At 66-96, they're bad, real bad. Like a bad case of swamp ass bad! Speaking of swamp, you'd think there were gators in the stands, because they were empty; 1.3 million seats sold (I wonder how many actually showed up) was good for dead last in the AL in attendance.
There was something there however in these kids, as many of
them were just that, kids. The starting rotation two 23 year olds, two 24 year olds and a de facto ace 25 year old James Shields. Shields and Scott Kazmir will provide a formidable one-two punch, then its bandaids, bubblegum, paper clips and watching an episode of Mac Gyver to figure out how to assemble a starting "rotation". Shields (12-8, 3.65) and Kazmir (13-9, 3.48) each logged over 200 innings, and will be asked to probably go the distance in each and every start, as the bullpen was just as, if not scarier than the middle/end of the rotation.
Oil can 9th inning designated pitcher Al Reyes (his line is so bad, he is not worthy of the title closer) will protect the few if any leads this team can muster. "Maybe I'll pick a name out of a hat for the 7th, 8th and 9th innings", manager Justin Ryan said. Brian Stokes (2-7, 7.07) has heat, but his ball is as straight as an arrow. "Off....speed?!?", Stokes asked when Ryan asked him to develop a changeup or curveball. Shawn Camp and Casey Fossum also sport ERAs over 7 in the Tampa Bay pen.
On the offensive side of things, they can hit, and they can run,
boy can they run. Five Devil Rays had double digit steals, lead by Carl Crawford's 50 nabs. 1B Carlos Pena muscled out 46 dingers with 120+ rib eye steaks. Despite an alarming number of strikeouts (1324, tops in the AL) [when] they make contact, balls drop in, sporting 7/9 regulars with a BA greater than .275
This is going to be a LONG season for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. They'll have to make up some promotions to lure people away from the nearby minor league parks. Old people usually head to Florida to die, well, baseball is a heartbeat away from death here...who knows, maybe they need to do something radical to fix this franchise. No, I'm not talking about trading Victor Zambrano to the Mets or bringing back Tampa Bay greats Chad Ogea, Dave Eiland Ben Grieve and Bobby Witt, no that's not it. I don't know maybe it could be as simple as changing the uniform and dropping the devil in rays. Eh, the team will address that in 2008.
--submitted by Justin Ryan--
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