Archive for March 30th, 2008

Mar 30

[2008 ROSTER] 2008 Tampa Bay Rays 25-Man Roster And Starting Lineup

25-man Roster admin No Comments »

Notes on the roster can be found after the roster…

A FEW NOTES ON THE 25-MAN ROSTER…

  • With the addition of Eric Hinske the Rays’ opening day payroll will be just north of $44 million. [See 40-man roster and Payroll]
  • The player that has appeared in the most games for the Rays is Carl Crawford with 816 games. The pitcher with the most appearances in a Rays uniform is Edwin Jackson with 74 games. James Shields has the most starts among pitchers with 52. Scott Kazmir who will begin the year on the DL has 98 career appearances and 97 career starts.
  • The player that has played in the most major league games is Cliff Floyd with 1,531 career games.
  • On the 40-man roster, the Rays have 1 player born in the 60s (Troy Percival), 12 players born in the 70s and 28 players born in the 80s.
  • The oldest player on the roster is Troy Percival (38 years, 234 days)
  • The youngest player on the 25-man roster is BJ Upton (23 years, 222 days)
  • The youngest player on the 40-man roster is David Price (22 years, 217 days)
  • The shortest players on the 25-man roster are Nathan Haynes, Akinori Iwamura and Dioner Navarro (5’9″)
  • The TALLEST player on the 25-man roster is Jason Hammel (6′ 6″)
  • The lightest player listed is Nathan Haynes (170 lbs)
  • The heaviest player listed is Troy Percival (240 lbs)
  • Of the position players, 6 bat left handed, 4 bat right handed and 3 are switch-hitters.
  • Of the position players, 3 throw left handed, 10 throw right handed.
  • Of the pitchers, 2 throw left-handed.
Mar 30

[2008 TAMPA BAY RAYS] Examining Exactly How Bad The Tampa Bay Rays Have Been

Uncategorized Cork Gaines 4 Comments »

The Tampa Bay Rays are entering their 11th season and the first 10 haven’t been too good. Those 10 seasons included 9 last past finishes, only one season of 70+ wins, and of course, ZERO playoff appearances. The Rays are considered the most inept franchise in baseball, but how bad have they really been?

Expansion franchises are not supposed to win right away. It takes time. However, in the modern era of free agency, the Rays contemporary expansion brethren have enjoyed periods of success. Since 1993, the Rays are one of four expansion teams. The Colorado Rockies were a wild card team in just their third season and appeared in the World Series last season. The Florida Marlins have already won as many titles (2) as the Red Sox in the last 89 years. The Diamondbacks have four playoff appearances and one title.

So where does the failure of the Tampa Bay franchise rank in the history of baseball. Let’s compare the Rays to the other franchises in Major League Baseball.

First let’s look at all modern era expansion franchises and compare how long it took to reach .500…


FRANCHISE FIRST SEASON YEARS
UNTIL .500
Seattle Mariners 1977 15
Houston Astros 1962 11
Washington Nationals 1969 11
Tampa Bay Rays 1998 11*
Milwaukee Brewers 1969 10
San Diego Padres 1969 10
Texas Rangers 1961 9
New York Mets 1962 8
Toronto Blue Jays 1977 7
Florida Marlins 1993 5
Kansas City Royals 1969 3
Colorado Rockies 1993 3
Los Angeles Angels 1961 2
Arizona D-Backs 1998 2
*The Rays have never been .500


The Rays have now matched Houston and Montreal/Washington. However, they have a ways to go before catching Seattle. Still, not so good that the team is tied with the second longest streak.

Now let’s look at all modern era expansion franchises and compare how long it took to reach the playoffs…


FRANCHISE FIRST SEASON YEARS
UNTIL PLAYOFFS
Texas Rangers 1961 36
Seattle Mariners 1977 19
Houston Astros 1962 19
Los Angeles Angels 1961 19
San Diego Padres 1969 16
Washington Nationals 1969 13
Milwaukee Brewers 1969 13
Tampa Bay Rays 1998 11*
Toronto Blue Jays 1977 9
New York Mets 1962 8
Kansas City Royals 1969 8
Florida Marlins 1993 5
Colorado Rockies 1993 3
Arizona D-Backs 1998 2
*The Rays have never been in the playoffs


This is a bit of a skewed list. With six divisions and wild cards, it is easier to reach the playoffs in this era. Still…36 years? Those poor Rangers fans. And Seattle’s streak of 19 was fairly recent. The Rays are not likely to move too far up this list.

