Thursday, March 26, 2009

Pitching In

A lot of pitching odds and ends this week as teams get their staffs together for opening day.

David Price
will not make Tampa's rotation, which is more of an effort to limit his innings than it is on Price's Major League readiness.

Fantasy Impact: Not quite a devastating blow, but certainly trouble for owners who took a risk and drafted Price high. He'll be up eventually, but that's what was said all last year when Price never surfaced in time for regular season help. Here's guessing he makes it into Tampa's rotation by June.

Anthony Reyes landed in the Cleveland Indians' rotation as the 4th starter while Scott Lewis is the team's 5th starter. Lewis beat out Aaron Laffey.

Fantasy Impact: Reyes owns a nice minor league pedigree, striking out nearly a batter an inning while limiting hits. His problem is giving up the long ball, but he's certainly worth a late-round flier for his upside. Lewis isn't a bad flier option himself, but he's less sexy than Reyes, who has more big league and postseason experience.

Rangers to be sold

Tom Hicks is lining up resources to sell the Texas Rangers.
Hicks, who also co-owns Liverpool F.C. with George Gillett, has hired Merrill Lynch to sell his Rangers stake, MLB.com said, citing two baseball sources. The minority shares may be sold in whole or in part.
The timing might be good for Rangers fans, who would love to see Hicks bail. Texas is building a talented young nucleus with players like Chris Davis and Elvis Andrus.