The Tampa Bay Rays are in a very interesting spot at the All-Star break
The Tampa Bay Rays are 49-41 at the All-Star break which has them in 3rd place in the A.L. East, 6 games behind the Red Sox in the division and 5 games behind the Yankees in the A.L. Wild Card race. The Rays could be buyers or sellers at the trade deadline depending on how the next couple of weeks go as they will be playing the Red Sox and Yankees right out of the chute when the All-Star break is over. Here is a look at the players who made the biggest impact on the Rays in the first half of the 2011 season:
Team MVP: 29-year old righty starting pitcher James Shields has been incredible this year for the Rays. Shields has started 19 games for the Rays so far this year and he is 8-7 with a 2.33 ERA and a 0.98 WHIP. He has only given up 106 hits while walking 34 batters in his first 142 2/3 innings this year with 137 whiffs, which shows just how good he has been. Shields should have a lot more wins than he does this year but the Rays are only hitting .245 as a team and they are only averaging 4.2 runs scored per game.
Biggest Surprise: This is a tie between 28-year old lefty swinging 1B Casey Kotchman and 35-year old righty closer Kyle Farnsworth, as they have both been incredible so far this year. Casey Kotchman came out of nowhere to replace Carlos Pena as the Rays’ starting 1B and he has been awesome both in the field defensively and with the bat. He has played in 75 games for the Rays so far this year and he is 82 for 244 (.336 avg, .849 OPS) with 21 runs scored, 3 homers, 25 RBIs and 1 stolen base. The Rays didn’t have a closer when spring training started back in February. 35-year old righty Kyle Farnsworth stepped up in spring training and he took over as the closer despite only having 27 career saves in his first 12 years in the majors with a career high of 16. Farnsworth has pitched in 39 games (0 starts) for the Rays so far this year and he is 3-1 with 17 saves (a new career high), a 2.02 ERA and a 0.90 WHIP.
Biggest Disappointment: 39-year old righty swinging DH/LF Manny Ramirez was signed over the winter to provide Evan Longoria will protection in the batting order. That didn’t last long as Ramirez resigned from major league baseball in April instead of serving a 100-game suspension for failing a drug test for performance enhancers. Ramirez played in 5 games for the Rays this year and he was 1 for 17 (.059 avg, .118 OPS) with 1 RBI.