Rays stingy on Gathright's price

[Fishercat]

The Devil Rays are reportedly still trying to deal Joey Gathright for "one premium pitching prospect."
Well sure, why wouldn't they be? The Marlins still seem like the best fit and the two teams are said to still be talking about a potential trade involving Scott Olsen or Ricky Nolasco.

Maybe it's just me, but is Gathright worth a "premium pitching prospect"? It doesn't seem like it. He's not even close to the top of the OF depth chart, there's prospects like Young and pros like Gomes, Baldelli, Crawford, Huff ahead of him as well. For what is, on a normal team, a quality 4th OF/mediocre starter on the upside, a great prospect seems a bit high.

[Dry1313]

He would actually be a 3rd outfielder on most teams and could start at all 3 positions. He has huge potential, but is most certainly not worth a sure thing. I'm guessing a very good AAA pitcher who is major league fringe.

[love_that_reefer]

Gathright is not worth a premium prospect but can you blame these guys for trying? They need pitching and the Marlins want him but they are also looking at Taveras in Houston which is very unlikely. The price is too high.

[Fishercat]

I guess if they keep trying to overprice their players, some team desperate enough will bite

[Saber]

Gathright is what he is, an extremely fast player with zero power. Without power, he also draws no walks, so his career will be completely batting average-driven. I think his career will be very disappointing. The Rays should take the best offer out there before he gets exposed.

[McKain]

Gathright is what he is, an extremely fast player with zero power. Without power, he also draws no walks, so his career will be completely batting average-driven. I think his career will be very disappointing. The Rays should take the best offer out there before he gets exposed.

The black Alex Sanchez!

without the steroids

... and with the ability to leap a Lincoln towncar in a single bound.

[love_that_reefer]

Why are you guys in love power?

[Kingdom]

He's just another Roger Cedeno or Brian Hunter. [yawn]

[McKain]

Because power is an important part of the game. More important than speed.

[love_that_reefer]

Power isn't as important as you guys make it out to be. For christ's sake you guys tries to argue about Matheny's hitting lines. How sad? You need people with speed to set up the guys with power. Asking for power ffom every player is just stupid and not baseball.

[McKain]

The idea that speed is a necessity in baseball is quite far off base.

The Oakland Athletics have no speed. No speed.

People who get on base are a substitute for speed, and actually add more to a team than someone with speed does.

Yes, we tried to say Mike Matheny is an awful hitter. He is. He is a good defensive catcher. But he is an abysmal batter. The only thing he had going for him last year was a decent slugging percentage. I'll take the mediocre defensive catcher who isn't actually below the league average offensively, and I'll probably gain more in the long run.

Asking for power from every player is something that should be done; it's no surprise that slugging percentage correlates most closely to run production out of the main stats (excluding stuff like OBP and RC which are calculations of multiple rate stats in one). Guess what slugging percentage measures? Oh, power. Look at that. Power = runs. Who'da thunk it.

[love_that_reefer]

First off, you need guys with speed to get from first to third or even home. Speed gets you into scoring position. Speed gets you runs. Guys with power get those runs in. Baseball is the way it is because of the Willie Taveras's and Carl Crawford's. Runs wins ball games. Who'd thunk it! Speed can also correlate into slugging % as well. To think speed gets you nothing and that it's overrated is plain out dumb!

Matheny was second in RBI amongst NL catchers last year. I'd say he had more going for him tahn YOU think.

[love_that_reefer]

See the American WBC team to see how well teams do with every player having power.

[McKain]

You do not need guys with speed. The Oakland A's prove this. They will prove it forever. Their guys are all decent baserunners with average speed.

Look at this:
http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/ar...or-the-masses/

SLG has a .913 correlation with runs. That is a very close relationship between the two. That means, high slugging percentages = high runs.

Speed can not "correlate into slugging %." I'm sure it correlates with slugging percentage, and I'm also sure speed correlates very unfavorably with slugging percentage.

One thing's for sure: Mike Matheny has less going for him than you think.

Catcher - RBIs
Mike Piazza - 62
Michael Barrett - 61
Jason LaRue - 60
Mike Matheny - 59

And I'd also say that RBIs really aren't all that indicative of "what a player has going for them." How useful is a stat when you could get a hit every single one of your 500 at-bats, but never get a single run batted in?

[McKain]

See the American WBC team to see how well teams do with every player having power.

I was unaware that all that power the US roster was responsible for Dontrelle Willis and Al Leiter giving up thirteen hits, seven walks, and eight runs in a little over six innings combined.