Tampa Bay Rays

At the young age of 25, David Price has already started in an All-Star game, pitched in the World Series and finished runner-up in the 2010 Cy Young voting. 

This is the sixth offering in my series of All-Franchise teams. Since Tampa Bay along with Florida are relatively new franchises, I have relaxed the rules a tad for the two. There is no minimum requirement as to tenure with the franchise. Unlike most franchises you will not find any current Hall of Famers on this list.

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Matt Garza's a Cub. Ditto for Carlos Pena. Jason Bartlett is a Padre. Rafael Soriano now calls the Bronx home. Grant Balfour's in Oakland. Carl Crawford is, of course, now a Boston Red Sox, as is Dan Wheeler. Dioner Navarro? He's a Dodger.

After a winter heavy on exits and light on entrances, Tampa Bay entered camp this spring with prognostications of hopeless mediocrity.

The contending team of the past three seasons? Lost to the winds of financial reality, which has never been a happy reality for the Rays.

We are T-minus six days from Opening Day of the 2011 MLB season. The first official pitch will be thrown by Justin Verlander of the Detroit Tigers in Yankee Stadium.

It's a great time of the year.

I used to have to sleep with a baseball in my hand around this time of year when I played coach-pitch ball. Now, I just get the itch to scour online ticket vendors for cheap seats to great games.

TAMPA BAY RAYS

Last Year: 96-66, 1st in AL East 

Manager: Joe Maddon 

PROJECTED LINEUP 

C—John Jaso (L)

1B—Dan Johnson (L) 

2B—Sean Rodriguez (R)

3B—Evan Longoria (R)

SS—Reid Brignac (L)

LF—Johnny Damon (L)

CF—BJ Upton (R)

RF—Ben Zobrist (S)

DH—Manny Ramirez (R)

Manny Ramirez seems to really be enjoying himself in a Tampa Bay Rays uniform. Although there are still a lot of skeptics that think that currently the Rays are only experiencing the honeymoon phase with Manny.

It is also possible that Manny and the Rays could truly be a very good fit for each other at this time. The key phrase being "at this time."

With the massive departure of regular faces and vital contributors from Tampa Bay in the offseason, bringing in Ramirez makes a lot of sense for both the player and the team.

When thinking of Manny Ramirez, many moments go through a person's mind. Many are good, but several are anything but.

On the side of being one of the better hitters of his time (or any time for that matter), are the moments that created the saying of "Manny being Manny".

For more than 20 years now I have compiled a list of the “must haves” that I would like to have on my fantasy baseball team for the upcoming season. I usually start this list at the end of the previous year and tweak it right up until mid March when draft time comes along. These players are not necessarily all slam dunk picks but players my intuition tells me will help me win my league. Here is my list for the 2011 season.

He's being drafted ahead of established starters such as Gavin Floyd, Ricky Romero and Gio Gonzalez, yet he has only started four major league games. 

Jeremy Hellickson's nickname is "Hellboy" and he just might be that for fantasy owners this year if he cannot live up to the tremendous expectations that accompany his arrival to the big leagues.

Earlier this week, Joe Maddon named his starting five for the Tampa Bay Rays pitching staff and Wade Davis found himself to be No. 3 on that list, in front of Jeff Niemann and Jeremy Hellickson.