Second-year Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Matt Moore has been overpowering hitters all season this year and he is off to a 7-0 start. Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

This could be a year of the pitcher. There are so many starters off to a fast start that candidates for the All-Star team are as thick as mosquitoes at a swamp. If they all keep it up there could be more 20-game winners in one year than there have been in ages.

They won’t, of course, because baseball hardly ever plays out on a smooth path. Yet there are a remarkable number of guys who have simply owned opposing batting orders since the beginning of April.

It’s crowded at the top. And no one has gotten off to a better start than Tampa Bay’s Matt Moore. Moore is a southpaw who turns 24 in a month and after an 11-11 rookie year has begun 2013 witha  7-0 record accompanied by a 2.44 earned run average.

Nice job, but he is not leading the pack by much. The Boston Red Sox alone have two starters breathing on Moore’s shoulder as potential major winners this season. Clay Buchholz, who has a 1.78 ERA, and Jon Lester, 2.72, are each 6-0.

Over in the National League, Arizona’s Patrick Corbin is also 6-0 with a 1.52 earned run average. Corbin, who has slightly less experience than Moore, will turn 24 in two months. He’s another southpaw simply overpowering hitters in the early season.

Lined up behind Corbin is another young hurler, Matt Harvey, who made 10 appearances for the New York Mets last year. Harvey is 5-0 with a 1.55 ERA. He turned 24 in March.

It’s kind of difficult to imagine the sport being inundated with an entire crop of Walter Johnsons all at once, but those are just the starting pitchers who are undefeated. There are a whole bunch more off to starts that nearly equal that group. There are so many it’s a wonder any position player can get on base.

Jordan Zimmerman of the Washington Nationals, who is supposed to only be the third-best starter in his team’s rotation, is 7-1 with a 1.69 earned run average. Yu Darvish, the second-year hurler from Japan now gracing the Texas Rangers mound, is 7-1 with a 2.97 ERA. Lance Lynn of the Cardinals is 6-1, 2.88.

The Seattle Mariners are getting pretty good mileage out of another Japanese pitcher, Hisashi Iwakuma, who is 5-1 with a 1.84 ERA. Jake Peavey, a veteran who has been battling injuries for the last couple of seasons, is showing that you don’t have to be 24 to be a star. Peavey stands at 5-1 and 2.96. Yet a third Japanese pitcher, Hiroki Kuroda, is 6-2 with a 1.99 ERA for the New York Yankees.

And that’s still not all. Three pitchers whose earned run averages are even better than the others have somehow managed to lose a couple of games. St. Louis’ Shelby Miller is 5-2 with a 1.40 ERA. The Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw is 4-2 with a 1.40 ERA. And The King, Felix Hernandez of the Mariners, is 5-2 with a 1.53 ERA.

All of this represents a snapshot of the moment because a week from now they could all be slumping. Hitters may have figured out their deliveries and tendencies. Not every one of these pitchers are young, but a majority are. Skipping Kuroda (38) and Iwakuma (32), who essentially had almost complete careers before coming to the United States, Peavey, at 31, is the only other pitcher in this entire group over 30.

Including those previously noted birthdays, we’ve got Harvey, Corbin and Moore all at 24, Miller the youngest at 22, Kershaw at 25, Lynn and Darvish at 26, Hernandez and Zimmerman at 27, Buchholz at 28, and Lester at 29.

They could be symbolic of a new crop of young, tremendous pitchers that baseball fans will be cheering on for years to come.

A strained triceps forced David Price from his start last night and has landed the left-hander on the DL. (Image Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports)

David Price has been placed on the disabled list thanks to a strained triceps, leaving the Tampa Bay Rays without their ace left-hander for the foreseeable future. He’ll be shut down completely for a few days before resuming a throwing program but it’s expected that he’ll miss at least a few weeks.

Price won 20 games and took home the AL Cy Young Award last season, but has struggled on the mound to start the 2013 season. He’s made nine starts on the year, posting a 1-4 mark and 5.24 ERA in 55.0 IP. Price didn’t win his first game until his sixth start and the Rays have lost seven of the nine. Numerous reports have suggested that he’s been experiencing a dip in velocity on the year, potentially leading to an increase in his WHIP and H/9 rate.

