Spoiled Fans No More
July 15th, 2016
Thursday was a good day. The Rays couldn’t lose!
Joe hopes you’ve polished off the Patron during the All-Star break, because you’ll need a fresh bottle when the season’s second half begins tonight against the Orioles at the Trop.
Sorry, this campaign is a lost cause.
Let’s be real, Tampa Bay fans were spoiled in recent years. It’s rare that a summer feels hopeless by mid-July. You must go all the way back to 2007 to find a year when the Rays/Devil Rays didn’t win at least 77 games.
Remember how 80-82 felt like a disappointment last year? Oh, we were naïve!
With a 34-54 record, Tampa Bay will be fortunate to crack 70 wins this season. The only drama left is to see who survives the trade deadline purge and if any young faces emerge as possible answers for the future.
Sigh.
That’s life in the basement. The Rays have earned this fate with their terrible play and lack of depth in key areas. Manager Kevin Cash has received heat from fans, but Joe considers Tampa Bay’s slide a collective problem from the front-office suits on down. No one receives a gold star for work done this year.
Joe doesn’t consider the Rays to be an organization capable of a major shakeup, but perhaps one will come if this ridiculous tumble continues.
Keep your alcohol shelf stocked.
July 15th, 2016 at 1:04 pm
Joe you are right about the front office: mistake after ****ing mistake! Bad signing after bad signing and there has not been a trade where the Rays have gotten the upper hand since they unloaded Garza for Guyer and Archer. However you have to realize that cash has cost the Rays 5-10 games through his mismanagement of games as well! Think of all the ****ing gaffes this genius has made: using Steve Geltz in any close game after the 1st time he served up a bomb to seal an L yet Cash let that happen 3 or 4 times before pulling the plug and then allowed the guy to serve up a few more homers when he was recalled…), pulling Matt Andriese out of games where he is cruising in order to put in one of the %h&t relievers in the pen who promptly surrendered the lead with that loss to the Tigers after leading 7-2 into the 9th coming to mind! Thus I think a competent manager would have the rays quite a bit closer to 0.500 (maybe 41-47 instead of 34-54, its only 7 games but that is a helluva lot more respectable albeit still only good for the basement)…
The continued employment of one Derek Shelton is another unsolved mystery that is right up there with DB Cooper, who killed JFK, Malaysia Airline Fight 370 and Emelia Earhart…… Has Stu ever canned anyone since taking the reigns from Vince N? In hind sight it is pretty obvious why Andy Friedman and Joe M jumped ship when their contracts allowed them; they saw what was on the horizon years before us fans did!
July 15th, 2016 at 4:39 pm
Hey Dave – They sent Conger down to AAA. That’ll fix it !
July 16th, 2016 at 3:17 am
Oh yeah Darth, what a genius move by the front office. That should help the Rays get right back to 0.500! Getting Jepsen back was a stroke of genius as well (nothing like signing a cast off from the one AL team with a worse record than the Rays). He did get a clean inning tonight, of course that is after Cash left Archer in for that game losing homer. That makes it 23 of 26 in the L column does it not? Gotta love Kevin Cash and the Rays braintrust!