Quote:
Originally Posted by 1998 Yankees
You look at the Rays roster from this past season and you see Pena, Upton, Iwamura, Harris, Crawford, and Young all hitting .282 or better and four of them finishing with 80 RBI's or more, and you wonder how they could have lost 96 games. Then you look at that pitching staff . . . After Kazmir and Shields, nobody. Look out AL East? Not until you fix that, and only if you hold onto your young stars.
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Yes...pitching remains the big question mark. No doubt about that. But if the Rays continue with their current philosophy of developing pitching from within...you gotta like where they are headed.
Mitch Talbot, Jeff Nieman, and David Price are all big time prospects who will be ML ready soon.
Pair them with Kazmir, Sheilds, and improving Edwin Jackson and you have a good rotation.
I'm not claiming that the Rays will win the AL East in 2008. or even in 2009...only that this is a team that is slowly but surely improving.