Rays first round selection....

[Bullpride08]

Matt they didn't go catcher, but interesting call on Levon Washington.  He's a speedster for sure, and capable of playing SS or 2nd, or the outfield...I find it interesting because with Jenning, and Aldridge in the minors, Perez on IR, Crawford, and BJ, plus Beckham as a possible outfielder waiting ala BJ, that seems to be quite a lot of players fitting the same billing.  again, as I had alluded that will eventually make a BJ or Crawford expendable, because there is no way on God's Green Earth the Rays will be able to afford to keep BJ and Crawford in the same outfield forever, so this is definitely planning for the future. 

Also at catcher with Jaso, and Jefferies they have good prospects to go with what they currently have as I think the team is wearing thin of Navi's inability to improve his game, and actually appear to deteriorate his game over the past three years.

The pitching is stacked in the minors, they still have 4-5 youngsters capable of being called up in the next 24 months, and pushing starters.

I liked the pick, under Maddon and the new Rays there seems to be a premium on speed and athleticism on the field, and on the base paths.  What they have is a line-up stacked so for the next 10-12 years we're guaranteed to maintain that type of line-up with interchangable talent so if one guy has to be traded they'll have another capable SS, or LF, or CF that can step in and bring the same ingredients that a Crawford, BJ, or Bartlett is currently bringing to the ball club.

[Bullpride08]

Although the Rays did land Luke Bailey in the 4th round, a catcher.  This is important to note because Luke at one point was the top prep catcher this year until and in fact considered an ultra elite top 20 talent, well ahead of Stassi, but his foolish HS coach allowed him to pitch as well, and he hurt his arm in a some meaningless relief effort and is now undergoing Tommy John surgery.  This isn't so bad because you're talking about a catcher, not a pitcher, and a high school kid.  His strongest attributes were his hitting, his pop-up time (a big deal for catchers), his arm velocity, and his demeanor behind the plate managing pitchers.  Even if his arm lost some of the velocity throwing pick-offs because of the surgery, he still had an unbelievably strong arm that was a huge asset for any team, so dropping some velocity doesn't diminish his overall ability or the other skills he has.

And he's a HS kid, with Jefferies, and Jaso, Hernandez and Navarro (hopefully for not to much longer) the Rays have time to let Bailey heal properly, let him develop and hopefully in 5 years we start talking about him as the catcher of the future.