Major League Baseball

Rays suspend Sale for Facebook post

Published May. 29, 2013 1:00 a.m. ET

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A former Tampa Bay Rays first-round pick is in trouble. Wait, haven’t we heard that before?

Well, the latest incident involves Josh Sale, the 17th overall pick in the 2010 MLB Draft who has already served a 50-game drug ban for testing positive for methamphetamine and an amphetamine. But Sale outdid himself with his latest transgression.

The 21-year-old from Seattle was thrown out of a strip club for throwing change at one of the women working that night. Bad enough, right? Well, Sale, in his infinite wisdom, apparently wrote about the incident on Facebook. He soon deleted it, but not before Deadspin got a screen grab of it .

As you can see, he was hardly apologetic. But maybe not all the surprising from someone who dresses like this:

The Rays suspended him indefinitely for this latest episode.

But one look at this guy’s Twitter page shows he seems to have an affinity for spending time with the ladies.

But could he also be heading down the same path as Josh Hamilton when he was a prospect? Hamilton was the team’s No. 1 pick in 1999, back when the Rays were known as the Devil Rays, and was considered a can’t-miss talent.

Problem was all Hamilton couldn’t say no to all the temptations — including drugs. We all know how the story has turned out since then:

It hasn't turned out as well for the Rays' 2008 No. 1 overall pick Tim Beckham. The shortstop was suspended last year for a second violation of baseball's drug policy. He's in his fifth season in the minors — Triple-A Durham (N.C.) — and has yet to crack the Rays' roster.

But at least Beckham is still in baseball. We can't say the same for Matt Bush, who wasn't drafted by the Rays (San Diego Padres made him the top overall pick in 2004) but his career ended with them. Bush was arrested numerous times during his minor league career, many of the incidents involved alcohol. Bush was released by the Rays in October. He was sentenced to four years and three months in prison for a drunken driving hit-and-run crash in Florida late last year.

Will Sale learn from this latest situation and change his ways? He and the Rays better hope so.

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