As Yankee fans who have watched them whack their team around know, the Devil Rays are pretty good for a team that will be going for its ninth consecutive season with more than 90 losses next year. With players like Carl Crawford, Scott Kazmir, Rocco Baldelli, and Jonny Gomes, Tampa has the most impressive collection of young talent in the majors. They have so much young talent, in fact, that it’s easy to overlook it – one suspects, for instance, that Jorge Cantu, a 23-year-old second baseman who’s hitting .290 with 27 home runs and 109 RBI, would be getting a bit more hype if he were playing anywhere else.

This young talent is finally starting to make the team semi-respectable. Despite not having any decent starting pitchers aside from Kazmir, the Devil Rays are 36-28 since the All-Star break, and 10-11 in September despite a rough schedule that’s seen them play four against Boston and six against the Yankees. With their next six games against the Angels and Indians, both of whom are locked in tight pennant races, the Devil Rays’ play could potentially end up determining who wins every division and the wild card.

All of which makes the team’s continued refusal to put its best team on the field more than simply inexplicable – at this point, it’s irresponsible and damaging to the integrity of the pennant race.

By way of explanation, it should be pointed out that Tampa Bay’s young talent doesn’t end with what they have on the major league roster – the two players in the organization with the most potential to win multiple MVP awards are 19-year-old outfielder Delmon Young and 21-year-old shortstop B.J. Upton, both of whom finished out this year in Triple-A.

Young was named this week as Baseball America’s Minor League Player of the Year, a richly deserved honor given the way he smoked Double-A pitching for a .336 BA/.386 OBA/.582 SLG batting line before moving on up to Triple-A for two months, where he hit .285/.303/.447, a more than respectable line given his age. A genuine five-tool talent who’s compared most often to Albert Belle with more speed and less attitude, Young is a major league hitter right now.

Upton isn’t quite such a great prospect, mainly because he’s made 153 errors at shortstop over his three-year minor league career. (This reflects more on the team than on him – he obviously can’t play short, and should simply be moved.) Nonetheless, he too is a major league hitter right now – last summer, at 19, he held his own in 45 games in the majors, and this year he hit .303/.392/.290 in Triple-A, a line that would make him a top prospect even as a left fielder or first baseman given his age and physical skills.

Neither is on Tampa Bay’s major league roster, which has led to Young calling the organization “cheap” and Upton requesting a trade.

The refusal to call these two up makes no sense on any level.As long as the Devil Rays intelligently manage their service time next year, a call-up this year won’t make them eligible for free agency any sooner, meaning the team is needlessly alien 1115 1606 1246 1618ating two players with enormous potential.

More important, though, the Devil Rays aren’t putting their best team on the field. That teams do this all the time when they’re out of the race doesn’t make it any less inexcusable. The Rays have all sorts of crummy hitters – Travis Lee (.272/.333/.427), Damon Hollins (.252/.300/.422), and Joey Gathright (.282/.323/.348) come to mind immediately – whose at-bats could be taken by Upton and Young.

If this doesn’t bother people, it should. Like all other teams, the Rays have an obligation to do their best to win, and that’s doubly true when they have six games upcoming against teams in pennant races that could well be decided by a single win. If Tampa isn’t going to take at-bats away from Gathright to give Young his cup of coffee, why did they bother starting Kazmir against Boston last night when they could have let a position player pitch the game? Kazmir, after all, is a young starter, and with his team out of the race could probably benefit from some rest after a long season.

The absurdity of the question exposes the absurdity of the Devil Rays’ stance. It’s not in the official powers of the commissioner to dictate individual roster moves, but this is a case where a well-timed phone call could do some good for the game. That’s more than anyone will ever expect out of Bud Selig, but if the Devil Rays persist in making their team a farce, they should still be expected to try to win.

tmarchman@nysun.com