MVN - Most Valuable Network

Rays Interested in Brian Fuentes

Fuentes to Percival?--Eric Kilby

Yesterday I talked about the rumored Rays interest in starting pitchers C.C. Sabathia and Freddy Garcia. Today, it’s a reliever that I have my eyes set on.  Tracy Ringolsby is reporting the Rays are interested in the Rockies LH closer Brian Fuentes.

From rockymountainnews.com

RAYS’ INTEREST RATE

Tampa Bay’s interest in left-handed reliever Brian Fuentes picked up in light of Rays closer Troy Percival returning to the disabled list after aggravating the left hamstring that originally forced him to the disabled list.

The Rays are looking for a left-hander to work late innings and to provide late-inning protection for Percival in their bid to claim a postseason bid for the first time. Al Reyes, Tampa Bay’s other experienced closer, has been out since June 9 with left elbow tendinitis.

In my opinion this rumor makes much more sense than the C.C. Sabathia talk. Fuentes is somebody the Rays should seriously consider. With Percival and Reyes on the shelf the Rays don’t have much closing experience. Yes, I love Grant Balfour in the interim but it would be nice to pick up a guy like Fuentes who has 98 career saves and playoff experience. 

Another positive is Fuentes wouldn’t be that expensive. It would probably cost the Rays a good prospect, maybe Mitch Talbot plus a lower level positional player. That is pure speculation on my part, but at age 33, Fuentes isn’t exactly lighting it up. He is 1-4 with a 3.94 ERA, 1.375 WHIP and 13 saves, but has had good success over the past three season with ERA+’s of 164, 142 and 155. His ERA+ this year is still above average at 117, so the Rockies shouldn’t be commanding a top level Wade Davis or Reid Brignac type prospect.

In addition to those reasons, though he is a LHP, Fuentes, isn’t limited to the lefty/lefty match up.  Hat tip to Jason Collette for doing the research, but over the past three seasons Fuentes has held righties to a .221/.318/.372 line while completely dominating lefties, who are hitting just .184/.274/.292 off Fuentes over the last three seasons.

How nice would a bullpen of J.P. Howell, Al Reyes(healthy), Dan Wheeler, Grant Balfour, Brian Fuentes and Troy Percival look down the stretch?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008 at 3:41 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.