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Tampa Bay Rays 2009 prospect report: Chris Mason
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Mason has struggled this fall - mlb.com
With the Arizona Fall League well underway, this will be the first in a series covering all seven Rays' prospects playing for the Peoria Javelinas in 2008. I will briefly assess where each player is at in their development and speculate as to what their future will be with the Rays.
Will there ever be room for Chris Mason in a Rays’ rotation full of quality young pitchers? Mason hopes so and he has the talent to justify that hope.
The Rays made Mason their second-round pick in the 2005 draft out of UNC-Greensboro. The righthander’s stock reached its peak in 2007 when he was 15-4 for Montgomery in the AA Southern League. Since then, however, Mason has seen his stock dip.
This past season was quite a rough one for Mason, as he had trouble making the jump from AA to AAA. Things got so bad in Durham this past year for Mason that he was actually yanked from the starting rotation and sent to the bullpen.
It is quite evident when comparing the numbers from ’07 to ’08 that there was something lacking. Opponents hit only .241 off him in ’07 compared to a staggering .333 in ’08. He also suddenly fell victim to the long ball. Mason allowed seven homers in 161.1 innings in 2007. That number ballooned to a whopping 19 home runs allowed in only 108.2 innings in 2008. Of course there were also the walks. In 2007, Mason walked 2.45 per nine innings pitched. That number went up to 3.40 in 2008.
Okay, there’s the bad news. There is some light at the end of the tunnel for Mason, however. There is that one number that is of great importance when looking at minor league prospects: the strikeout. Mason’s strikeouts are probably his only salvation right now. In the stellar 2007 campaign, Mason struck out a solid 7.6 batters per nine innings. In 2008, despite struggling in all other categories, the number only dropped to 7.45 strikeouts per nine.
Mason was sent to the Arizona Fall League by the Rays to hopefully figure out a way to get people out when he doesn’t have his strikeout stuff. That seems to be the main problem. Mason is only 24 years old, so it is quite possible that all he needs is more experience against better hitters. He got that at Durham this year and he is apparently getting it so far with the Peoria Javelinas in the Arizona Fall League. Thus far this fall, he has a 6.55 ERA in 11 innings. Even more discouraging is the fact that Mason only has two strikeouts in those 11 innings.
The overall approach to Mason is definitely a wait-and-see one for the Rays. There is an outside chance he could wind up in big-league camp to get some experience in March, but will surely start the year out in AAA again. If Mason can make a couple of adjustments and improve slightly, he could be a September call-up for the Rays. It is also possible that Mason can improve enough to at least make himself trade bait so the Rays can move him in a deal. If, however, Mason doesn’t show signs of improvement in 2009, his window of opportunity with the Rays will be closing fast.
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