"And if all comes together and the stars align, they might get to 65 wins. Lou Piniella's franchise record of 70 looks safe. Wistful sigh. What a season that was."
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"Until that magic summer comes though, they're just another team that lost 101 games last year. They will be that until they prove they aren't" -Joe Henderson, Tampa Tribune
"This is a developing team entering a developing year. We are going nowhere, and there is no reason not to afford Upton the opportunity to field a position in the major leagues consistently."- Patrick Kennedy, DRays Bay
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What does it take to be a columnist in St. Pete/Tampa Bay these days?
Seriously, outside of Carter Gaddis, our Beat Writers writer better stuff than the eloquent eulogies that Henderson and Romano edit and re-word every 3 months. I'm getting sick and tired that the columnists want automatic perfection, now that they don't get pushed out of bathrooms by the owners anymore. They're damning the Front Office for not pursuing anyone really in this years' "ripe" Free Agent crop, which contained plenty of pitching because we need it ever so badly. Ooof, we got outbid for David Riske(who pitches way better than his pitching periphreals would project him to be), Octavio Dotel(who got bombed in his limited MLB appearances last year, post-rehabbing from TJS) and Eric Gagne(who has pitched 3 innings or so in the last 2 years). Um, I'd pass on that too.
One of our newest users(newyorkfaninlalaland) hear is saying the same thing, but that's perfectly okay because we know that he's a fan of another team and only casually keeps track of the Rays. However, he appears to be more in-tune with our organization than some hokey yokel who gets paid to write does. It's sickening that he doesn't take the time or care enough to actually look into things(i.e. our farm system) before he spouts out B.S.
I hope that every Devil Ray Spring Training Invitee prints out this article off the site or cuts it out of the newspaper and attaches it to their locker. Guys, you gotta prove this waste of oxygen wrong. Prove everyone wrong!
Now, you're probably wondering why I also used a quote from Patrick also.
Why?
My biggest pet peeve, other hearing Chicago Radio guys bash the Rays and say that every player on our team "wants out", is hearing someone say "we're going nowhere" before the season even starts. I understand what he's saying, in theory, that there's no pressure for us or Upton right now to consistently produce...but why are you already penciling us to being nowhere near the tops in anything?