Baseball's Opening Day is closing in fast

Baseball's Opening day is fast approaching, bringing with it all the hope and optimism for a great season ahead. Never mind that in my case I happen to hold the Tampa Bay Rays close to my heart. This franchise has yet to record a winning record in it's history....nor even a single season reaching 71 victories.

Optimism and hope are the words that define Americas' national pastime. In every city, and in every spring training camp, the echo of past failures temporarily disappears as the new season nears. Once the new season begins reality often sets in quickly.... but more on that later.

As a lifelong fan of baseball, I have been trained not to get too overly optimistic each spring. After all, I began my journey as a Washington Senators fan. In those days and with that club reality was usually set in stone by mid April as another trip towards the cellar of the American League was well on its way.

How is this year different for the Rays?

The Rays have acquired an abundance of talented, young players. That alone does not translate into a winning team, however, the core group of players are rapidly developing before our eyes.

Outfielders B.J. Upton and Carl Crawford are solid defensively, have speed, and in Upton's case, becoming an offensive impact player that complements Crawford very well in the lineup. The loss of Rocco Baldelli is certainly an early season disappointment and how well he is replaced by the committee of right fielders is yet to be determined. Cliff Floyd brings a solid bat and clubhouse presence, while Johny Gomes brings drama with some timely home runs scattered about.

The infield has been remade from last year. Aki Iwamura has moved his gold glove quality defense to second base making room for the highly touted rookie Evan Longoria at third. Jason Bartlett was acquired from Minnesota during the off season in the Delmon Young trade. He had a few too many errors last year (26), but has great range at shortstop, and even with the high amount of miscues is an improvement defensively from Brendan Harris who was the primary shortstop last year.

Unknown though is how well Bartlett will hit, and whether Longoria is ready to become a productive everyday third baseman. If there is some struggle for consistency, the Rays have added Willy Aybar as insurance.

Optimism? Well, so far basically some pieces have changed...some for the better and some for the worse. In baseball, it nearly always comes down to pitching and last year the Rays were below dreadful if ever such a level could exist.

But what about the pitching? And the bullpen?

Last year's optimism quickly faded by the time the Rays starting rotation had taken a couple of turns. They were pretty good as a unit, but that was at AAA when most of the starters were sent down at some point. The ERA of the starters ended up being over 5 runs per game by seasons end. That's about as bad as it can get, right?

Wrong.

Now factor in the bullpen. They were worse. Impossible to believe, but they were much worse than the starting staff. There was never an 11-2 lead that was safe. Home runs, hit batters, base on balls, pitching from behind in the count .....were all guilty points from a bullpen that may have been the worst in the history of baseball. Al Reyes, as the closer, mostly was not part of the atrocity that was witnessed far too regularly.

The worst bullpen in the history of baseball? Well, a little research needs to be done first, but it will be very hard to beat a staff bullpen ERA of 6.16 in any era. But, these numbers were last year and thankfully that bullpen no longer exists.

Optimism and hope can be turned into expectations when the pitching is very good. This year, some of the live young arms may start to show fruition. Scott Kazmir led the AL in strikeouts while James Shields would have been the AL iron man for innings pitched had he not been shutdown in September. If healthy, expect both to win 15 games.

Matt Garza, acquired in the Delmon Young trade, is expected to join the rotation. Garza, the Twins' 2006 minor league player of the year, has much potential although his debut 2007 season was spotty at best. How much he contributes this year remains to be seen.

Edwin Jackson and Andy Sonnanstine complement the staff. Jackson struggled much of last year but showed signs of being dominant late in the season especially with his 98 mph fastball. This pre season has been up and down for Jackson, but he appears to be working things out of late. When...or if...Jackson gains command of his fastball, lookout.

Sonnanstine has a rubber arm, great control, but lost many of his starts last year because of the occasional 4 run inning. If he cuts down on the meatball pitches, big innings against him should subside.

Both Jackson and Sonnanstine could easily be 10-12 game winners. Or 15 game losers.

On the bubble is Jeff Niemann. The 6'9" pitcher has struggled with health recently, but has been outstanding this spring. He'll add depth to a rotation should health or consistency from any of the starters become problematic.

That dreadful bullpen from last year has been remade, with the addition of Troy Percival as the closer and Al Reyes moving to be the set up man. Both pitchers have had significant health issues in the recent past, but both remained healthy last year. J P Howell and Dan Wheeler add quality depth.

Optimism and the bottom line? Pitching as a whole will be much better than last year, but offensively the Rays may have lost some punch with the departures of Young and Harris.

Defensively, the Rays will show significant improvement....especially up the middle which is where it counts....that will aid a young pitching staff immensely. Pitching and defense go hand in hand, and has always been the recipe for success in baseball.

The bottom line is this : we should finally see a season that at minimum keeps fans interested until the dog days of August. The Rays will finish with their finest record ever at around 82-80, and others will realize that this team is to be reckoned with for some time to come. And many thousands of new fans will have discovered the joy of baseball.........in Tampa/St. Pete, mark it down.