For the first ten years of their existence, The Tampa Bay Rays were cellar dwellers in The American League East. Whenever opposing teams traveled to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg they knew it was an easy win versus the lowly Devil Rays as the were once referred to. In 2007 team owner Stuart Sternberg dropped Devil from the team name and it was simply Rays. In the three full seasons since, The Rays have never had a losing record which includes two AL East Division Titles and one American League Pennant in 2008. Believe me it’s more that just a name change that made The Rays become relevant, it was a change in the team’s philosophy.
When The Rays first came into existence they brought in players that were well past their primes but were still a draw at the ticket booth. Hall of Famer Wade Boggs finished out his career in Tampa and aside from getting his 3,000th in The Sunshine State his career was done. Fred McGriff was another big name that was brought in and “The Crime Dog” had lost his bite.
General manager Andrew Friedman has really concentrated on developing the talent in the minor leagues since coming aboard in 2005. Manager Joe Maddon joined the club prior to the 2006 season and these two are like bread and butter. The Rays are a small market team and it is not the team’s philosophy to lure free agents with lofty price tags to Tampa. This philosophy works for divisional foes The New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox, but Tampa cannot eat big contracts. The Rays try to lock up their young players early and try to get as much out of them as possible.
Left-fielder Carl Crawford was a star in Tampa until his pending free agency following the 2010 season. The Rays knew they would not be able to meet his price on the free agent market and Crawford ended up in Boston signing a seven-year 142 million dollar contract. Tampa will get two compensatory picks for Crawford in this year’s MLB Draft, and the process of developing talent will begin again. The Rays like many other small-market teams know this is how they compete. All-Star third baseman Evan Longoria signed an extension in 2008 and will be in a Tampa uniform until 2016. Who knows if the same situation with Crawford repeats itself, but if it does The Rays will be prepared with picks and they will continue to look for production out of Longoria until then.
Last season The Rays won 96 games en route to a division title. From that squad The Rays lost Crawford, closer Rafael Soriano, and first baseman Carlos Pena to free agency. Starting pitcher Matt Garza was traded to The Chicago Cubs in what was deemed a cost cutting move. Last season Garza won 15 games , Soriano saved 45 games, Pena hit 28 home runs while Crawford was all-purpose as he tore up every offensive category. It appeared that The Rays were returning to dormancy as they lost so much production.
Someone forgot to tell The Rays that they were not supposed to be this good this season. Entering June The Rays are in the thick of the division race. Longoria suffered an oblique injury at the beginning of the season and it as hampered his play as his batting average is hovering around .200 and that makes its more surprising to the team’s success. The Rays also thought they were going to have the services of Manny Ramirez this season until “juice boy” failed another drug test and thus Ramirez decided to retire. With all of that day in and day out Tampa proves that it takes a 25-man roster to get the job done.
Outfielder Matt Joyce is leading all of baseball with a .377 batting average entering Saturday. At age 37 designated hitter Johnny Damon is still getting the job done. There are those that feel the game has passed Damon by and every day he proves them wrong. Damon has 50 hits so far this season and is second on the club with seven home runs.
Pitcher David Price struck out 12 batters in his last appearance versus The Cleveland Indians and he is propelling himself to be the ace of this staff. Price was the first overall pick in 2007 and he is paying dividends. Price won 19 games last season and finished second in balloting for The Cy Young Award. This season Price has already struck out 68 batters as the lengthy lefty is giving opponents nightmares. Overall Rays pitchers are allowing opponents a .235 batting average which leads The American League.
The Rays resemble my Aunt Alicia’s meatloaf. It was so good and it appeared that all of it was gone until she went into the kitchen and made some more. The second tray was even better than the first one as her recipe on the second meatloaf was better than the first. The Rays previous recipe used by Maddon and Friedman led to a World Series appearance and this second batch is cooking quicker than expected. As for feasting, that is what The Rays are doing to the rest of The American League.
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