to overcome their lapse in judgement and get back on track. But the surprise was the fourth player who the Rays kept in the fold: right-hander Charlie Cononie. Cononie, who will turn 24 in February, was the Rays’ 24th round pick in 2011 and put up intriguing numbers in 2012. Cononie managed a 2-4 record with a 4.20 ERA, a 10.4 K/9, a 6.8 BB/9, and a 0.2 HR/9 in 34 relief appearances and 60 innings pitched. Cononie, a big 6’7″, 210, apparently has enough potential for the Rays to give him a second chance. Cononie works primarily with a two-seam fastball in the 92-94 MPH range with heavy sink at its best and big run, leading to Cononie’s outstanding 63.1% groundball rate on the season but also a ton of his walks as its big movement made him struggle mightily to control it even as he kept it down well. His arm slot varies too often, giving his fastball all sorts of movement, including natural late cut at times, but making controlling it just even harder. Cononie pairs his fastball with a huge 11-to-5 breaking ball with outstanding depth that was a true swing-and-miss pitch when Cononie was able to sell it. Cononie couldn’t throw it for a strike and basically had to throw it off his fastball, a losing proposition because hitters assumed quite often that Cononie could not throw his fastball for a strike and were often proved right. Cononie also throws a changeup, yet another pitch that he can’t throw for a strike. Cononie’s size and arsenal make him interesting, but he has to find control- of both his life and of his arsenal- in order to be any sort of prospect.

Austin Hubbard, 24, was the Rays’ 14th round pick in 2010 and regressed in his second go-around with the Hot Rods in 2012 but also showed signs of progress. Hubbard went 2-6 in 2012 with a 4.11 ERA, an 11.4 K/9, a 3.9 BB/9, and a 1.1 HR/9 in 49 relief appearances and 57 innings pitched. Hubbard, a 6’2″, 206 right-hander, touches 93 MPH with his fastball but usually stays right around 90 MPH with the pitch. He controls it decently but it’s simply nothing special. Hubbard’s money pitch and the reason he has any potential at all is his low-80′s slider, which is a true swing-and-miss offering but only when Hubbard can establish his fastball, something he did a solid job of doing in 2012 but it’s questionable whether he can do that as he progresses through the minors. One swing-and-miss offering is nice, but Hubbard has to improve his fastball to have any pro prospects.

McEachern showed flashes in 2012, striking out over a batter per inning, but there is plenty of more work still to be done. (Credit: Flickr user Neil Alan Ralson)

And the last prospect we’ll cover on the 2012 Bowling Green Hot Rods is right-hander Jason McEachern, who turned 22 in October and was the Rays’ 13th round pick back in 2008. McEachern had nice results overall in  2012, going 2-2 with a 2.80 ERA, a 10.0 K/9, a 4.6 BB/9, and a 0.3 HR/9 in 28 relief appearances and 61 innings pitched. McEachern, 6’2″, 206, pitches out of a deceptive delivery and throws a fastball in the low-90′s with late life that shows an ability to be a swing-and-miss offering but is a pitch that McEachern struggles to both command and control. He also throws a curveball and changeup, with the curveball being more promising as McEachern throws it out of the same arm slot as his fastball with big 11-to-5 break, while his changeup has its moments but has never developed the consistency that the Rays would like to see. Between his deception being an advantage to right-hand hitters and a weakness to lefty hitters and the fact that his curveball is so much better than his changeup right now, McEachern’s strikeout to walk ratio was exponentially better against righties than lefties, coming in at 45-12 compared to just 23-19. You know the Rays like McEachern because they sent him to Bowling Green at just 19 years old in 2009, but this was his third year at the level- except for a 2010 stint at Short Season-A Hudson Valley- and he has to find a way to take the next step as a pitcher. It looks like McEachern’s future will be in relief, but his upside in that role remains high and the Rays hope something can click for him moving forward.

The story of this group was projectable talents with plenty of work still to do but also interesting potential that gives them a chance to be interesting prospects if they can polish up their arsenals and turn their raw ability and consistent performance as they move up the minor league ranks. They were the perfect way to end our evaluation of the Hot Rods, a team that had as much promise as any Rays affiliate but also an enigmatic element starting with their four drug suspensions and continuing with plenty of tools that remain works in progress. This could be a major boom-or-bust group for the Rays system moving forward, but with players like Josh Sale, Jake Hager, Todd Glaesmann, Parker Markel, Tyler Goeddel, and Felipe Rivero, we could also be looking back at this team as where it all started for major pieces of the Rays future. The Rays have to nervous about what’s going to happen these Hot Rods moving forward, but it can be a nervous excitement as they know the upside of this team is sky-high and with added maturity on and off the field, they just might get there.

