2010 Team Preview: Tampa Bay Rays
The team's old nickname was changed in 2007. Bland focus group marketing 1, creativity & marine biology 0...
Since God has decided to punish the state of Massachusetts for our progressive beliefs by pounding us mercilessly with rain and flooding, I’ll go ahead and preview a warm weather team: the Tampa Bay Rays. The Rays, of course, are division rivals of the Red Sox, and we’ll be seeing a lot (maybe too much) of this team over the course of the summer.
Arrivals: Kelly Shoppach (C), Hank Blalock (CIF), Rafael Soriano (RP)
Departures: Greg Zaun (C), Gabe Gross (RF), Troy Percival (RP), Jason Isringhausen (RP)
Projected 2010 Starting Lineup:
| Name | Offense | Fielding | |
| SS | Jason Bartlett | 8.0 | 9.5 |
| LF | Carl Crawford | 8.5 | 9.0 |
| 3B | Evan Longoria | 9.5 | 9.5 |
| 1B | Carlos Pena | 7.5 | 5.0 |
| 2B | Ben Zobrist | 8.5 | 7.0 |
| CF | B.J. Upton | 7.5 | 8.0 |
| DH | Pat Burrell | 6.5 | |
| RF | Matt Joyce | 5.5 | 7.0 |
| C | Dioner Navarro | 6.0 |
Projected 2010 Bench:
| Name | Offense | Fielding | |
| C | Kelly Shoppach | 7.5 | |
| CIF | Hank Blalock | 7.5 | 4.0 |
| IF | Reid Brignac | 6.5 | 8.0 |
| OF | Gabe Kapler | 5.5 | 6.0 |
If Blalock doesn’t make the club (he’s signed to a minor league deal), infielder Sean Rodriguez will most likely be taking his spot. The Rays are probably better off with Zobrist in RF and either Rodriguez or Brignac starting at 2B, but from what I’m seeing, a Joyce/Kapler platoon is the most likely scenario to begin the season.
The Rays starting lineup certainly looks formidable on paper. After grading the first three players, I asked myself If I was overdoing it a bit, and I don’t really think I did. A handful of their regulars are among the best in the game at their positions (most notably Longoria), and aside from perhaps RF, there really isn’t an offensive weak spot to pick apart.
Pitching coming next…
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by SCUBA junkie . SCUBA junkie said: The House That Dewey Built » 2010 Team Preview: Tampa Bay Rays http://bit.ly/biODzv [...]
[WORDPRESS HASHCASH] The comment’s server IP (208.74.66.43) doesn’t match the comment’s URL host IP () and so is spam.
Your defensive ratings for Upton and Pena are too low.
Maybe. What I planned on doing was revisiting everything once all the teams were done, and revise any ratings where I may have obvious misses.