Don’t look now sports fans, but those scrappy Tampa Bay Rays are once again in the thick of the playoff race in The American League East. Entering play today, The Rays have the number one slot in The AL Wild Card race while they have closed to within four games of The New York Yankees for first place in The AL East. At $64 million, The Rays have sixth lowest payroll In Major League Baseball as they have a team consisting of young prospects and veterans who might be staring at their last chance to play in The Majors.
The Rays were the talk of baseball last season as they caught The Boston Red Sox on the final day of the season to win The American League Wild Card. The Rays did it with a payroll of $41 million compared to The Red Sox payroll of $161 million in 2011. Just like 2011, The Rays are once again playing with house money.
So far in the month of August, Tampa Bay has gone 14-5 which included them going 8-2 recently on a 10-game road trip. The Rays proceeded to put everyone on notice when they went to Southern California and swept a four-game series against The Los Angeles Angels. The series saw Tampa Bay score nine runs in three innings off of Angels starting pitcher Jered Weaver who is in the mix to win The AL Cy Young Award. Another game saw The Rays fall behind 8-0 after three innings only to come back and win the ballgame 10-8.
The Rays are enjoying a career season from relief pitcher Fernando Rodney. The Rays signed Rodney in the offseason to a one-year deal, for $1.75 million and he is currently leading all of baseball with 38 saves. Starting pitcher David Price was the first overall selection of The 2007 MLB Draft and he has quickly turned into a bona fide ace of the staff. Price is a three-time All-Star who has visions of baseball’s Triple Crown of pitching as he currently leads The American League in wins (16), earned run average (2.28), and he is fifth in strikeouts with 167. As a staff, The Rays 3.27 earned run average is best in The AL as is their opponents .233 batting average.
The Rays lineup recently got a boost when three-time All-Star third baseman Evan Longaria returned after he suffered a torn hamstring in April. Longoria has the potential to put this team on his back for a long stretch, but he won’t have to worry about it this season. A resurgent B.J. Upton has hit five home runs since August 11. Upton has 23 stolen bases on the season as well which can allow Longoria and designated hitter Carlos Pena to see more fastballs if they are hitting with Upton on base.
Since 2008, The Rays have made three playoff appearances. In the time, Tampa has won two AL Titles and they went to The World Series in 2008 which is a credit to manager Joe Maddon. Maddon is a two-time American League Manager of The Year and his never give up attitude has rubbed off on his team. The Rays turnaround started in 2008 with a spring training brawl with The Yankees and a regular season rumble with The Red Sox as The Rays showed both AL East super powers that there was a new kid on the block. Maddon and Rays general manager Andrew Friedman have seen the departure of key players such as outfielder Carl Crawford and starting pitcher Matt Garza, but they haven’t skipped a beat.
The union of Maddon and Freidman was born in 2006 when Freidman was promoted to his post and he hired Maddon who was a longtime assistant with The Angels. The Rays have produced one of the best minor-league systems in baseball which has produced the likes of Upton, Price, and Longoria. The Rays are currently last in MLB home attendance as they are averaging just over 20,000 fans for each home game which makes it important for Freidman to be on his game when it comes to drafting and developing talent as he has developed arthritis in his writing hand when it comes to signing high priced free-agents.
The Rays were in the midst of one of the best runs to the postseason last year and they still were unable to sell out Tropicana Field consistently. The Rays hosted two playoff games in The American League Divisional Series last year. Game three of The ALDS drew 32,828 while game four saw 28,299 fans in attendance. The Rays know that they play in front of sparse crowds as tumbleweeds have blown across the field from time to time, but that hasn’t dampened their enthusiasm.
After the 2010 season, Crawford left as a free-agent to join The Red Sox while Garza was traded to The Chicago Cubs. Many experts left The Rays for dead and they had the last laugh on their road to October. Tampa Bay wasn’t given that much of a chance coming into this season either, but when you get into the ring anything is possible. The Rays have taken the best punches that The American League has, but now it is their time as they are unloading with a fury of haymakers.
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