Time to put the Yankees away for the season

[Bruce Blingstein]

Cant say it any better than JPMVP and Velcro did. 

small market teams are what we call haters.  Move to another city, root for another team. Because once that young talent gets good and wants to get paid they are gone.  Save yourself the heartache, the yanks practice in tampa, do what the rest of the tampa community does and ride the steinbrenner money train.

funny when i was watching the little league world series and when they ask the kids who their favorite players are when they do the lineups and the Tampa team was all Yankees with i think 2 for longoria, i had to laugh.  even the youth doesnt support the team because the community is conditioned to being fans of a winner like the Yanks. 

tampa will never become a big market because of it FANS, not location, not because of the front office, the FANS.  proof is in the pudding , no where else will there be 14 K attendance to any game for a 1st place team in a division race, NO WHERE. (excet maybe miami and atlanta) 

no support even when your winning = no chance.

and it's also a city that can be reprogrammed with the proper balance of winning, ownership making shrewd moves, nice facilities, and great marketing.  I saw it happen with the Bucs, and the Lightning, it's happening currently with the Bulls, and if Steinberg keeps it up the same transformation will also happen with the Rays.  It's already started to happen with the ball club finally starting to win.

You've got to understand this team was traditionally 15 games below .500 by June 15th each year.  They were out of playoff contention the first week of the year.  For all intent and purpose the Rays were a novelty act since they've been here, a nice way to beat the heat in the summer for most fans and a good chance for local yanks, bosox, and chisox fans to catch-up on their teams.  The team is winning BIG, ownership has made some brilliant moves from the uniforms to name, to facilities, to talent management....another year like this and the Rays will go from an also-ran, retred in baseball that locals look at as an afterthought, to a real bonified enjoyable time.  Something fun to support for the local community.  Now if they could only relocate to Tampa the transformation wuld be complete! ;D

I agree 100% that the marketing has improved this year with the name change and uniforms and there is a buzz around the rays i havent seen in the 10+ years i been here, obviously due to having a young exciting team that wins.

my concern is what happens if next year they dont have another good season.  It doesnt take much to turn the fans away.  eventually you have to spend the big bucks in baseball.  relocating to tampa would be a nice step.

[Velcro]

Cant say it any better than JPMVP and Velcro did. 

small market teams are what we call haters.  Move to another city, root for another team. Because once that young talent gets good and wants to get paid they are gone.  Save yourself the heartache, the yanks practice in tampa, do what the rest of the tampa community does and ride the steinbrenner money train.

funny when i was watching the little league world series and when they ask the kids who their favorite players are when they do the lineups and the Tampa team was all Yankees with i think 2 for longoria, i had to laugh.  even the youth doesnt support the team because the community is conditioned to being fans of a winner like the Yanks. 

tampa will never become a big market because of it FANS, not location, not because of the front office, the FANS.  proof is in the pudding , no where else will there be 14 K attendance to any game for a 1st place team in a division race, NO WHERE. (excet maybe miami and atlanta) 

no support even when your winning = no chance.

and it's also a city that can be reprogrammed with the proper balance of winning, ownership making shrewd moves, nice facilities, and great marketing.  I saw it happen with the Bucs, and the Lightning, it's happening currently with the Bulls, and if Steinberg keeps it up the same transformation will also happen with the Rays.  It's already started to happen with the ball club finally starting to win.

You've got to understand this team was traditionally 15 games below .500 by June 15th each year.  They were out of playoff contention the first week of the year.  For all intent and purpose the Rays were a novelty act since they've been here, a nice way to beat the heat in the summer for most fans and a good chance for local yanks, bosox, and chisox fans to catch-up on their teams.  The team is winning BIG, ownership has made some brilliant moves from the uniforms to name, to facilities, to talent management....another year like this and the Rays will go from an also-ran, retred in baseball that locals look at as an afterthought, to a real bonified enjoyable time.  Something fun to support for the local community.  Now if they could only relocate to Tampa the transformation wuld be complete! ;D

The "reprogramming" did seem to be the case around mid year, and may be possible, to an extent... but it seems to be reverting a bit... despite the best record in baseball status.

