I'm not sure if anyone on this board follows the Rays or not, but seeing as that it's a Florida team, I thought there might be a few. I have been a fan of the team since their inception and I really need to vent. After last season, where we finished 30 games over .500, I was super stoked about the future direction of this team. Unfortunately, in the last 2 weeks, my frustration has boiled over as they have lost 2 of my favorite players on the team. The Rays catching situation has been an absolute mess for years. Season after season we've had to watch our catchers not only struggle at the plate, but in many cases they can't even even hit a measly .200. Finally, last year we found Travis d'Arnaud and things turned around. He hit .263 with 16 HRS and 67 RBI's in some very key situations. I could even make an argument that we was the main reason we were able to make the playoffs last season. Having a good offensive catcher made a huge difference. He should've been priority #1 in free agency, but instead, we let him go to the Braves on a two year $16 million deal. On top of that, how do we replace this huge loss at a key position? We re-sign Mike Zunino. The same player who hit .165 last season and .202 for his career. Ugh! As if that isn't bad enough, today comes word that we traded Tommy Pham. He hit .273 last season with 21 HRs and was the picture of consistency in 2019. He might've been our most consistent player. Who did we get in return? Hunter Renfrow. Yes, he did hit 33 HRS last season, but he also hit a paltry .216 for the season. Is the trade off for more home runs worth worth giving up so much consistency at the plate? I don't think so at all. We were so close last season and now, I see us starting to disintegrate once more. Why can't we have nice things? O.K., I'm done venting.

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Small market teams that dont spend are hard to root for. Fortunately my mets wont have to deal with the penny pinching wilpons anymore. I liked travis in NY he just never put it together for us. It was nice to see him have some big Homer's against the yanks last year for you guys

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Small market teams that dont spend are hard to root for. Fortunately my mets wont have to deal with the penny pinching wilpons anymore. I liked travis in NY he just never put it together for us. It was nice to see him have some big Homer's against the yanks last year for you guys

It is hard to root for frugal teams, but the Rays are beyond frugal. They consistently wait until FA is essentially over and sign all the guys no one wants to the cheapest contracts. If those players even show one year of success, warranting any type of a raise in arbitration, they are ready to ditch them. Personally, I don't think a 2 year $16 million deal is anywhere close to being excessive when signing a really good catcher who can hit, but the Rays disagreed. IMO, that is like an average MLB contract. Pham was also set to make $8 million in 2020. They traded him for Renfroe who is only supposed to make $3.4 million in 2020. Renfroe is also eligible for arbitration in 2021, so you know if he has anything close to a successful season the Rays will dump him too. They can't build up any consistency with this team when they keep getting rid of guys who show success.

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Small market teams that dont spend are hard to root for. Fortunately my mets wont have to deal with the penny pinching wilpons anymore. I liked travis in NY he just never put it together for us. It was nice to see him have some big Homer's against the yanks last year for you guys

It is hard to root for frugal teams, but the Rays are beyond frugal. They consistently wait until FA is essentially over and sign all the guys no one wants to the cheapest contracts. If those players even show one year of success, warranting any type of a raise in arbitration, they are ready to ditch them. Personally, I don't think a 2 year $16 million deal is anywhere close to being excessive when signing a really good catcher who can hit, but the Rays disagreed. IMO, that is like an average MLB contract. Pham was also set to make $8 million in 2020. They traded him for Renfroe who is only supposed to make $3.4 million in 2020. Renfroe is also eligible for arbitration in 2021, so you know if he has anything close to a successful season the Rays will dump him too. They can't build up any consistency with this team when they keep getting rid of guys who show success.

It defintiely sucks, gotta put more butts in the seats though. I think every owner wants to win, but when it comes down to it this is a business. Cant overspend and end up in the red. Florida just really doesnt care about baseball. Its the reason the Marlins could never keep together their world series teams either. Just not enough money down there.

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It is hard to root for frugal teams, but the Rays are beyond frugal. They consistently wait until FA is essentially over and sign all the guys no one wants to the cheapest contracts. If those players even show one year of success, warranting any type of a raise in arbitration, they are ready to ditch them. Personally, I don't think a 2 year $16 million deal is anywhere close to being excessive when signing a really good catcher who can hit, but the Rays disagreed. IMO, that is like an average MLB contract. Pham was also set to make $8 million in 2020. They traded him for Renfroe who is only supposed to make $3.4 million in 2020. Renfroe is also eligible for arbitration in 2021, so you know if he has anything close to a successful season the Rays will dump him too. They can't build up any consistency with this team when they keep getting rid of guys who show success.

