Rays should take Price No. 1

Monday, June 4, 2007 | Feedback | Print Entry

Carl Crawford is signed through 2010, Rocco Baldelli through 2011. Delmon Young is under Tampa Bay's control through 2012, and so is B.J. Upton. The Devil Rays' window of opportunity for playoff relevance -- their first real and best chance, after 10 years in existence -- will occur sometime in the next three to four years.

But the window will close on Tampa Bay unless the Rays develop better pitchers and more pitching depth, and this is why it makes sense for the Rays to take Vanderbilt pitcher David Price with the first pick in Thursday's amateur draft.  
 

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  • Buster Olney Buster Olney

    Buster Olney is a senior writer at ESPN The Magazine. He began covering baseball in 1989, as the Nashville Banner's beat reporter assigned to the Triple-A Nashville Sounds. Later, he covered the San Diego Padres (1993-94), the Baltimore Orioles ('95-96), the New York Mets ('97) and the Yankees ('98-2001). Olney joined ESPN The Magazine in 2003, after six years at The New York Times, and he's the author of the Times' best-seller "The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty," a book about the Paul O'Neill-Tino Martinez Yankees dynasty of 1996-01.

    He grew up in central Vermont collecting baseball cards and listening to Red Sox, Expos, Phillies and Pirates radio broadcasts, and was a rabid fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers. He graduated from Vanderbilt University the same year as hoops legend Will Perdue, and ranks among the all-time leading scorers in pickup basketball at Memorial Gym. He claims to have witnessed the Commodores' winning football season in 1982 (although anthropologists have not yet confirmed this).

    Olney also contributes to ESPN.com, ESPN Radio, ESPNEWS, "SportsCenter" and "Baseball Tonight."

    Follow Buster on Twitter: @Buster_ESPN

    Ask Buster a question: Buster's Mailbag

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