Just 2.1 IP into his latest start, last night at Boston, Price began to feel some discomfort in his left arm, telling ESPN.com that he didn’t start to feel anything until he was a few pitches into the 3rd inning. He’d quickly be pulled from the game and was sent for an MRI, which reportedly did not contain any “hot spots”. The team elected to play the situation smartly rather than try and push Price to remain in the rotation.

Alex Torres has been called up from Triple-A Durham to replace Price on the active roster.

Still under control through the next two seasons, Price has already begun to get expensive for the small market Rays and there has been plenty of speculation that the team could look to move him as early as this summer’s trade deadline. A prolonged injury could hinder how quickly an opposing team may be in offering up a significant package of prospects in return for the 27 year old, which could push any potential deals until this coming winter offseason.

New York Yankees (23-13 overall, 5-1 last week)

Wells continues to exceed expectations (Image: Chris Humphreys-USA TODAY Sports)

The Yankees continue to fight through injuries on their way to the top spot in the AL East. They faced the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field earlier in the week and scored only six runs in the three-game set, while being shutout in one of them. The Yanks haven’t had much luck at Coors, but they scratched out two of three behind some great pitching from Hiroki Kuroda (tough-luck loser in the first game), David Phelps, and CC Sabathia/Adam Warren.

In the second series of the week, the Yankees swept the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium. Phil Hughes and Andy Pettitte got back on track after a few poor starts each, and Kuroda pitched another gem and was rewarded with a win. Meanwhile, Vernon Wells, who had previously been lost at the plate for the better half of two weeks, collected six hits (two home runs) in 21 plate appearances (.286 batting average).

• Analysis:

Coming into the season the Yankees needed to rely on their veteran-laden pitching staff to carry them until their power came back. With Curtis Granderson currently on a rehab assignment in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, the club will be glad to have him back. The question becomes, which one of Ichiro Suzuki or Wells takes a seat? The pitching staff has done their job for the most part, and the scrap heap free agent pick ups have exceeded expectations in order to help navigate through the early season injury disaster.

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Baltimore Orioles (23-15 overall, 4-2 last week)

The O’s were second the AL East last week, and they haven’t moved this week. Their consistency is indicative of how the culture has changed in Baltimore under manager Buck Showalter. They took both series’ this week facing both the the Royals and Minnesota Twins. Against the former, they were outscored 12-11, but won two of three. Meanwhile, Tommy Hunter pitched very well out of the ‘pen for the O’s this week by collecting two wins and striking out four hitters in 3.2 innings of work.

The bats came to life in the Twins series as the O’s plated 20 runs en route to another series win. Third baseman, Manny Machado, continues to rake in his first full season by collecting nine hits in 16 at-bats (.563 batting average), which included two RBI and three runs scored. The kid has a solid .331/.370/.521 slash line this season. The bats exploded in the first game against the Twins when the O’s spotted them six runs before they clawed their way back into the game and eventually won it in extras, 8-6.

• Analysis:

While hitters carried the team in the second series of the week, it was the pitchers who kept the team in their first series. Speaking of pitchers, FanSided’s own Randy Buchman of Birds Watcher opined that the O’s have stockpiled a ton of pitchers lately under GM Dan Duquette, which has helped after injuries to some of their starters. Again, the O’s are following the same formula they did last year, pitching keeps them in the game, and the batters get timely hits. They are a pesky bunch of youngsters, and as long as Showalter and Duquette are running the show, the club will always contend.

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Boston Red Sox (22-16 overall, 2-5 last week)

It was a rough week for the Red Sox as they lost a four-game series to the Twins and a three-game series to division rivals Toronto Blue Jays. Perhaps the worst part was both series’ were at Fenway. Twice last week their pitching staff gave up more than 10 runs, which is the exact opposite of how Boston won their games earlier in the year. Overall, in their last ten games they’ve gone 2-8 and have lost their slim lead in the AL East.

After an excellent April in which Ryan Dempster held opponents to a paltry .187/.279/.364 slash line against him in 122 plate appearances, he has regressed toward the mean. Last month he allowed four homers, but in May, he’s already given up five, including three in yesterday’s game against the Blue Jays.

