How good are The Rays?

[mmmmmbeeer]

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=AtOk...g=jp-rays052110

 

Pretty good Passan article putting the first quarter of the Rays' season in perspective. They're definitely for real and could actually get better as Davis matures and Zobrist starts getting his power stroke back.

[GoodAsGould]

They're not 30-11 good (which is absolutely insane in the AL East), but they're going to be in the playoffs barring a disaster, and they have the talent to win once they get there, so pretty darn good. I wish they had the money to keep some of these guys they are going to be unable to (and I also wish they supported that team down there), but we'll see if they can replace such free agent losses and be a good time for the long haul in due time. It seems like they have the talent in the minors to be able to do so.

 

Besides Crawford and Pena I think everyone on that team is tied up for the next few years, they already have a replacement for Crawford and despite giving them good power numbers they can probably find a better option than Pena.

[nitetrain8601]

I forgot they drafted Tim Beckham. Honestly though, it was easy for them to suck because their attendance wasn't really affected either way. Once they got a good GM and their scouting department improved, they were bound for destiny. I wish the Sox could do this. Get some real superstars in there.

[Balta1701]

I forgot they drafted Tim Beckham. Honestly though, it was easy for them to suck because their attendance wasn't really affected either way. Once they got a good GM and their scouting department improved, they were bound for destiny. I wish the Sox could do this. Get some real superstars in there.

Bah, the Rays are one of the few teams out there that you can genuinely say have had much better draft positioning than we could possibly have dreamed of getting. Guys like Upton, Longoria, Delmon Young (turned into Garza), David Price have been beyond what we could have gone for.

[Jordan4life_2007]

Bah, the Rays are one of the few teams out there that you can genuinely say have had much better draft positioning than we could possibly have dreamed of getting. Guys like Upton, Longoria, Delmon Young (turned into Garza), David Price have been beyond what we could have gone for.

 

Yet there has been plenty of premium talent available to us every year, but for a plethora of different reasons (Boras, cheapness, terrible, terrible scouting) we've come up well short in this department.

Edited May 22, 2010 by Jordan4life

[witesoxfan]

It's worth mentioning that their bullpen has been incredible and JP Howell has yet to throw a single pitch. And their pen has a ton of depth too. Soriano, Wheeler, Balfour, and Howell all have good stuff and have had great seasons previously, and then they have Benoit, Sonnanstine, Choate, and Cormier in there too as 6th or 7th guys in the pen. Benoit is a guy that could have a very good season for them under the radar.

 

It will be interesting to see how they shuffle their pen when Howell comes back...you have to imagine it'll be one of Cormier or Sonnanstine that will go, but both of them have been pretty damn good this year and Cormier was good for them last year too.

 

EDIT: Oops...just saw that Howell is done for the year. That's what 2 weeks in China will do to you.

Edited May 26, 2010 by witesoxfan