Are The Rays for Real?

As we hit the unofficial start of summer there is a strange name hanging around at the top of the A.L. East; the Tampa Bay Rays. The Rays are not just top in the East, they have the best winning percentage in all of baseball! When you look at the history of the Rays it is more surprising how bad they have been with all of the early draft picks they have had. The Marlins and D-Backs have both won it all in their short histories but the Rays have never come close. Why then are they doing well this year? Tampa’s pitching has been getting better each year; this year they have 2 pitchers that any team would like for numbers one and two in their rotation. James Shields has an ERA of 3.38 with 52 strikeouts, Scott Kazmir has an ERA of 1.50 in his 5 starts since coming off of the DL. The Rays have some great all around players like Carl Crawford and B.J. Upton and they are getting production from guys like Jonny Gomes. The Rays are going to fade at some point this season and I think they will be competing with Toronto for third place in the A.L. East (Sox will win the division and Yanks will get the wildcard.) However, the Rays are going to keep getting better and will be a contender in ’09 and beyond.