For all our analysis on the Hot Rods and the Rays’ other minor league affiliates, check out our Minor League Affiliates Analysis page here at RCG.

Lefty Ryan Carpenter, 22, was the Rays’ 7th round pick in 2011 and the Hot Rods’ workhorse in 2012 and had a nice season, going 11-8 with a 4.09 ERA, a 6.8 K/9, a 1.4 BB/9, and a 0.9 HR/9 in 28 starts, a relief appearance, and 149.2 inning pitched, 6th-most in the Midwest League. Carpenter has a durable pitcher’s frame at 6’5″, 235 and interesting stuff to match. Carpenter’s stuff has fluctuated a little too much over the past few years, but he features a fastball that he commands superbly that hits the low-90′s and even the mid-90′s when he’s going well but dips into the high-80′s at times. Carpenter is able to get good life on his fastball, but he has to do a better job commanding it down in the zone, especially for a relatively tall pitcher- his groundball rate was just 38.0% in 2012 according to Minor League Central. His slider in the low-80′s features tight 1-to-7 break when he’s able to get on top of it, and he also throws a curveball with big break and a solid changeup. Carpenter shows good polish and flashes of an impressive repertoire but has to find a way to get his arsenal right more often. Carpenter has the potential to be a innings-eating number three or four starter if he can get more consistency on all his pitches and the Rays hope he can make progress at doing that as he moves forward in the minor leagues.

Jake Floethe, 23, was drafted one round ahead of Carpenter in the 6th round of the 2011 MLB Draft and had a nice full-season debut in 2012, although it was marred a bit by injuries. Floethe went 10-3 with a 3.31 ERA, a 6.8 K/9, a 2.3 BB/9, and a 0.3 HR/9 in 24 starts and 122.1 innings pitched, missing time with a back injury. In sharp contrast to Carpenter, Floethe’s groundball rate was an outstanding 55.1% in 2012. Floethe, 6’3″ and 205 pounds, works off a low-90′s sinker with outstanding sink that he is able to both command and control well. It does not miss many bats but it forces a ton of weak contract, especially on the ground. Floethe’s secondary pitches are a little more questionable but show potential. His breaking ball features sharp break at its best and Floethe used it as a weapon against right-handed hitters in 2012, and he also throws a changeup that has solid downward actions but is more of a groundball pitch than something he’s going to use to get a lot of swings and misses. Floethe has gained a reputation for being injury prone between Tommy John Surgery in 2010 and his back injury this year, and between that and concerns over his ability to get left-handers out, he may profile well as a reliever. But if he can prove he can stay healthy and improve his secondary pitches to the point that he can miss enough bats, he’s another pitcher with mid-rotation upside. Considering his age, he’s already a step behind, but he has the ability to compensate as long as he can stay on the mound. The potential of pitchers like Carpenter and Floethe may not be the most exciting thing in the world, but teams always need pitchers like them to fill out their rotations and it’s amazing how many pitchers the Rays are able to find that meet that profile and have a reasonable chance of getting there.

Parker Markel, who turned 22 in September, was an absolute steal by the Rays down in Round 39 of the 2010 MLB Draft. Markel struggled through a shoulder injury in the early part of the year but finished the year in a flourish. All in all, he went 11-5 with a 3.52 ERA, a 7.2 K/9, a 2.6 BB/9, and a 0.4 HR/9 in 24 starts and 120 innings pitched. His groundball rate was just above league average at 45.0%. Markel, 6’4″ and 220 pounds, touches as high as 98 MPH with his fastball with great sink at times. That isn’t even his best pitch- he throws a dynamic low-80′s changeup with late sink and armside run along with a mid-80′s slider with a chance to be a third plus pitch for him. Markel’s biggest issue is a sharp recoil in his delivery, which gives him deception and helps him reach back for extra velocity, but it also puts pressure on his shoulder, as we saw with his injury this year. He also needs quite a bit of work commanding his pitches- it’s nice that he didn’t walk too many batters, but a pitcher with as electric an arsenal as Markel has should be striking out plenty more. Parkel has the stuff to profile as the number two starter but between all his concerns may fit best as an overpowering late-inning reliever. The Rays will give Markel a while longer as a starter to see if he can put it all together and maybe ease up his delivery a little bit, but it will be awfully tantalizing for them to convert him into a relief role and watch him zoom through the minors. As either a starter or reliever, Markel’s upside is tremendous and the Rays can’t wait to see what he can do as he works his way up the ranks.

