Tampa Bay Devil RaysBack in the early 90's, Devil Rays owner Vince Naimoli was almost successful in buying the San Francisco Giants and moving them to Tampa. Major League Baseball blocked his bid, he sued, and now there's an expansion team in Tampa. I wonder if the ownership groups in Washington DC have considered this tactic? Anyway, the Devil Rays have a tall order ahead of them. Naimoli is a very competitive man and his expansion counterpart, Jerry Colangelo, has already experienced the playoffs with the D-backs. Naimoli wants the playoffs and wants them now. All he needs is a good team.
GM Chuck Lamar stated from the beginning that he wanted to build the Devil Rays on pitching and defense. So for their first year, they had the 4th best ERA in the AL and the worst offense in the majors. The strategy was also shortsighted in that the Devil Rays play in one of the better hitter's parks in the majors. Last year, they added Jose Canseco and the offense improved to 4th worst in the AL. So this year, he decided he wanted to continue his pilgrimage toward slugging and brought in Vinny Castilla and Greg Vaughn to go along with Fred McGriff and Canseco. Unfortunately for these big boppers, there isn't anyone to get on base ahead of them. Second baseman Miguel Cairo has some speed, but as the old adage goes, "you can't steal first base". Shortstop Kevin Stocker is a non-factor on offense. Speaking of Stocker, what is it about expansion GMs and terrible trades? The Jays getting Tony Batista for Dan Plesac was bad enough, but how about the expansion draft deal that got Stocker from the Phillies? The Devil Rays traded Bobby Abreu for Stocker after picking him up from the Astros. Two questions: 1) who did the Astros protect instead of Abreu and 2) what was Lamar thinking? Geez! Greg Vaughn will occupy left field. The D-Rays will have some combination of Quinton McCracken, Dave Martinez, Gerald Williams and Jose Guillen in the other two outfield spots. If it weren't for expansion, none of these four would be starting in the majors. John Flaherty is about as average as they come at the catching spot, and Mike DeFelice is a pretty typical backup. The guy to keep an eye on is Jose Canseco. If he can stay healthy and get 550+ ABs, something he's done only 5 times in his 15 year career, he could make a run at McGwire's home run record. Other than that and maybe batting practice, there's not much to be excited about here. GRADE: 45
What's worse than the fact that the D-Rays won't score a whole lot of runs? They won't prevent the opposition from doing it. Stocker and Cairo have good range and Stocker has excellent instincts for the ball. But neither possess strong arms and Cairo does not always field the ball cleanly. Castilla had an off year last year but he still doesn't possess very good range. He does have a good and accurate arm. Vaughn and McCracken have average range but very below average arms. Williams, Guillen and Martinez have good arms but below average range. If there was only a way they could play with softball rules and 4 outfielders... McGriff is below average at first. Flaherty is a good defensive backstop. GRADE: 45
The starting pitching is headed up by Juan Guzman and Wilson Alvarez. Both are fine middle of the order pitchers, but neither can really be considered top starters. Doc Gooden has been brought on to help the situation but his days as an ace have long since past. The rest of the rotation is comprised of youngsters with some upside. Esteban Yan and Ryan Rupe are the best of the lot and given some time to mature, they might become good. However, they won't have very good examples to watch as far as learning how to win. Dan Wheeler, bonus baby Matt White and Bobby Seay are on the way, but probably won't be in the majors until next year at the earliest. Dave Eiland and Steve Trachsel will fill out the rest of the rotation. Trachsel isn't as bad as he looked last year. He was the victim of some bad luck and some bad managing. He could win 13-15 games this year with average run support. But he's not enough to turn this staff around. GRADE: 40
The Tampa bullpen is one up on the O's in one category: they have a good closer. Although Roberto Hernandez has lost some off his fastball in the past couple of years, he can still get it up to 97 on rare occasions. Last year he saved 43 games (out of 47 opportunities) for a team that won 69 games. That's a closer! The rest of the bullpen is comprised of journeymen like Albie Lopez, Jim Mecir, Brian Rekar and Rick White. They are a decent if unspectacular crew. One of the best stories in baseball last year was 36-year old lefty Jim Morris. He was a high school teacher and baseball coach at Reagan County High School in Big Lake, Texas before last year. His players always complained that he threw too hard in batting practice. So they made a bet with him that if they won the district title, that he'd try out for a major league team. They won and Morris showed up at a Devil Rays tryout in Brownswood, Texas with his glove, cleats and baby stroller with his 2 daughters (ages 1 and 4) and son (8). Morris' first pitch hit the catcher's mitt at 94 mph. The scout didn't believe the radar gun, so another coach used a gun for the second pitch, which came in at 96 mph. The next pitch registered 95 mph. Then he reeled off 12 in a row at 98 mph. They asked him to come back two days later, where he again lit up the guns. The D-Rays signed him on the spot. He didn't actually come out of nowhere, though. In 1983, he was the Brewers first round draft choice out of junior college, but he blew out his elbow and shoulder in the span of two years and after surgery, hung up his spikes for coaching. Last year, he became the oldest major league rookie since 1970. But as good as Morris' story is, this bullpen is not much better than average. GRADE: 55
The braintrust for the Devil Rays is still working out the kinks of how to build a major league baseball team. They've done a respectable job of drafting high ceiling players in the amateur draft so the might be competitive in a couple of years. I'll give Lamar this much, other than the Abreu debacle, he hasn't traded any of his top flight prospects. Manager Larry Rothchild is a good handler of the pitching staff, having been the pitching coach for the Marlins in 1997. He's puts his baserunners in motion more than most, and especially favors the hit and run. That strategy would be more useful on a team that makes more contact. GRADE: 45