The David Price Conundrum

From – MLB.com

Before I started talking about this, I wanted everyone to have a peek at the 4 games that Price has pitched thus far.  He had the one truly dominant game vs the Twins on the 30th of May where he showed off the dominance that made him the number one pick in the draft.  The other 3 games though, he has totaled 13.1 IP, 16BB, and 15K’s.  You would generally look at a statline like that and assume a guy is getting shelled, but he has improved his ERA in every games thus far and it currently sits at 2.37.

The Rays have an interesting quandry on their hands with Price.  I’m by no means making any judgement calls about a player after 4 starts to his career, but there is an obvious trend developing here.  Price has too many control issues right now to go deep into games.  His pitch count is way to high by the time he reached in the 3rd or 4th inning.  The Rays have a serious lack of quality arms in the bullpen.   We already have 8 blown saves and we are not even to the All Star Break.  With Scott Kazmir potentially coming back from the DL, and even more importantly Wade Davis continuing to dominate AAA, are the Rays better off putting a guy who is currently taxing our already weak bullpen, into the bullpen himself?

If you’re looking for my opinion, I think the answer is yes.  We can’t trade Scott Kazmir at this point, as we’d be selling on a guy way too low, and with really only two pitches that he throws with any sort of consistency, Price would be better served in the 2009 season as our closer.  He has proven he can handle that roll on the biggest stage their is.