Giants trade Molina; Posey to earn more at bats

The Giants sent catcher Bengie Molina to Texas Wednesday for reliever Chris Ray. The move clears the way for rookie Buster Posey to take over as full-time backstop in San Francisco despite his recent slump. He's hitting just .146 over his last 14 games.

Fantasy Impact: The Rangers were searching for a catcher for quite some time, and Molina is a good fit. He should improve his ho-hum offensive numbers in the Rangers' stacked lineup.

Posey's labored promotion to the big leagues is suddenly accelerated with his promotion to starting catcher. The move means San Francisco is buying into Posey even if he's not hitting consistently at the MLB level. But to say that is misleading. Despite his slump Posey is at .289 for the season, and he routinely makes solid contact. His BABIP of .310 isn't exceedingly high, but it can improve when you consider that Posey has walked just 3 times in 102 plate appearances. That means he's likely chasing pitches early in at bats rather than finding a good pitch to hit. His better selectivity in the minors yielded a career batting average of .333. Once he becomes settled at the MLB level, expect big things.

Ray is less of a strikeout pitcher now (4.5 K/9 in 2010 vs. 7.7 for his career), but he's limiting hitters to just 6.8 hits per game. He'll be a setup-type reliever for the Giants.

Sherrill sharing closer role

After saying he'd gladly hand he role back to a rehabilitated Chris Ray in the offseason, George Sherrill had his closer role taken away by the Orioles on Monday.

The O's will go with a closer-by-committee setup until someone emerges, but the requisite names of Chris Ray, Dennys Baez and Jim Johnson all got mentioned in articles today. None excites us, although we'd have to believe Ray's experience in the role might eventually make him the fallback option. Baez has pitched best this year, so he'll certainly be the name floated by most fantasy baseball resources. His previous season's ERA of 6.44, however, is not a confidence-builder.

Fantasy Impact: Stash Ray. He lost the role due to injury and will eventually take his turn. Oddly enough, Baez worked two innings in middle relief for a win Monday night while Johnson and Sherrill followed in the eighth and ninth innings, respectively for an 8-4, non-save victory over Tampa. It was like nothing had changed in Baltimore.

Less heat in this Ray

Orioles closer Chris Rays says his velocity is down this season for a reason: he's dialing it back, hoping to become more of a pitcher than a thrower.

"I'm not going out there and putting 100 percent effort into every pitch," Ray said. "As long as I'm putting the ball where I want to, the velocity isn't going to matter as much. It's not a conscious effort. I'm just not going out there grunting on every pitch. I used to just try to wing it. I [stopped doing] it this spring training and it was working, so I'm sticking with it."

Orioles pitching coach Rick Kranitz said he's fine with Ray's approach.

"He knows his body better than I do," Kranitz said. "It's a process. I don't expect him to come out here throwing the ball 96, 97 miles an hour either. I think that's a good thing for him so he doesn't start overthrowing and missing location."

There's speculation that the Orioles would like Ray to win back his old closer role this season. He did a pretty good job of it as a fire-baller. We'll see if the refined Ray can get it done.

Fantasy Impact: George Sherrill remains the Baltimore closer until otherwise notified. Ray is worth owning for his sleeper potential.