The blockbuster trade in which the Marlins traded the core of their team to the Toronto Blue Jays caused Rays fans to rip the Marlins and especially their owner, Jeffrey Loria, incessantly (like I did here). Unfortunately, though, the Marlins’ actions will have an adverse affect on the Rays as well. Gary Shelton of the Tampa Bay Times talked about how the Marlins’ trade of Jose Reyes, Josh Johnson, and Mark Buehrle to the Blue Jays just a year after getting a new stadium will only make it more difficult for the Rays to get a new stadium in Pinellas or Hillsborough County with the added concern of the Rays pulling off a Marlins-esque fire sale and betraying the area after getting their new stadium. It’s something that the Rays have never done and will likely never do- their strategy is to win as much as they can in the short-term while continuing to build for the future, and a fire sale goes straight against that- but now it’s just another factor to consider. The airports didn’t make people take off their shoes for security until someone hid a bomb in their shoes. Bill Foster, the St. Pete Council, and everyone involved in these stadium talks didn’t even consider the possibility of the Rays pulling off a stunt like this until Loria and the Marlins just did it. The stadium talks are already stalled because the Rays and St. Petersburg, and this will only make discussions less likely to amount to anything. Hopefully the Rays can overcome this- as Shelton points out, Stuart Sternberg has a much better reputation than Loria- but things are getting increasingly dire in these stadium talks.

We’ve talked ad nauseum here at RCG about a possible trade between the Rays and Royals, and the trade scenarios are interesting albeit unlikely to happen. That remains the case, but Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports reports that the Rays are particularly interested in Royals top outfield prospect Wil Myers in a possible trade. That actually may make a trade even less likely because Myers is an incredibly talented prospect coming off a huge season in 2012 as a 21 year old between Double-A and Triple-A, posting a .314/.387/.600 line with 26 doubles, 6 triples, 37 homers, and 109 RBI in 134 games and 591 plate appearances. Myers does have some risk involved with him- he did strike out 140 times versus just 61 walks in 2012- but he has the ability to be a major part of the Royals’ future and he’s not a player they want to trade by any stretch. If a Rays-Royals blockbuster does happen, it would likely be because the Royals decide that they so desperately need pitching that parting with Myers would be the right move, but the chances of that happening are slim.

ESPN released their rankings of all 122 teams in the 4 major sports, and the Rays ranked 16th, finishing 1st in the affordability category, 5th in coaching, and 8th for bang for the buck. They were 4th among MLB teams behind the Texas Rangers and two teams you would never have guessed: the Arizona Diamondbacks and Texas Rangers. In any event, nice to see the Rays up there among the best teams in sports, and hopefully a big finish to this year will get them higher up in those rankings next time. The Tampa Bay Lightning finished 7th in the rankings and 2nd in the NHL behind the Phoenix Coyotes. Rays principle owner Stuart Sternberg was also mentioned in the latest issue of ESPN The Magazine in the context of analytics-driven businessmen becoming sports owners and GMs.

MLB.com released their ranking of the Rays’ top 20 prospects, and here was their order.

1. Hak-Ju Lee
2. Taylor Guerrieri
3. Chris Archer
4. Mikie Mahtook
5. Enny Romero
6. Drew Vettleson
7. Blake Snell
8. Alex Torres
9. Alex Colome
10. Felipe Rivero
11. Parker Markel
12. Josh Sale
13. Ryan Brett
14. Derek Dietrich
15. Richie Shaffer
16. Jake Hager
17. Brandon Guyer
18. Justin O’Conner
19. Jeff Ames
20. Tim Beckham

We are going to have our first annual RCG Rays Prospect Rankings this offseason so I won’t talk too much about these rankings, but I will say that Romero and Torres are way too high in my book, Brandon Guyer and Justin O’Conner (who are still two players I really like) should not be in these rankings, and Tyler Goeddel is mysteriously absent. I did like where Vettleson and Snell were spotted in the rankings and that Tim Beckham was down at 20.

Speaking of Beckham, Baseball America’s John Manuel wrote about Beckham’s lost season in 2012, how he is moving on from his mistakes, and what his ultimate potential is. Below is one quote from Beckham but the entire piece is worth the read.

“I like the feeling of what I’m doing right now. I made some adjustments. I had my hands in a different position than where I have them now. I’ve been trying to perfect that. I’ve got them lower now; they were over my head before, and there was a lot of movement. I talked to some of the older guys on the team who just told me my hands are quick enough and I’m strong enough where I don’t need all that movement. I feel like the more quiet you are (in the batter’s box), the more consistent you are, and that’s where I want to be.”

And finally, happy birthday to Wade Davis yesterday. I wrote an article about the edge he gives the Rays out of the bullpen yesterday and there were a bunch of nice tweets relating to him as well.

Rays Vault photo today was actually from Vero Beach in 2009, so Wade Davis was 21 y/o, not 18. (h/t @milbclubbie) twitter.com/Jonathan_Gantt…

— Jonathan Gantt (@Jonathan_Gantt) September 7, 2012

Wade Davis has pitched in mostly lower-leverage situations this year, but Maddon said he wouldn’t be afraid to use him in critical moments.

— Adam Berry (@adamdberry) September 7, 2012

Part of the reason: Lefties hitting .168 with a .495 OPS off Davis this year. Maddon said #Rays haven’t talked about his 2013 role yet.

— Adam Berry (@adamdberry) September 7, 2012

Rays News and Notes

• Matt Moore‘s minor abdominal strain I talked about yesterday will keep him out of his batting practice session that was scheduled for tomorrow. The injury is not serious, but once again Joe Maddon wants to be cautious. We can all just hope that he won’t miss any spring starts.
• Stu Sternberg made his first appearance at Rays spring training today. Sternberg said he is “pretty certain” the Rays can succeed in the Tampa Bay area long term. While it may not be in the Trop, or even in St. Petersburg, it is always good to hear Sternberg say things like this. Some of his previous comments have been discouraging on the situation, so this is positive news.
• Beyond the Box Score published their Rays season preview. The sabermetrics site took an in-depth statistical look at the Rays upcoming season.
• Dave Scheiber of Fox Sports Florida takes a look at Desmond Jennings. Scheiber writes about Jennings’ first full season in the big leagues and how he will step into the leadoff spot this season.
• Yahoo! Sports takes a comical look at Luke Scott’s 7 1/2 foot hunting spears, which made an appearance in Port Charlotte yesterday.