Still Doubting those Pesky Tampa Rays
Baseball May 27th. 2008, 5:50pm
Yup, we are. Best record in MLB through 51 games? Golf clap. Most games over .500 in franchise history? Well done. But … it’s May and they play in a division with free-spending Boston and New York, and we’ve deigned to pick up Edwin Jackson in fantasy, so you know his season might as well be over. Nevertheless, we put Intern Bill on the case to see how the heck those Devilish Rays are pulling this off. His words after the jump.
Micheal Rosenberg of the Detroit Free Press had a great line about this year’s Pittsburgh Penguins: “They got better the old fashioned way - by sucking.€
The same can basically be said about the 2008 Devil Rays. The team we all know is for real has probably the highest concentration of 1st round talent in Florida since the 2001 Miami Hurricanes, and they got that way by being very, very bad. Tampa’s 40-man roster is loaded with not only 1st rounders, but also players acquired by trading their stockpile of 1st round picks, and this isn’t even counting absent top picks like OF Josh Hamilton (drugs), OF Rocco Baldelli (everything), and OF Delmon Young (transformed into starting SS Jason Barlett and P Matt Garza).
1B Carlos Pena - 1st round (#10 overall, Texas)
3B Evan Longoira - 1st round (#2 overall, Tampa Bay)
OF Gabe Gross - 1st round (#13 overall, Toronto)
CF BJ Upton - 1st round (#2 overall, Tampa Bay)
DH Cliff Floyd - 1st round (#16 overall, Montréal)
SP Scott Kazmir - 1st round (#15 overall, New York(NL) )
SP David Price - 1st round (#1 overall, Tampa Bay)
SP Jeff Neimann - 1st round (#4 overall, Tampa Bay)
A couple high risk pick-ups (but only if you care about losing) like Pena, Aki Iwamura, and Edwin Jackson have rounded out the team to get them where they are today.
Basically it shouldn’t be a surprise that the Rays are this good. After all, a franchise can only have a high 1st round pick so many times before they become just loaded with ability. The lesson is pretty simple — if a team pretty much has the #1 pick for like 10 straight years, and is actually willing to pay the big signing bonus the amateur players demand, then a club can’t help but stop sucking. Eventually.
Unless of course, you’re the Pittsburgh Pirates. Then we don’t know what to tell you.
19 Responses to “Still Doubting those Pesky Tampa Rays”
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May 27th, 2008 at 5:57 pm
I’d love for someone not as lazy as me to look up what the Rays gave up for Jackson and Pena, and how much Iwamura cost them, cause I can imagine none of them were very high risk.
And the fact that Tampa hit on all those first rounders is more remarkable than anything. You can point to a lot of guys who simply don’t make it. A la the Pirates.
May 27th, 2008 at 6:08 pm
Pena signed a minor league contract with TB. He was as low-risk as you can get.
May 27th, 2008 at 6:14 pm
Pena came up the same time as Pronk. I remember this because I chose Pena over Pronk at the time in my Strat league. Now look who’s kickin ass and takin names?
/doesn’t relate to this post.
May 27th, 2008 at 6:21 pm
Pena was signed before last season, and wasn’t going to make the roster after spring training, but an injury (I think the great Greg Norton) helped him stay on the roster and then 46 HRs later….
May 27th, 2008 at 6:24 pm
They got a lot of the draft picks right. Remember, Townsend and others are still out there.
May 27th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
they (the fans) gave former #1 pick Josh Hamilton a standing ovation in first game back in TB, that’s just good karma, Earl Hickey would be proud
May 27th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
Maybe the Rays should draft posey to just add to their collection of 1st round talent in the Bigs?
The more I think about the more I want them to pay the $10M price tag for Alvarez. Just stick it to Boston and New York.
May 27th, 2008 at 6:27 pm
the rays, yanks and sox are all playing around their Pythagorean win totals, so theres no reason to think any of them are a ‘fluke’. i dont see the point in looking at the players salaries tho. the rays are younger so their slaries screw cheaper because of the way contracts are set up in accordance to the CBA.
May 27th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
The Pirates have sent more 1st Round pickss to Dr. James Andrews than any other team.
May 27th, 2008 at 6:33 pm
If you take a look at a lot of the draft histories, the Rays basically dodged mine fields in all of the rounds.
May 27th, 2008 at 6:37 pm
this is why interns should stick to fetching coffee and hookers
you list 8 first rounders as evidence of how “They got better the old fashioned way - by sucking.€
1B Carlos Pena - signed minor league deal. had nothing to do with team’s record. anybody could have had him
OF Gabe Gross - traded a minor leaguer (former 2nd rd pick) for him. nothing to do with team’s record
DH Cliff Floyd - signed as a free agent. had nothing to do with team’s record
SP Scott Kazmir - robbed the Mets with forged scouting reports on Victor Zambrano. nothing to do with team’s record
so half of your list has absolutely nothing to do with how poorly the team has performed on the field.
May 27th, 2008 at 6:55 pm
ditto Professor
May 27th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
OOOHHH BABY! THAT’S MY GOD SON, THE PROFESSOR!!!!
I know it would have probably been easier to just type “I agree with The Professor”, but not nearly as much fun.
May 27th, 2008 at 7:37 pm
[...] I’m curious if the Rays can keep it up tonight. So are other people with a lot riding on [...]
May 27th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
Edwin Jackson was traded by the Dodgers with Chuck Tiffany (then a promising flame-throwing lefty who has since had injury issues) for Danys Baez and Lance Carter. I think that was viewed at the time as a fair deal as Jackson couldn’t find the strike zone but showed promise. Baez and Carter with the Dodgers? Ugh.
Good points by kendynamo.
May 27th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
Is there any reason to doubt the Rays based on something other than their terrible history as a franchise or their low spending ways? As other posters have said, their low team salary is due to many young players under team friendly contracts….not a lack of talent.
Is there a baseball reason to doubt them? This post says there is doubt about the legitimacy of the Rays and gives no reason why we should doubt them.
May 28th, 2008 at 8:07 am
What is it going to take? Why can’t you just accept that they are playing well and stop being ESPN and thinking the universe is in chaos? I bet you’re head exploded when the Lightning won the Stanley Cup..
May 28th, 2008 at 8:41 am
@Professor: I’m not familiar with the incident you referred to in relation to Kazmir and I even tried to Google it. “Wha happen?”
May 28th, 2008 at 10:34 am
i didn’t see a standing ovation and i was at the game, i just heard a chorus of boos every time he got to the plate. go rays