I'VE HAD IT WITH THE RAYS

[BULLfreak]

UNITLL THEY FIRE THAT F*ing MANAGER AND PUT SOME MONEY INTO THE PAYROLL I AM NOT WATCHING OR GOING TO ANOTHER GAME

[Guest AstroBull]

As a Red Sox fan, I think that the Devil Rays are doing a fine job and Joe Maddon deserves a raise.

[Economics_Nerd82]

Why should anyone care about a team that doesn't care about its fans (i.e. put a competitive team on the field)? The "home team" isn't a good enough argument in my opinion.

[Triple B]

Why should anyone care about a team that doesn't care about its fans (i.e. put a competitive team on the field)? The "home team" isn't a good enough argument in my opinion.

CAn't really blame you. Everybody has their limits. Home team is till the home team for me but luckily, because I'm not a great baseball fan, there hasn't been much finanacially invested by me with them. Different story for the Bucs and that did finally pay off ...... and their years of suckiness only made the pinnacle that much sweeter.

[Joe]

As a D-Rays fan I've accepted that the chances of them ever being a competitive team year in and out in a division with 3 of North America's biggest cities is slim. New York and Boston will always spend more than anyone in the league. Baltimore (93 Million) and Toronto (82 Million) have shown they'll throw money around too.

And then there are the Devil Rays...24 Million...DOWN from 35 Million last year. We're 30th out of 30 teams, 26th ranked team (Arizona) spends DOUBLE what we spend. The 28th ranked team (Washington) spend 13 Million more a year.

Simply put, the Devil Rays make more money not spending large salaries on players than they would spending 50 Million a year and having 13,000 fans show a night (with actual attendance around 7-8k) thanks to revenue sharing and the luxery tax.

I still watch, yet I know deep down inside it's gonna take either; a) Mark Cuban coming holding bags with dollar signs on them, moving the team to Hillsborough (which won't happen because Steinbrenner will block it, and he will get his way), or c) that movie the Day After Tomorrow to become true and wipe out the NE section of North America, making all 4 teams in our division frozen and no longer in existence.

I honestly don't see the Rays in Tampa in the next 5 years. I think someone will come along and offer them a sweet stadum deal in a city that will draw more than 13,000 fans a night. Portland, Vegas, someone will step up.

[Economics_Nerd82]

It's really a sad state of affairs not only for the D-Rays, but for all of baseball.

[Singabull]

As a Red Sox fan, I think that the Devil Rays are doing a fine job and Joe Maddon deserves a raise.

If you like the red socks so much then move to freakin boston.

As far as the Rays go, Maddon is freaking horrible.  That's why he's been a bench coach his whole life.  He babies his players and never tells them like it is.

As far as payroll, you guys are not understanding a thing about this team.  Payroll will go up when these guys' contracts expire.  Some of these players are making less than a million a year and hitting around .300 with good defense and some power.  If they were to become free agents, they would get paid over 5 million.  Andrew Friedman has said many times that they will resign the core guys with market value contracts.  That will obviously raise payroll in itself.  The team is a decent hitting team.  Their battin average is about middle of the pack but they are top 5 in home runs.  The starting pitching is all under 26 years old and will get better.

The area they need to spend money is the bulpen.  They need 2 or 3 guys that they can rely on to get three outs.  They don't need to go and overpay for pitchers though. 

And look at the Orioles, they spent 56 MILLION ON THEIR BULPEN!  Yeah, that turned out well.  Look at their record and see how many games their bulpen blew.

[Economics_Nerd82]

You can't blame someone for cheering for a team that puts a competitive team on the field. Who wants to cheer for a team that at the start of spring training has 1 and a million shot of winning the world series... heck, of even getting to the playoffs?

Batting average? They are below average on on-base percentage, the pitching horrible (highest ERA in MLB and the most hits given up in MLB), and Camp couldn't close a game if his life depended on it.

In the 9 seasons the Devil Rays have existed, they haven't finished any better than 4th in the division.... and this season doesn't look like it will be any different.

