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Price Draws Praise After Live Session

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By MARC LANCASTER, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 22, 2008

ST. PETERSBURG - Right at noon Thursday, everyone who is anyone in the Rays' baseball operations department headed toward the batting cage on Field 2 at the Naimoli Complex.

Manager Joe Maddon was there, along with executive vice president Andrew Friedman, senior VP Gerry Hunsicker and director of baseball operations Dan Feinstein. Akinori Iwamura even hung around for a couple of minutes to watch.

David Price's first session pitching to live hitters drew quite a crowd, but the young lefty said afterward he didn't even notice anyone was there.

"I believe it," Maddon said. "He's got tremendous focus."

The top overall pick in last year's draft has plenty else going for him as well. Not to make too much out of an eight-minute, 33-pitch session behind an L-shaped screen to protect him from batted balls, but Price impressed some people Thursday.

Rays shortstop Jason Bartlett, who joined Ben Zobrist in stepping into the cage against Price, compared the pitcher to gifted Minnesota Twins lefty Francisco Liriano.

"Obviously, he probably doesn't have the changeup Liriano has just yet," said Bartlett, "but the kid's young."

That's true, but the one thing about the 22-year-old Vanderbilt University product that has grabbed everyone's attention over the first week of camp is his maturity. He has yet to throw a pitch in even a minor-league game, but he doesn't seem the least bit rattled or unsettled about anything going on around him.

His review of Thursday's work?

"I was fine," said Price. "Threw some strikes, threw some good pitches, threw some bad ones, threw some OK ones. Typical day for a pitcher."

He said he wasn't nervous on the mound and he understood why the brass wanted to check him out.

"They really hadn't seen me throw," he said, "so I'm sure there were people that were anxious to see me throw, see how I react to certain situations, just kind of see how I handle myself on the mound."

Aside from the pure stuff Price displayed as he worked through his fastball, slider and changeup, Bartlett was most impressed by the pitcher's approach.

"For a guy that's never really pitched in front of anybody in this organization, he went out there, didn't try to throw 100 miles an hour," said Bartlett. "He worked on his mechanics, worked on his spots, and I think that showed them more than him trying to go out there and throw 100 miles an hour. I think they were pretty impressed with that."

Friedman concurred with Bartlett's assessment.

"It's always impressive when you see a young player, especially in his first big-league camp, grasp that," he said.

Friedman demurred when asked where Price is likely to start the season, saying that decision has yet to be made. The likely answer is either Double-A Montgomery or High-A Vero Beach. Catcher Matt Spring, who was Price's receiver Thursday, spent some time in Montgomery last year and he thought the pitcher's stuff would translate well at that level.

"I'm not a scout and I don't know what their plans are for him," said Spring, "but I think he's definitely ready for that."

As for Price himself, he seemed surprised such a big fuss was being made, calling Thursday "just another day." When might the cool rookie crack a little bit?

"The first big-league exhibition probably will be something I might be gritting my teeth for," he said. "I might even not be able to sleep that well at night. It's something I'll probably get a little overanxious for, and it'll just be a lot of fun."

There will be plenty of eyes on him then, just as there were Thursday.

Reporter Marc Lancaster can be reached at (813) 259-7227 or mlancaster@tampatrib.com.

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