The greatest (Devil) Rays of all time
(From the perspective of a concerned and slightly deranged Red Sox fan. As usual.)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we've heard . . . the Tampa Bay Rays are a wonderful story. Worst-to-first and all that. Bah.
Hey, after seeing them 18 times in the regular season -- and losing 10 -- no one needs to convince us that Longoria, Pena, Shields and the rest of this deep if hardly star-studded cast will be a formidable and legitimate opponent in the ALCS. Brace yourself for an epic, folks.
But if you're a Sox fan, you're starting miss the not-so-long-ago old days, when Tampa Bay had little talent and even less hope, and they were more likely to attempt to beat the stuffing out of Brian Daubach than put up a crooked number on the scoreboard.
So with those good times in mind, let's take a look back at some real Rays, and not these talented imposters who actually have the nerve to beat the Sox once in a while . . .
Catcher
John Flaherty: Pedro's unlikely nemesis put up a .207/.261/.273 line in '98, with three homers in 307 at-bats and a truly brutal OPS+ of 39. You have no idea how difficult it is for me to resist making a Jason Varitek joke right now.
First base
Steve Cox: He was the Rays' primary first baseman from 2000-02. I'm not saying he was non-descript, but I'm pretty sure not even his former teammates could pick him out of the team photo.
Second base
Brent Abernathy: In 463 at-bats in '02, he put up an OPS of .599 (so close to the elusive .600 mark!) and an OPS+ of 62. Conclusion: The Rays would have gotten more production had they played Dick Vitale at second base.
Shortstop
Julio Lugo: Oh, how we wish he'd remained a Ray for life.
Third base
Vinny Castilla: As if you needed more proof that the life of a ballplayer is a ridiculously blessed one: Castilla -- the epitome of a Coors Field fraud who hit .221 with an OPS+ of 43 for the '00 Rays -- made $44,936,500.00 in his major league career. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go hit my 2-year-old some fungoes.
Outfielders
Jason Tyner: This scrawny slap-hitter was supposed to be the next Brett Butler; he turned out to be a poor man's David Hulse, which is strange since David Hulse was the poor man's David Hulse. He played parts of four seasons for the Rays, hit zero home runs, and posted successive adjusted OPS numbers of 41, 70, 33, and 92. In retrospect, Derek Lowe couldn't have handpicked a better candidate to make the last out of his no-hitter.
Ben Grieve: The No. 1 overall pick by the A's in '94, he looked like a surefire superstar when he whacked 27 homers and drove in 104 runs at age 24 in 2000. But Billy Beane, who apparently knew something, shipped him to Tampa Bay in a three-way deal before the '01 season, and his career promptly and spectacularly fizzled. He was out of the majors for good in '05 at age 29. There's a compelling story here somewhere.
Gerald Williams: His nickname, "Ice," described his usual condition at the plate: he was a career .255 hitter.
Designated hitter
Jose Canseco: The biggest meathead in the history of baseball, and by a comfortable margin over the San Diego Chicken.
Starting pitchers
Ryan Rupe: If you remember that this enormous, erratic Jeff Juden clone pitched in four games for the 2003 Red Sox, well, you must be Ryan Rupe.
Tanyon Sturtze: Now this is what you call a lousy year: In '02, the Rays' "ace" posted a 5.18 ERA, allowing 273 hits and 89 walks in 224 innings for a WHIP of 1.61 and an adjusted ERA of 85. His won-lost record? 4-18. I'm still wondering how he won the four.
Victor Zambrano: He is to Jim Duquette what Larry Andersen is to Lou Gorman.
Relievers
Estaban Yan, Jesus Colome, Doug Creek, Travis Harper, Jorge Sosa: Come back, fellas. The late innings just aren't as fun without you.
(As is always our request with this sort of thing, tell us who we missed in the comments.)
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Greg Vaughn...What the heck happened to him as a hitter Oh thats right TESTING...
I actually remember Ryan Rupe because he was in the Sox farm system one year when I had purchased and played a particular baseball video game. I brought him up as a setup man, and he sucked. Art imitates life, eh?
As for guys left of the list, what abou that guy who played as recently as last year: he struck out about 215 times, but the Rays justified his presence because he would hit a whopping 12-15 homers per year. Anyone got a name for this chump? I think he was an outfielder.
Wade (Miller Lite) Boggs?
