Pitching remains front and center at Rays' camp

March 5, 1:48 AMTampa Bay Rays ExaminerRob Quinn

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Price has yet to see game action AP/Steven Senne 

Spring Training is historically more important for pitchers than hitters. Nowhere is this fact more apparent than in Rays’ camp this year as most of the storylines involve the pitchers thus far. Here are a few of particular interest over the past week:

J.P. Howell makes his Team USA debut.

Howell threw a scoreless inning against the Blue Jays in Dunedin on Wednesday in his first action representing the US. He has a chance to play a prominent role in the World Baseball Classic, as Team USA figures to rely heavily on a bevy of relief pitchers to get them through each game as starting pitchers will be restricted with limited pitch counts. Being left-handed never hurts either. He will definitely see some action.

All five projected starters were held out for the first week.

Shields, Kazmir, Garza, Sonnanstine, and David Price were all held out of action for the first week. This leads me to believe the Rays are leaning toward starting the season off with Price in the rotation. If they decide to start him in AAA, however, it won’t be a problem because . . .

Hammel, Niemann, and Davis have all been marvelous.

Niemann is the only one of the three to have given up a run – and he has allowed only one. The trio has combined for 16.2 innings and has allowed only the one run on 10 hits and two walks with 16 strikeouts. Every manager and general manager in baseball will tell you the problem they’d most like to have is too many good starting pitchers. This is the "problem" facing the Rays this spring.

Nelson, Isringhausen, Percival, Balfour, and Wheeler have yet to hit the mound.

The Rays are in no rush to see these vets go to work. Percival, recovering from off-season back surgery, should soon make his spring debut. Balfour was originally slated to pitch for Team Australia in the WBC, but has withdrawn due to injury concerns. He'll be ready to go for the Rays by Opening Day though and should see Spring Training action soon. Isringhausen is coming off September surgery to repair a torn flexor tendon. To be completely honest, it’s still a mystery to me as to why Nelson has yet to appear in a game. The Rays may be taking the same approach with their bullpen arms as they are taking with the starters. Spring started early and the Rays gave J.P. Howell some action to get him ready for the Classic, but they don’t want to get their most valuable pitchers going too early.

James Shields will be the Opening Day starter for the Rays.

This is not a surprising decision. Shields, not Kazmir, has been the most consistent and reliable starter on the staff over the past two seasons. The Rays used the rotation of Shields, Kazmir, Garza, and Sonnanstine throughout their playoff run in 2008 and that is the order in which they will begin the AL Championship defense in 2009.

All signs so far point to a successful 2009 season for the men on the mound for the Rays. It’ll be some time before we know the exact set of 11 who will break camp on the 25-man roster, but until then enjoy the quality we’re seeing so far.

Have your own thoughts on the Rays’ pitching so far? Let me know in a comment?

Regular season single-game tickets for 2009 at the Trop are now on sale! Check out my list of must-see games before you buy though.

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I am also the co-host of "Speaking of Sports" with Tampa Bay Sports Examiner Ted Fleming and Althea Pashman. The show airs from 7-9 p.m. each Sunday night on WSRQ 1220 AM Sarasota. Listen live here.