• Analysis

The Red Sox were hit with an injury bug this month. First, Andrew Bailey goes down with a bicep injury that’ll likely keep him out until sometime this week, maybe a little longer. Meanwhile, closer Joel Hanrahan is out for the season after it was found he needs his flexor tendon repaired, which he might opt to have Tommy John surgery if there’s damage to the UCL as well. Finally, outfielder Shane Victorino (.308/.370/.393, 108 wRC+) crashed awkwardly into the right field fence at Fenway and injured his ribs; his status going forward is unknown. Good teams find a way around injuries, and last year the Red Sox buckled when player after player went down. However, this is a different team under manager John Farrell, one where pitching is paramount to their success, not hitting. Losing two of your best bullpen arms in successive weeks is very tough to overcome.

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Longoria continues his hot hitting this season (Image: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports)

Tampa Bay Rays (19-18 overall, 5-2 last week)

Don’t look now, but the Rays just might be making their yearly push to the top. After a disappointing April in which they went 12-14, they’ve started May with a 7-4 record. Saying that, they rattled off five wins against below-average teams in the Blue Jays and the San Diego Padres this week. Only one starter earned a win (Matt Moore), as many of their wins came from runs scoring in the 7th inning or later. Against the Padres on Saturday they were down 6-5 with two outs in the bottom of the ninth before Evan Longoria launched a two-run home run into the left center field seats at the Trop. All in all last week, they scored 44 runs and surrendered 34 in seven games, which is a shade below giving up five runs per contest.

• Analysis

This is how the Rays got to the playoffs in years past, timely hitting in the later innings coupled with great starting pitching. They have a tough road for the rest of the month as they face all AL East competition. They’ll play the Red Sox and Yankees at home, while the series against the Orioles and Blue Jays will be on the road. Longoria continues his dominance at the plate, hitting .333/.403/.610 with nine home runs and 26 RBI. However, outside James Loney‘s .376/.429/.560 slash line, the Rays offense ranks in the middle of the pack in the AL.

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Toronto Blue Jays (15-24 overall, 4-3 last week)

It’s been a rough year for the Jays, but they recorded a winning record against AL East opponents this week against the Rays and Red Sox. Ricky Romero made his second start of the season and he continues his descent by giving up three runs on four hits while recording only one out in his start against the Rays. Not much else to say other than this team has the pieces to make some noise, but they just haven’t put it all together yet, but this week was a positive step in the right direction.

• Analysis

While they still remain 9.5 games back in the division, their bats are beginning to make some headway, especially Jose Bautista‘s. He lifted his average nearly 20 points (from .228 to .246) after going on a tear this week (.318/.407/.727) including two home runs and three doubles. Likewise, Edwin Encarnacion had a good week, hitting .286/.407/.571 with two home runs and six RBI. On the hitting side, these two need to come to life a bit more if the Jays want to make a run at the playoffs. This lineup has the potential to put up some gaudy numbers, it’s the pitching that needs to limit the runs a tad more.

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Food for Thought

• With Grandersoncoming back for the Yankees, who takes seat in the outfield: Wells, Brett Gardner, or Ichiro?
• Are the O’s the same team as the Rays were circa 2008-2011?
• Bad pitching hurt the Red Sox last season, with the new injuries to the back end of the pitching staff, is the club doomed again?
• If a long-term injury to Longoria were to occur, would the Rays season be done for?
• Outside Bautista, who is one player that really needs to get it going for the Jays?

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference and Fangraphs. Injury notes courtesy of Baseball Prospectus

Greg Maddux (left) is now an Assistant Coach with his brother Mike (right) and the Texas Rangers. Maddux is one of the few 300 game winners in MLB history and won the last meeting between two members of that group eight years ago today. (Image Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports)

Only twenty four players in the history of Major League Baseball have ever gone on to win 300+ games in their careers, making the 300 Win Club one of the most exclusive groups in the game. Randy Johnson was the last to join the group – defeating the Washington Nationals on June 4, 2009 in the first game of a doubleheader when Johnson was a member of the San Francisco Giants – and with the way the game has continued to evolve and change over the years, it’s becoming increasingly more likely that we’ll never see another 300 game winner in the Major Leagues again.

