MVN - Most Valuable Network

Price’s Line: Domination of the Florida State League Continues

Ho-hum, another start means another dominating performance for Rays top pitching prospect David Price. Tonight Price feasted on the Florida Marlins Class A affiliate the Jupiter Hammerheads.  He threw another seven scoreless innings, giving up only three hits, walking one and striking out six more batters. He won’t get his third win of the season because he left the game in a 0-0 tie. 

Price was relieved by Brian Baker, who has been very impressive this season. Baker, a 25 year old Brooklyn, NY native, has a 1.42 ERA in 31.2 IP. Baker has only given up 22 hits and has a 25:8 K/BB ratio, but back to the main event, David Price.

After three starts for Vero Beach it is getting increasingly clear that Price is just too much for the FSL league and should be promoted to Double-A Montgomery sooner rather than later. I expect Price to get maybe two more starts before advancing to the next level.

In his three starts Price has logged 18 Innings, 0 Runs, 8 H, 2 BB and 19 K’s. The lefty from Murfreesboro, TN has also increased his workload with each start, progressing from five to six and now throwing seven innings in his last appearance.

Some other MiLB notes:

• Another prized prospect, CF Desmond Jennings, is healthy and back hitting leadoff for Vero Beach. Jennings started his season by hitting a home run in his first AB on saturday.  He had missed all of the VB D-Rays games before that with various injuries.
• 32 year old RHP Jeremy Cummings is dominating for Triple A Durham. Including tonight, Cummings has given up three runs, 14 hits, in 32 innings(0.84 ERA).  In tonight’s game, Cummings threw seven shutout innings while striking out 11 and walking none tonight against the Pawtucket Red Sox.

Price’s Line: Top Pick Out Pitches Pedro

If you were impressed by David Price’s first start, you’ll be even more impressed by the second one. Price worked another scoreless outing today giving up just two singles over six innings. Price struck out nine St. Lucie Mets hitters and walked zero.  Hopefully, he picked up a few pointers watching his opposing pitcher the future Hall of Famer, Pedro Martinez. Pedro was impressive himself going six innings of his own giving up two runs, while striking out six and walking done, but the story for us Rays fans is Price.

It’s only two starts, but Price has pitched 11 innings has given up just six hits, O runs and has struck out 13 while walking only one. The D-Rays won the game 2-0 and again it was Wade Townsend who relieved Price. Townsend threw two scoreless innings  before handing the ball to Neil Frontz, who earned his 9th save.

 Here are some quotes from Pedro Martinez who was extremely impressed by Price:

“He’s amazing, that kid. He’s amazing,” 

 ”That kid is very mature for his time in [the pros], and very talented.

“Oh my God. God bless him and keep him healthy.”

“Wow,” Martinez said when he found out Price has only made one previous start since being drafted. “He’s a big lefty with superb talent. At that age, I don’t think I was like that. He seems far superior.”

“That kid did a hell of a job of throwing first-pitch strikes and pounding the strike zone and jamming hitters,” Martinez said. “I was watching that. He did it like a big leaguer. He had such a command. Right there, I’m challenging you. I’m going to do what I gotta do without any fear. That’s the kind of talent you love to see.”

Very kind words from Pedro. So what was D-Price’s reaction to Pedro’s comments?

“That’s definitely a big compliment coming from Pedro Martinez. That definitely does mean a lot to me,” Price said. “Hopefully I could face him in the big leagues one day.”

In other news from the MILB, Joel Guzman homered yesterday giving him six in the last eight games and eight since May 16th.

Guzman Homers in 4th Straight Game; Should We Take Notice?

Way back in 2002 a 17 year old Joel Guzman was a prized SS in the Dodgers organization. After outgrowing his position in 2005 at 6-6 250 pounds, Guzman, was moved around the diamond and finally moved out of the organization. He was traded to the Rays in a 2006 deadline deal in exchange for Julio Lugo. Since joining the Rays organization Guzman has been a disappointment. Defensively, he still doesn’t have a true home and offensively, he hasn’t shown signs of the stud he was supposed to be.

Last year, Guzman was briefly called up to the big leagues and was well again disappointing. .243/.282/.378 in 16 games. Guzman started the 2008 season in the minors leagues where his performance was still lackluster, that is until 10 days ago.

Since May 16th, Guzman is hitting .330 with 7 HR and 13 RBI. This includes another HR today, which makes it 4 straight games with a HR for Guzman. I’m not saying Guzman has arrived by a long shot(he’s still hitting .256/.289/.489),  but has 11 home runs and at age 23 he’s still has time to fulfill some of his hype. The recently power surge could up his trade value and if he keeps it up, the Rays may have another bargaining piece to their already impressive collection.

Another thought and this is an outside chance at best, I wouldn’t mind seeing a HR smashing Guzman in RF for the Rays, especially if he keeps these numbers up. Especially since the Rays don’t seem to be interested in giving Justin Ruggiano a chance and the current RF situation in the Majors isn’t holding anybody back. Guzman has primarily played 3B this season, but has experience in the OF. If he can up his OBP to somewhere around .330 that would be respectable to go along with his 30 HR power potential. Crawford, Upton, Guzman? I know it’s a long shot, but one can dream can’t I?

Price Check! Rays Top Pick Makes Debut

After a long lay off David Price was back on the mound in a game that counted. The Rays #1 last year made his debut tonight for Advanced Class A Vero Beach tonight. Price was set to join Vero Beach out of spring training, but an elbow strain kept him out for the first 6 weeks.

Price did not disappoint in his pro debut throwing five scoreless inning, striking out four and only walking one. He gave up three hits, which were all singles. He also sported a 9:1 groundball to flyball ratio. He left the game after five innings, due to the Rays wanting him on strict pitch count, especially early on.  Price threw 73 pitches over his five innings. He threw 67% strikes and ran the fast ball in as high as 98 MPH.

The better news is his arm feels good and it sounds like he didn’t have his best command which is a bad sign for opposing hitters.

 My fastball command just felt a lot better the other day, but other than that, my slider felt good,” Price said. “… It was probably a little bit too much emotion on this one. It was my debut, so there was a lot of stuff riding on it.”

The Vero Beach D-Rays scored two runs in the bottom of the 5th inning to giving the team a 2-0 lead as Price exited the game. Wade Townsend(1.2 innings) and Ryan Reid(2.1 innings) combined to shutout the Clearwater Threshers over the final four innings to seal the shutout and Price’s first win as a member of the Rays organization.