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Pitchers auditioning for jobs next season

By MARC TOPKIN

© St. Petersburg Times,
published September 6, 2001

SEATTLE -- Hal McRae's opinions of players, he reminds often, are subject to change.

But right now, he is of the opinion that Tanyon Sturtze, Joe Kennedy and Nick Bierbrodt will be in the rotation next season, and that Paul Wilson is leads a group that includes Bryan Rekar and Ryan Rupe competing for the other two spots.

"I would think the three guys ... we're counting on and we're looking for two other pitchers that can help us get better and give us innings," McRae said. "Wilson looks like he's heading in the right direction and we'll have to watch the other two guys and see how they progress.

"We need five, and going into spring training, if the season were to end today, I'd say we have three."

While Sturtze appears to have developed into a dependable starter, McRae knows there will be some bumps in the development of Kennedy and Bierbrodt, along with the occasional need for special handling. That makes the reliability of the other starters more vital.

"It's tough to go into the season, especially with starting pitching, on hope," McRae said. "Hope puts you behind the eight ball. We can't go with a lot of hope. There's hope in the two young pitchers because they're not established, so our risk is going to have to be there and not in the other two spots. ... The other two guys need to be guys who go out and pitch and give us innings and keep us in ballgames. We don't necessarily have those guys, but we're hoping to have those guys and hope the guys we have pan out to be those guys. But they can't receive the same treatment as the other two."

The Rays have some other options, including veteran Wilson Alvarez, who is expected to return for the final season of his five-year, $35-million contract after missing the past two.

"That goes under the uncertainty category," McRae said, "and that's what we hope to eliminate, especially in starting pitching."

NO MIDDLE GROUND: There haven't been any decisions on what, if any, additions the Rays will be able to make next season. But McRae said that for the team to improve, it needs to have better, and quicker, defensive players at shortstop, second base and centerfield.

"It's important to put the people in place that can get you where you want to go," he said. "The middle of the field is an area we have to address. If we were to get that solved, that makes us better and gives us a chance to go where we want to go."

JOSE, CAN YOU PLAY: McRae hadn't scheduled much playing time for outfielder Jose Guillen, but he changed his plans after Guillen delivered a clutch pinch-hit in the 10th Tuesday and broke up a potential double play with a hard slide.

"He'll get a start (likely Saturday) because of what he did (Tuesday) night," McRae said. "I was a little more impressed with the slide than the base hit because he went hard and we need guys to go hard."

FAN CLUB: After going down swinging twice, Ben Grieve tied Jose Canseco's 1999 team record of 135 strikeouts.

RAYS BITS: Bakersfield won the opening game of its best-of-three California League semifinal against Mudville 6-1. ... Orlando pitcher Jim Magrane (3-1, 1.83 ERA) and Bakersfield infielder Frank Moore (.402, 18 RBI) were named the organization's August minor-league players of the month. ... Celebrated prospect Toe Nash is among 47 players invited to instructional league, which opens Sept. 16.

Outta leftfield

The Rays apparently made some international headlines Wednesday after holding Seattle star Ichiro Suzuki hitless Tuesday. It was the first time the Rays blanked him in eight games, and several Japanese reporters were asking how the Rays were able to do so. Actually, it was something of an accomplishment. Ichiro has gone O-fer just 17 times in 136 games.

By the numbers

vs. East: 17-40

vs. Central: 13-19

vs. West: 10-22

vs. NL: 10-8

vs. RH starters: 39-68

vs. LH starters: 11-21

on grass: 16-41

on turf: 34-48

in day games: 21-31

at night: 29-58

one-run games: 16-14

two-run games: 10-16

extra innings: 5-3

scoring first: 37-26

scoring four or more: 45-36

scoring fewer than four: 5-53

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