Tampa Bay Devil Rays 2003 Season Preview

by Adam Ulrey

The big question is not will new manager Lou Pinella make a difference, but when Pinella will lose it. He has never been one to have much patience and he'll need to be this year. The Devil Rays will be very young and will most likely make a ton of errors. I have always thought Pinella was a good manager, not a great manager. So it was kind of odd that GM Chuck LaMar would go out and hire Pinella to manage the Devil Rays. This is an organization that just seems to compound mistakes one after another. LaMar has proven in five years that he is one of the worst GMs ever. He has no direction on how to build a team. He has changed his philosophy from one season to the next. The hire of Pinella was to bring in a name, but this team really needed to have a young manager with more patience to deal with all the young players this team has. Pinella will defiantly get them to play better and be better fundamentally, but he also will blow his gasket over mistakes. I can't believe that all of a sudden he would change and become what he needs to be, and that is a teacher. There's a lot of talent on this team, but they are also a couple years away from that talent reaping rewards.

I have always been a fan of Travis Lee and I really think if he listens to Pinella on the art of hitting that he will finally have the kind of season that he feels he's capable of having. Last year he only hit 13 homers, and has hit 22 and 20 his two other seasons as a full time player. He's a very good fielder and will help make the infielders better. Look for him to hit 25 homers. Brent Abernathy is a player who has not played up to his potential yet, and Pinella sent a message to him by bringing in Marlon Anderson to compete for the second base job. Abernathy hit just .242 with a horrible OBP of .288. Anderson will play multiple positions and will be used like Mark McLemore was under Pinella at Seattle. The Devil Rays bought into the Rey Ordonez is a good shortstop belief. Yes he makes spectacular plays, but the reason for this is he's always out of position. Then he has to dive to make what would normally be a routine play. If ever a position player needed to be DH it's Ordonez. But his bat is so bad, at best this guy should be a designated fielder. Over at third base will be a very good young hitter in Aubrey Huff. He will also play some first base and DH. He hit 23 homers and batted .313 last year. Backing him up will be Ryne Sandberg's nephew Jared Sandberg, who hit 18 homers. Toby Hall who has a good arm and the potential to be a power hitter will handle the catching. The Devil Rays would love to just get rid of Greg Vaughn and his 9-million dollar salary, but he's not hitting bad so far this spring and they might showcase him during the year so they can trade him around the trading deadline.

The outfield consists of two future stars in Carl Crawford and Rocco Baldelli. They both are being rushed to the majors and it will be interesting to see how Lou handles these kids if they go into a prolonged slump. Crawford was able to get 250 plus at bats last year and fared pretty well hitting .259 with 9 steals. Under Pinella look for Crawford to run more and he'll likely be the lead off hitter by default. Baldelli was named California League MVP last year and is jumping over both Double and Triple A. He has a ton of talent, but he really should spend the year at Triple A. Look for him to struggle. They both have the ability to be a part of the Devil Rays for years to come. In right field will be Ben Grieve who becomes a free agent at the end of the year and will be shown the door. It's amazing how fast this guy has fallen off the map. It was just five years ago they were comparing his batting ability to Ted Williams. First off that's a mistake to compare anybody to Williams. Grieve has been a solid hitter, but he makes a turtle look fast. He has zero speed and is a below average glove. He is ticketed for a career as a DH. He batted just .251 with 19 homers last year.

The pitching is where Pinella will lose his mind. The young starters will walk batters and drive him to a nervous breakdown. Chris Bosio is getting his first crack at being a pitching coach and he's been given the worst staff in baseball. Joe Kennedy is the bright spot having gone 8-11 with a 4.53 ERA. Veteran Steve Parris will follow him in the rotation. Parris pitched for the Blue Jays last year and went 5-5 with a very high ERA of 5.97. The rest of the staff is made up of young untested kids. Victor Zambrano (8-8 5.53 ERA), Dewon Brazelton (0-1 4.58 ERA) and Nick Bierbrodt who missed all of last year after being shot will make up the rest of the rotation. Bierbrodt has looked very good this spring and will probably make the staff. If any of young guns don't make the grade look for Jim Parque, Jorge Sosa or Jason Standridge to step into the rotation. This is a staff that will be hard pressed to win many games.

The bullpen will be important because they will be counted on for a ton of innings. Travis Harper and Lance Carter will probably share the closer role. If they can't cut it then Pinella will turn to whoever else is hot. Travis Phelps, Matt Perisho, Jesus Colome and veteran Bob Wells will make up the bulk of the pen. The Devil Rays brought in a bunch of pitchers to help make the bullpen better than last year. Bobby Seay, Jose Paniagua and former Braves pitcher Kevin McGlinchey will try and help. Again like the starters this group is very weak and if Bosio can get this staff to get it's team ERA under 5.00 he should get a raise.

I do like the direction this team is going with the idea of building from within, but it will be asking much for this team to not lose 90 games. Don't be surprised if they find a way to scrap out 70 wins. If Pinella can get them to lose less than 90 games it will be a miracle. If you're a Devil Rays fan plan for another last place finish, but at least this team will be worth watching. Also follow my weekly update on the Devil Rays all during the season on www.thediamondangle.com.