No More "What If" Time for the Tampa Bay Rays

by Adam Markowitz

I know that it's only April, but shouldn't we take a second to step back and realize just how good the Tampa Bay Rays have been this season? After all, they're an MLB best 17-5 overall, easily the best road team in the game at 9-1, have a +69 run differential, which is almost double the differential of any other team in the bigs, they're #1 in offense at 6.45 runs per game, #5 in team ERA at 3.18, and for my money, they just happen to be the most exciting, young team to watch in arguably any sport in this country.



Let's remember that two years ago, Tampa Bay took the "Devil" out of its name and suddenly became a legitimate contender, winning 97 games, the AL East title, and the American League pennant before getting dumped in the World Series by the Philadelphia Phillies.



To win 84 games in 2009 and finish third in the AL East standings behind the almighty Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees was nothing to be ashamed of for the new sweethearts of baseball. However, let's look at where we were at this time last year, shall we?



At April 30th, 2009, Tampa Bay was 9-14, 5.5 games behind the Sox for the top spot in the division and 3.5 games in the rear view mirror of the Yankees. If you fast forward to the end of June, the Rays were then 44-35, an improvement of 14 games in relation to where they were at two months prior to it, and they were right there, just four games back of Boston and 1.5 of New York. On August 9th, Tampa Bay was 61-50, and though New York had already gone on its insane run to put the division championship out of reach, the boys from Beantown were only 1.5 games in the distance.



That's when it all broke loose for Tampa Bay. The Rays lost three straight games to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, then traded LHP Scott Kazmir, and ultimately ended up going on an 11 game tailspin that wrecked the remainder of their season.



Now, let's start to talk about the significance of April once again. The Rays jumped out to the division lead and never looked back in 2008. In 2009, had they gotten off to the 17-5 start that they have now as opposed to the 9-14 they were at this time last year, they would've been in front of Boston that entire time, probably never would've lost confidence and gone on that ridiculous 11 game losing streak, Kazmir would still be in Tampa Bay, Wade Davis might've been traded for San Diego Padres 1B Adrian Gonzalez, the Rays would've probably won the AL Wild Card, taken out the Angels, and had an epic seven game clash with the Yankees for the right to play the Phillies once again in the World Series.



Ok, so maybe I'm being a little overdramatic here. But still, most of the "baseball people" out there realize that the Rays were the best 84 team that they ever saw in 2009. Some of it was scheduling... after all, who the hell wants to play New York and Boston for a combined 38 of your 162 games? Some of it was the fact that the team probably wasn't as strong in '08 as they played.



But if you look at the young core of the Rays and what Manager Joe Maddon has put together, this was the year that the team was shooting at. 2010 was designed to be Tampa Bay's year. It was the year before LF Carl Crawford tested the free agent waters, and was before guys like Kazmir, RHP Matt Garza, RHP James Shields, and the sorts started inching closer to their contract years. The time is now for Tampa Bay.



So though it's fun to play the "What If" game with the 2009 Tampa Bay Rays, it'll be a lot more fun for the 2010 edition of the team to not have to ask any such questions.



Feel the heat, my friends. Feel the heat.

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