Roberto Gomez, who turned 23 in August, was signed by the Rays back in 2010 and had a good season for Bowling Green this past year, going 9-3 with a 2.48 ERA, a 5.9 K/9, a 3.2 BB/9, and a 0.9 HR/9 in 22 starts, 6 relief appearances, and 120 innings pitched. His groundball rate was a tick below average at 44.2%.  Gomez is a 6’5″, 178 right-hander who stands out most for the amount of projection he has remaining but also shows flashes with his current arsenal. Against right-handed batters, Gomez throws a fastball that currently stays around 90 MPH with some late movement along with a slurvy breaking ball. He can throw both pitches for strikes but struggles to command them and miss any bats. Against lefties, though, Gomez shows a high-80′s two-seamer with a ton of life that he can use to freeze lefty batters but also struggles to locate for strikes, and he also throws a changeup that flashes plus, although Gomez struggles to make it look like a strike. Gomez needs a maturing to do in terms of filling out his 6’5″ frame and developing his arsenal, and at 23 years old he has a lot of time to make up for, but he has interesting potential if everything can come together.

We’ll finish for today with lefty Felipe Rivero, 21, who the Rays signed out of Venezuela in 2008 and added to their 40-man roster a little over a week ago after a great season for the Hot Rods. Rivero went 8-8 with a 3.41 ERA, a 7.8 K/9, a 2.3 BB/9, and a 0.4 HR/9 in 21 starts, 6 relief appearances, and 113.1 innings pitched. His groundball rate was a good 48.4%. Rivero’s performance was great, and he actually had a 2.41 ERA on August 1st before struggling as he more than doubled his previous career high in innings. Rivero is a slim 6’0″, 151 left-hander who already features an impressive repertoire. His fastball hits the mid-90′s with solid sink and Rivero is able to throw it for strikes a nice percentage of the time. His secondary pitches, a curveball and a changeup, are less polished, but his breaking ball flashes plus with a good arm slot and sharp late break while his changeup has its moments as well. Rivero is actually better against right-handed batters than lefties at this point, posting a 71-18 strikeout to walk ratio against righties compared to 27-11 against lefties, something you would not expect given that Rivero’s curveball is better than his changeup, but Rivero has been able to use his curve effectively to batters of both sides and his issues against lefties stem from the fact that he’s most comfortable working on the outer part of the plate to righties, which is inside to lefties, and although he was able to jam lefties a good amount of the time when he pitched inside in 2012, actually holding them to a .629 OPS compared to .771 by righties, his command to lefties on the outer side of the plate was sub-par, limiting his ability to miss bats. That is something that Rivero will have to continue working on moving forward. More pressing issues for Rivero are building up his durability, getting more consistency on his secondary pitches, and improving his overall command. Rivero features an electric arsenal with solid polish on his fastball, and although it may take a while for everything to fall into place for him as a pitcher, his upside is considerable and the fact that the Rays added him to their 40-man roster tells you how much they think of him.

The Hot Rods featured a starting rotation with five real prospects in 2012, and the group combined outstanding upside in Markel and Rivero with more polished pitchers in Carpenter and Floethe and a complete wild card in Gomez. The Rays could get a couple big league starters from among these pitchers and maybe even a nice bullpen piece or two in the worst-case scenario. Low-A is a ways from the big leagues, but the Rays are excited to see what these five can do as their professional careers progress.

For more of our analysis on the Hot Rods and the Rays’ other minor league affiliates, check out our Minor League Affiliates Analysis page here at RCG.

