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Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Best starting rotation in baseball? Look no further than Tampa

Ok, so maybe folks in Florida still aren't paying attention to the Tampa Bay Rays, but the rest of the baseball world sure is these days.

The Rays, 18-7, are off to the best start since the New York Yankees in 2003.

And guess what?

They're not going away.

"You hear people talk about that team,'' Boston Red Sox manager Terry Francona says, "but no one ever talks about that pitching. That staff is good. Real good. Real, real good.''

Just how good?

"They have the best starting rotation in baseball,'' says Jim Fregosi, special assistant to Atlanta Braves GM Frank Wren, who just saw the Rays over the weekend. "You talk about [Matt] Garza, he's got as good of stuff as anybody in baseball. [James] Shields and [David] Price and [Wade] Davis are just coming into their own. And [Jeff] Niemann had the best year of anybody on that staff.

"Yeah, they're pretty good.''

The Rays have the stats to prove it, too. The starting rotation is 14-3 with a 2.64 ERA, averaging nearly 6 2/3 innings a start. The next-lowest ERA in the league belongs to Seattle with a 3.23 ERA, but they have produced just six victories.

Oh yeah, and they're young too, with an average age of just 26.19 -- second-lowest in the major leagues behind Detroit.

Now, if the Rays can just get folks to watch them. They are averaging 23,065 fans a game -- ninth-lowest in baseball.

"I'd like to see that we're getting to the point where they don't come to see the opposition,'' Rays manager Joe Maddon says. "They come out to see us.

"That's the part I think is missing. You always talk about who we're playing, and we get a good crowd for Boston, we get a good crowd for New York, whatever, that's wonderful.

"But at some point, come see the Rays."

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