We will return to your regularly scheduled discussion of the four likely playoff teams (the Cleveland Indians, Los Angeles Angels, Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees) shortly. Today, however, we take a look into the future - specifically, the very bright future of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
You may scoff when you read this, but help is on the way for the league's most pathetic franchise. Since their inception in 1998, the hapless Rays have never won more than 70 games in a season. They have lost 100 or more three times and lost 99 in an additional two seasons. Attendance, predictably, has sagged, and the Rays have become perennial cellar-dwellers in the American League East.
The Rays' one positive claim to fame is the heist of Scott Kazmir from the New York Mets, in a now-infamous trade for Victor Zambrano back in 2004. Kazmir, still only 23 years old, has 577 strikeouts in 546 career innings and a 3.75 ERA. This season, he has posted career highs with 12 wins and 209 strikeouts. Meanwhile, since the trade, Zambrano has posted ERAs of 4.17, 6.75 and 10.97 and has battled arm injuries.
However, Kazmir is just one reason that the light at the end of a very long tunnel is slowly beginning to emerge in St. Petersburg.
Most astute baseball fans are aware that Tampa Bay has quality young hitters at almost every position across the diamond. Their current starting outfield of Carl Crawford, a veritable franchise player, Delmon Young, and B.J. Upton has a combined 46 homers, 93 doubles, and 72 stolen bases. Carlos Pe?±a is second in the American League in homers and fourth in OPS and may be the long-term answer at first base if they can re-sign him this offseason. Third baseman Akinori Iwamura, while he has not had the publicity of countrymen Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hideki Okajima, has had a solid rookie season at the top of the Tampa Bay order, hitting .284.
Though they possess a plethora of talent, the Rays are dealing with the same problem most bad teams have: a lack of pitching. Besides Kazmir, conventional wisdom says that Tampa Bay has no other decent pitchers. And while that used to be true, it now appears to be changing, and as always, conventional wisdom is a little slow to take notice.
James Shields has emerged as a legitimate middle-of-the-rotation starter, posting a 3.96 ERA while placing fifth in the American League in strikeouts. This season, Shields has walked fewer batters and has more strikeouts than AL Cy Young frontrunner Josh Beckett.
The Rays also have an interesting assortment of pitchers who could develop into useful back-of-the-rotation starters - Edwin Jackson, Andy Sonnanstine, Jason Hammel and J.P. Howell have all struggled this season but have gained some experience. If one or two of these young players can fulfill the team's expectations, they could be more than adequate as fourth or fifth starters.
The key to Tampa Bay's dreams of success lies in their wealth of high-quality minor league pitchers who are rapidly approaching the big leagues. If you want to know who is the next Clay Buchholz, the next Joba Chamberlain, the next Tim Lincecum or Yovani Gallardo, simply look at the Devil Rays' minor league system.
Former first-round pick Jeff Niemann still has electric stuff, though he has a history of injuries. That he has not been hurt this season qualifies as a huge step forward; his 118 strikeouts in 125 innings at AAA is a sign he could be returning to the form that once made him an intriguing prospect.
Left-hander David Price, the No. 1 pick in this year's amateur draft, profiles as a No. 1 starter, and could contribute next season in a manner similar to 2006's top pick, Andrew Miller of the Detroit Tigers.
Lefty Jacob McGee and righty Wade Davis are arguably the best two pitchers in the minor leagues, and they both pitch for Tampa Bay's AA team in Montgomery, Ala. Both throw hard, have high strikeout numbers, and give up very few home runs, all of which suggests they could be big league aces one day.
The Devil Rays' need for pitching is vastly overstated. In addition to Kazmir and Shields, the Rays have three of the four best pitching prospects in all of baseball (McGee, Davis and Price), as well as 10 more pitchers who all have legitimate chances of being productive major leaguers - and these are not 17-year-olds in rookie ball. On the contrary, they are all close to the major leagues.
Time will tell if the Devil Rays can ever surpass the financial juggernauts in the AL East. However, in the very near future, the Rays will add a tremendous amount of quality young pitching and hitting to complement the stars currently on their roster and will transform into a formidable foe.
American League, beware.