On this date back in 2005, fans in attendance in Houston were able to witness a historic matchup as it was the last time that a pair of 300 game winners faced one another on the mound. Greg Maddux and the Chicago Cubs were in town for the game against the Houston Astros, who countered with Roger Clemens on the mound. Maddux pitched fairly well in the game – allowing a pair of runs on seven hits over six innings – and earned the win, his first of the season and the 306th of his career.

Houston did their damage offensively early in the game. Mike Lamb doubled in the bottom of the 1st, scoring the speedy Wily Tavares from second base with ease. The other run came in the 3rd on a solo home run by Jeff Bagwell. Chicago also saw most of their offense early, picking up a pair of runs in the top of the 2nd. Jeromy Burnitz singled to left field, driving Derrek Lee in from second. Todd Hollandsworth would step up next, doubling down the left field line to bring home Aramis Ramirez. The two sides would remain tied until the 7th, when Burnitz lead off the inning with a solo home run off of Clemens – who’d allow the three runs on seven hits in seven innings of work – that would give the Cubs the lead for good.

Maddux finished his career with 355 wins, one more than the 354 victories that Clemens would be responsible for.

Today, eight years after their memorable matchup, let’s take a quick look around the rest of FanSided MLB and see what other big moments we might look back on in the future.

Plenty has been said and written about the woes facing the Seattle Mariners’ offense on the season to date – including a piece I wrote myself this past week here at CttP – but J.J. Keller at Sodo Mojo has taken things from a slightly different angle, openly questioning whether the team is cursed instead of just simply bad. Keller focuses mostly on the struggles of Justin Smoak, Dustin Ackley, and Jesus Montero – a trio of prospects who arrived in Seattle to big expectations, but who’ve all failed to live up to that billing in their respective careers to date. Keller tried to decipher the “luck” that the organization has had in developing their own prospects, examining the success rate of each organization’s top prospects from the past five years to see what percentage of those players have turned into MLB regulars. His results are interesting (we won’t spoil them here):

So while that doesn’t look that bat, it is below average. Add to that the fact that arguably their two most successful during that time, Adam Jones and Brandon Morrow, now play for different teams with little of anything to show for it in return and it feels even worse. I am sure that fits what most people would assume about the organization. They don’t produce all that many good players and the ones they do end up on another team. That notion has been repeatedly said, written, and probably yelled by numerous Mariners fans over the years.

Countering the discussion about Seattle’s inability to develop prospects, there’s no denying that the Tampa Bay Rays have had plenty of success in the area. That success has come moreso on the mound than in the field, but there still are a number of quality position prospects climbing their way through the organization. The injury to shortstop Hak-Ju Lee, however, serves as a reminder of just how quickly a promising season can change, as Robbie Knopf at Rays Colored Glasses discusses. Lee has long been known for his abilities in the field – he’s arguably one of the best defensive shortstops in the minor leagues – but his struggles have always remained constant at the plate. As Knopf writes, he’d shown some improvements early on this season but a scary knee injury suffered in a collision at second base has effectively ended his year prematurely and it’s those type of plays – the ones we can’t predict – that remind us how quick things can all end:

Some people say that baseball isn’t a team sport. Only one batter goes to the plate at a time and all focus is placed on them while all of the other players fade into the background. Double plays, however, are some of the most teamwork-involved plays in all of sports. When a groundball is hit to the second baseman, he has to throw to the shortstop in the right place at exactly the right time to let him not only catch the ball, but avoid the incoming runner and throw to first base. If the timing is off, the ball could go into the outfield or even worse, a scary injury could occur. Unfortunately, the latter was the case on Saturday.

There’s been ample speculation about what the Boston Red Sox will do with enigmatic right-hander Alfredo Aceves, who was optioned to the minor leagues late this past week. The pitcher has shown some flashes of talent on the mound, but has shown just as many concerns off of it thanks to his peculiar personality and apparent short fuse. Rumors and rumblings have suggested that the Red Sox could (and perhaps should) look to move him, as any opportunity to get him out of the organization could be beneficial to all involved. Steve Peterson at BoSox Injection happens to agree, concluding that the time has come for Aceves to go:

John Farrell said that Aceves got sent down strictly based on performance, which if that was the only yardstick by which he was measured then he certainly deserved to go down. Aceves is 1-1 with an 8.66 ERA. The root issue is his completely unprofessional behavior and that’s got to be a bone stuck in Farrell’s throat at this point.

