Tampa Bay Rays Tickets

About The Tampa Bay Rays

Focusing on continually cutting the payroll, the Rays are putting Joe Maddon under incredible pressure as manager. Tampa Bay went to work in the offseason, replacing Johnny Damon with a combination of Carlos Pena and Luke Scott and finding help in the bullpen with the addition of Fernando Rodney. What do those moves do for the Rays? They give Tampa a first baseman who hits for power and is pretty darn good covering the bag, a DH who comes at a bargain after a bad year, and a relief pitcher to shore up a more than iffy bullpen situation.

The Rays return perhaps the best starting rotation in the MLB. David Price, James Shields, Jeremy Hellickson, Wade Davis and Jeff Niemann are all young and still have room for improvement, which is quiet astounding given the fact they posted 93 quality starts last season. If one falters, then Maddon has an immediate replacement in Matt Moore.

Tampa’s offense is reliant on the combination of Scott, Pena, second baseman Ben Zorbist, third baseman Evan Longoria, center fielder B.J. Upton, and right fielder Matt Joyce. Longoria, especially, needs to have a comeback season. Last year he posted a .244 batting average, his worst in his career. This year he needs to get back up to that number around.280 where he typically hits. Upton is a perennial tease. He is a five-tool player but has never lived up to expectations. Thus the new expectations should be modified. Look for a batting average around .240, an OBP around .320, about 15 home runs, and 40 stolen bases.

The TicketSpecialists have the Tampa Bay Rays tickets for this brand new season, so find your great seats for cheap at Tropicana Field and cheer this baseball team on as they attempt to reach the playoffs for the fourth season in five years.