The last couple of games as I've watched Gabe Gross suck at the plate and stumble around the OF like the marginal regular that he is, two thought came to mind.

1. He really, really stands out on a Rays team that looks so good throughout the lineup and pitching staff. He - and his sometimes caddy the crappy utility man Ben Zobrist - are so clearly not up to par with the rest of the team that it's a wonder the Rays didn't upgrade that spot. Which brings us to...

2. They were trying at the deadline. They were briefly linked to Giles, which wouldn't have worked because of his no trade and the Sox blocked them with their own waiver claim. And they were very heavily linked with Bay. In fact, wasn't it true that right before the deadline there were reports that the Manny deal was off because Bay was going to Tampa?

As I recall the rumored offer was Jeff Niemann and Reid Brignac. Anybody recall why that deal didn't go through? Presumably Pitt wanted more and Tampa balked. Friedman and the Tampa front office obviously have had a great, great year, but given how close they are to making and how lousy their RF produciton has been, it may be that in retrospect it was a glaring mistake not being more aggressive and getting Bay. That assumes Pitt's counter wasn't David Price or something, of course.

And, of course, had the Rays been more aggressive and gotten Bay that would have had huge ramifications with the team that ended up as their ALCS opponent. I'd be shocked if the Sox would have moved Manny if Bay wasn't out available. In the endless what if game that could mean Manny would have torn the team apart or simply had his Dodger contract run with the Sox. Whatever, no need to go down that road again.

But if I was a Rays fan I'd have felt a whole lot better with Bay (or Giles or somebody) in RF instead of Gross these last couple of games.

Every time I give thanks for the complete bag of suck that is Gabe Gross, I have some of the same thoughts about Jason Bay and Tampa's pursuit of him.

Perhaps Tampa did not pursue Bay more aggressively because they thought that Rocco Baldelli was gonig to be available in October.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08214/901137-63.stm

So the Rays balked at the deal, and they certainly could have had him.

I imagine I am not alone in breathing a huge sigh of relief when Crawford's at bat is over and Floyd's spot is coming up. Putting Bay in the 6 spot and taking the hole out of the bottom of their line up that has been Gabe Gross would have been a huge upgrade for the Rays. I dont see how Brignac makes up for that in hindsight, especially since I think Bartlett-Iwamura- Longoria is a pretty good right side the infield for at least two or three more years. I dont see where they fit him and I have a hard time seeing a better trade option than Bay this year.

Well, as nice a series as Bartlett is having, he stinks offensively and he'll be 29 in a couple weeks, so it's not like he's a kid just entering his prime . I don't think you can fault the Rays if they're thinking about replacing him with Brignac in the future.

Brignac is a good prospect and potentially a pretty big upgrade over Bartlett, but I thought the Rays had at least put him into thier offer. Making him a deal breaker was a mistake imo. It's not like Bay would have been just a 2 month rental. He's a guy that potentially could have been a difference maker in two Octobers, is very reasonably priced for 09 and should still be valuable enough after 09 to generate comp picks to replace the lost prospects.

If the Rays lose tonight, there will be plenty of more immediate reasons why they didn't go to the Series, but a lack of aggressiveness and commitment to winning now by the FO last July will have been a contributing factor.

When I heard that our trade for Bay was off and Tampa's was on, my house resembled the scene from The Wire where McNulty and Bunk investigate the murder while only using one (four letter) word. It would have perfectly complemented their existing team, and they had/have a deep enough system to support it.

On the other hand, I was pretty shocked and psyched that Bay was available for trade this year, where he's not a rental, and that Pittsburgh would even consider a deal that we could offer. That afternoon was an emotional rollercoaster for me as much as any postseason game since 2003.

I think it's fair to say that Hinske would be more worrisome than Floyd or Gross at this point. Why on earth did they leave hime off the roster after a pretty solid year?

Otoh, if they win tonight, win the WS and Brignac becomes a star, then they're frickin geniuses. Oh well.

Really? You must be kidding. Zobrist can play 4 positions and hit 12 HR's in under 200 AB's. Sure wish we had someone like him on our bench this year. If thats crappy then what the hell are the people that were on the Sox bench.

Before the last four (meaningless) games of the season, Zobrist had 8 HR and a line of .235/.330/.437. Obviously a relative power bat off the bench like his would've been nice, but let's not make him out to be Ryan Howard with the bat here - without those last four games on consecutive days in a meaningless setting, he's just your run-of-the-mill Chone Figgins minus the speed and defense.

edit: Though I don't think he's that valuable a player, I misrepresent his power numbers - over a full season, he's due to hit about 30 HR if he's on this year's pace - I just don't think the power makes up for the other deficiencies.

I'm not sure I'd be too excited to have Zobrist on the bench -- that career .222/.279/.370 batting line is pretty weak.
I'm assuming you were only looking at his line this year: .253/.339/.505, giving him an 844 OPS in his age 27 season. His next highest OPS in the majors? 571 in 2006.

Incidentally, I don't think he has very good defensive numbers either, although I'm not an expert on defensive stats.
(Over his career as a SS (his "natural" position), which I picked only because he has about a season's worth of stats there, Zobrist has a Range Factor of 4.34 and a Zone Rating of .778. That would rank him in the middle of the pack in Range Factor but beyond awful in ZR.)

(edit) There's no question I would rather have seen him on the bench than Alex Cora (or the nonexistent Sean Casey), but I'm not convinced that he's going to replicate those kinds of numbers again.

This is a good point. We really had no bench that could help out in the ALCS. Tampa had guys like Baldelli, Floyd, Zobrist, and Perez who could come off the bench, while we had Cora, Ellsbury and Casey. In fairness, Coco was part of our bench to start and helped out by replacing Ellsbury, and Kotchman filled in nicely after Lowell could not play. Cora is a good regular season bench player who can help you spelling a regular once a week, but is not very helpful in the playoffs. Casey could not help since he got little playing time and had too much rust.

But the more I see of Bay defensively the less impressed I am. We had to give up Manny and eat 7 million, but since he was threatening a repeat of 2006 that was not too much. Tampa would have had to give up a top prospect which they need to compete in the future given their cash poor compared to the Red Sox. I do not think Tampa is missing Bay right now, they seem to have the horses, although they appear to be missing Red Sox starting pitching as the bats are a little softer.