Isn't the strikeout guy in comment #2 none other than that punk, Jonny Gomes? The most famous Devil Ray of all time has to be Jim Morris, though, doesn't it? I mean the stats and time in the bigs aren't impressive, but how many teams ever trolled the high school teacher market to fill out their pen?
I have three
1. Dewon Brazelton: What kind of name is Dewon???
2. Jorge Cantu: Belongs in the Otis Nixon/Will McGee beauty paegant.
3. Joey Gathright: Could really run, but couldn't hit!
Greg Norton
How about randy winn? had a couple decent years...then was traded for lou pinella. yes, the lou pinella who stopped playing in the 70's or something like that. to rub salt in the wound, had winn stayed, he would be far and a way the greatest ray of all time
Fred McGriff, Greg Vaughn
for roll call of mediocrity - Quinton McCracken, Kevin (traded one-up for Abreu) Stocker, Bubba Trammell, Bobby Smith, Damien Rolls, Toby Hall, Lance (one of the all-time worst players to make an all-star team) Carter, Rolando Arrojo, Miguel Cairo, Jered Sandberg, and poor Tony Saunders...
When Vinny Castilla was playing in St. Pete, his nickname in the Bay area was: "Vinny Cash-Steala"
Here's my most memorable (not really) DEVIL Rays, year-by-year:
1998 - best name for a ballplayer since Razor Shines: Leftfielder Quinton McCracken; 1999 - All Sox fans remember Rolando Arrojo the Cuban Nothing-man; 2000 - Ozzie Guillen (why does that name sound familiar) playing out the string; 2001 - Former 16 game winner slowly winding down: the immortal Ken Hill; 2002 - Esteban Yan (he was the Ace!); 2003 - Dewon Brazelton ('nuff said!); 2004 - Midre Cummings (oh God, how I have missed the might Midre! Sox in 98 & back in 2000); 2005 - Kevin Cash (wait, really???)
Big time bonus babies: Matt White, never made it to the bigs, and Bobby Seay.
Do you remember the great Devil Ray career of former no-hitter pale sox Wilson Alvarez? How about the fact that Juan something or other signed a big free agent conract for 2 years and pitched a whole 2 innings? Actually Randy Winn was a good player and has had a good career, and Miguel Cairo was still hanging around this year. Rolando Arrojo actually had a couple of decent years pitching for the D-Rays, but he was a lot older than what he claimed to be. The trade of Bobby Abreu for Kevin Stocker set the stage for the first 10 years of the Devil Rays. Trading Victor Zambrano to the Mets for Scott Kazmir made up for it. How does Lou Piniella feel today while he is at home in Tampa watching the Rays play the Red Sox in the ALCS? Was this not supposed to be the year of the Cubs? LOL
That guy that Dennis Quaid played in the movie The Rookie.
I am wildly optimistic. Yes, we were 8-10 vs. the Rays this year but we outscored them by 20 runs and Dice-K, Beckett and Lester were 6-1 with a 1.93 ERA while Shields, Kazmir and Garza were 3-5 with a 5.25 ERA. In essence the Rays lived off of some of the sketchier pitching the Sox had to offer at certain points this year. I realize they are good and Crawford's return makes them even better and that Beckett may or may not be at his best and that Mike Lowell is not walking through that door. We still have a starting pitching advantage and a better player at virtually every position. The Red Sox are the better team. Sox in 5.
Brent Abernathy! He's a first-ballot member of the Peter Gammons Hall of Fame, along with Edgar Martinez and Corey Patterson (guys that the still-great PG hyped up to no end, only to have them fizzle terribly). Everyone that's nice to Gammons automatically is the first player to arrive at the ballpark and the last to leave.
I don't get the Carl Crawford fixation. Is it because he's fast and he's the longest tenured Ray? He has a Coco-esque .330 OBP for his career and his OPS+ is a pedestrian 102. Plus he has that weird tattoo on his neck. Crawford's a pretty good player, but he's about the 8th or 9th best on the Rays.
Wasn't it Steve Phillips who made the Zambrano/Kazmir deal? I thought I remembered him occasionally still taking guff for it on ESPN. But I might just be imagining things.
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Irreverence and insight from Chad Finn, a Globe/Boston.com sports writer and lifelong and incurable sports nut. Yes, he realizes how lucky he is. You can e-mail him at chadfinn4@yahoo.com.
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