Preliminary Tampa Bay Rays Prospect List

+
Hector Guevara
Shawn O’Malley

-
Ryan Wiegand
Armando Zerpa

And Ty Bortnick, Zach Quate, Jose Lobaton and Rayner Oliveros are pretty borderline to me as well (all decent but old performers who have their interesting points, but seem pretty unlikely to have a major league impact).

Possibly worth mentioning:
Shawn O’Malley
Cesar Lopez (recent international bonus baby)
Dustin Biell
Kyle Ayers
Hector Guevara
Nevin Ashley

Where’s Nevin Ashley? Who’s better defensively than Jaso and better offensively than Lobaton.

OK, here are 43. I need 3 cuts.

Nevin Ashley C
Luke Bailey C
Nick Barnese RHP
Tim Beckham SS
Tyler Bortnick SS
Reid Brignac SS
Alex Cobb RHP
Alexander Colome RHP
Joseph Cruz RHP
Wade Davis RHP
Darin Downs LHP
Devin Fuller RHP
Todd Glaesmann OF
Matt Gorgen RHP
Hector Guevera SS
Jeremy Hellickson RHP
Kevin James LHP
John Jaso C
Jake Jefferies C
Desmond Jennings OF
Kyeong Kang OF
Kyle Lobstein LHP
Jeff Malm 1B
Jason McEachern RHP
Jake McGee LHP
Eduardo Morlan RHP
Ty Morrison OF
Matt Moore LHP
David Newmann LHP
Rayner Oliveros RHP
Sean O’Malley SS
Jacob Partridge LHP
Fernando Perez OF
Zach Quate RHP
Aneury Rodriguez RHP
Wilking Rodriguez RHP
Heath Rollins RHP
Cody Rogers OF
Scott Shuman RHP 93-95
Matthew Sweeney 3B
Alexander Torres LHP

Tough calls on all of these….I’ve always liked Rollins and Morlan, and Downs had that terrific season, but they are looking pretty marginal given the depth in the system.

Philosphical question….what do you prefer to see on a prospect list, a Grade C guy who is a sleeper but is at a lower level, like Quate, or a Grade C prospect who is closer to the majors but who projects as just an extra guy, like Rollins or Morlan?

So if it came down to Quate and Shuman vs. Downs/Rollins/Morlan, you’d prefer an opinion about Quate and shuman.

OK, cutting downs….how is this?

Nevin Ashley C
Luke Bailey C
Nick Barnese RHP
Tim Beckham SS
Tyler Bortnick SS
Reid Brignac SS
Alex Cobb RHP
Alexander Colome RHP
Joseph Cruz RHP
Wade Davis RHP
Devin Fuller RHP
Todd Glaesmann OF
Matt Gorgen RHP
Hector Guevera SS
Jeremy Hellickson RHP
Kevin James LHP
John Jaso C
Jake Jefferies C
Desmond Jennings OF
Kyeong Kang OF
Kyle Lobstein LHP
Jeff Malm 1B
Jason McEachern RHP
Jake McGee LHP
Eduardo Morlan RHP
Ty Morrison OF
Matt Moore LHP
David Newmann LHP
Sean O’Malley SS
Rayner Oliveros
Jacob Partridge LHP
Fernando Perez OF
Zach Quate RHP
Aneury Rodriguez RHP
Wilking Rodriguez RHP
Heath Rollins RHP
Cody Rogers OF
Scott Shuman RHP 93-95
Matthew Sweeney 3B
Alexander Torres LHP

oK, so currently I cut downs, and have managed to retain both the lower level quarte guys and the upper levels rollins types for an even 40.

Nevin Ashley C
Luke Bailey C
Nick Barnese RHP
Tim Beckham SS
Tyler Bortnick SS
Reid Brignac SS
Alex Cobb RHP
Alexander Colome RHP
Joseph Cruz RHP
Wade Davis RHP
Devin Fuller RHP
Todd Glaesmann OF
Matt Gorgen RHP
Hector Guevera SS
Jeremy Hellickson RHP
Kevin James LHP
John Jaso C
Jake Jefferies C
Desmond Jennings OF
Kyeong Kang OF
Kyle Lobstein LHP
Jeff Malm 1B
Jason McEachern RHP
Jake McGee LHP
Eduardo Morlan RHP
Ty Morrison OF
Matt Moore LHP
David Newmann LHP
Rayner Oliveros RHP
Sean O’Malley SS
Jacob Partridge LHP
Fernando Perez OF
Zach Quate RHP
Aneury Rodriguez RHP
Wilking Rodriguez RHP
Heath Rollins RHP
Cody Rogers OF
Scott Shuman RHP 93-95
Matthew Sweeney 3B
Alexander Torres LHP

Going to lock that down and start writing.

… and let John write! Can’t wait for the list!

Generally the upside guys, depending, of course, on how close they are to the majors. I have more faith in Rollins than I do someone like Downs or Oliveros. I don’t know why people just jumped off the Rollins bandwagon so quick, he was in AA and cut down his biggest issue, the home runs (by a good amount too, in a relatively large sample size). The walks remained solid and sure, the K rate dropped, but it didn’t drop off the face of the earth. For me, worst case scenario he makes it up as a reliever where theoretically his strikeout rate would improve, and given his command of all pitches the BB/9 shouldn’t rise. Matt Wise was a valueable major league reliever, and I would say that type of performance is an acceptable comp for Rollins with potential to be a passable back of the rotation guy. Should not be off the top 40, and the arguments for a reliever-only type like Oliveros or an older guy like Downs ahead of him is shaky to me at best.