Wow. Tampa Bay's window for winning AL East pennants and World Series championships lasted about as long as it takes a David Price fastball to reach home plate.
The longest-ever tenured Ray, Carl Crawford, bolted for the New Evil Empire in Boston. Other clubhouse stalwarts like Carlos Pena, Matt Garza, and Rafael Soriano left for more money, a better team, or a combination of both.
The Rays are doomed once again to fighting the Blue Jays and the much-improved Orioles for third place in the AL East. Evan Longoria is sure to go next...
...or maybe not.
What do the defending World Series champs in San Francisco have? Pitching. A ton of it. Hitting can always be slapped together for a playoff run (see Cody Ross), but solid pitching is an art form that must be developed.
The Rays have a good balance of power and speed in the batting order, capable of winning 90 games in 2011.
But the buck stops at the second starter for the Rays: James Shields.
Shields has to find his inner Back the to Future and return to the kind of dominance he exhibited in the 2007 and 2008 seasons. In those two season combined, he had a 3.70 ERA and a microscopic 1.13 WHIP.
In 2008, no AL pitcher threw the change-up more often than James Shields at 26 percent of pitches. His notable fall off during the 2009 season and 2010 season can directly be attributed to his avoidance of his change-up.
Tampa Bay must get a strong 2011 out of Shields in order to compete for the AL East or Wild Card. There is no substitute for a formidable one-two punch in a team's rotation, and the Rays can have theirs with a few more 75 miles-per-hour pitches from Shields.
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
- Login to post comments