Do you think that the D Rays will ever win the world series?

Question

I am a fan, and if anyone else is please post an answer. NO SWEARING!!

I saw them play this year. When I went, a woman said that since they aren't the best team they might get traded to another city. The tickets for Tropicana Field are only like $7. Its a good deal.

I like Rocko Baldelli, he's a great player.
I wish Red Sox didn't get Lugo though. He's a great base stealer.

GO DEVIL RAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I even have a visor and personalized shirt. #10!

Answer 1

The word "ever" means to me some period of time without end. A better question might be, "Will the Rays ever win a world series in your life time?". The Rays actually have a good core of young players and if management is willing to spend a little money for a key player or two I believe they could surprise a lot of teams in the near future. I can assure you that you will have a winner one of these years, notice I did not say one of these decades.

Answer 2

Lets say probably not. The problem isn't winning a series. Its getting to the playoffs period.

They're in the same division with the Yankees AND the Red Sox. Small Market teams can compete, but not when you have the two most resourceful organizations to contend with. Remember that baseball has a schedule weighted heavier with divisional games. So it more than simply being able to wrest the division from the Yanks/BoSox, its the fact that they have to play so many of their games against those two behemoths (and the Jays aren't a joke either). That makes even a wildcard difficult to muster most years.

Whereas the Twins can periodically take advantage of a down division or extremely weak opponent (Royals and 05' Tigers?), the Rays will never have a respite, most divisional wins are always going to be a struggle.

You can be a fairly weak team that squeaks in and has a magical Florida or St. Louis like run. But Tampa Bay doesn't play in their divisions or league. (I think its interesting to note that most of the recent 'fluke' out of nowhere World Series teams come out of the NL. Its probably because theres fewer gigantic market teams.

All this being said, few sports afford the opportunity for a miracle season. It only few killer aces and some luck to make a contender... just don't make any reservations.

Answer 3

I think that the Devil Rays will eventually feild a competative ballclub and if they are anything like the Toronto Blue Jays, they will eventually win the world series. And what I mean by that is that the Jays where an expansion franchise that started off in the 70s, and for the most part they weren't very good. In the 80s they made a couple of playoff appearances, but it wasn't until the early 90s that they became dominant.

They have two world championships in the early 90s, but in the time it took for that to happen, to me it brings up the phrase "Rome wasn't built in a day."

It seems that the Devil Rays are on a path that is similar to what the Jays took. The problem with the D-Rays is while they produce players, they don't spend enough money to keep them.

Consider that the guy who is the all time homerun leader for the Devil Rays Aubrey Huff now plays for the Orioles, a divisional opponant, who has hit well his old team with a couple of homeruns including a walk-off in Baltimore.

My question is that when free agency hits, will the Rays do what it takes to increase that payroll to keep guys like Crawford, and Baldelli who will likely attract interest from other teams with better track records for winning?

And what about that pitching, the Rays can produce some good position players, but it seems like the one decent pitcher they've produced in Chad Gaudin now plays for Oakland (Scott Kazmir was the product of the Mets system who was traded to TB).

It seems to me that as a fan who watches the D-Rays 18-19 times a year as the opposing team, the front office down there doesn't spend enoungh funds to keep the foundation from getting stronger. Especially since the prospects that they produce may very well find themselves with other franchises before their careers are over.

Answer 4

I'm not a fan of the team per say, but I do really like some of the D-Ray players. The problem with TB is that they won't spend money under the current ownership. They draft great players with high picks, develope them, and sell them off for profit or more prospects to restart the process. It's very hard for a young team with no vetren leadership to be competitive in MLB, let alone in a conference with Yanks and Red Sox. Even if ownership were to change, new owners would most likely continue down the same path because it's profitable. The team needs to pursue vetrens to compete. Keep that in mind.

Answer 5

I absolutely think the Devil Rays have a chance. As others have said, money is a big issue. I also wonder if it comes right down to it, do free agents want to play in a stadium that resembles a warehouse? Despite all the potential stars on the field, Tampa Bay will never go anywhere if they do not develop 3 through 5 starters and a dependable bullpen.

Answer 6

I'm also a fan of the Rays. For us to even go to the series, our pitching would have to improve dramatically, especially the bullpen. If we could get somebody like Gaudin (oh yeah, we had him) that would help. The front office's handling of pitching personnel really stinks. We had 2 closers last year, they couldn't decide who to keep so they traded them both! Ithink if we can keep our young position players here for another 5 yrs and get some pitching, yeah the Rays can win the series but they have to hold onto these young guys. We're already seeing the decline of the Yankees and theSox are getting old too. We just gotta spend our money smartly on pitching.
Who has the longest tenure on the Rays? CC & Baldelli?

Answer 7

It's actually very possible the D-Rays could win the World Series. To do so, they might actually have to spend money to keep their young talent in Tampa Bay. I also think getting a veteran catcher might help, because they have so many young pitchers, that he might be able to help them give up a few less runs.
Lastly, the D-Rays need to learn to spend money. I'm not saying have a $100 million payroll, but maybe spend money (wisely) on one or two big bats, a relief pitcher, and maybe a new hitting coach or pitching coach. They don't have to totally redo their team, just make a few changes, but not go overboard.

Voila! Competitive team!


EDIT:
You can have Julio Lugo!

Answer 8

Right now, the D-Rays have a lot of young talent like Carl Crawford and Scott Kazmir. I doubt that the D-Rays will have a good record this year so I am guessing that they will get a good pick in next years draft and get more good young players so that the D-Rays will win the World Series but I am not sure that its going to happen before 2012 unless something unusual happens between now and then (like a blockbuster trade).

Answer 9

They are amazing at drafting (whether that's because they have the first pick every year, I don't know)
They are amazing at finding the head cases too.

However, while they assemble the team, they don't spend anywhere close to the league average (about 40% of the average).

Now, developing players is great, but for some reason, they can't develop pitchers and can't reward their batters enough for them to stay in Tampa.

(and I am not talking about signing everyone under the sun, just keeping players that are good and not trading them away in their 6th spring)

I am not familiar with the attendence at Devil Ray games, but it may seem to be an issue.
If there are fans who aren't happy with the team, it's in your control to do something about it with support.

Answer 10

First, they need to finish .500, then worry about the World Series. I think the people of the Tampa/St. Petersburg area are getting tired of losing and it's starting to show as far as the attendance goes. The Rays have been on ESPN at least twice to my knowledge since they started playing. If they would get some pitching, they might see light at the end of the tunnel.