Location: St. Petersburg, Fla. | Ballpark: Tropicana Field (36,048) | Spring Training: Port Charlotte, Fla. (inaugural season)
Owner: Stuart Sternberg | GM: Andrew Friedman | Manager: Joe Maddon | World Championships: 0
Season in seven words: "I still can't accept that they tanked." ... Hero: Heading into 2009, Ben Zobrist's career OPS in 530 plate appearances was .650. In 2009, his OPS was .948. There is nothing suspicious about this ... Loserhead: B.J. Upton wasn't the team's worst offender by a longshot, but his combination of low effort and high self-regard rendered him one of the game's most annoying guys to watch ... Key need: Money to get Carl Crawford's name on a long-term contract ... Prognosis: Windows to win slam shut awful fast nowadays.
09/29/2009
13
13
I don't know if anybody keeps track of stuff like this, but it sure seems to me that the Rays lead the league in surrendering late-game homers that extinguish the lead and crush the spirit ... Only 12,154 fans showed up for the game in which the Rays were formally eliminated from playoff contention. I realize that sports honeymoons don't last as long as they once did, but I still can't believe last year's turnaround didn't generate more in the way of lasting goodwill and support. You watch, we'll blame this on the economy and not the bandwagoneering fans.
09/22/2009
13
15
Things that I refuse to believe: that fried taters aren't nutritious, that torn jeans are a sign of poor breeding, and that the Rays aren't one of the game's top 10 teams. ... I thought the Scott Kazmir deal made a whole lot of sense for the Rays, and that was before I watched Wade Davis reduce the Orioles to a pile of weeds in his most recent outing. The only question now is whether I'm going to draft him in three roto leagues next year or four.
09/15/2009
15
11
Let's think positive for a minute here. It's not like the notion of "playing out the string" is a foreign one to this franchise. ... The Rays could lose 35 straight and I'd still delude myself into believing that they're a talented bunch about to hit their stride "any day now." What can I say? I'm a prospect fetishist and the Rays still have gallons of 'em. ... Time to play the blame game. On one hand, they've had some injuries and the great luck they enjoyed last season (especially in close games) inevitably reversed itself. On the other, the next time B.J. Upton runs hard in 2009 will be the first. Call it 25 percent injuries, 35 percent 2008 hangover and 40 percent non-performance (Upton, Navarro, Burrell, the overworked/overleveraged bullpen). They'll be back.
09/08/2009
11
7
If the relief follies against the Tigers didn't cook them but good, Carlos Pena's broken fingers sure did. ... In one sense, they've managed to author quite the depressing sequel to last season's Cinderella story –- something like Cinderella II: Cindi Goes Stag to the Prom and Spills Champale on Her Frock. On the other, for all the talk about hustle and chemistry and the leadership provided by marginally-quite-useful-on-the-field clubhouse marshals like Cliff Floyd and Trever Miller, it boils down to this: The 2009 Rays just had worse luck in close games than the 2008 version did. Thanks for coming, fellas.
09/01/2009
7
8
I don't see the trade of Scott Kazmir as a surrender of any kind. It's not like the Rays don't have a glut of young arms in the high levels of their farm system, waiting to be harvested for their slingy nectar. In the short term though, that fifth-starter slot will remain a bridge to nowhere, plus it shouldn't be lost on anybody that the Rays are doing a fine job of stocking other teams' rotations nowadays (Edwin Jackson, Jason Hammel, etc.). ... In any event, the Rays' season comes down to the next nine days, during which they'll play 10 games against the Red Sox, Tigers and Yankees (then, following a one-day break, three more against the Red Sox). If they're planning to make a final impassioned defense of the "AL Champs 2008" banner that hangs high in the home dome, this might not be a bad time to do it.
08/25/2009
8
9
Joe Maddon, who we all love because he wears Elvis Costello glasses and uses words like "exacting" and "irascible" in his postgame news conferences, has tried to recapture the spirit of last year's Rays by ... making batting practice optional on the day after a late night game? Easing curfew restrictions on the road? No, Maddon has dyed his hair black, as part of the team's "Ring of Fire" trip through Toronto and Detroit. Man in black, Johnny Cash, Ring of Fire –- get it? Neither did his players. But hey, they're winning again, so it's all good.
08/18/2009
9
5
They're back in self-sabotaging mode, holding a team meeting on the day they faced Roy Halladay -– you're supposed to do this before you face Russ Ortiz, dumbasses –- and failing to get their top draft pick signed. On the field, they play indifferently two out of every five games and seem baffled whenever they can't get by on athleticism alone. I know -– these are all generalities, but the Rays are nonetheless starting to make me look silly for backing them all season. ... Troy Percival, a stand-up guy and a shut-down reliever for a long, long time, said he won't pitch again "unless something miraculous happens." I get the impression that his definition of "miraculous" in that context (elbow stops throbbing, back stops spasming, etc.) might differ somewhat from, say, Brett Favre's (misses Peter King, already finished mowing lawn and it's only 9:20 a.m., etc.).
08/11/2009
5
6
I don't get this team. They turn on the jets for two must-win games against the Red Sox, then proceed to blow a late four-run lead on Friday. They illuminate the "maul" light in the cabin on Saturday night, then take a nap Sunday afternoon. Seriously, they've got the competitive attention span of a 7-year-old ... I still think the Rays are one of the league's three most talented teams, but we're getting into now-or-never territory here. Yes, I realize I've written the same thing for about seven straight weeks. This frustrates the hell out of me and I'm an avowed fan of one of their divisional blood rivals; I can only imagine how Tampa boosters feel about the consistent inconsistency.
08/04/2009
6
8
Nothing? No deal? Nada? The Rays haven't enjoyed much of an attendance spike in the wake of last year's happy starshine dream season (hate the stadium, not the players), so I figured they'd make a splashy trade before their small window starts to close (see under: Crawford, Carl, multimillion-dollar raise in the offing). The Red Sox are a player-development factory, the Yankees mix half-assed development with enthusiastic spending, and the Orioles have a street gang of talented young turks on the way. The time for the Rays to get their act together is nigh.
Preseason Power Rankings
Date
Ranking
Previous
02/16/2009
3
-
Kids -- they grow up so fast... Some might wonder how the Rays will handle the expectations that have surged in the wake of the franchise's first non-miserable season, but come on: They're a bunch of dudes playing baseball. Let's not complicate things any more than that. ... Gotta love their bench, which is filled with useful parts like Gabe Gross, Gabe Kapler and Willy Aybar. ... I don't know nuthin' 'bout biomechanics, exercise physiology or anything that involves sustained motion outside the confines of an armchair. That said, teams with young staffs that go deep into the playoffs tend to suffer a rash of arm injuries the next season.
