The Tampa Bay Rays

In 2011 The Rays made the playoffs after the miraculous game 162. That day game 162 took place will go down in history. The Rays finished with a record of 91-71 and won the wild card, but were eliminated by The Texas Ranges in the ALDS.

I don't know how The Rays managed to get four playoff appearances since 2008 with a payroll under $80 million. They do things like extending players, such as Even Logoria and Matt Moore when they are young. They offer these contracts for a long time favoring the team, and offering less money than the player would deserve in the future.

The Rays strengthened their lineup by bringing back Carlos Pena. He has hit 172 home runs since 2007, giving him an average of 34.4 home runs a year. He is a definite slugger. His defense is also very under rated, he earned a gold glove award in 2008. They also have the face of their franchise Even Longoria. Longoria is 26 and has 4 years in the major leagues. He has a .360 on base percentage and a .515 slugging percentage over that time. He is a definite force to be reckoned with. The Rays also have the most under rated player in all of baseball, he is Ben Zobrist. This guy can play almost every position and he has played 150 or more games for the past 3 seasons. He has a .367 OBP over those 3 years with an average of 19 home runs and 85 RBI's. People underrate him and I don't know why.

Lets not forget about The Ray's rotation. David Price emerged on the scene in 2010 finishing second in the Cy Young voting, but in 2011 he had a fluctuation in ERA. He had a 3.49 ERA in 2011 which is acceptable seeing that he pitched 224 innings and had 212 strikeouts. The star pitcher for The Rays in 2011 was James Shields. Shields pitched 249 innings with a 2.82 ERA and 225 strikeouts. That was good enough for him to finished 3rd in the Cy Young voting. Finally Matt Moore is the young 22 year old left hander for The Rays who was miraculous for The Rays in the short time we saw him in 2011. He is currently rated the number 1 pitching prospect and has a lot to prove.

I honestly don't know how The Rays finished ball games. They don't have any notable relievers. Kyle Farnsworth picked up 25 saves with a 2.18 ERA over 57 innings pitched. So I guess he took the role of the closer for The Rays.He was really the only one worth mentioning. The Rays pretty much stitched things together for the other innings.

The final thing worth discussing is BJ Upton. Upton had 1 good season in 2007, collecting a .386 on base percentage and a .508 slugging percentage. Since then he took has been taking a steep decline. In 2011 he bounced back a little bit collecting a .331 on base percentage and a .429 slugging percentage . I expect him to be on the climb again and help The Rays offensively this season.