Do you think the Tampa Bay Rays are for real now?

Question

I wonder what the Rays haters such as Red Sox and Yankees fans think now. The Rays are on top of the AL and also tied for the best record in baseball. I just wonder how much more proof they need. The game tonight was some great baseball in every respect, defense, pitching, offense and thats even with the obvious bad call at 1st base against BJ Upton. With 3 key players on the disabled list ...These guys are AWESOME!!

Answer 1

I hate them but they've been a top team for years just bad luck! They have Rocci who's injured with fatigue... He randomly is too tired to play. That's some weird **** that doesn't happen often, kinda the Tampa Bay way.

They had problems with players attitudes, ie Julio Lugo & Demitri Young & have never had good starters. They just didn't have any starting pitching. The best thing they could've ever done was steal Kamir from the Mets for Zambrano hahaha. Mets said they would never trade him but needed a pitcher for the playoffs.

They also gave up Danny Baez along with Lance Carter for Edwin Jackson and Chuck Tiffany in 06. Take a look at Baez stats with the Rays. It just didn't seem like the owners, gms & or coaches were doing their job.

It wasn't until Stuart Sternberg purchesed the Rays in 04 and became the Managing General Partner in 05 did they finally realize how to build a baseball team.

Answer 2

Yea their the real deal. Their young and winning. They will keep getting better too as years go on. If they can add a veteran or 2 to kinda help the young guys then that would be a huge help. But we won't know till next year. Maybe its just one good year but we don't know yet. Maybe they could be good for only a couple years and start falling apart and find themselves at the bottom. I doubt it tho but. With them being as good as they are now it really made the AL east a much harder division with the Red Sox Yankees Blue Jays the orioles but not to too much extent and now the Rays. That is a division that even 90 wins may not even get you a wild card.

Answer 3

ahhh....beat the Angels again....Even w/ umpires making bad calls. Dont hate me either cause i have loved the Rays even when they werent....good at all and i mean 100 loss seasons

Answer 4

Being a Yankee fan, I admit the Rays are good & do have best record in baseball & congrats on that but until they win a play off game, play off series or a World Series, the Rays have nothing on the Yankees or the Red Sox until they win something.

Answer 5

I think they've been "real" for a while now this year.  It's amazing that a team just known for futility throughout their existence have really turned things around like this.  

Answer 6

Jez!  Tampa is for real amigo.  How can you not like these guys?  The salaries of the entire team make up that of two Yankees!!!  Proves money cannot buy happiness (or a winning team George or in my country, Jorge!)

Answer 7

Ok ray fans stop with the same question everytime you win a game.

your in first place you dont need to prove anything

Edit:

dude now you just stercthing it.  red sox are in second place there will make it.

yankees its questionable.

Answer 8

the 7 game slump did make me a little bit skeptical, but a 14-4

august is enough for me to consider them for real.

Answer 9

I think quite a few people saw it coming - the core players were very solid; they just needed a few pieces to tie it all together - mainly pitching.  Enter Trever Miller and Dan Wheeler, once part of a very good Houston Astros bullpen; James Shields and Scott Kazmir finally put it all together, and they've been cruising, and the addition of Matt Garza really seemed to shore up the staff.

Eric Hinske and Cliff Floyd added veteran leadership for the position players, and Joe Maddon got them all believing.  I can't say that I saw this amount of success this early, but if you watched this team the last few years, you knew success wasn't terribly far off.

Answer 10

Rays are good but I just don't think they have what it takes to do it. If they get into the playoffs they'll get swept. There pitching will be bad and there bats will go silent.  Rays might not get into the playoffs. They could choke. People thought the Mets would get in last year and look what happened. Thats why baseball is so exciting. Anything could happen in this sport.

Answer 11

Nope not at all they will die in the playoffs. they proved they werent real with that big slump they had mid season allowing the yankees and redsox to become contendors to win the division.

Answer 12

I think they are for real. What they're doing this season is absolutely incredible. Just listen back to baseball analysts during the off-season. When mentioning the AL East, it was the usual Yankees-Red Sox discussion.

The Yankees and Red Sox may have a higher (okay, much higher!) payroll and more big-name players. What the Rays lack in those categories they make up for in team chemistry.

Answer 13

I have always wished the Rays do something amazing stuck in that Red Sox/Yankee dominating AL East.

Unfortunately.

I do not believe they are for real when they make it to the playoffs. I think they will go down in the first round. I just can not see them contending with the powerhouse Angels, the run-scoring White Sox, or Boston when it comes down to the wire. All three teams (my predictions for the playoffs...though very obvious) I see are far superior when it comes to the end. The Rays had a great run and an amazing season, maybe next year, but this year I just can not see it happening with the competition they are up against. I think that the Angels/White Sox/Red Sox are the most likely to make it to the WS. Angels are by far the best team out there, and the Rays do scrap up wins, most wins as of right now, but they will lack the pitching rotation/bullpen and the big experienced hitters of the other AL teams.

Answer 14

HA I hear you bro, all I ever got was the "It's early" or "It's only June or July" comments from particularly Yankees fans! It aint early no more boys!! How about the Yankees fans where are they now?! It's so funny how the bandwagoners are out when their team is two games out of first but when they get to 8 or 9 they shut up quick!! Rays own that division for the next ten years and all fans will respect it and learn to love it and deal with it.

Answer 15

I knew this would happen from spring training, they deserve the AL East. They have been stepped on for years and years by the Yankees and Red Sox, and now its the Rays turn. Go Rays!