Added Loney for 1B.
Good defense, very little pop,but better average and less SOs.
Career .282 hitter averages about 10 homers.  Strikes out less than
1/2 of Pena.
Added Escobar at SS. Assuming he behaves, that gives Ha Juk Lee
one more year or two and gives us more flexibility with Zobrist.
Career .282 hitter.  Little pop, but low strikeouts, ala Loney.

Well, neither have been coached by Shelton yet!#%#W@ 

Extended Longoria and haven't given up a top pitcher yet.

What say ye?

I'm waiting to see if we trade Shields for Will Myers or some other top prospect.

I like the moves they've made so far.  Loney has no power, but will hit 80 points higher than Pena & is comparable defensively.  Escobar's an upgrade over what they had at SS.

Saw they also added an assistant hitting coach, don't remember his name.  You must know a lot about hitting if you're good enough to be below Shelton on the organizational chart.

I played against Loney growing up, he's a good guy and will provide some consistency at the plate. I hope he can rebound after a prolonged slump in 2012.

Loney will platoon, hopefully that will help him out, because at it stands now, he's not a passable MLB first baseman at the dish. He was terrible last year - not that he's that good of a hitter in the first place.

He plays good defense though, and for $3 million a year he's a bargain. If he can just get back to being barely mediocre - like he was before - this is a good bargain for the Rays. Especially considering he's replacing the corpse that was Pena.

---

Originally posted by lilspanky:
Loney will platoon, hopefully that will help him out, because at it stands now, he's not a passable MLB first baseman at the dish. He was terrible last year - not that he's that good of a hitter in the first place.

He plays good defense though, and for $3 million a year he's a bargain. If he can just get back to being barely mediocre - like he was before - this is a good bargain for the Rays. Especially considering he's replacing the corpse that was Pena.

---

And Pena wasn't horrible at the plate?

If Loney is just up with his average year of .282  ~10 HRs and ~ 65 -70 RBIs and
he'll be a huge upgrade.

One more trade ala Shields for Will Myers or a great Catching prospect and we'll
look good for next year.

---

Originally posted by Tom81:

---

Originally posted by lilspanky:
Loney will platoon, hopefully that will help him out, because at it stands now, he's not a passable MLB first baseman at the dish. He was terrible last year - not that he's that good of a hitter in the first place.

He plays good defense though, and for $3 million a year he's a bargain. If he can just get back to being barely mediocre - like he was before - this is a good bargain for the Rays. Especially considering he's replacing the corpse that was Pena.

---

And Pena wasn't horrible at the plate?

If Loney is just up with his average year of .282  ~10 HRs and ~ 65 -70 RBIs and
he'll be a huge upgrade.

One more trade ala Shields for Will Myers or a great Catching prospect and we'll
look good for next year.

---

Did you miss the part where I said that he was replacing the corpse of Pena?

If Loney gets back to average(.282/.339/.419) he'll be a slight upgrade over Pena last year(~1 win better)

I also expect Loney to platoon, which will make him much more productive and at $3 mil a year it's a good move, especially if the other half of the platoon is as good or better at or around the same price point. It shouldn't be that hard to upgrade Pena's productivity for cheaper, considering how bad he was last year( 197/.330/.354 0.9 WAR ).

I think the Rays made a great trade.

They lose Shields, but we were going to lose him in another year
or so anyway.
We lose a solid pitcher in Davis.
We bring in a potential star outfielder/hitter in Myers.
We bring in 2 of the Royals top 6 prospects in Odorizzi and Montgomery.
Don't know much about the 3rd baseman, but hey, this is what we
have been hoping for.

We've got Jennings, Joyce, Myers, Zobrist and Fuld and Guyer in the OF.
B/W Zoby and Loney we can hopefully get good production at 1B.
3B and SS are taken care of and 2B will play out.

The only real weakness is catcher IMO, but we can live with that if we can
have a lineup of Zoby, Joyce, Longo, Myers batting in the middle.

I, for one, am excited.
Savvys, how about you?

I think it's a great trade for Tampa.  Hell, it sounded like they were discussing more like a straight up deal, Shields for Myers.  They threw in Davis & got two other VERY highly regarded prospects, along with another guy.

Davis is a solid pitcher, but will never be anything more than a back of the rotation starter.  Odorizzi has the potential to be a front of the order guy (he entered 2012 as the Royals most highly-regarded prospect, in front of Myers).

This trade has the potential to be a major fleecing.

The Royals have just been Friedman'd.

The first article I read was just talkinga bout prospects for Shields and I thought "what in the hell are we doing."  Then I read the next article that said we got Myers and I saw what the other prospect were and I am ecstatic.  I think this was  great trade for the Rays.  The problem for the Royals is they are under so much pressure to win now.  They have been horrible for a long time and they had to give away their future for NOW.  Sucks to be them.

I guess it is a decent enough trade, just wish the Rays would have gotten an established talent rather than three prospects.

I wish they could have kept Keppinger, but I admit I don't know the reasons why he left.  He got $4m a year, and the Rays signed a guy at $3m, so they could have afforded him.  Glad to see they kept Peralta, though.

Great trade for the Rays. 

IMO if both of these pitchers make the rotation in the next 3 to 4 years, then this trade will have
been a huge plus for the Rays.

Even if only Myers works out, it's still not bad.

I'm psyched for the season.

Rays pick up a nice minor league 2B from Padres.
4 year minor league average of .300.

Also close to deal with Roberto Hernandez, a back of rotation
or BP guy.

We're being aggressive this off season.
Me likey!

Still looking for a DH.

Finding catchers is like finding hen's teeth.

Oh what might have been Buster.