But, Gerry Fraley tries to make the comparison
As Tampa Bay did last season, Colorado shocked the baseball world in 2007. The Rockies rallied late in the regular season, got into the playoffs as a wild card after beating San Diego in a one-game playoff, and went all the way to the World Series before running out of gas. Boston swept the Rockies.
Colorado returned flat last season. An opening-day victory marked one of only two times that the Rockies had a winning record all season (they also were 9-8). They dropped to third place in the N.L. West with 74 wins, 16 fewer than the previous season.
Pitching led to the Rockies' demise.
Hmmm. The top five Rockies starters in 2008 were: Aaron Cook, Ubaldo Jimenez, Jeff Francis, Jorge De La Rosa and Greg Reynolds. Followed by names like Mark Redman, Livan Hernandez and Glendon Rusch. Even if the Rays have an injury or two over the course of the long season, I think any five man combination of: Shields, Kazmir, Garza, Sonnanstine, Price, Niemann, Talbot, Davis and Hammel is clearly better than the Rockies 2008 staff.
Andrew Friedman and Co. are referring to this new phase of the Rays organization as "Chapter 2."
"I think everyone in this organization thinks of this as Chapter 2," said GM Andrew Friedman. "And the exciting part about this is that everybody in this organization has a chance to shape the history of this franchise. And not many other organizations can claim that. It's a great responsibility, for all of us."
There are a lot of good quotes in the story, but this is my favorite.
"I was always embarrassed to go out before," Crawford laughed. "So I just stayed in a lot. But now, he's discovering already, it's OK. It's safe. They can walk the Florida streets. Now, he said, "I feel free. It's nice to go to Subway to get a sandwich now."