With breaks, they hope to break even

As the Rays fifth season begins, manager Hal McRae is using a .500 record as a guideline to measure their progress.

By MARC TOPKIN, Times Staff Writer

© St. Petersburg Times
published April 2, 2002

ST. PETERSBURG -- As the Rays open their fifth season tonight, general manager Chuck LaMar, as is his job, tries to mix cautious optimism and reality.

He says he expects the Rays to win more than the 62 games they did last season, which means they'll avoiding becoming the first team to lose 100 games in consecutive seasons since the 1977-79 Blue Jays. And he says if everything goes right, if they stay healthy, their young players continue to develop and they play well, they could have their best season yet, which means they'll break the 70-win plateau for the first time and possibly escape last place.

Manager Hal McRae, as is his nature, says that's not enough.

"We want to be competitive," McRae said. "Winning half your games has to be a goal for everyone in baseball, and it's not a great accomplishment. You haven't done very much. But from where we sit we think it's achievable, and a realistic goal. And it would be an accomplishment.

"It means you're competitive, that you like to compete. That's what I hope to achieve this year, regardless of how difficult it might be, regardless of how short we are, regardless of what we don't have or don't possess. I see no reason to show up if you can't do that. That's not what it's all about. And if anybody thinks that's what it's all about, they're mistaken. Somehow, we've got to figure out a way to get that done."

Doing so, obviously, won't be easy.

To get to .500, the Rays would have to win 19 more than last season.

Over the past 20 years, not counting the strike-shortened 1994 and 19'95 seasons, there have been six teams that lost 100 and improved by at least 19 the next season. Only three -- the 1989 Orioles, the 1986 Indians, the 1986 Giants -- made it to .500.

To have any success, the Rays are going to have to have a lot of things go right: Every team needs to avoid major injuries to their star, but even minor injuries to lesser players could hurt the Rays because their bench is thin and their backups are inexperienced.

"The biggest thing is to stay healthy because we don't have a lot of depth in certain areas," second baseman Brent Abernathy said. "You can't expect to beat the best teams in the league day in and day out with a bunch of guys out there with no experience."

Their core young players, such as Toby Hall, Jason Tyner, Brent Abernathy and Joe Kennedy, have to play as well, and as hard, in their first full big-league seasons as they did last year.

"The way the players played the last three months has to continue," LaMar said. "We cannot have a fall-off in production because, quote, this is their first full season, or, quote, this is their first opening-day major-league roster. No. The production we saw out of the young players the second half of the season we have to pick up and actually improve upon."

And they have to keep the proper mind-set, playing aggressively, realizing they need to do whatever it takes to win, and staying positive, not allowing brief skids to turn into long slumps or bad weeks become horrible months.

"I think there needs to be a quiet cockiness about us, a little bit of arrogance," pitcher Paul Wilson said. "Not meaning that we're better than everyone when we walk on the field, but there has to be some kind of pride.

"We can't act like we're expecting to lose 100 games. Who wants to act like that? That attitude we had at the end of last year, when we were playing great baseball even though we were still in last place, there's no reason we can't start with that attitude. Right now, everyone's even. And if we can do that, I think we'll be successful."

LaMar has been criticized for not making substantial changes to a 100-loss team. His answer is that he made the moves during last season, jettisoning veterans Gerald Williams, Fred McGriff, Albie Lopez and Vinny Castilla, and starting the youth movement. The kids were all right, as the Rays went 35-39 in the second half, 24-23 the last two months.

Of the 25 players on the opening-day roster, 14 weren't there last season, 12 never have been on any major-league opening-day roster, three never have played in the majors (or better than Class A).

The Rays have the youngest team (average age of 27.51) and least-experienced team (average service time of 2 years, 162 days) in the majors, and by the end of the season, if not sooner, they will have the least-expensive team as LaMar follows orders to keep reducing a payroll that already has shrunk to $34-million.

"I think we can be better," Greg Vaughn said. "Yeah, we can be better."

"We must be better," McRae said. "Why show up if you're not going to be better?"

TONIGHT'S GAME

TIME: 7:15.

PITCHERS: Tigers, Jeff Weaver (13-16, 4.08 ERA in 2001) vs. Rays, Tanyon Sturtze (11-12, 4.42 in 2001).

WHERE: Tropicana Field, St. Petersburg.

TV: Ch. 32.

RADIO: WFLA-AM 970.

PROMOTIONS: All fans receive a schedule magnet.

TICKETS: Available at the Tropicana Field box office, through all Ticketmaster outlets, online at devilrays.com or ticketmaster.com and the Rays Dugout store at WestShore Plaza. Beach tickets ($5 for adults, $2 for seniors and children) are available two hours before game time at the box office and at the Devil Rays Express outside Gate 6.

INFORMATION: Toll-free (888) FAN-RAYS.