Finally, this past week our own Lewie Pollis at Wahoo’s On First sat down with former Cleveland Indians pitcher Paul Byrd for an extensive and candid interview. The right-hander discussed a number of topics – from his history with the Indians organization and his views on sabermetrics to his use of HGH and what he’d like to change about the game, plus everything inbetween. Pollis’ interview was split into two parts, which can be found here: Part One and Part Two.

Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

Smith replied to one of his followers wondering if it was an ACL tear that Lee suffered, and Smith stated that it is “possible” and that team doctors in St. Petersburg will examine Lee’s left knee and see exactly what kind of an injury he suffered. Hopefully the worst doesn’t happen and Lee’s injury isn’t an ACL tear.

The Rays acquired the shortstop as one of the big pieces when they dealt Matt Garza to the Chicago Cubs, and he has showed the organization plenty of promise. It’s always awful to see a young player go down with a severe injury, and he is the shortstop of the future in Tampa Bay. Let’s wish him well in the rehab process.

Rob Foldy-USA TODAY Sports

Although the 34-year-old is only expected to miss a few weeks, Rays beat writer Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports that Scott could miss up to five weeks with the calf strain. Despite Scott’s belief, it is high unlikely for the DH to be back by then, and it will be interesting to see what the Rays do at the DH spot in the interim.

Topkin writes that powerful 1B/DH Shelley Duncan and young, solid OF Brandon Guyer are possible replacements for Luke Scott. While Duncan is the more natural fit for the Rays at DH, Guyer is already on the 40-man roster and is much easier and less risky to put into the fold. As Topkins states, the Rays might lose Duncan when they send him back to Durham after Scott’s return.

Mario Rivera, baseball’s all-time saves leader, pulled his injured body together for one last run with the New York Yankees in 2013 before retiring. Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

Just who will start on opening day for the New York Yankees? I don’t mean on the mound since the team announced it was going to be CC Sabathia. I mean at all of the fielding positions. While other Major League teams have qualified for revenue sharing payments the Yankees may be the first team to qualify for an EPA superfund site grant to clean up the mess.

First of all, given their years of dominance and the arrogance ascribed to the franchise I don’t sense too much sympathy amongst baseball  fans. There is a certain amount of delight in writing off the Yankees even as playoff contenders, never mind American League East Division champions. Still, it has been a bit stunning to watch the casualty count climb as if the pinstripe wearers were auditioning for an appearance in an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, not on the baseball diamond.

On the good news side, as far as I can tell Mariano Rivera fooled me. I never thought he would come back from his season-ending knee injury last year.  What neither I nor any other baseball fan anticipated was the epidemic of health woes that have afflicted New York, almost as if broken bones and strained muscles can be contagious.

How fragile are the Yankees? Let us count the ways. Shortstop Derek Jeter, who dazzled us with his late-in-career play in 2012, worked diligently to come back from his damaged ankle suffered in the playoffs, only to rejolt it seriously enough to start the regular season on the disabled list. Outfielder Curtis Granderson is out with a broken arm. First baseman Mark Teixiera is out with an injured wrist. Alex Rodriguez is out with a hip problem and a variety of other problems such as a bruised ego and tarnished reputation. Pitcher Michael Pineda is on the 60-day disabled list and I am wondering what Andy Pettitte‘s situation is, at least long-term. He was sidelined for a while, but is he at full strength now?And now starter Phil Hughes is on the DL, too.

Maybe the Yankees will put the entire team on the DL and take a leave of absence for this season to give everyone a chance to get well.

Meanwhile, the rest of the AL East will play on. The Toronto Blue Jays had the best makeover in baseball during the off-season, beefing up a team that was potentially average-good with so much help that they loom as the favorites to win the division title and perhaps make a run at the World Series. While the thank-you notes to Miami Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria will keep on coming for his largesse in handing over all types of presents, these guys now have to play.

