Tampa Bay Rays

Major League Baseball is always filled with major questions to be answered.

2009 is no exception.

Here are a few of the biggest questions needing to be answered.

5. Will another team like the Tampa Bay Rays come out of nowhere to make the playoffs?

I give a team like the San Fransisco Giants a good shot at challenging for the NL West title.

They have a fantastic pitching staff.

If their offense shows even decent improvement, the Giants will be contenders sooner rather than later.

Many people dove on to the Tampa Bay Rays bandwagon last season, after having a breakout season. However, a lot of people think it was a fluke, was it? I don't think it was.

The Rays are a very young team with outstanding depth and talent, like rookie of the year, third baseman Evan Longoria.

He showed that rookies can have outstanding leadership, taking the Rays all the way to the World Series. With 27 home runs, and 85 RBI's, he was among a small list of rookies with numbers like that.

When the Twins faced the Tampa Bay Rays yesterday, they took on their Opening Day starter, James Shields.

To say the least, Shields wasn't very good; he allowed the Twins to score 11 runs on 12 hits in just over four innings of work. Nonetheless, he got his work in and moved one start closer to the regular season and the innings that matter.

I continue the all-time tour with the defending AL Champion Tampa Bay Rays.
 
Since we’re dealing with over a century and thousands of players on my lists, I will assume the DH role for both leagues. I will limit the teams to 25 players. I’ll carry 13 batters and 12 pitchers for each team.

Cole Hamels most likely won't be on the mound when Opening Night comes around next Sunday for the Philadelphia Phillies.

His trip from sunny Clearwater to Philadelphia last week to see doctors about his elbow tightness means he won't debut until the team's fourth game against Colorado.

David Price won't open the 2009 season with the Tampa Bay Rays.

He will be in the minors, where the Rays will closely monitor his early-season workload hopefully he will be fresh for the dog days of summer.

If you live in Tampa Bay and you are headed to a Rays game in April, David Price won't be there.

On Wednesday, in a move that really shocked me, David Price and four others were optioned to Triple-A Durham.

While the move didn't shock Price and others, I still wasn't expecting it, not after what he accomplished in the playoffs last year to help the Rays win the AL Championship.

Price said he "absolutely" believes Rays intended to send him down no matter how he pitched this spring and he wasn't surprised to be cut.

Dear fans of the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees,

Keep praying.

Pray that the Rays are not for real, but I'm here to tell you they are.

The Rays finished with 97 wins last year, and will many will be quick to say they will regress from that number, it's not likely to happen.  Not with their young stars in the making.

The Rays lineup this year:

C - Dioner Navarro.  A 25-year-old All-Star in 2008 is likely entering his prime.  Sorry Yankee fans, you're stuck worrying whether or not Posada can still play the position.

Tampa Bay finished 13th in the majors in runs scored with 774 last year.  They are looking to improve on those numbers with the additions of some hitters (Burrell and Joyce), the healing of some stars (Upton and Crawford), and the maturation of a stud (Longoria). 

I’m going to take a look at the Rays lineup to see what each player is looking to contribute to this year’s offense.

Well, they're here—the carrots at the end of the stick, the Three Gorillas in the American League East.

The Tampa Bay Rays, New York Yankees, and Boston Red Sox look like enormous, rampaging beasts who will run roughshod through the rest of Major League Baseball while recovering from titanic clashes with each other.

Baseball rarely shakes down according to specs, but it's really tough to see how the mere mortals of the MLB world can deal with these guys on a daily basis.  Even if you make every effort to see the gaps in armor and soft underbellies.

MLB Teams of Interest

by ChrisArena, sportsinsights.com

Just like our NBA Teams of Interest article, this article is going to examine some teams around Major League Baseball, searching for value opportunities in the sports betting marketplace.