The sadness of the Rays

• 
  
  • Rays were done when they lost 3 of 4 to Chisox, around then Buerhle threw his PG. they have lost home series to the Yanks, Bosox and tigers since then (not to mention a 1-5 road trip vs LAA and SEA, teams they are better than, or at least as good as.
    I love watching them. I love Maddon, I love Longoria, Bartlett, and even Upton (for his defense). They should be the best team in baseball, if not at least top 5. And they just havent played like it. Their bullpen is to blame first of all, because of its April and recent blow-ups (most notably @SEA, and Howell again @Tor, coming off a fantastic Kazmir start.
    But more importantly, their starters simply havent learned how to consistently go 6-7 innings without having major meltdowns at some point. Be it Garza walking them loaded and having to k the side in the first just to get out unscathed (hypothetical but realistic), or Shields throwing gems when the team doesnt score, and giving up big innings everytime they actually put runs on the board.
    Davis Price will be fine, he will be CC Sabathia good. But right now, this team is missing something. Their defense is worse than last year, I am sure of it. They are getting no production out of CF (Upton), catcher (Dionner Navarro) or DH (Pat Burrell, Gabe Gross-types).
    Basically they have been carried by Evan Longoria, Carl Crawford, Jason Bartlett, and Ben Zobrist, with occasional appearances, albeit impressive, from 1b Carlos Pena.
  • I dont know enough about pitching coaches to know if its Jim Hickey or not, but someone who knows should take a look and see. This team is a top 3 AL team EASILY. This is a shame. They belong with the Red Sox and Phils. A very sad baseball story to me.