Tampa Bay Rays

A lot has been stated (and overstated) on the state of the Tampa Bay Rays bullpen.  The Rays lost nearly their entire bullpen in one off-season, and General Manager Andrew Friedman has run out of band-aids trying to patch a 'pen together for the 2011 season.  He's signed a couple of veterans, he's traded for some young arms, but the best and brightest hope to a successful bullpen in 2011 is squarely on the shoulders of someone who was already in-house.

Jake McGee.

Before the 2008 season, Baseball America named Wade Davis the 17th-best prospect in all of baseball.

Then in 2009, Davis resurfaced on the list as No. 32, and in 2010 he reappeared as No. 34.

As most know, the Tampa Bay Rays' success in 2010 was due in part to the incredible bullpen that they had assembled, with league saves-leader Rafael Soriano, extravagant setup man Joaquin Benoit and plenty of ate-up innings by Grant Balfour and Dan Wheeler.

Unless you've been living under a rock hibernating this past winter, you know that none of those names remain in the current Rays' bullpen.

The 2010 Tampa Bay Rays’ opening day first baseman, left-fielder, shortstop, designated hitter and catcher are all gone. One of the three starters who made at least 30 starts has departed, and six of the eight most-used relievers were not retained.

Some of these losses are lamentable. Carl Crawford was the face of the franchise and the first home-grown Rays star. Matt Garza was an exciting young pitcher with boatloads of talent and a no hitter to his credit.

Although they won 96 games and the AL East in 2010, the Tampa Bay Rays have lost a number of players through their firesale this offseason.

The minute the final out was made in Game 5 of the ALDS at the Trop, Rays fans knew they had a long offseason ahead of them.

Some, like me, held out hope that they would be able to retain Carl Crawford or somebody, but that never happened; they even got rid of great players that they didn't have to.

With the 2011 MLB season just around the corner, fans around the nation are making their predictions.

While everyone is busy predicting their favorites, I'll get to work on predicting my least favorites—the teams that are going to come in last place of each division in the American League.

AL EAST

This one is tricky.  

With the Boston Red Sox's flurry of transactions, they certainly won't be in last. 

A little while back, we did an an examination on one of the Yankees' oldest enemies, the Red Sox.

Now we're going to look in depth on one of the newest Yankees rival, the Tampa "Don't call them Devil" Rays.

The Rays got hit hard this offseason—Carl Crawford left for the rival Red Sox, Rafael Soriano left for the rival Yankees.

No one expected the Tampa Bay Rays to resign Carl Crawford or Carlos Pena.

But when the Rays said goodbye to Rafael Soriano, Matt Garza, Jason Bartlett, Grant Balfour, Dan Wheeler and Joaquin Benoit, that just felt like overkill to a team that put a nice effort to knock off the Yankees and Red Sox and take the toughest division in the game two out of three times.

When talking about hyped up outfielders this offseason, Carl Crawford and Carlos Gonzalez come to mind.

It’s hard for an eight-year veteran like Crawford to be hyped up, but his move to the loaded Boston Red Sox lineup did just that.