TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

No Laughing Matter

ADVERTISEMENT

By JOE HENDERSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 13, 2008

ST. PETERSBURG - This column should come with a warning. It is about Rays baseball and it does not focus on how good things are going to be three or four years from now. We won't speculate about how bad things are going to be this season, which has been an annual rite of spring for more than a decade.

That's because - inhale, exhale - these guys are dangerously close to being competitive right now.

It's understandable if you need to take a moment.

But, honestly, as spring training approaches, the catwalk commandoes are generating a little buzz. They have more than just a new name (they dropped the Devil), new uniforms (they dropped the green), and plans for a new stadium (as long as we don't have to pay for it, take your best shot).

They have a new outlook. They're talking about winning games NOW. It has always been about the future with this organization. We're not saying the future has arrived, but things are finally looking up.

We grab on to what we can around here.

"I won't put a number out there on how many games we might win, because there are so many variables - injuries, things like that," Rays vice president Andrew Friedman said. "But we feel very good where we are, both now and for seasons to come."

Normally, we'd insert the laugh track here, because it's reasonable to ask what would constitute "very good." When you've never won more than 70 times in one season, the bar is low enough to trip over.

Would 71 wins be a success? Would it take 75?

Could we stand the rush of 80 wins?

Could it be that, finally, Major League Baseball has actually come here?

Plugged Some Holes

Best-case scenario: If things break right, the Rays could challenge Toronto for third place in the American League East. That won't trigger many champagne showers, but after what we've seen here for years, it'll do for now.

The defense up the middle should be vastly improved. Moving Akinori Iwamura to second base fills one of those spots with a potential gold glove. Shortstop Jason Bartlett, acquired in the Delmon Young trade, will get to balls that would have scooted well past Brendan Harris last season.

Reality check: There is no replacing Young's arm in right field, and Bartlett, it's only fair to point out, did make 26 errors last year for the Twins - mostly on errant throws. And if rookie third baseman Evan Longoria starts the season in the minors (which, by pure coincidence we're sure, would keep his free-agent clock from starting), that will be a bad thing.

A very bad thing.

Matt Garza, the other key piece of the Delmon swap, will go right into the starting rotation at No. 3. That means someone in the Edwin Jackson, Andy Sonnanstine, Jason Hammel triumvirate will be out of a starting gig.

That is a good thing, and more young talent is close.

"The guys who do make it are going to look over their shoulders," Friedman said.

Maybe the biggest improvement will be the bullpen.

Last year, a call to the pen meant likely disaster. Brian Stokes started the year as the eighth-inning man. We saw way too much of Shawn Camp. This bullpen will be much better, if only because the back-end guys are veterans with a track record.

It does come with an asterisk. Troy Percival, the new closer, comes with no guarantees that his right arm will hold up - but it's a risk worth taking. Al Reyes drops to the eighth inning, where his impact could be profound if he is close to as effective as he was last year as the closer.

Dan Wheeler in the seventh inning? Sounds better than Chad Orvella.

Plan Is Looking Good

We've all been around. We know this could go south in a hurry. Let us count the ways it could, starting with the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees. And like we said, "improvement" is a relative term.

"We've made significant headway, but we've got a lot of work to do. Our biggest challenge here was changing the mind-set of the organization, and specifically the players," Friedman said.

We all pressured owner Stu Sternberg to sign a bunch of free agents when he took over the team more than two years ago. He wouldn't do it because he put his money into scouting and player development. The Rays lost more than 100 games his first season, lost 96 last year. There was a plan, though.

It now looks like the right one.

The Rays have focused on the things that should have been part of the original blueprint more than a decade ago. They're doing things now, like their Venezuelan academy, an expansion team would do. It's starting to pay off.

But that's in the future and we're not going there, not just yet.

For a change, the present doesn't look so bad. The Rays, dare we say it, could be an interesting and intriguing team. That may take some getting used to, but it's worth a shot.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT