Top pick unlikely to play this season

ST. PETERSBURG - The Devil Rays still expect to get top draft pick Delmon Young on the field playing for one of their minor-league teams.

Just not any time soon.

With negotiations dragging this deep into the summer, the Rays have decided there isn't enough time left in the minor-league season to make it worth using one of Young's option years. Instead they will seek to sign him to a 2004 contract, which means the earliest he can join them will be for the fall instructional league.

"I don't think there's any question we'll be working to sign him to a 2004 contract," general manager Chuck LaMar said Monday. "We did everything we thought was important from our standpoint to try to get it done quickly, and not all the blame falls on Delmon and his family. It's just the system that we're in right now. There's a lot of money involved with picks that high; the top four have not signed as of yet and it's not unique to this year."

LaMar said he remained confident Young, who has a scholarship offer to Arizona, eventually will sign.

"Nothing has happened from the day we drafted him that says we're not going to get this done," LaMar said. "I think negotiations have been not only cordial but very professional, and I don't think there's any question Delmon wants to be a Devil Ray. There's no question in our mind that not only do we want him to be but we're going to get this done."

TRADE WINDS: If the chances of making a trade were put into terms of a weather forecast, LaMar said they'd be "partly cloudy with an increased chance of thunderstorms later this evening and going into the month of July."

In other words LaMar has continued to talk with several teams, including the Reds, mostly about the Rays pitchers but hasn't heard anything he likes. Not yet, anyway.

"Right now there's nothing that's going to happen tonight, but I think we'll have the opportunity to make a trade or two before the deadline," LaMar said. "It's really going to be a matter if we think it's something that will strengthen the club."

COMINGS, GOINGS: Carl Crawford can't wait to get back on the field today. Serving a three-game suspension taught him one thing: He doesn't like to watch.

Each day Crawford did his pregame work, then went back to his apartment to watch the game. "Boring," he said. "I'm glad these three days are over. I don't think I could take sitting in the house again."

With Crawford's suspension for his role in the June 14 brawl with Pittsburgh ending, Marlon Anderson's is likely to start.

Anderson could get word as soon as today, but is confident after his appeal hearing his punishment will be reduced from three games to one or two.

GRIEVE REPORT: Ben Grieve, hospitalized over the weekend when a blood clot was found in his right arm, flew to Dallas to see a specialist for further evaluation and treatment.

PITCHING IN: If the Rays don't need Jason Standridge in long relief over the next couple days, he may start Sunday in Chicago. That not only would give Joe Kennedy extra days before his next start but allow him to pitch July 29 against the Blue Jays, against whom he is 6-0 with a 3.56 ERA in his career.

MISCELLANY: The Rays are 9-8 in July, three wins shy of their best for any month. ... Blind radio broadcaster Enrique Oliu threw out the ceremonial first pitch, a strike. ... Travis Harper earned his second career save. ... Impressive rookie Antonio Perez has hit in 13 of his first 14 games. ... The Rays are 26-31 in a major-league-high 57 games decided by one or two runs. ... Julio Lugo had hits in five consecutive at-bats, one shy of the team record, before a fourth-inning fly out. ... Anaheim's Troy Glaus left in the third with a shoulder bruise and is day to day. ... Monday marked 10 years of major-league service time for utilityman Terry Shumpert, 36.