Tampa Bay Rays - 5 questions

[Dr. Jack]

Tampa Bay Rays

1: Will the addition of closer Rafael Soriano help bring stability to an inconsistent bullpen? From about the halfway point of the 2008 season through the middle of this offseason, manager Joe Maddon never really had a clue who he was going to give the ball to in certain situations in his bullpen. Seemingly everyone down the in the pen tried their hand at closing games, which ultimately caused for some unnecessarily tense moments. Rather than playing the "gut feeling" game, Tampa Bay went out and traded what amounts to be a song and a dance for Soriano from Atlanta. The Braves didn't like how wild their righty could be out of the pen, but his 2.97 ERA and 27 for 31 on save chances has to help out the Rays' pen.

2: Can 2B Ben Zobrist have another breakout season? Last season, there weren't many Rays that put together phenomenal seasons. In fact, most would agree that the majority of the squad underachieved. That being said, Zobrist blasted 27 homers and became the squad's cleanup hitter at the end of the year. With former 2B Akinori Iwamura being traded to Pittsburgh, the Rays are putting a lot of faith in their young utility ballplayer, but for a guy that never hit more than 12 homers in a season before in his career, the prospects of getting that type of production again are awfully slim.

3: Does anyone in the rotation have the ability to win 15+ games? It's hard to think that the man that won the ALCS MVP in 2008 only posted an 8-12 record a year later, but that's what RHP Matt Garza pulled off last year for the Rays. It's not that the starting pitchers posted numbers that were that bad; Garza had a 3.95 ERA while RHP James Shields had a 4.14 ERA, but the won/loss records just weren't there for any of them. Part of the problem was the lack of the solid pen, but save Shields, it felt like any time you could get six innings from a starting pitcher, it was a great day. Look for Garza and Shields to bounce back, while second-year man RHP Jeff Niemann should show more signs of improvement.

4: Is RHP Wade Davis the real deal, and will the Rays turn him loose in his first full season in the majors? Assuming that Davis beats out RHP Andy Sonnanstine in Spring Training, he'll probably be slotted in as the fifth starter in Maddon's rotation. Davis is the fifth highest ranked prospect in the country, and he showed his stuff last year by going 2-2 with a 3.72 ERA, including a complete-game shutout in his six starts in the bigs. He and LHP David Price make up one of the youngest and most exciting prospective lefty/righty combinations in all of baseball.

5: Where will the Rays finish the season? You can find Tampa Bay lined at +1015 to win the American League and +1615 to win the World Series at The Greek Sportsbook. If guys like CF BJ Upton and 1B Carlos Pena post better numbers than they did in 2009, there's no reason to think that the Rays can't approach the 90-win mark for the second time in franchise history and finish second place in the AL East, which should be good enough to steal the Wild Card slot in the AL.

[The Nac]

Longoria needs to live up to the hype.
Crawford needs to have a big season.
Niemann needs to be the man on that rotation, winning at least 16 games.
David Price needs to stabilize instead of being so up & down.

The Rays have a great team. The question is can they pool all that greatness together and actually win the division? I think player for player, they matchup against either NYY or BOS very nicely, without the "star power". Tampa once again becomes one of the best "sleepers" in baseball.

[sundance]

Tampa makes the wildcard finishing 2nd in the east this team is young and hungary will give the Yankees a run but falls about 5 gms short.