If there is one positive spin I can put on this season going down the tubes, it's how well the young pitchers in the starting rotation have done over the last month. In fact, James Shields may be pitching worse than the other 4 starters right now (of course, not including Andy Sonnanstine). Next years' rotation looks very promising. Shields, Garza, Price, Niemman, and Davis should all be solid starters for a few years to come. Since their arms won't have the stress of a postseason, all 5 should be fresh and ready to go come April. 5 pitchers of that quality have the ability to carry a team a long way should they stay healthy and pitch to their potential.
Now the bullpen, that's a whole other story. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why.
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I'm glad I picked my head up off the floor to read this. All the more reason to keep Zaun in Rays' gear next year. If the Rays improve their bullpen in the offseason, and also keep Bartlett, Crawford, Longo, Pena, and Zobrist, And if they have a healthy Iwamura and a breakout year from Joyce and/or Perez... 2010 could be an interesting year. But what are the chances of hte Rays keeping all these pieces AND improving their bullpen? That's what I was afraid of.
ReplyDeleteLet's Just Salvage The Season
ReplyDeleteWe need to play hard, stop the bleeding and come away with the 2nd best season in Rays history.
This is not the time to start bashing the owners, manager - coach's or players
Let's Just Salvage The Season. If this was any other year we'd jump with JOY and have a parade. This is not the Devil Rays. This is a good quality team and a team with a little bit of tweeking could go next year.