Upon hearing originally that Halladay was available, the Rays and the Phillies seemed to have the best chances (as far as packages were concerned) of landing Halladay.  Reports originally surfaced that they were looking for one active starter who had frontline potential, and a couple top 50 specs.  Does Scott Kazmir, Wade Davis, and Reid Brignac make sense?  To me it makes perfect sense.

After James Shields and Matt Garza I have zero confidence in the starting rotation. David Price is on and off, Andy Sonnastine has been miserable at times, and Scott Kazmir has never been a favorite of mine. Acquiring Halladay would make us the late season favorite to push for the Wild Card Spot in the AL.

For the Jays, acquiring Scott Kazmir for 10 mil in 2010 and 12 mil in 2011 with a club option for 2012 would seem to be the perfect chance to acquire a guy who has a chance to be a 1 or 2 starter at a very reasonable salary.  Wade Davis has been dominant all year at AAA and would probably immediately join their rotation, he is MLB.Com’s 31st ranked Minor League Spec.   He is 8 and 6 with a 3.22 ERA and 103 K’s in 114 innings pitched in Durham.  Brignac is MLB.com’s 32nd ranked prospect.  He seemingly has no chance to play anytime soon with Jason Bartlett looking like the best player on the Rays Major League Roster.  Even a chance to play 2nd base for Reid seems like a long shot with Willie Aybar and Ben Zobrist hitting the ball so well.

Brignac would immediately be the starting SS for the Rays, teaming him with Aaron Hill for a nice young MI combination. Scott Kazmir and Wade Davis would immediately headline the Jays rotation.   Besides trading inside the division, that is a better package than even Philadelphia can offer, considering their main target, Kyle Drabek has some definite injury concerns.

As far as the impact Halladay could have on the Rays, I think it kind of goes without saying.  A combo of Halladay, Shields and Garza is as good as any there is in the league.  People might immediately say the Rays can’t afford Halladay and his 15.75 million dollar 2010 deal or afford to resign him, but I think that would be misguided at best.   Taking out Kazmir’s 8 million dollar 2010 salary, Troy Percival’s 4 million dollar contract that ends this season and Chad Bradford’s 3.5 million dollar contract this season, the Rays would actually have a bit lower payroll next year (excluding arbitration increases) while losing some dead weight in the pitching staff and adding one of the top 5 pitchers in the game.

When I first heard that Halladay was available, I immediately called a good friend and said, if the Rays don’t at least make an exploratory call to the Jays, I will be very upset.  It is so hard to maintain success in baseball, especially in the AL East, and we have some obvious holes on this team right now, one of which Halladay fills.  I’m glad at least that exploratory part has been fulfilled.

MVP

I even had a little issue typing that out myself,  and I know a lot of people will probably laugh when they see that, but when comparing the stats of all the hitters on the Rays, it is clear to me that Zobrist is the MVP of this years team.

AVG – .288, HR – 17, RBI – 50, OBP – .407, SLG – .602, OPS – 1.009

Slugging – 2nd in the AL

OBP – 3rd in the AL

OPS – 2nd in the AL

As I have mentioned before, there were some stats last year that indicated that maybe Zobrist had a little power in him, but even the most optimistic of people couldn’t have predicted this kind of season for Ben.  On top of the already great numbers, he has done it while playing 2b, SS, RF, CF, LF.  He also has had a penchant for coming up in the big moment just like he did on Wednesday with a game winning single against the Jays.

Honorable Mention – Jason Bartlett

Cy Young – JP Howell

Once again not a player you would have guessed would have been winning midseason team awards.  Howell has brought stability to an area of our team that I have repeatedly called the weakest link of our team.

ERA – 1.52, Saves – 6, IP – 41, K – 49, OAVG – .189

The thing that is most impresive thusfar about JP is his splits.

OAVG April – .273, May – .180, June .133

He gave up 0 ER in 13 innings last month after unexpectedly becoming the closer of the team.  I always personally thought that most of what made JP so good was coming after our power pitchers and pitching in the 7th or 8th, depending on who was starting.  This year though, he has shown that he is not just a situational pitcher best used after a particular player, but a dominant bullpen arm.  His breaking ball continues to get better, and he continues to make people miss with the bat.  He continually gets ahead of hitters in the count and with a .043 OAVG with an 0-2 count, if he gets 2 strikes on you, you are pretty much finished.

Honorable Mention – James Shields

LVP – Troy Percival/Pat Burrell

When the Rays signed Percival before last season, it was a 4 million a year gamble for 2 years.  Hell, the guy had been out of baseall for a few years before showing a little spark with the Tigers at the end of the 2007 season.  He was hurt a lot last year and because he was named the closer, him being hurt brought stome instability to our pen.  This year has been even more of a disaster.

14 GP, 11.1 IP, 6.35 ERA

Now that is a small sample size to call someone our LVP and with relievers, small samples sizes can obviously skew numbers quite a bit.  One bad game, and your stats are pretty much ruined.  My issue with Percival is the fact that he is our highest paid arm in the pen, and he has contributed a grand total of 6 saves.  Even those 6 were not pretty  to watch.  In my very non proffesional opinion, Percie is done.

The Burrell signing has been a disaster at best, especially when considering that we signed him before the Angels signed Bobby Abreu (.304 AVG, 18 SB, .844 OPS) and the Nats signed Adam Dunn (22 HR, 60 RBI, .927 OPS).  Both of those guys are providing positive contributions to their team, while Burrell has brought nada.  His OPS of .661 is vomit inducing. We brought “The Bat” in to provide some power in the middle of our lineup from the right side of the plate, but instead he has been a black hole.

Burrell  - 2 years, 16 mil

Dunn – 2 years, 20 mil

Abreu – 1 years, 5 mil

A definite stain on the resume of Mr. Andrew Friendmans otherwise polished set of transactions.

Gabe Kapler needs to be demoted to the Little League for his base running skills. The guy gets caught on third, like he didn’t know there was a play going on, and gets caught running to third when the ball was hit to third. Really? There were no outs with the start of the line-up coming to the plate. Its not like the guy has blazing speed and can attempt risky base running. These move cost the Rays runs in both mistakes. Like I said, send him to Little League and don’t bring him back.

Now, what has happened to the almighty, Troy Percival? If I was Joe Maddon and the next time, for some odd reason Percival’s name is to come up, just imagine  you want to actually win this game and “Just Say No To Percy!” Actually, that is going to be the new slogan for the Rays, “Just Say No To Percy”. Hes done, its over and let someone else by the name of David Price fill in the spot. Don’t feel left out Dan Wheeler, I will have a slogan for you in the next few days, unless you come up with a fastball, a curve ball, a change-up, or a pitch that can actually be of use.

Its really sad when everyone in the crowd is thinking strikeout ,every time our 1-5 batters get two strikes on them in the count. Im not going to lie, I think the same exact thing. I feel like all of them (except for Longoria of course) are  trying way too hard to produce and should just get back to trying to make contact.

I personally just think the Rays need to get back to fundamental baseball and realize what got them to the World Series last year. Oh, and get rid of Gabe Kapler, the guy struck out against Nick Swisher.