Left Field

Josh Sale, 21, was the Rays’ first round pick, 17th overall, in 2010 and finally showed signs of putting it all together in 2012 before a 50-game suspension for meth abruptly ended his season. Sale began the season at extended spring training after a horrific 2011 season at Advanced Rookie Princeton, but the Rays decided to challenge him in May by sending him to Bowling Green and he more than held his own, posting a .264/.391/.464 line with 10 doubles, 10 homers, 44 RBI, and a 62-54 strikeout to walk ratio in 74 games and 297 plate appearances. He got after to a staggering start in May before cooling off, but his overall numbers were still very impressive. Sale shows outstanding bat speed and lift in his swing to go with remarkable plate discipline, but the problem for him that his game will be all about his hitting. Sale, who is 6’0″, 215, is not a great athlete and doesn’t have a great arm, limiting him to left field. If he doesn’t hit, he will go nowhere as a prospect. The good news is that Sale has the ability to be a prolific hitter in the big leagues, potentially hitting .300 with 35-homer power and an on-base percentage approaching .400. Sale still has kinks to work out in his offensive game. He is very patient but needs to continue to work on figuring out which pitches to drive (which was the main reason why he struggled so mightily in 2011), and his two-strike approach still isn’t great. He also gets into trouble when he tries to sell out for power as opposed to let his power flow naturally through his great strength and bat speed. And then of course there’s the matter of the drug suspension. The suspension went against everything we thought we knew about Sale as he was known for outstanding character and work ethic, and his father takes pride in being one of the few professional weightlifters who does not use performance-enhancing drugs. Sale vehemently denied that he knowingly took any PED. Hopefully we will be able to look at this incident as an aberration as Sale proves that his intangibles will win out in the long-term. Sale is a strange player in an organization that prides itself most for pitching and defense, but his offensive potential is tremendous and the Rays hope he can build off the positives from his 2012 season while moving on from the suspension that has put everything into question.

Taylor Motter, who turned 23 in September, was the Rays’ 17th round pick in 2011 and after just 148 minor league games over the last two seasons, he has already played every position on the diamond except pitcher and catcher. He also has been decent with the bat, posting a .244/.357/.363 line with 17 doubles, 5 homers, 37 RBI, 24 of 36 stolen bases, and 60 strikeouts versus 50 walks in 99 games and 361 plate appearances. Motter is not the next Ben Zobrist, but he does have some potential. Motter features a compact stroke with average bat speed although very little power, and he has a nice patient approach at the plate. Motter hits way too many balls in the air for his own good at this point, most of them weakly. His best tool is above-average speed, and the flyballs don’t help him at all in utilizing that to get on base. Motter also needs to learn how to bunt and improve at reading pitchers. Defensively, Motter features solid actions, good range, and a strong arm, and he is similar to Zobrist in that he can profile at least defensively just about everywhere. Motter’s .244 batting average in 2012 was just above Elliot Johnson‘s .242 mark, and Motter is a similar player to Johnson but with more consistent defense and better patience but less speed and less power (and considering EJ doesn’t have much power at all, that’s not good). Motter’s biggest concern moving forward will be proving that he can hit at higher levels. Motter fits a solid utility profile and the Rays hope he can hit enough to be a big league contributor.

Centerfield

Todd Glaesmann, who turned 22 in late October, was the Rays’ 3rd round pick in 2009 and their Minor League Player of the Year this year. Glaesmann had a big year in 2012, posting a .285/.336/.493 line with 25 doubles, 7 triples, 21 homers, 75 RBI, 8 of 11 stolen bases, and 124 strikeouts against 30 walks in 127 games, 91 with the Hot Rods and 36 at High-A Charlotte, and 540 total plate appearances. Glaesmann, who is 6’4″, 220, has as much upside as any position player in the system but also considerable risk. He has five tool potential with great pure bat speed leading the ability to hit for average and power, above-average speed, good defense, and a strong arm. But the problems become clear immediately from Glaesmann’s strikeout to walk ratio. Glaesmann swings and misses way too often for a player with his bat speed because he struggles with pitch recognition, getting consistently baffled by breaking pitches. Even on fastballs, he is overaggressive and the power show he put on in 2012 will not continue unless he vastly improves in that regard as well- Low-A pitchers leave a whole lot more fastball right down the middle that Double-A pitchers, let alone big league ones. Glaesmann also gets into trouble when he lets his swing gets long as power becomes the only thing on his mind. Another aspect of his game where Glaesmann needs to improve is stealing bases- Glaesmann has the ability to steal 15 bases annually but is very raw in terms of reading pitchers. Defensively, Glaesmann has good range and a great arm but is a better fit in right field than center moving forward. Glaesmann has excellent upside, with a chance to hit near .300 with 30 homers, 15 stolen bases, and strong defense in right field, but even after an outstanding season, his all-around game remains very raw. Glaesmann’s incredible 2012 campaign highlighted his enormous potential but also put the things he needs to work on clearly into view, and the Rays hope he can continue developing his game to give him a chance to put up numbers like he did this season in the big leagues someday.

