Rays have more answers than questions this year

ST. PETERSBURG - Ninety-nine losses and a sixth consecutive last-place finish made for plenty of long nights over the past 12 months. But as the Devil Rays look at their progress from the opening of their last spring training to the eve of this year's, they're convinced they are light years ahead.

They have more good players. More depth. More competition.

And fewer questions.

"From an organization standpoint, this might be the biggest one-year leap we've ever made," general manager Chuck LaMar said. "I don't think you could look back since we began and pick a period where we've made more improvement in more areas."

Manager Lou Piniella found a few funny lines in last season's struggles and some considerable value as he and LaMar used the year to evaluate precisely what they had and to determine exactly what they needed to do about it.

As a result, they figure they are improved because the players they kept will be better and because they replaced the others with better players.

"At this time last year we didn't really know what we had, and we weren't sure if our young kids were ready to play," Piniella said. "We've come so far in a year.

"We felt last year if we could end up with 12 or 13 players off that team we could grow with, we'd be way ahead of the game. And that's exactly what's happened. ... It usually takes an organization a couple years at least to go through what we did last year."

Once they decided on a plan, LaMar went to work. With only about $10-million to spend (and a payroll budget of about $21-million to stay under), the Rays added 14 to the 40-man roster, plus brought in several name players on minor-league deals who have a chance to make the club.

"I think we made more moves than any team in baseball, and give Chuck and his staff credit for that," Piniella said. "To me, we're the most improved team in the division. ... This is a nice ballclub we have here. We don't really have the marquee names that maybe Boston or the Yankees have, but we have good professional baseball players that will bring invaluable experience and leadership to our situation."

The Rays feel the team is better in every facet. They talk about the outfield of Carl Crawford, Rocco Baldelli and Jose Cruz Jr. being one of the game's best. That no matter who plays where the middle infield will be improved with Rey Sanchez joining Julio Lugo. That Aubrey Huff will benefit from having Cruz and Tino Martinez around him in the lineup, with Baldelli and Crawford getting better with age. That the bullpen is stronger with Danys Baez closing and workhorse Trever Miller and Lance Carter as setup men. That a bench featuring some combination of Deivi Cruz, Robert Fick, Brook Fordyce, Eduardo Perez and Damian Rolls will be one of the most productive in either league.

Because of the work LaMar and Piniella have done so far, there won't be that much to be decided once spring training opens Feb. 15. And most of the decisions will be between known commodities rather than depending on unproven players.

The biggest question is the makeup of the rotation behind returnees Victor Zambrano and Jeremi Gonzalez. Piniella said lefty Mark Hendrickson and rookie Doug Waechter have the "inside track" for spots, but there will be open competition including at least Paul Abbott, Rob Bell, Dewon Brazelton and lefties John Halama and Damian Moss.

They have to decide whether to keep Lugo at shortstop and play Sanchez at second or, as they said previously, move Lugo to second and put Sanchez at short (knowing B.J. Upton likely will take over by the end of the year). "Going in, I'm leaning toward Lugo playing short and Sanchez playing second," Piniella said. "We'll see what happens."

After that, the next biggest questions might be the final couple spots in the bullpen (Travis Harper? Chad Gaudin? Jorge Sosa? Jesus Colome? Mike Williams? Todd Jones?) and the division of playing time at third, with Geoff Blum hoping for full-time work and Rolls and Deivi Cruz (and possibly Fernando Tatis) seeking a piece of the action.

Everything won't work out as planned. Someone will struggle. There may be a key injury. The trip to Japan will be a disruption, and there may be other distractions, such as the sale of the team.

But it's easy to see how far they've come, from the talent in the lineup to the quality of players competing for jobs to Piniella's guarantee they won't finish last.

"Looking back," LaMar said, "last year was truly the turning point in this organization."