As the 2008 baseball season nears, the Sportable staff will take the time to break down every major league baseball team. We will look at their hitting and their pitching and evaluate their playoff chances.

New Name, New Look, New Result? Tampa Bay has been the definition of a struggling baseball franchise since their inception in 1998. They have managed to finish out of last place only once, and that was in 2004 under then manager Lou Piniella. This year as current manager Joe Maddon enters his third season he hopes to turn the fate of the team around, and he just might have the talent to do it.

Bats: The Rays field a trio out outfields who are among the best young talents in the game. Carl Crawford anchors the outfield and provides great speed (to the tune of 50 stolen bases last year) and is an incredible threat at the lead off position. Alongside Crawford is B.J. Upton, who in his first major league season last year joined the 20-20 club, notching 24 home runs and 22 stolen bases. Filling out the trio is Rocco Baldelli who has great potential but has always had to battle injuries throughout his career. He has shown flashes of brilliance, posting a .302 average in 92 games in 2006 but he will need to find this consistency again in 2008 for the Rays to have any hope. Knowing the unlikeliness of this actually happening, the Rays went out and acquired Cliff Floyd to step in once Baldelli goes down, and they hope this isn’t a significant decrease in productivity. Providing the pop in the middle of the lineup for the Rays is going to be last years comeback player of the year Carlos Pena. Pena launched 46 home runs last year, and the Rays are hoping for a repeat performance this year, though I’m sure they will take anything over 30 home runs. The rest of their infield is young, and will probably need at least another year under their belts before they become serious contributors.

Pitching. The good news is that the Rays have Scott Kazmir. The really bad news is that after that there is a noticeable drop off to the rest of their pitchers. James Shields stands second in line in the rotation, and his numbers last year are certainly impressive, a 12-8 record with a 3.85 ERA. However, last year was just Shields second year in the bigs, and he will need to put up similar numbers to these in order to ensure his number two spot behind Kazmir. The third starter in line is Matt Garza, who was highly touted within the Minnesota Twins organization before joining the Rays. He put up good numbers in limited time last year (5-7 3.69, 15 starts) but he will need to be prepared to be that good throughout the entire season. If Shields and Garza can come into their own behind the Cy Young contender Kazmir, then the Rays will be in an decent situation with their pitching. Their bullpen could use some help, and they are hoping that Troy Percival will be able to come back and be a solid closer for them. This is going to be a key point for the Rays this season, if Percival can regain his form and anchor down the bullpen then that should really help them win a number of close games, although that certainly isn’t guaranteed.

Prediction. This definitely is not the year that the Rays jump ahead of the Blue Jays, Yankees or Red Sox. They simply aren’t there yet, however after only finishing 3 games behind the Orioles, I am fully confident that this year they will finish ahead of them and comfortably in 4th place in the AL East. And who knows, if things go right, they may even be able to make a run at a .500 record. This team is built on youth, and they have another two or three years before their entire team is fully developed. If they can retain most of their core players then they will be able to make a run for a playoff berth in another few years. But for now, Tampa Bay fans will have to settle for 4th and some fun young talent to watch.