After adding Josh Johnson and Mark Buehrle to the rotation from Miami and signing R.A. Dickey as a free agent, Toronto should have a very solid mound crew.  Jose Reyes was another big add from the Marlins at short and slugging right-fielder Jose Bautista should be back at full strength from injury. I don’t know what to say about the addition of Melky Cabrera from the Giants after he humiliated himself by getting caught cheating with drugs. Now a Blue Jays outfielder, this was a jarring signing. Cabrera deserved to twist in the wind a bit, not be awarded a new contract. How do you gauge his potential effectiveness? The guy cheated his way to an All-Star game MVP and a .346 batting average, the best performance of his career. Now all is forgiven just like that? Maybe he’s a .246 hitter again.

The surprise of the division last year was the Baltimore Orioles. They seemed like overachievers whom everyone (me included) kept waiting to see falter at the season. But they didn’t, winning 93 games and qualifying for the playoffs. The problem is, I’m still not sure about whether the Orioles turned in a one-and-done showing or if manager Buck Showalter has made them into annual playoff contenders.

Under the steady hand of manager Joe Maddon the Tampa Bay Rays keep hanging in there, even with the kind of payroll reductions that force them to surrender good talent each year. They should be in the mix, as they always have been lately.

Trying to demonstrate to the fans that the 2012 season was unacceptable to management, too, the last-place Boston Red Sox supervised a winter-long personnel shuffle. A large number of new faces populate the roster, but the team and the fans would feel a lot better if one of them was a slugger like Josh Hamilton, who went elsewhere.

The Sox starting rotation has promise with Jon Lester, Clay Buchholz, Felix Doubrant, perhaps a healthy John Lackey, and newcomer Ryan Dempster, and new closer Joel Hanrahan could thrive. Acquisitions Mike Napoli, Shane Victorino, Johnny Gomes, and Stephen Drew may all start, but Boston needs big years from Dustin Pedroia and Jacoby Ellsbury, and above all recovery from injured designated hitter David Ortiz.

This could be a wild division, but this is how I see it: 1) Toronto Blue Jays; 2) Tampa Bay Rays; 3) Boston Red Sox; 4) Baltimore Orioles; 5) New York Yankees.

Mar 2, 2013; Port Charlotte, FL, USA; Tampa Bay Rays relief pitcher Fernando Rodney (56) during a spring training game against the Baltimore Orioles at Charlotte Sports Park. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports

The little market team that could, the Tampa Bay Rays keep chugging up the nasty American League East hill towards another 90 win season.This offseason GM Andrew Friedman tried to provide fuel for his engine by trading for the Minor League player of The Year, Wil Myers.

Friedman employed his stock market strategy of selling high when he swapped pitchers James Shields and Wade Davis to the Royals for a package of prospects centered around Wil Myers. Shields and the 200 quality innings he consistently provided will be sorely missed down the stretch this season.

To acquire a prospect of Myers quality, the Rays had to part with talent. Myers may start the season in Triple A, but will certainly be starting in a corner outfield position by midseason. In 2012 Myers hit 37 home runs with a batting line of .313 BA/.387 OBP/.600 SLG between Double-A and Triple-A. He is rated Baseball America’s #4 Prospect entering 2013.

The Rays also acquired well regarded pitching prospect Jake Odorizzi and left handed pitcher Mike Montgomery in the trade, as well as third base prospect Patrick Leonard.

As usual, Friedman added undervalued players who seemed to slip through the cracks. Yunel Escobar, a solid major league shortstop, was acquired in a trade for mid-level prospect Derek Dietrich. Starting 1B James Loney was signed for the bargain bin price of $2 million and will bring his slick glove and career .282 BA/.339 OBP/.419 SLG to Tropicana Field.

The Rays kept the back end of the bullpen together this offseason. Closer Fernando Rodney, had 48 saves, a 0.60 ERA and a crooked cap, had his team option exercised insuring another season as a Ray. Valuable setup men Joel Peralta ($6 million two years) and Kyle Farnsworth ($1.25 million one year) will also be back with the Rays in 2013.

The steady leadership of Friedman and manager Joe Maddon have given the Rays more bang for their buck than any team in the past decade. Lineup mainstays Evan Longoria and Ben Zobrist should produce enough to keep the Rays in games. But the Rays true strength lies in their pitching that led the AL in ERA at 3.19.

