The Tampa Bay Devil Rays

Wow it’s amazing, the Tampa Bay Rays are in first place in the American League East! It turns out the beast of the east is now the Rays passing the two power house Major League Baseball giants, the New York Yankees and the red red oh so red Boston Red Sox. Granted that the season only opened up a couple of days ago, the Tampa Bay Rays have taken a two game lead over every body else and are currently undefeated. With Evan Longoria knocking two home runs and about five RBI’s, it seems that this guy is averaging out to have 162 home runs this season to go with about 700 RBI’s.
Along with Longoria, you have Carl Crawford who had a walk off single during the home opener, is in the final year of his contract and has openly expressed his desire to stay but will likely end up in pin stripes next year. So they have one last good year with him before he is gone, so they need to make the best out of this situation. Then you have Carlos Pena who is a gold glover and can smack the crap out of the baseball. And BJ Upton who plays in center field is a major contributer because he can hunt down any ball that has a 100 foot radius from him.
With such a young team, a lot of people wonder if they even have a shot at making it as a contender for the World Series. And since it has only been two games into the season it’s hard to predict if they can stay in shape the way they are now. After 162 games played in a single season, it is hard for a baseball player to stay healthy. So with the main question to be answered, if they can stay healthy and not have any slumps they are sure to make one of the spots in the playoffs.
A lot of people say that this Tampa Bay Rays team looks a lot like the 2008 team that ended up going to the World Series. And most say that they will likely make it this year again. I really would like to see them pull it off and they seem to have the right tools for the job except for one rusted nail, unknown where his nick name came from Pat “The Bat” Burrell was not worth the $8 million last year and so far doesn’t appear so for this year. He’s more like Pat “The Crap” Burrell, during a spring training game I personally asked him how many home runs he is going to get this season and he replied “ I don’t know, 1. And I am pretty sure he meant it. What the Tampa Bay Rays need to do is try and trade away this piece of crap for even some prospects and they would still have the better of the deal. They should give this DH opportunity to someone more deserving like Willy Aybar who can produce hits and RBI’s.