Tampa Bay Rays Season Preview

The Tampa Bay Rays have a new look after winning the American League East last season. Since 2002 Carl Crawford has been a star in the outfield for the Rays. He is the Rays' all-time leader in runs scored, hits, and RBI's. Now, Crawford will be in a Red Sox uniform playing against the Rays. The Rays also lost their first basemen Carlos Pena, who lead the team in homers at 28 last season, their shortstop Jason Bartlett, ace Matt Garza, and closer Rafael Soriano, who led the AL in saves at 45. The Rays added former Red Sox players Manny Ramirez and Johnny Damon to salvage the off-season. Although many people are counting the Rays out of repeating as division champions, Rays manager Joe Maddon said, "We're not going out there right now to just fill out a 162-game schedule. Our goal is to repeat as division winners this year and then moving on from there. These two guys definitely make us more solvent. There's no question." Johnny Damon is also confident in his new teams ability to repeat. He said, "Absolutely this team can win the American League East... What I really like about this team is you have two guys that you'd really like to build any franchise around. This team is bred to win right now." The Rays offense, which scored the third most runs last season in the league, will rely heavily on third baseman Evan Longoria to have another season like last year when he had 22 home runs and 104 RBI's. The X- factor for the Rays will be BJ Upton, who had his worst season last year since 2006 when he only hit .237 but you can always expect Upton to steal about 40 bases with his blazing speed.

Projected starting lineup:

1. Ben Zobrist, 2B

2. Johnny Damon, LF

3. Evan Longoria, 3B

4. Manny Ramirez, DH

5. Dan Johnson, 1B

6. B.J. Upton, CF

7. Matt Joyce, RF

8. Reid Brignac, SS

9. John Jaso, C

The question for the Rays rotation will be how the rookie Jeremy Hellickson will pitch in the fifth spot after he looked very impressive in his four spots last season. He was able to baffle the Red Sox last season using his fastball changeup, curveball, and cutter. Joe Maddon said, "I think he's kind of spoiled the fan base into thinking that he's pretty much infallible. So just understand that he's young, he's going to make some mistakes, he's going to have some rough nights. But by the end of the season, we're going to see a guy that's definitely capable of 10-plus wins with some really good numbers attached to them. That's always been what he's done in the past, and I don't think there's any reason to think that's going to change a lot." Rays pitching coach Jim Hickey said, "I expect him to be really, really good. I'm pretty certain he could not necessarily replicate all the numbers, but he could fill in the production we lost via Garza, the 200 innings and the 15 wins." There will be a lot of pressure on the young star to pitch well for the Rays at the back end of the rotation.

Projected starting rotation:

1. David Price

2. James Shields

3. Wade Davis

4. Jeff Niemann

5. Jeremy Hellickson

Projected closer:

Kyle Farnsworth