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Friday, June 22, 2007

Tampa Tribune: Rays’ Baldelli Out Awhile

An MRI on Thursday revealed no tear in Devil Rays CF Rocco Baldelli’s injured left hamstring, but he still is expected to be sidelined for perhaps another month after re-injuring himself Monday during a rehabilitation game for Triple-A Durham.

Baldelli, who has been out since May 16, felt a “tweak” during his fifth and final plate appearance in the second of four scheduled rehab games with the Bulls. Prior to that, he had been tentatively scheduled to rejoin the Rays’ lineup as soon as today.
...
Baldelli’s status doesn’t have much bearing on that of troubled rookie OF Elijah Dukes. The Rays spent Thursday exploring potential deals for Dukes, who hasn’t started in eight games after requesting a “personal day” off June 13.

Another option was designating Dukes for assignment. Should that happen, the Rays would have 10 days to trade him, release him or place him on waivers.

NTNgod Posted: June 22, 2007 at 12:23 AM | 5 comment(s) | Login to Bookmark
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1. Sparkles Peterson Posted: June 22, 2007 at 01:12 AM (#2412637)

Baldelli is damned lucky his agent never compared him to Mickey Mantle. "Injury-prone" is a much better label to be saddled with than "too big a ##### to play through injuries."

2. Ozzie's gay friend Posted: June 22, 2007 at 03:35 AM (#2412700)

I'm sad and pissed Dukes blew his chance, I really wanted him to succeed.
How awesome would 6 years of Crawford/Baldeli/young/Dukes in the outfield be?

3. Walt Davis Posted: June 22, 2007 at 04:25 AM (#2412710)

Baldelli was comped to DiMaggio actually (hey, they're both Italian!) back when he hit like 330 for the first month of his career.

At this point, he'll be 26 next year with maybe a season's worth of games played in the last 3, coming off a bad year and he still can't take a walk. He's skirting awfully close to 4th OF territory.

Meanwhile, I'd suggest a Dukes-Bradley swap but (1) the Rays don't need another OF and (2) clearly Dukes couldn't replace the sainted Mark Kotsay.

4. Danny Posted: June 22, 2007 at 05:03 AM (#2412723)

Meanwhile, I'd suggest a Dukes-Bradley swap but (1) the Rays don't need another OF and (2) clearly Dukes couldn't replace the sainted Mark Kotsay.

Dukes hasn't exactly been tearing it up this year (.190/.318/.391), and his UZR and ZR suggest he might be better suited to a corner (SSS, of course). I'm not so sure he's a good bet to outperform Kotsay this year or Denorfia next year. And then there are the emotional issues...

5. NTNgod Posted: June 22, 2007 at 05:07 AM (#2412725)

Perhaps they're waiting until Sunday to move Dukes, and give him a nice 23rd birthday gift - a ticket out of town :P

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Friday, June 22, 2007

Tampa Tribune: Rays’ Baldelli Out Awhile

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