Tampa Bay Devil Rays 2005 Season Preview

By Marshall Adesman

There are several ways to look at the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

Negatively: after seven years this team still has not approached the .500 mark, they play in one of the worst ballparks in the country where attendance is pitiful, and if the Players Association ever agrees to consider contraction, they are prime candidates to disappear from the baseball landscape.

Positively: they set a franchise record with 70 wins last year, they did not finish last for the first time in team history, and they field a lineup that contains some interesting and potentially exciting young talent.

So which road will they take in 2005? Well, the truth obviously lies somewhere in the middle, so just as we say when we teach our kids to cross the street, let's look both ways.

Sad to say, all the negative factors listed above are true. After drawing 2.5 million people in their inaugural year of 1998, the Rays have been one of the poorest draws in baseball, finishing last in the AL in attendance in each of the past four seasons. The only reason we aren't hearing the usual talk from ownership about how a new facility is needed to save this franchise is because Tropicana Field is -- sadly! -- relatively new. And it is, frankly, an abomination. There may only be one thing that can make major league baseball viable in Florida's Suncoast.

That would be winning. Winning with young and exciting players. It's an old axiom in baseball that winning is the best promotion, so if the Rays want to excite the people in the Tampa Bay area, they need to field a winner.

Now, one of the advantages to finishing last is that you get to choose early in the annual amateur draft, which usually means that a team can, potentially, pick up some of the best young players in the country. The Rays have already unveiled outfielders Rocco Baldelli and Carl Crawford, and possible stars like B.J. Upton, Delmon Young, Jorge Cantu, Joey Gathright and Jonny Gomes should be crashing the lineup within the next couple of seasons. These kids all have tremendous upside and could lead the franchise out of the wilderness.

But will they do it in 2005? Probably not. Why? Because not one of these young studs is a pitcher.

Ignoring the model set by the Braves, which preaches that pitching is king (not a new concept, of course -- the Dodgers and Orioles followed this pattern for years), the Rays do not have a single hurler who would be considered an ace with any other ballclub. Lefthander Mark Hendrickson, a former NBA player who is just an inch shorter than Randy Johnson, led the team last year with ten wins and 183 innings, but he also lost 15 games and gave up nearly five runs per nine innings. Fourteen different men started games last year for the Rays, with the best record belonging to Victor Zambrano, who was 9-7 with a 4.43 ERA - before he was peddled to the Mets midway through the summer! No, this rotation is hardly the second coming of Maddux/Glavine/Smoltz/Millwood.

What it has, in fact, are a lot of question marks. Twenty-eight-year-old Rob Bell won eight games last season, does that mean he is finally starting to harness the talent that once made him a top Braves draft pick? Dewon Brazelton, only 24, was the third pick in the nation in 2001 and has undoubtedly been rushed. He has the capability of developing into an All-Star, but he could also walk himself right out of the majors. Much was expected last year of Doug Waechter and Seth McClung, but both were injured - Waechter was out for two months with a strained tendon in his pitching hand, while McClung missed the entire season following Tommy John surgery. Scott Kazmir, the Mets' top pick in the 2002 draft, was acquired (some have said stolen) by Devil Rays General Manager Chuck LaMar last summer in the Zambrano deal and is considered by many to be an ace in waiting. Brought up at the end of last season, he won a pair of games, including six shutout innings against the Red Sox (and Pedro Martinez!). But he just turned 21 and has spent fewer than three full seasons in the minor leagues, is he really ready for prime time?

With all this uncertainty, LaMar made a couple of moves during the off-season. He dealt Jose Cruz, Jr. to Arizona for southpaw Casey Fossum, and signed veterans Hideo Nomo and Denny Neagle to minor league deals. Fossum, noted primarily for having been swapped to the Diamondbacks last year in the trade that sent Curt Schilling to Boston, had a terrible time in the desert, going 4-15 with a 6.65 ERA. He has only won 18 games so far in the majors, but is still just 27 years old and will undoubtedly be given a chance to prove he can make it in The Show. Nomo, the National League's Rookie of the Year in 1995, has bounced around a great deal, having worn five different uniforms in his ten-year career. Like Fossum he notched only four victories last season, but just two seasons ago he won 16 games for the Dodgers, and has 118 for his career. Neagle did not pitch last year due to shoulder problems and is probably a long shot to start the season with the Rays, or even to pitch with them at all. But both he and Nomo cost very little, and either could lend a veteran presence to a very young group of Devil Ray starters. Meanwhile, young but experienced veterans Danys Baez and Lance Carter lead a surprisingly good bullpen. Manager Lou Piniella and pitching coach Chuck Hernandez will be spending their spring attempting to solve the Mystery of the Mound.

This is not to say that the regular lineup reminds anyone of fellow AL East residents New York and Boston. Speedy center fielder Rocco Baldelli tore the anterior cruciate ligment in his left knee while playing with his younger brother in October, and will be out at least until July. The Rays have to wondering if this injury will have any long-term impact on his great speed; in the short term, they plan to move Carl Crawford over from left field and have signed veteran Danny Bautista. They also brought slick-fielding first baseman Travis Lee back into the fold. Lee played only seven games last year (with the Yankees) before tearing the labrum in his left shoulder. Tampa Bay is obviously banking on him being healthy, which would allow Aubrey Huff to move back to the outfield. Now, Huff is a solid hitter: more than 100 RBI in both 2003 and 2004 - with 30-homer power. But he has been tried at third base, first base and the outfield and has not looked good anywhere. Making Bautista and Huff the starters in the outfield, or turning one or both corner spots over to non-roster invitee Chris Singleton -- tells me that the Rays do not believe that prospects Joey Gathright or Jonny Gomes are ready for the majors.

In the infield, LaMar signed Roberto Alomar and Alex Gonzalez. Alomar is far removed from the All-Star second baseman who topped .300 nine times in ten years. He is 37 years old and has played for four teams in the last four years, but is hoping to collect the 276 hits he needs to reach 3,000, while the Rays are hoping he can help tutor prospects B.J. Upton or Jorge Cantu. Gonzalez, the former Cub, donned three different uniforms last year and will be asked to move from shortstop to third base. Again, these signings indicate to me that management is not sure whether Upton or Cantu are ready to handle life in the bigs. Frankly, having seen both play in Durham last year, I think the Rays might be wise to put Cantu at third and Upton at either second or the outfield. Both have the potential to be good hitters, especially Upton, and need to be given the opportunity. Upton played shortstop in the minors but doesn't have the arm for that position which will, in my opinion, necessitate a position change.

Hard-hitting Josh Phelps, who flopped in Cleveland last year, will be attempting to redeem himself as the DH, while shortstop Julio Lugo and catcher Toby Hall round out the everyday cast.

I'm sure I don't need to remind everyone that the Devil Rays reside in the American League East, a division that also includes the Yankees and Red Sox, plus the hard-hitting Orioles, as well as the Blue Jays. In 2004, the Rays managed to finish three games ahead of Toronto, but can they do it again? Could they even overtake Baltimore? My opinion is "yes" to the first and "no" to the second, but the final answers to those questions will be determined by the answers to all those questions posed earlier.