Tuesday, 4 a.m.
For the Tampa Bay Rays, the long-term question is where they will end up. It could be in St. Petersburg. Maybe Tampa. Maybe Montreal or Oakland or Narnia.
For the Rays, the immediate question is the same. Where will they end up this year? In fourth place? Fifth? Could they surprise everyone and finish third?
Are they still the smartest kid in gym class? Can their pitching depth lift up their hitting holes? Can they be a major league team playing in a minor league ballpark?
A year ago, the Rays simply didn’t have enough punch. Will that be the same this year? Will their prospects turn into players?
We’ll see.
What are the Rays’ strengths? Well, they have pitching depth. We know that. They could use a true ace like Shane McClanahan
. The bullpen figures to be pretty good. But will they hit enough to keep pace with the Yankees and Orioles?
The Rays have a solid manager in Kevin Cash. But can he continue to win with pawns? He's worked magic in his time here, but can he build another run? Or is that too much to ask,
There is so much uncertainty with the Rays. It’s never been easy to be a Tampa Bay fan. There is never enough payroll, and never enough hitting, and the trades all seem lopsided. That, you can bet, will be the same this year. If the Rays don’t start well, and they decide to move players, it will be with the day-after-tomorrow in mind. All of that comes with a strain on Rays’ fans. No, there aren’t enough of them, but I’d suggest that the Rays are one of the hardest teams to pull for in the bigs.
Still, it is baseball, and for a team with few fans and little finances, they’ve done fairly well over the years.
And so we prepare to watch Yandy and Junior and Josh and the boys, and we hope the wimning streaks last longer than the losing ones. And we look at the war-torn Tropicana Field, we hoping it comes back from the injured list with games inside.
It’s baseball, such as it is.
And it’s worth watching. And hoping.