Victorino, who turned 32 years old last week, is coming off a rough year split between the Phillies and Dodgers, managing just a .255/.321/.383 line (91 OPS+) with 11 homers, 7 triples, and 39 stolen bases in 666 plate appearances. However, his 39 steals and his success rate (39 of 45) were both career-bests, and just one year before he had a huge year, punishing pitchers to the tune of a .279/.355/.491 line (130 OPS+). Even counting 2012, Victorino is a good defensive centerfielder (3.1 UZR/150 in 6571.2 innings) who has managed a .276/.343/.438 line with an average of 14 homers, 11 triples, and 31 stolen bases per season the last five years. That’s a pretty valuable player no matter how you slice it.

Victorino certainly comes with risk- he didn’t hit for any power at all in 2012 as his .128 ISO was his lowest since 2003 and a career-high groundball to flyball ratio, a career-low line drive rate, and a career-worst pop-up rate are concerning enough to make you think that his power may never come back in earnest. Even worse is that the switch-hitting Victorino put up just a .229/.296/.333 line (69 sOPS+) against right-handed pitching, and although he was outstanding against lefties (140 sOPS+), most pitchers are righties and that’s certainly not good. Victorino has always been better batting right-handed, but now it’s getting extreme. All that being said, at the right price you take a chance at a player who has been as Victorino has been the past several years.

Why were the Rays interested in Victorino? They were hoping that they could get an excellent value at say two years and 16 million dollars and wind up with a centerfielder every bit as good as B.J. Upton and maybe even better. Victorino’s final deal was far more than that so it didn’t work out. But the Rays are showing that money isn’t the most important thing for them anymore. The Rays’ payroll will remain low but they’re ready to seize opportunities to get quality players at below market value up to a certain extent. The Rays took plenty of risk with the extension they gave to Evan Longoria, but they knew that if Longoria’s injury problems are behind him they’ll be criminally underpaying him. The Rays were ready to take another calculated gamble with Victorino. It didn’t work out- and now the Rays will be rooting for Victorino to fall apart with the Red Sox- but you never know the next chance the Rays will take and the reward could be enormous.

Kevin Youkilis, Adam Dunn and Brian McCann homered for USA.  Shane Victorino and Derek Jeter also had two hits a piece.  

The pitching was rather shaky with Jake Peavy giving up two runs, and Joel Hanrahan, Scott Shields and JJ Putz each giving up a run a piece in the relief effort.  Putz came in to close the game, and almost gave it back with that run.  

The US plays the winner of the Italy vs Venezuela game, currently going on as I type tommorow @ 630 PM on MLB Network.