I'm not sure if this means the Rays are the dumbest team in the history of sports or have the best pitching staff in the majors. Either way, it'd be enough to upset me if he was on my fantasy team (LOL at UTVOLS2).

Jayson Stark: Tampa Bay Rays to send David Price to minor leagues to begin season - ESPN


DUNEDIN, Fla. -- What's a guy have to do to make a team these days, anyhow?

Get himself ranked as the No. 1 pitching prospect in baseball? Nope. Apparently, that won't do it.

Get himself named USA Today's 2008 Minor League Player of the Year? Nope. That won't, either.

[+] EnlargeDavid Price
AP Photo/Charles KrupaDavid Price, 23, was 1-0 with one save and a 1.59 ERA in five outings for the Rays in the postseason in October.

Hmmm, get picked to win the rookie of the year award by every magazine in America except Better Homes and Gardens? Uh, 'fraid not.

OK, how about marching in to save the game in October that launched his team into the first World Series in franchise history? Sorry. Not quite enough.

All right, well, how 'bout doing all that stuff and racking up a 1.08 spring ERA? Nah, unbelievably, that's probably not going to get it done, either.

Not if the guy we're talking about is David Price, anyway. And not if the team he's trying to make is the Tampa Bay Rays.

The Rays haven't quite yet said that their favorite 23-year-old left-handed phenom is about to be handed a plane ticket to Durham, the Rays' Triple-A affiliate. Not officially, anyway.

But every indication is that that's what's about to happen, probably any day now. And if that isn't a sign that the Rays obviously have way too much talent and way too much pitching, I don't know what is.