[Triple B]

Cant say it any better than JPMVP and Velcro did. 

small market teams are what we call haters.  Move to another city, root for another team. Because once that young talent gets good and wants to get paid they are gone.  Save yourself the heartache, the yanks practice in tampa, do what the rest of the tampa community does and ride the steinbrenner money train.

funny when i was watching the little league world series and when they ask the kids who their favorite players are when they do the lineups and the Tampa team was all Yankees with i think 2 for longoria, i had to laugh.  even the youth doesnt support the team because the community is conditioned to being fans of a winner like the Yanks. 

tampa will never become a big market because of it FANS, not location, not because of the front office, the FANS.  proof is in the pudding , no where else will there be 14 K attendance to any game for a 1st place team in a division race, NO WHERE. (excet maybe miami and atlanta) 

no support even when your winning = no chance.

and it's also a city that can be reprogrammed with the proper balance of winning, ownership making shrewd moves, nice facilities, and great marketing.  I saw it happen with the Bucs, and the Lightning, it's happening currently with the Bulls, and if Steinberg keeps it up the same transformation will also happen with the Rays.  It's already started to happen with the ball club finally starting to win.

You've got to understand this team was traditionally 15 games below .500 by June 15th each year.  They were out of playoff contention the first week of the year.  For all intent and purpose the Rays were a novelty act since they've been here, a nice way to beat the heat in the summer for most fans and a good chance for local yanks, bosox, and chisox fans to catch-up on their teams.  The team is winning BIG, ownership has made some brilliant moves from the uniforms to name, to facilities, to talent management....another year like this and the Rays will go from an also-ran, retred in baseball that locals look at as an afterthought, to a real bonified enjoyable time.  Something fun to support for the local community.  Now if they could only relocate to Tampa the transformation wuld be complete! ;D

I agree 100% that the marketing has improved this year with the name change and uniforms and there is a buzz around the rays i havent seen in the 10+ years i been here, obviously due to having a young exciting team that wins.

my concern is what happens if next year they dont have another good season.  It doesnt take much to turn the fans away.  eventually you have to spend the big bucks in baseball.  relocating to tampa would be a nice step.

Next season is the key to their long term viability in terms of attendance ....

[Bullpride08]

We'll see what moves they make in the off-season but I don't think there is anyway these Rays will not at least be competitive next season.  Virtually everyone they would want returning is locked up, and as it stands they have more starting pitcher talent between Triple A, and the Majors then they have slots, i.e. trade bait.  A team with five solid starters up right now, Price, Talbot, Neimann, Davis, Townsend, and Hellickson...plus a few other solid arms.  You want possibly the best future hurler in the minors right now it's Hellickson.  He just turned 21, is 6-1 190lbs and throws a wicked 95MPH FB, some said he was more dominant than Price at Vero.  He got called up to Montgomery with Price, and although he wasn't quite as dominant, this young kid went 5-4 with a 3.65 ERA, and in the 74 inning he pitched he threw 84 strikouts in Montgomery.  Oh and James Houser is no slouch either.  The Rays are right now nasty, dirty stacked at pitching.

To me the Rays have plenty to offer up as trade bait for now.  With Tim Beckham signed and Aybar looking good at utility, Reid Brignac is expendable.

Package something together and grab say a Matt Halliday to play RF, and a young rocket launcher as a closer.   a line-up of Bj, crawford, halliday, pena, longoria, rocco/floyd (DH), iwamora, navarro, bartlett--- ****, ****!  With our starting pitching that could be pretty **** potent.  I am just saying, the rays should be competitive next year regardless with their pitching, but they've got a plethora of trade bait to insure they'll be battling it out well into the summer for the division.