AL Cy Young winner David Price went 20-5 with a 2.56 ERA in 2012. He will be joined in the rotation by fellow homegrown talents Matt Moore, Jeremy Hellickson,Alex Cobb and Jeff Niemann. Roberto Hernandez (nee Fausto Carmona) and Chris Archer, a product of the Matt Garza trade, will also be in the running for a rotation spots.

Life can be precarious for a small market team. One bad signing or misguided trade can doom a small market team for years. But Friedman has been adept at flipping players like Garza at the right time and acquiring solid prospects that produce at the major league level. The Rays also excel at plugging in low priced, but productive players like Luke Scott and Loney in their lineup.

The little engine that could will need to climb a steep hill again in 2013. After years of battling the Yankees and Red Sox in the AL East, the Blue Jays and Orioles have now emerged as legitimate contenders. The Rays lineup is not overwhelming, but the rotation and bullpen, along with Joe Maddon’s steady hand, will keep the Rays in the hunt all season. And don’t be surprised to see the Tampa Bay Rays emerge from the fray and appear in the postseason again in 2013.

The Rays are still a solid baseball team, but now may have been the time to go for it. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

Given what Tampa has been able to accomplish, it wasn’t all that surprising to see the team jettison starting pitcher James Shields to Kansas City to replenish a farm system that has taken a hit over the past couple of seasons. Adding guys like Wil Myers and Jake Odorizzi not only beefs up the prospect crop, but it also gives the team a chance to promote a couple of potential impact players in the relative short term. The trade was a typical and genius Rays move: deal an expensive player getting ready to hit free agency and pick up young talent.

Still, if there was ever a season the Rays might have been wise to hold off in making such a move, it’s probably this one. The Rays still have plenty of talent on the roster and figure to be in the mix, but they’re also dealing with a reduced version of the AL East for the first time in their existence. Both financially stacked squads, the Yankees and the Red Sox, are uncharacteristically down and out, something we haven’t been able to say in a very long time.

Sure, the Yankees have enough fire power to stay near the top of the division. Their roster is aging quickly, Alex Rodriguez‘s future is very much in question, and no big moves were made to shore up the nagging problems we saw in last fall’s playoffs. The Red Sox look even worse. After jumping ship on a number of bloated contracts in the blockbuster that sent Adrian Gonzalez, Josh Beckett, and others to the Dodgers, the Sox were left with a team that finished the 2012 season with just 69 wins. Ownership then appeared to push for another layer of veterans to protect against another cellar-dwelling performance, but names like Ryan Dempster, Shane Victorino, and Mike Napoli don’t figure to equal an AL East crown in 2013.

The Orioles had a surprise ascent to postseason baseball last season, but there isn’t much of a reason to project them to finish near the win total they managed a year ago. Only the Blue Jays, who have negotiated blockbusters of their own to revamp a team that already had talent around the edges, have actually improved their chances at winning a division that previously seemed so distinctly unwinnable.

The Rays sold high on Shields to protect their future, but this may have been the rare instance when the team really just had to push for the present. It’s hard to say the trade that brought in Myers and Odorizzi was anything less than a masterstroke, but the timing wasn’t necessarily ideal. The Rays can certainly contend in 2013, but retaining Shields and bringing in some additional offense could have pushed Tampa Bay to the top of the pack with much less to worry about than usual.

If Brian’s writing strikes your fancy, read his work at StanGraphs and follow him on Twitter at @vaughanbasepct.

Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

The 29-year-old burst onto the scene in 2009 with a very solid rookie campaign that saw him go 13-6 with a 3.94 ERA in the brutal AL East, and although he’s never topped the 2.9 WAR (per FanGraphs) that he posted that season, his peripherals have continued to get better and better all the while.

A season ago, Niemann posted a career high 8.1 K/9 rate and generated a 51.4 percent ground ball rate, both of which may have more to do with a small sample size rather than improved pitching ability. That said, he’s in the prime of his career at age 29, and if fully healthy he has the potential to settle into a solid two or (more likely) three starter, even for a team with a good rotation. For a team like the Rockies, he’d be that much more valuable.

Can’t get enough of Spencer? Check out his work at StanGraphs and follow him on Twitter at @shendricks221.