Replies to post #38832 on Baseball Chat (BASEBALL)

[vicocala]

excel,

I hope you are right. But you talked about over the next five years. These Boston kids, most should still be playing and the Sox and the Yankees still have resources that Tampa has yet to display. Again, those kids

I wish them well and support them with my money, but I don't hold any illusions either. I just hope the new ownership puts some money into the team because they will need some free agents to compete with the other guys, no matter what kind of farm they have.

They are going to have to resist the temptation to trade their young position players away too. So far, they have been very reluctant to trade them and that is good and to their credit.

[jarsch501]

It sounds like the Rays have drafted well with at least the position players but I haven't heard much about their pitching. The pitchers the Red Sox have drafted even the last couple of years are already making an impression on the big league club.

Papelbon was drafted in 2003 and played last year and is now an integral piece in the bullpen. He would be starting if it wasn't for injuries to the bullpen suck as with Foulke. Out of college he was the #3 prospect in baseball.

Lester was drafted in 2002 and is starting to make his impact in a big way! Delcarmen is now in the bullpen after being drafted in 2002. Craig Hansen was drafted last year and also debuted in the majors last year. These studs are a tremendous boost to the club as acquisitions such as Tavarez and Riske haven't worked out too well.

On top of it, Boston's farm system was ranked #1 last year! TB finished tied for 9th in all of baseball.

None of the pitchers on the Rays current roster have been drafted recently or by the team. Kazmir is a stud on the mound but he came from the Mets.

The position players TB has drafter are awesome! I'm interested to see how well they perform throughout this year and the next couple of years. It will be hard to beat the large payroll teams but if they do start to invest more in the team with the new owner, they may actually have a chance!