Now let’s look at the franchises that have the longest current streaks of losing seasons…


FRANCHISE FIRST SEASON YEARS
SINCE .500
Pittsburgh Pirates 1882 16
Baltimore Orioles 1901 11
Tampa Bay Rays 1998 10*
Cincinnati Reds 1882 8
Washington Nationals 1969 5
Kansas City Royals 1969 5
*The Rays have never been .500


The Rays don’t even have the worst streak in their own division and the Rays have a much better shot at ending this drought in 2008 than the Orioles.

Now let’s look at the franchises that have the longest current streaks of failing to reach the playoffs…


FRANCHISE FIRST SEASON YEARS SINCE PLAYOFFS
Washington Nationals 1969 27
Milwaukee Brewers 1969 26
Kansas City Royals 1969 23
Pittsburgh Pirates 1882 16
Toronto Blue Jays 1977 15
Cincinnati Reds 1882 13
Baltimore Orioles 1901 11
Tampa Bay Rays 1998 10*
*The Rays have never been in the playoffs


Again, the Rays are not even the worst in their own division. The Orioles should be ashamed of themselves. They are a big market/high payroll team. Toronto is also a team with a big payroll that haven’t sniffed the playoffs in a long time.

The Rays have been bad, but we are willing to bet it won’t take 15 years to reach .500 or 36 years before they reach the playoffs. And there are currently other inept franchises that have been bad longer than the Rays.

Why again is the Rays franchise the poster-child for inept franchises?

Mar 30

[THE SUNDAY MORNING REVOLUTION] Jonny Gomes Back To His Part-Time Role

Carl Crawford, Desmond Jennings, Edwin Jackson, Eric Hinske, Jonny Gomes, Nathan Haynes admin No Comments »

Tampa Bay Devil Dogs (1 day until opening day)

DRG here again to get you through the weekend…

Yesterday: Reds 8, Tampa Bay Rays 4.

  • The Good: Edwin Jackson was good, not great. After walking the first batter of the game and then giving up a single to the second batter, Jackson settled down to retire 8 of the next 10 batters until the 4th inning when he walked the lead off batter, which was followed by a wild pitch, and two straight fly balls that scored a run…JP Howell pitched one inning, striking out all three batters he faced, which is a good sign if Howell is sent back to the minors considering there wasn’t a major leaguer in site of one of his pitches.
  • The Bad: Fans at the game were subjected to a minor league game after about 3 innings, with names like Sergio Pedroza and Erold Andrus and Rhyne Hughes and Gabriel Martinez making appearances for the parent club due to the recent roster cuts.
  • The Telling: With so many minor leaguers making appearances, you can tell the season is just around the corner…ohhhh, about 30 hours.

DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…

  • Gary Shelton and John Romano co-write a piece looking at the Rays and I’ll admit it is the first piece from a Rays journalist that I wished was longer. [St. Pete Times]
  • From the minors, one of the Rays’ top prospects, Desmond Jennings will be sidelined to start the season with a back problem. Injuries are becoming a regular part of Jennings upbringing as he was limited to 99 games last year including a knee injury that cut his season short by two weeks. [Riverwalk Talk]
  • Tom Jones compares this year’s lineup with the Rays’ all-time best seasons at each position. [St. Pete Times]
  • The Herlad-Tribune calls Jonny Gomes the “only constant for Tampa Bay in right field” and Joe Maddon says “We were thinking that from the beginning.” And yet the starting right fielder on opening day? Eric Hinske. So much for seeing what Gomes could do with 600 plate appearances. [Herald-Tribune]
  • Jonny Gomes is only going to start against lefties. Eric Hinske is going to be the most-days right fielder. Wow. I had no idea how desperately the Rays needed another outfielder. [St. Pete Times]
  • Marc Lancaster breaks down the Rays opening day roster. [Tampa Tribune]
  • The Herald-Tribune says there are “Some surprises on Rays’ roster”. [Herald-Tribune]
  • The Bradenton Herald says there are “Few surprises on Rays 25-man roster”. [Bradenton Herald]
  • Nathan Hayes was in southern California friday night when he heard the news he was coming to the Rays. 13 hours later he walked into Tropicana Field. [MLB]
  • The Rays open in Baltimore tomorrow where they have struggled historically, going 33-50 in 10 seasons. [MLB]
  • Marc Topkin has a Q&A session with Carl Crawford in which he discusses the 2008 Rays and his future with the franchise. [St. Pete Times]