Demotions may be brief

© St. Petersburg Times
published March 14, 2002

ST. PETERSBURG -- The 17 players shipped to minor-league camp Wednesday may be gone, but manager Hal McRae insisted they won't be forgotten.

"Some of the guys that are down aren't necessarily out," McRae said after the team's first significant roster reduction. "It gives those guys an opportunity to play every day and hopefully play well. If something were to happen here, (they can) position themselves to come back."

Among the players with major-league experience sent out were outfielder Damian Rolls, infielder Andy Sheets, catcher Kevin Brown and pitcher Jason Standridge.

"They have to go down and play well," McRae said. "When things happen you never know where we're going to go."

The biggest surprise may have been Rolls, who spent all of last season with the Rays, mostly as a reserve. But the Rays want him to get experience playing the outfield every day at Triple A.

Two who earned at least an extra week in camp thanks to impressive performances were pitcher Delvin James and catcher Yamid Haad.

STAY THE COURSE: The Rays, for now, plan to keep Nick Bierbrodt on a regular throwing schedule to see if mechanical adjustments allow him to overcome the severe control problems that marred his past two starts.

"Right now we're going to continue to monitor Nick's situation and continue to handle it in-house," general manager Chuck LaMar said. "(Pitching coach) Jackie Brown will continue to work with him and we'll see what happens. If he doesn't progress and if we think we need to go in a different direction for help, then we will. But at this point we'll continue to work on his mechanics and see if we can get him straightened out from our standpoint baseball-wise."

Bierbrodt is scheduled to throw a bullpen session today and would be in line to pitch again Sunday, though McRae said it hasn't been determined whether Bierbrodt will make that start.

STURTZE, WILSON SHARP: Tanyon Sturtze and Paul Wilson are the top pitchers in the Tampa Bay rotation, and they continue to pitch like it.

Sturtze pitched four shutout innings in a 1-0 win Wednesday against Toronto, dropping his spring ERA to 1.64. "I threw the ball where I wanted to," he said. "Everything was pretty good today."

Wilson has done even better. His four scoreless innings gave him 10 for what has been a near-perfect spring. "I'm going out there being aggressive with my fastball and I've been able to throw strikes," Wilson said.

The Rays got their run in the fourth, when Steve Cox doubled in Brent Abernathy. ... Leadoff man Jason Tyner drew his first walk of the spring in his 28th plate appearance. ... Esteban Yan allowed two hits but survived the ninth with the lead.

OH, THAT DE LOS SANTOS: Pitcher Luis de los Santos finally made it to camp, nearly a month late after visa complications in his native Dominican Republic.

He said the delay had nothing to do with any question about his age (listed at 24) but because immigration officials confused him with Eddy de los Santos, a shortstop in the Rays minor-league system. "That was the problem," Luis de los Santos said.

Pitcher Enger Veras still is delayed, and the Rays anticipate there will be a discrepancy with his age, which had been listed at 20.

NO THANKS, WE'RE FINE: Managing general partner Vince Naimoli angrily denied an Associated Press report that said the Rays had to borrow money from Major League Baseball's central fund to cover player payroll.

"That's absolutely wrong," Naimoli said. "We never did that. We never thought of doing that. We never had the need to do that."

After conversations with the Rays, the AP moved a correction sayings its report was erroneous.

Naimoli also said the Rays are in compliance with the MLB rule requiring a team have at least 60 percent equity and no more than 40 percent debt.

VAUGHN DELAYED AGAIN: Because Greg Vaughn could be out for an extended period if he were to reinjure his left calf, the Rays want to ease him into action. And because their next two games are in National League parks where the DH is not used, they have pushed the date for his spring debut to Sunday so he won't have to play in the field.

That will leave Vaughn with just more than two weeks until the start of the season, but McRae said he should be ready. "We need to get him 30-35 at-bats," he said.