MVN - Most Valuable Network

OPS Notebook: Percival Activated, Reyes to DL, Griffey to Rays?

Glad to have him back--Dbadair(flickr)

Just a few Rays notes to pass along before tonight’s game:

• As expected Troy Percival was activated off the DL today. Percy spent the minimum 15 days on the DL. To make room for Percy, the Heater is reporting the Rays have placed Al Reyes on the DL with right shoulder tendinitis.  Seems like great timing for “tendinitis” to flare up. This will give the Rays another two weeks to make a real decision on Grant Balfour or Gary Glover. A similar situation happened earlier in the season with Reyes landing on the DL before an impending roster decision.
• Griffey the Ray?We all read about Jayson Stark’s speculation about Griffey signing with the Rays next year. We passed it off as just that speculation, but today, Jon Heyman of Sports Illustratedgives us this little nugget of info about Griffey and the Rays

Now Griffey, a longtime resident of the Orlando, Fla., area, is telling friends he’s monitoring the surprising Tampa Bay Rays as a possible destination for him, should the Reds decide to deal him.

Griffey, 39, has a no-trade clause but has told intimates that if the Rays stay in the race, he’d consider waiving his veto power to go home. Or close to home, anyway. Tampa is much nearer his Orlando-area residence than any other big-league city. Griffey’s tony Isleworth community is about an hour from St. Petersburg, where the Rays play.

Griffey is hitting .256/.365/.410 with 7 HR and 30 RBI in 64 Games this year. His GPA(Gross Production Average) this year is .252. For those unfamiliar with GPA .200 is terrible, .265 is about average and .300 is great. So Griffey has been below average so far. Griffey is also batting .220 with RISP this year.

As much as I like Griffey and thought he was the greatest player when I was  growing up as a kid, I just don’t see the Rays making a trade for him. The team is already LH heavy in the lineup and Griffey is just as injury prone as Cliff Floyd. Plus, if we were looking to upgrade our LH DH situation, why would you trade a prospect or two when they could pursue another one who is looking for a job…Barry Bonds?

• Kevin Goldstein recapped the Draft for the AL East teams. Here are his best 2nd day selections for the Rays

Best Second-Day Selections:
7. Jason Corder, OF, Long Beach State: Big-time power masked by giant home park; will have problems hitting for average.
17. Jeremy Beckham, 2B, Georgia Southern: Tim’s older brother has speed and good approach, but almost no power.
39. Andrew Gans, OF, Coronado HS (NV): Not a huge prospect, but his father had a minor league career and is now a big-money entertainer at The Mirage in Las Vegas.

Looks like Goldstein likes Corder’s power as much as I do.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 13th, 2008 at 3:06 pm and is filed under MVN Rays. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.