There's only one week left in March and it's officially time to get excited.
The Tampa Bay Devil Rays are about to break camp.
Sure, everyone's excited about the Yankees and Red Sox, Dice-K and the Rocket, and the overall mediocrity of the National League, but I'm just flat-out giddy over the Rays.
I know what you're saying. It's not often you find someone who actually confesses to being a Tampa Bay fan, let alone owning an actual Rays jersey (which I do), but I can't help it, I love the Devil Rays.
I didn't always used to be that way. It used to be I spent my springs day-dreaming about the Canyon of Heroes and World Series trophies. Now I fill my late winter and early spring days and nights pumping myself up over the prospect of competing for fourth-place in the AL East.
You see, I grew up as a Yankees fan, with my dad born and raised in the Bronx only minutes from Yankees Stadium. All my childhood, I heard stories of Mantle and Rizzuto, of Billy Martin and Reggie Jackson. But the Yankees I always knew were Yankees born and bred, drafted and developed, not bribed and bought.
I grew up with Derek Jeter, Bernie Williams, and Mariano Rivera before they were Jeter, Bernie and Rivera.
When the Yankees used to acquire someone, it was Scott Brosius and Tino Martinez, not Jason Giambi and Alex Rodriguez. I hated the Yankees of A-Rod and Giambino (Screw you, Sterling and Kay).
But everything changed with the fleecing of Scott Kazmir three years ago (Take that, Mets fans!).
Kazmir for Victor Zambrano was the perfect example of a big market team trading away their own, developing player for an older (and clearly worse) option who, supposedly, could help right away in the playoff chase. Of course, any Mets fan can tell me how that one worked out.
Most importantly, it was just like everything the Yankees had done for years. At one point, my buddies and I put together an actual all-star team complete with prospects and players the Yankees had traded away within a 5-7 year period. It was disgusting.
I took this as my chance to make a statement-albeit a statement that no one except me would notice-but a statement nonetheless. I switched my loyalties to the last-place, hopelessly inept Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
But something's happened since then, something that actually makes me believe this small-market team playing in the worst stadium in baseball can make some noise in 2007. How much noise is irrelevant because as long as the Rays are trapped in the American League East, they're perennially screwed. But this year things are going to be different.
Of course they've got Kazmir, one of the best young pitchers in all of baseball, but they've also got the best young outfield. Carl Crawford is the most unrecognized, great player in the major leagues and I'm convinced Rocco Baldelli is finally going to stay healthy and put it all together this year. Then, of course, there's wonder kid Delmon Young, he of bat-tossing fame.
Umpire abuse aside, the kid is seriously special. I'm talking top five outfielders in baseball special when he matures. On the low end of the spectrum, he compares to Vernon Wells, who hits for power, has the speed to steal 30 bases and strikes out more than you'd like but a high end comparison is a young Barry Bonds. High praise, I know, but calm down. I'm not calling Young the next great hitter in the history of baseball, but physically he looks the part and he can throw and run like a young Bonds. His ceiling probably lies somewhere between the two, maybe along the lines of a less athletic Carlos Beltran.
They've got what Baseball America calls "the strongest (farm) system in baseball," with recent No. 1 picks third baseman Evan Longoria and right-handed pitcher Jeff Niemann heading the list. Longoria and shortstop prospect Reid Brignac are going to man the left side of the Rays' infield for years to come.
And then of course, there's uber-prospect B.J. Upton. Granted, Upton seems to have no real position but for the time-being but he can learn in a Chone Figgins super-utility role while giving Johnny Gomes time to flame out as a full-time designated.
All this on top of young players Jorge Cantu, Dioner Navarro and Elijah Dukes makes me think that things may just be looking up for my Rays.
I've got a funny feeling this year. Call me optimistic, but I think the Rays actually have a chance to climb as high as third!
