Truth & Rumors > MLB

Who will Rays draft No. 1?

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The Rays' scouts and baseball operations personnel have spent the past several days kicking around various scenarios for the upcoming draft as rumors have swirled regarding who Tampa Bay might take with the first overall pick. On Friday alone, MLB.com reported the Rays were down to Florida State C Buster Posey and Vanderbilt 3B Pedro Alvarez. At the same time, ESPN.com stated the Rays had narrowed it to Posey and Griffin (Ga.) High SS Tim Beckham. And Baseball America, the draft bible, moved Beckham atop its prospect list for the first time and cited a growing "buzz" that he would go to the Rays. All of which was somewhat amusing to Rays officials.

Tampa Tribune

Carl Crawford, Cliff Floyd, AP Carl Crawford, Cliff Floyd, AP
June 1, 2008  07:46 AM ET

The Rays need help now. College players only need apply. No room for high school work experience kids thanks.

June 1, 2008  09:21 AM ET

take a catcher

June 1, 2008  11:11 AM ET

They have a decent catcher. If a proven stud is available, OK, but take the best available player.

The reason they are in first (or close to first too lazy to check) is their pitching has caught up with their young bats. And they sign players while they are young taking risks, but they have the best scouting and the risk-reward ratio is great.

June 1, 2008  11:46 AM ET

Tim Beckham isn't a need but he is the best available and someone that the Rays can either bring along or make room for when he's ready for the Big Leagues.

June 1, 2008  11:47 AM ET

The Rays need help now. College players only need apply. No room for high school work experience kids thanks.
The J Dog | 06/01/08, 07:46 AM

Need help now? Have you checked the standings since last year? The Rays are in better shape than any franchise not in Arizona. Pull your head out of your ***.

June 1, 2008  12:00 PM ET

MLB Draft is boring.. too many stages of development are needed before most are even in the big leagues

June 1, 2008  12:21 PM ET

The Rays have looked good so far, and apparently don't need help right now. They are best served to draft the best available prospect. Those guys can help you pull in big name players in the big leagues. The reason the Yankees were able to swing so many big name tardes a few years back was because they had decent prospects in their farm system. Now they have no one creating buzz, and haven't been able to swing a Blockbuster deal. Prospects in the MLB are like Draft picks in the NFL, they are assigned way too much value; and are worth more than the average MLB veteran.

June 1, 2008  12:30 PM ET

They are the Angels lite

June 1, 2008  01:43 PM ET

they make take Alverez and then move either Longaria or him to 1st potentially down the road
dont forget, David Price the Rays prized pitching prospect played with Alverez in college

June 1, 2008  03:12 PM ET

In keeping with Tampa traditions, they have decided to punt and not go for it!

June 1, 2008  05:37 PM ET

Mark my words, THE RAYS WILL WIN THE SERIES!!!

June 1, 2008  05:39 PM ET

Best clutch hitting,piching and defense in the BIGS!

June 1, 2008  07:56 PM ET

Obviously the best scouting staff in the league...they'll do well

Comment has been removed
June 1, 2008  09:25 PM ET

Your young enough now !!! Trade the pick for somebody you can use in the next two to three years at the Major League level. Son of a **** you guys are close to challanging soon !!!

June 2, 2008  02:25 AM ET

The Ray's are a solid squad an are going finish above the POS Yankees wth their meager SP. The Ray's have Kazmir an Shields as the 2 SP studs, Nice Bullpen, a great OF, Speed, Power with Pena an youth with Longoria but they do need a SS or Catcher that can play in 1to2 Years, another great SP would help. Look at Oaklnd my favorite team, we trade Haren, Hudson, Mulder, an Zito an only Haren an Hudson are any good, while the new young guys like Eveland,Smith,Devine,Gaudin are setting up a nice new rotation. Just wish we kept Haren we had him for 2 more years at a just 4 Mill a Year. But we had to get the Super Propect OF Gonzalez frm them whose just went 2-4 wth a HR today.

June 2, 2008  09:47 AM ET

'Your young enough now !!! Trade the pick for somebody you can use in the next two to three years at the Major League level. Son of a **** you guys are close to challanging soon !!!'

You can't trade MLB draft picks...so, I'm guessing they don't do that. The time may be coming when teams can do that but that time is not here yet.

June 2, 2008  12:12 PM ET

Take Posey. Let the Pirates take a chance on Beckham. (OK - I'm a Pirate fan. We need a break. We actually need a lot of breaks.)

 
June 2, 2008  04:06 PM ET

Posey is a hitting/ defensive machine at catcher

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