By – Benjamin J. Pavlovic
Tampa Bay Rays’ stellar prospect Wade Davis took the bump for the first time this spring, but wasn’t able to complete his two scheduled innings. Davis struggled with his control, and allowed one run on two hits and three walks while lasting 1 2/3 innings. Have no fear, one mediocre outing will not have any meaningful affect on the 24-year-old fireballer.
Wade Davis begins his quest for the 2010 AL ROY.
Baseball America recently rated Davis as the twenty-third best prospect in baseball, and number three in the Rays’ system behind Desmond Jennings (#6 overall) and fellow RHP Jeremy Hellickson (#18 overall).
Davis impressed during his ’09 September call up when he started six games. He struck out nine Tigers and took a no decision in his major league debut. Boston knocked him around during his second game in ’09, but he then went on a roll. Davis won three games in a row, including two victories against Baltimore, the first of which was a ten-strikeout, complete-game four-hit shutout. We love to see young starters fair well against the same team twice. Hitters can be taken by surprise the first go-around, but usually start to make adjustments the next time they square off. No adjustments here, Davis K’d just three batters in the rematch, but fired seven innings of one-run ball. Very impressive.
Barring injury or spring training meltdown, Davis is cemented in the five-spot of Tampa Bay’s young rotation.
“He’s in a position in our minds to put 200-plus innings together,” said Andrew Friedman, Tampa Bay’s EVP of baseball operations. “He’s extremely talented. He worked his way through our system very methodically, and when he got to the Major League level in September, he pitched extremely well.”
Grab Davis in all keeper leagues, as he is only going to get better. Normally we preach to stay away from young arms, but Davis is 24, and he has been brought through the system at a perfect pace. Even single-season owners should draft the workhorse when rounding out their rotation. As far as young pitching prospects not named “Stephen” go, Davis is your guy for 2010. Next week we will take a look at another AL East prospect, Baltimore’s Brian Matusz. He’s a bit younger and not quite as polished as Davis, but he’s rated #5 overall by Baseball America.
