Well, for readers of previous editions of the CVC, you know that I have this thing for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Okay, it's more like an obsession. I can't explain the reasons for this obsession, but I've actually flown to Tampa in the past just to see the D-Rays play baseball -- and voluntarily going to Tropicana Field for a baseball game is clear sings of derangement, especially if you live in Texas.
But, that said, it's nice to see the team getting some love from the experts at Sports Illustrated. That said, I've got to state, this is the D-Rays. I've actually read such about the D-Rays before, but the team has gone on to flop. Anybody out there remember the positive press the team got when hired Lou Piniella?
The D-Rays, as the SI guys say, do have a very good outfield. If you don't know who Carl Crawford is, then you just haven't been paying attention to baseball. But, as any baseball fan can tell you, it doesn't matter how many runs that the team score, what matters is the number of runs surrendered by the pitching staff. And the D-Rays? Well, except for Scott Kazmir -- I still can't believe that the D-Rays fleeced the Mets for this guy -- the D-Rays have no pitching. There's no closer. There's no number 5 starter. There's no number 2 starter.
Thankfully, the D-Rays play in the same division as the Baltimore Orioles, so there's always hope that the team won't finish in last place. But until the D-Rays can rob some other team for a young up-and-coming starter pitcher, it's never going to challenge for anything. Then again, it's in the same division as the Yankees and Red Sox, so it's always going to be hard for the D-Rays to challenge for anything but last.
And that's been the first of probably too many Tampa Bay Devil Rays updates.
3 comments:
Thanks for the painful Kazmir reference, John. Do you mention Nolan Ryan and Amos Otis now, or will you wait until after I mention Jeff Bagwell for Larry Andersen?
Or maybe Glenn Davis for Curt Schilling? (Or am I messing up my bad Astros trades? So many to choose; so easy to confuse.)
Glenn Davis for Curt Schilling was a good Astros trade. You forget that Glenn Davis was traded to Baltimore for Curt Schilling, and Steve Finley,and Pete Harnisch. Davis didn't make it through the year for Baltimore. Finley and Harnisch gave the Astros four good years before he and Caminiti were traded to the Padres for Derek Bell and some no names -- that was a bad trade. Harnisch ended up getting injured.
A bad Curt Schilling trade is the Astros trading Schilling to the Phillies for Jason Grimsley.
Then again, the Astros did try and turn Schilling into a closer, and it didn't work out too well.
The Bagwell for Andersen trade was a good one for the Astros. And it worked for the BoSox in that they needed the pitching to get to the playoffs, and Andersen gave them some good work for 2 months and got them into the playoffs.
Good god, did I fuck this comment up.
The lesson, as always, no posts at 5:37 am.
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