Rays refuse to be patsies

Lou Piniella is realistic but demanding and wants to see steady improvement.

By MARC TOPKIN, Times Staff Writer

© St. Petersburg Times
published March 31, 2003

ST. PETERSBURG -- For a man whose life has been winning, the idea of such a meager goal is so distasteful that he has stopped referring to it publicly.

The Devil Rays open their first season under Lou Piniella this afternoon hoping to win at least 70 games, which would be more than in any of their first five seasons, and 15 more than last season. And given how inexperienced -- and inexpensive, with an onfield payroll of $15-million -- their team is, that might be quite a victory.

For Rays fans, such talk of modest expectations sounds like more of the same they have been hearing for years. But for Piniella, who comes home to Tampa Bay as one of the game's winningest managers, this is something new.

And something that he doesn't plan to have last.

He told the players in a meeting before Sunday's workout "we have a much better ballclub here than people think" and he expects them to prove that each day despite competing in the rugged AL East.

"Our job here is to win baseball games; let's not downplay that," Piniella said. "We're not here for an exercise. We're here to win some baseball games, and the more we win, the better. We're not here just to be a patsy for somebody, I can tell you that."

Piniella has what amounts to a three-year plan, to get to 70 or so wins this season, to 80 or so next season and into contention by 2005, and this is the first step.

"I want to see the team play hard every day, I want to see the team win its share of games and I want to see improvement as the season goes on," Piniella said. "That's the big thing, to see improvement."

General manager Chuck LaMar said one of his goals is to determine which of the younger players -- 16 of the opening-day 25 have fewer than three years' big-league experience -- are worth keeping when they expect to move forward next season.

"Every season your goal at the major-league level should be and has to be to win as many games as you possibly can; that's what we get paid to do and that's what the organization must do," LaMar said.

"However, in our situation wins and losses are not our only goal. This year, probably as much as any year we've ever had, we must find out which young players can we truly build a championship club with, because I believe in the offseason of 2003 when we find that nucleus we're going to be able to add payroll and some quality veteran pieces to this club to make it more competitive."

The Rays think they finally have a good head start, figuring by the end of the season they could have 12-15 players who could be considered part of a brighter future.

"I'm excited to be part of this group," third baseman Aubrey Huff said. "In a couple years we're going to have a contender in this organization. With the young guys we have here, if everyone plays together and we keep this group here and we gel together, it's going to be fun to watch."

As much as the Rays want to think about the future, they want to forget about the past.

Piniella said Sunday that none of it -- the five straight last-place finishes, the back-to-back 100-loss seasons, the overall legacy of losing -- matters. "I don't care about the team history," he said. "What's happened here in the past is of no concern whatsoever."

What matters most is what happens now, starting at 5:15 p.m. with Joe Kennedy's first pitch to Boston's Johnny Damon, and continuing with a brutal opening stretch: 13 of their first 16 games against the Red Sox and Yankees.

"You have to play them sometime, so you might as well play them early and hope they're not operating on all cylinders," Piniella said.

The Rays have a pitching staff that has looked impressive in the spring but is sorely lacking experience. No one in the rotation has proven he can be counted on for 200 innings, and no one in the bullpen has more than five saves. (The relief staff has 10 total.)

The offense is short on power, so Piniella will do what he can to manufacture runs, trying to use the speed at the top of the order (Carl Crawford and Rocco Baldelli) and productive left-handers in the middle (Huff, Travis Lee, Ben Grieve and Al Martin) to overcome the lack of firepower.

The product is likely to be a lot of close games in which they Rays have to count on their pitching and improved defense to keep it close so they can win it with some timely hitting.

They see hope of getting to 70 wins in the frustration of last year's near misses: the 40 losses lost with the tying or winning run at the plate; the 28 in which they came up one run short; the 10 they blew after leading with at least one out in the ninth inning.

"I like our chances of winning a lot more games than we did last year," Huff said.

But overall, that's still not much.

"I think everyone realizes we're not going to be competing once again," Grieve said. "There's goals you can set, like improving a certain amount on last year, but obviously we're not a good team. You asked me what kind of team we have and I say we're not very good."