It could be a bad day for the D-Rays...

The number of Major League debuts that I have seen (or at least that I'm sure I've seen, in case I was at one and didn't realize it), is 3. That number will jump to 5 tomorrow, and that could be a bad omen for the Devil Rays.

The three that I've seen;
1995 Ruben Rivera: He came in as a defensive replacement. Rivera topped out at #2 on Baseball America's top 100 list (behind Alex Rodriguez, and directly ahead of Chipper Jones and Derek Jeter). Rivera was dubbed in Yankee-land as the "Next Mickey Mantle". He finished his big league career, in 9 seasons, with a .216 average and 64 home runs.

1996 Paul Wilson: The elite of the "K-Generation" Mets, Wilson also topped out at #2 on Baseball America's top 100 prospect list. He was only behind Andruw Jones, and 4 spots ahead of Derek jeter. Wilson was just recently released, and it will probably mark the end of his 10-year, 7-season career. Assuming Wilson doesn't pitch again, his career record will end at 40-58 with a 4.86 ERA.

1997 Hideki Irabu: When he came over he was called the "Japanese Nolan Ryan". He was thought to be the best pitcher in all of Japan, better than Hideo Nomo. In the end Steinbrenner would call him a "Fat Pussy Toad." Irabu finished his 6-year ML career with a 34-35 record and a 5.15 ERA.

I managed to see the debuts of the three biggest busts of the late 1990s.

Tomorrow I will be seeing the ML debuts of Elijah Dukes and Akinori Iwamura. Dukes was ranked #79 by Baseball America and Iwamura wasn't ranked. If I could demolish #2s, what chance do they have.

I'm just trying to figure out if I could be in Kansas City on Thursday.