This season sucks.
Yes, Major League Baseball’s 2014 season has been interesting to say the least, with surprise contenders like the Colorado Rockies, Milwaukee Brewers and Miami Marlins (yes, I know) competing in tough divisions like the NL East, NL West, AL West, and even the AL Central. We have had some exciting rookies like Jose Abreu as well as phenomenal pitching from Caribbean gems Johnny Cueto and Jose Fernandez. We have seen intriguing storylines left and right, just like every baseball season. Best of all, the playing field remains pretty even as we inch closer towards June, which gives everyone hope….unless you are a Cubs fan.
However being a Tampa Bay Rays fan has been frustrating to say the least. Very, very frustrating. We are currently dead last in the surprisingly-weak AL East, we have injuries left and right, David Price and the pitching staff has not been to their usual standards, and Joe Maddon has been spending the past month having to do damage control. After signing practically the entire infield for the next several seasons, they have failed to deliver on the promise of a good consistency. And don’t get me started on Jose Molina’s offensive numbers.
What stings a bit more was that the expectations had been raised to a level the franchise had never before witnessed. And yes, I had written about the “It Was Supposed to Be Our Year” syndrome that surrounded the 2012 Rays, but this time we had all the analysts saying that the window of opportunity was there. The Rays increased their payroll to the highest the franchise has ever seen, the stadium received renovations, and surely enough more eyes were placed on us—especially after biting the financial bullet and signed a player that has all but guaranteed to be leaving us in 2015 in David Price.
P.S. David Price, that 4-4 record and 4.00+ ERA is not helping you. Not for trade bait, and not for that mega contract you will soon be seeking.
So what is going wrong? Well, the starters have had to pick up the slack for the temporary disappearances of Matt Moore, Jeremy Hellickson, and Alex Cobb—as well as the underrated missing arm of Alex Torres. And the new crop of starters are barely lasting, which is leading to a bullpen put on the brink of destruction as we have aging veterans like Joel Peralta, Heath Bell (Now gone), and Grant Balfour having to do extra work. This pretty much ruins the good news about our ho-hum offense, which still needs more production from the bottom half of the lineup---I hope you are reading this Jose Molina.
The other fact is that guess what, every franchise has their bad season this millennium—except for the freakin’ St. Louis Cardinals. The Yankees had 2013, the Red Sox had 2012, the Orioles had every season between 1999-2012, and the Blue Jays had the recent 2012-2013 stretch of disappointment--and that's just the AL East examples. Remember once upon a time the Detroit Tigers really, really sucked before getting their stuff straight.
As for us, when we were the Devil Rays, it was expected to suck. Maybe this is the year where the wheels just won’t turn in our favor, despite the entourage of good pieces. We still have one of the best managers in baseball willing to make the tough calls, the controversial decisions, and ultimately maintain the spirits high against the circumstances.
And we can sit here and talk about how the pitching needs lots of work, our starters need to survive at least 7 far more often then what has been going on this year, the hitting while improved needs to be more clutch and a bit more consistent, the defense needs to not overthink the plays in motion so much, and lastly we need to get into the heavier habit of small ball baseball which includes sacrifice bunts/flies, stolen bases, and timely hitting. We can blurt out all this but here is the other thing the franchise needs to stop doing: stop gambling our chips so much. Start clinging to the chips a bit longer.
2014 will mark the year when Tampa stepped up on its game and signed a variety of players to elongated contracts, ranging from Chris Archer to James Loney. But what about all the good and popular pieces that has fallen through the crack? I miss Sam Fuld’s defense and energetic prowl. I miss Jose Lobaton’s clutch hitting. I miss Alex Torres spitting great bullpen numbers. And to go a little further back, I miss Wade Davis’ great bullpen/starter abilities, as well as Rafael Soriano’s consistency (185 saves, 2.76 ERA makes for a good career). And I really miss Carl Crawford (I know, no way we could afford him, but if only we Longoria-d him with a lengthy contract) and his mix of hitting, speed and defense (.297 average, 450+ stolen bases). Most of the time we do manage to take deals that seem like dirt and turn them to diamonds (Ben Zobrist being probably your best example) but sometimes when the struggles persist, it’s hard to not look back and ponder what if we had made more of an effort to keep some of the chips we sacrificed.
And the funny thing, I hope this article becomes irrelevant when August rolls around and the Rays are full blast in the thick of the playoff race. But with the worst start since the Devil Rays became the Rays, it’s hard to not become pessimistic.
But it’s the Tampa Bay Rays. With them, you never know…
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