Rays Prospect Cards #1

I thought after my break from blogging due to some family worries I would take a look at the Rays prospects that I have.
First up is Matthew Moore the Rays number one pitching prospect, shown here in all his Bowman 2009 glory. Moore was drafted by the Rays in the 8th round of the 2007 draft. He is currently ranked the #15 prospect by Baseball America. Currently pitching for the AA Montgomery Biscuits Moore is 3-3 with a 2.76 ERA but the stat everyone seems to be interested in his his strikeouts. So far this year Moore has K'ed 82 batters in only 58.2 innings, this gives him a SO/9 of 12.6. Over his four year minor career his SO/9 is 12.8, pretty impressive by anyones standards. Last year he struck out more batters than any other pitcher throughout the minor leagues, 208 K's in 144.2 innings.

The question on most Rays fans lips is " Will we see Moore in the bigs this year?". The Rays are very protective of their pitching prospects and everything points to him not making his MLB debut until 2012. Most experts are guessing he may be pointed in the direction of closing, but it would be interesting to see him as a starter.

Stay tuned for more prospects in the days to come.