[Joe]

As a Red Sox fan, I think that the Devil Rays are doing a fine job and Joe Maddon deserves a raise.

If you like the red socks so much then move to freakin boston.

As far as the Rays go, Maddon is freaking horrible.  That's why he's been a bench coach his whole life.  He babies his players and never tells them like it is.

As far as payroll, you guys are not understanding a thing about this team.  Payroll will go up when these guys' contracts expire.  Some of these players are making less than a million a year and hitting around .300 with good defense and some power.  If they were to become free agents, they would get paid over 5 million.  Andrew Friedman has said many times that they will resign the core guys with market value contracts.  That will obviously raise payroll in itself.  The team is a decent hitting team.  Their battin average is about middle of the pack but they are top 5 in home runs.  The starting pitching is all under 26 years old and will get better.

The area they need to spend money is the bulpen.  They need 2 or 3 guys that they can rely on to get three outs.  They don't need to go and overpay for pitchers though. 

And look at the Orioles, they spent 56 MILLION ON THEIR BULPEN!  Yeah, that turned out well.  Look at their record and see how many games their bulpen blew.

Great payroll will go up when these guys contracts expire. Guess what? These guys making up THIS roster are 34-51. This is the 2nd time they've rebuilt since the hit show.

The Toby Hall, Jared Sandberg, Aubrey Huff; Joe Kennedy, Jesus Colome, and Steve Kent show tanked.

Here's what I believe will happen. Most these minor league contracts will come open at the same time (this offseason). The Devil Rays will pay some and let some go. In doing so they will increase their payroll more than they want and not spend on outside help. With Baldelli's salary jumping next year along with Crawfords. Further, several contracts open:

1) Kazmir -  Arbitration Eligible - probably will need a 4-5 year deal averaging 8-9 Million to keep him around

2) Upton - Arbitration Eligible (I believe) - Will probably want Crawford Baldelli type money - 4 years - 32 Million

3) Dukes - bye bye

4) Pena - Free Agent

5) Reyes - Old - good year, no thanks.

6) Ty Wiggington - Solid Contract year, I don't see the Rays throwing a lot of money at him.

On top of all that increase, this team is still needs to address several positions.

The Devil Rays have decided to build through prospects, which is fine. Florida has won the World Series twice doing it. However, Florida also noticed you need all star veteren talent around them. 1997 - Sheffield, Bobby Bonilla 2003 - IRod, to a much lesser extent, Hollandsworth.

[Singabull]

You can't blame someone for cheering for a team that puts a competitive team on the field. Who wants to cheer for a team that at the start of spring training has 1 and a million shot of winning the world series... heck, of even getting to the playoffs?

Batting average? They are below average on on-base percentage, the pitching horrible (highest ERA in MLB and the most hits given up in MLB), and Camp couldn't close a game if his life depended on it.

In the 9 seasons the Devil Rays have existed, they haven't finished any better than 4th in the division.... and this season doesn't look like it will be any different.

Yeah, that's great.  So I would say that USF basketball has a one in a million chance of winning the NCAA championship.  Well, by your logic, we shouldn't root for them.  That's right, they have a one in a million shot so you better not be cheering for USF basketball this year.

As far as the pitching smart one, like I said, the starters have some promise.  They're all 25 years old and under!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  What do you expect?  Plus we have David Price and Jeff Niemann in the minors.  One thing you have to admit if you call yourself a Rays' fan or at least a Rays' follower is that the rotation is improving based on previous years.  The bulpen is what kills the team's ERA.  They need to get 3 solid under 4.00 ERA bulpen guys.  Yeah, their record sucks but look how many of those games they lost because of that sucky bulpen.

And as far as never finishing better than 4th, that's because Vince Naimoli screwed this team over.  You have to give Stu more than 1 1/2 years before judging them. 

If they do nothing in the off-season and don't sign any pitchers, then you can start with your crap but there's no use in going out and overpaying for players like the yank-me's and dead sox do.