| Zack Levine. 12th August, 2010 - 10:44 am
 In 2006, the Tampa Bay (Devil) Rays were the worst team in baseball, posting only 61 wins. Four years later, and with a World Series appearance on their resume, the Rays have held the best record in the league on multiple occasions this season. That?s unquestionably a huge improvement in a short amount of time.
The success that has occurred in Tampa follows a trend that began over 650 miles away in Durham, North Carolina. The Rays? front office has set the standard on drafting talent and grooming their young prospects to become great baseball players.
Their minor league team, the Durham Bulls, has been conditioning prospects in an extremely efficient manner over the past few years. In fact, a large portion of the Rays current roster is comprised of former Durham Bulls. Evan Longoria, David Price, B.J. Upton, and Carl Crawford were all once playing minor league ball in North Carolina.
The pattern of success that has been implanted in readying prospects for the big leagues is showing no signs of slowing either. The Rays have brought up a number of players this season who have shown promise, such as catcher John Jaso.
For what it?s worth, the Bulls are also the defending minor league national champions. That most likely means they still have a plethora of talent to offer Tampa Bay.
With All-Star caliber players like Longoria, Price, and Crawford on the roster, shouldn?t it be much easier to defeat other elite teams this season like the Braves and Yankees?
The answer lies in another trend, one that has been giving Rays? fans everywhere headaches all season long:
Tampa Bay's starting pitchers are excruciatingly inconsistent.
Although they all started off the season looking very strong, the majority of them have slipped back into mediocrity. There?s no way of knowing what kind of game to expect from James Shields when he steps on the mound. He?s allowed his ERA to climb to 4.91, but it has been as low as 2.99 this season.
Simply looking at his last two outings will reveal his inconsistency. On August 1st against the Yankees, he only gave up four hits and no runs in a 3-0 win at the Trop. During his next start at Toronto, Shields was unable to pull the team out of its 5-game slump. He was blasted for eight runs in only four innings. Six of them were homers. Shields has had streaks this season in which he?s won four straight starts and streaks where he?s lost five in a row.
Matt Garza is another mystery. His ERA has been all over the statsheet this season, ranging from 0.75 to a 4.36. On July 26, he gave up 10 hits and seven runs in just six innings to the Baltimore Orioles. Six days later he faced one of the league?s hardest hitting teams in Detroit and threw a no-hitter.
The only pitchers that can be counted on game in and game out have been All-Star starter David Price (15-5, 2.84) and Jeff Niemann (10-3, 3.12), who was sent to the 15-day disabled list on Monday due to a strain in his right shoulder.
Even though the Rays enjoy a steady supply of talented prospects, that alone isn?t enough to succeed in the postseason. They?ll need solid and consistent pitching as well. Their attempt to acquire Cliff Lee prior to the trade deadline was so feeble that most people didn?t even know it occurred.
There were no advances made toward any of the other available aces, like Dan Haren and Roy Oswalt, either. The front office should have been aggressive in landing a reliable arm to bolster the rotation, but they instead floundered at the opportunity.
With the current inconsistent pitching in Tampa, it will be difficult for the Rays to transition from contenders to champions. |
