Thank goodness the Rays got Joe Maddon’s deal done so efficiently. Thank goodness it is for a good period of time. And thank goodness it is done before anyone takes a fungo out of storage.
With that final cherry on top of a very very good offseason, the Rays can head to Port Charlotte and focus on nothing but the 2012 season. That is a rare gift.
Even though ballplayers come to spring training in good physical condition (brace yourselves for ‘best shape of his career’ week) they still need the month to get re-acclimated to the big league game. There is almost nothing a player can do to simulate the speed of Major League Baseball. So, they get in camp, work with the coaching staff, see some live pitching, make defensive plays in game scenarios, and generally prepare for the long haul ahead.
Almost every team, however, has to spend some of their time evaluating players and finalizing a roster. That is a necessary evil this time of year but it takes away from preparation. (I remember one former D-Rays skipper complaining that he couldn’t work with the starting rightfielder who needed to cut down his swing because the GM made him go evaluate 20 players that were never going to make the team). The more time a coaching staff has to spend evaluating talent, the less time it can spend preparing players for the season. Thanks to the fine work of the Rays’ front office, we aren’t facing that particular problem.
For the first time in club history, the Rays are going to open camp without any questions. The roster is basically set. Some variation of the lineup, rotation, and bullpen structure is basically set. Everyone that matters is under contract for several seasons. Heck, the team is even the most popular pro sports team in the area [per the Scarborough Report].
Sure, Joe will have to look at Reid Brignac, Sean Rodriguez, and Jeff Keppinger at shortstop. Sure, Joe will have to decide on a backup catcher. Sure, Joe will have to nail down the rotation. But those aren’t really “battles” in the traditional sense. Joe uses every asset on the roster so regularly that any “loser” of a battle is still going to see significant playing time. In fact, I would think it is pretty unlikely that we will even be able to declare a “winner” at short or catcher.
That means the mad scientist, who I think is becoming the consensus best manager in baseball, has a month to mold one of the best rosters in baseball into an AL East winner. I like our odds.
I am with you 100% on this Mark. I think the chaos and turmoil caused by losses and position battles last offseason had a lot to do with our terrible start. If you look at last years team, you could argue that even a mediocre start would have put us in contention to win the AL East rather than settle for the wild card. My question now, is how does the team deal with being the “favorites” and not the underdogs? Many talking heads are proclaiming this team the best in baseball, not just the AL East. We definitely don’t have the lovable underdog feel this year. This team had pitching talent to spare, speed, and golden glove caliber defense blankets the field. We’re not sneaking up on anyone this season. The core guys have dealt with this before, but the new faces have not. Joyce, Moore, Jennings, haven’t seen this side of the coin. That being said, if anyone can make the team cope and gel together it is Maddon. I have faith. I don’t like the odds, I love them.
You raise an interesting question. We’ve only been the frontrunner once. We weren’t terribly at it but we weren’t great. Do we really think it is easier to be the underdog? It’s not like we snuck up on anyone since 2008.
I beg to differ, Mark. The Rays were highly coveted in 2009 coming off the heels of the miracle 2008 season, and it was a mediocre season (wow…who would have thought I would call a Rays record of 84-78 mediocre!!). They were favored by a handful of experts even, so I’m personally quite nervous about this year.
2009 is the frontrunner-mediocre season I was referring to.
Oops.
The thing about 2009 is, we had that World Series hangover to deal with as well. We also had to figure out:
Short offseason
Funky spring trying to deal with the short offseason
Young arms
New DH
None of those things are hanging out there this year. Right?
Well Mark, I suppose you could draw both similarities and differences to the 2009 team. I think this team is better prepared than the 2009 team for the pressure success brings, but consider this. The 2008 Rays had a highly touted prospect pitcher, David Price, who was moving into the rotation from the bullpen. This year we have Matt Moore, an even more touted prospect going from late season call up to full time starter. In 2009 we went out on a limb and signed a big(ish) name to DH, Pat Burrell. This season we have done the same thing and signed Luke Scott. True that the offseason is more stable this go around and we have had a full offseason, but there are some other differences this year that may or may not work out.
We have just brought a big name back to Tampa that isn’t old and washed up, and that is Pena. There is a veteran catcher, but no one knows if he can hold up for an entire season and the backup options aren’t attractive to put it gently. I don’t know that Maddon has had this many nationally recognizable names on a team in his tenure yet, granted most of them worked themselves to that position from the Rays farm system. Matt Joyce could suffer a slump, it is only his second full season. We could still potentially bomb at the short stop position.
There’s a lot to like, but a lot to be cautious about as well. I can’t say it enough though, I think the potential for success heavily outweighs the potential for failure.
That made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
But, I think I can save it. Luke Scott is not Pat Burrell because Luke Scott has DH’d before and Burrell hadn’t.