Kes Carter, 22, was selected by the Rays with one of their supplemental picks in the 2011 draft but has never been able to get his pro career going. Carter got into just 44 games in 2012 and only 37 with the Hot Rods because of a hamstring injury. The 7 games in the GCL don’t really count, and in the 37 in Bowling Green, he posted just a .228/.363/.346 line with 5 doubles, 2 triples, 2 homers, 16 RBI, 9 of 13 stolen bases, and 34 strikeouts versus 23 walks in 37 games and 158 plate appearances. Carter shows 5-tool potential but can’t stay on the field long enough to develop it. Carter shows nice bat speed and good patience at the plate but still gets fooled a little too often by offspeed pitches and doesn’t use his ability to work deep counts too much to his advantage in terms of materializing his power as he can’t recognize which pitches to drive. Then there’s the whole issue that Carter, a lefty, doesn’t hit left-handed pitching at all, an issue that goes back to his college days, and he went just 2 for 19 (.105) versus lefties with the Hot Rods, albeit in a minuscule. That’s a major issue when it’s coming up this low in the professional ranks and even earlier, in college, although you hope that the Rays will figure out a way to help him get past it. Carter has plus speed but needs more work figuring out how to use it on the basepaths, and his approach at the plate doesn’t do anything to help him use his speed to get on base as he hits a ton of balls in the air. At least Carter is solid defensively, although he needs to work on the accuracy of throws. Carter has interesting ability, but he has to find a way to stay healthy to give himself a chance to rectify his current problems and reach his upside.

Right Field

Drew Vettleson, 21, was a supplemental first round pick by the Rays in 2010 and was arguably the Hot Rods’ best all-around player this season. Vettleson posted a .275/.340/.432 line with 24 doubles, 5 triples, 15 homers, 69 RBI, 20 of 31 stolen bases, and 117 strikeouts against 51 walks in 132 games and 562 plate appearances. Vettleson isn’t as flashy as some of the players above, but he may have the best chance of becoming a big leaguer regular. Vettleson shows a quick stroke with good bat speed and solid power to all fields. The question on that would be why he struck out so often (20.4% of his plate appearances) but the answer is a combination of some moderate struggles against left-handed pitching, especially getting frozen on a few too many fastballs. Vettleson should be a player who makes a good amount of contact and hit for a good average, and he’ll look to improve on that moving forward. His patience isn’t great, but it’s more than passable and hopefully it will only continue to improve. Vettleson’s power isn’t prolific but he hits a lot of balls to the gaps and should have 15-20 power moving forward. He shows solid speed but needs to work on his basestealing. Defensively is where Vettleson really shined in 2012, racking up 20 outfield assists thanks to his great arm strength, and he moved well in right field as well, albeit while struggling mightily in a brief trial in centerfield. Vettleson shows nice ability and solid polish in all facets of the game while still having room to grow in several regards, and the Rays hope he can continue developing his tools on his way to becoming an above-average right fielder in the big leagues.

There is some chance that among these five outfielders you could have your three outfield starters of the future for the Rays. The talent is certainly there, and although there’s plenty of work still to be done, you’re looking at players with some of the most lofty potential in the Rays system. The Rays are excited to see what Sale, Glaesmann, and Vettleson can do after big seasons and have to hope all of them can continue refining their games, with Sale having to deal with whatever happened this year with the drug issue, Glaesmann needing to work on patience, and Vettleson simply sharpening up his skills across the board. The outfield is not the biggest strength for the Rays right now, but if things break right with these guys, that will not be the case in three or four years.

For more of our analysis on the Hot Rods and the Rays’ other minor league affiliates, check out our Minor League Affiliates Analysis page here at RCG.