It defintiely sucks, gotta put more butts in the seats though. I think every owner wants to win, but when it comes down to it this is a business. Cant overspend and end up in the red. Florida just really doesnt care about baseball. Its the reason the Marlins could never keep together their world series teams either. Just not enough money down there.

This is the main problem.  

It's too bad because, other than a few years, they seem to put together very competitive teams even with a bunch of pretty much cast-offs.

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I'm shocked baseball is still a professional sport.

I can't imagine a bigger waste of life than watching a 3 hour sport where literally nothing ever happens

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Rays number 5 in MLB.com pre-season power rankings....for whatever that is worth.

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d’Arnaud isn’t worth that contract. I don’t like Zunino, but still holding out hope they bring in somebody else via trade.

Pham was always going to be traded. The Rays will always sell valuable assets at their highest value no matter if they are in a rebuilding or contending phase. Pham will be 32 when the season starts, two years until a free agent and very injury prone. Now was the time to sell. I’m skeptical on the return, not the biggest fan of Renfroe or the top 50 prospect they got, but that has to wait. Then they traded a top prospect in Liberatore for a couple bats help the big club.

Liberatore, Pham, Cronenworth, pick 66 for Xavier Edwards, Renfroe, Jose Martinez, Arozarena, pick 37 is how it pretty much shapes up

Liberatore and Edwards are both top 50 prospects at least 3 years away, so that cancels out for now.

Then replaced Pham with Renfroe, Jose Martinez and Arozarena, not to mention moved up 30 spots in the draft.

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I guess I got my hopes up for nothing. The Rays are set to make a playoff run, but I was praying they were gonna trade for a catcher. We have the deepest farm system in the major league, but for some reason we can't get an everyday catcher that can even hit a paltry .200! I hope we are deep enough at other positions and pitching to overcome an "automatic out" in the lineup.

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I have to agree about d'Arnaud vs Zunino. I was mad. But this is still a pretty damn good Rays team. I'm more upset that I can't see a game in person this year. I normally like to see at least a couple a month.

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Rays are up 1-0 in the ALCS. They just find ways to win. When the bats go cold, the pitching gets hot.

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Rays are up 1-0 in the ALCS. They just find ways to win. When the bats go cold, the pitching gets hot.

Randy Arozarena is quickly becoming my favorite baseball player.

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Rays are up 1-0 in the ALCS. They just find ways to win. When the bats go cold, the pitching gets hot.

Randy Arozarena is quickly becoming my favorite baseball player.

Yeah, mine too. Except for a little bit of a cold streak in the regular season, he's been on fire.

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Randy Arozarena is quickly becoming my favorite baseball player.

Yeah, mine too. Except for a little bit of a cold streak in the regular season, he's been on fire.

His bat speed is amazing. He feasts on fastballs, but he has a little trouble with the outside breaking ball. He tends to chase them and miss-time his swing. He's gonna be fun to watch over the years. He finally gives the Rays a true power hitter.

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I can't watch even an inning of baseball for the life of me but I'm rooting for a Rays-Braves World Series.

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Rays are up 2-0 in the ALCS. It could be said they were better lucky than good in those two, but they've been winning games like that all year.

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Rays are up 2-0 in the ALCS. It could be said they were better lucky than good in those two, but they've been winning games like that all year.

Agreed. The 9th inning of yesterday's game made me a nervous wreck.

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Rays are up 2-0 in the ALCS. It could be said they were better lucky than good in those two, but they've been winning games like that all year.

Agreed. The 9th inning of yesterday's game made me a nervous wreck.

You and me both. I suppose Anderson was due an inning like that.

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Agreed. The 9th inning of yesterday's game made me a nervous wreck.

You and me both. I suppose Anderson was due an inning like that.

He had been lights out, up until then.

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We now have a commanding 3-0 lead over the Astros. Hopefully, we can close this thing out tomorrow and the team can get some well deserved rest before the WS. The pitching has been brilliant.

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