Keith Law Thinks Rays Have Third Best Farm System

"3. Tampa Bay Rays"

"The Rays have graduated a fair amount of talent in recent years but continue to come up with arms, while using their stumble last year to flip Scott Kazmir and add three solid prospects to their system. They could easily graduate three more above-average or better prospects this year if openings arise at the big league level."

Law has Desmond Jennings ranked 6th, Wade Davis ranked 15th, Jeremy Hellickson ranked 17th, Tim Beckham ranked 29th, Matt Sweeney ranked 68th and Matt Moore ranked 81st.

The list is fairly similar to Baseball America’s list for the Rays, except Baseball America likes Hellickson slightly better than Davis.

David should start the season in the rotation. It’s going to take some restraint to keep Hellickson off the big club to start the year, but if there were an injury to any SP I would imagine that Hellickson will be called upon to fill that role.   There is also a possibility that Hellickson gets called up a month or so into the season and is used to augment the bullpen.  A JP Howell, Jeremy Hellickson, Rafael Soriano end of the game would be as good as any in the bigs.

Desmond Jennings is another guy who should be playing for our big club.   He had a fantastic season in Durham (AAA) in 2009.  He hit .325, shows great patience at the plate, a rare skill for someone who  is as fast and steals bases like him, and has more pop than many people think.  He has a chance to be a 5 tool star for the Rays, and his bat and speed would be tough to send back down to Durham.  He should be allowed to keep with Matt Joyce for the 3rd OF spot in 2010.

Moore, Sweeney and Beckham won’t see the show for quite some time.