Now is the summer of our discontent as the Rays are only 8 games over .500 at the approximate midway point of the season and languishing in the second place, a perch we're not accustomed to. This team looks good on paper but just can't seem to get out of its own way, and I do have some culprits in mind.
The Nationals, whom we vanquished in the 2029 World Series, are running roughshod on MLB.
Despite how much I've bemoaned the bullpen (and with good reason although they've pitched better lately, shaving about 1/3 run off their ERA) the biggest problem with this team is run-scoring as we're 3rd in the league in runs allowed. Which is kind of baffling considering this is largely the lineup that went to the World Series the last few years but the big move to shake it up earlier this season, the acquisition of
Ramifer Salinas, has been a bust. Salinas, who terrified the AL and us for year after year with the Yankees, has been just as bad as Andy Kelley was for us before we traded him for Salinas and nowhere near the Andrew Greckel replacement we envisioned him as. And he always seems to be coming up in key situations and not getting the job done. He's "hitting" 218/258/370 since joining us but how do you bench or otherwise give up on a guy rated 70 contact and 70 power?
And the thing is the other 8 spots in the lineup are all on pace for 3 WAR or better, so it's not like there's some kind of massive problem on offense. But we are kind of a lousy OBP team (9th in the league) while being first in slugging, so that's an issue but it's too late to remake the offense. We're just going to have to muddle through and hope some of these guys take a bigger step in the 2nd half, especially Salinas.
The pitching remains a bit of an enigma as well. Obviously having missed
James Hays for 5 starts (thankfully he'll be ready to make a rehab start in about 4-5 days) hasn't helped, and the big move to put
Kevin DiCostanzo in the rotation has yielded mixed results although he's shown promise.
Meanwhile we haven't looked at our prospects in a long time:
The top 3, including Penagos whom we just signed as our July 2 guy, are a ways away, but #4
Nate Strickland is more than ready to rake in MLB and has been on quite a homer tear at Durham recently. I've been considering bringing him up but he's a terrible 2B and he's not going to supplant Castro. 1B is his better position but obviously Crumpton's a fixture there so that leaves DH, where if Salinas doesn't start hitting I've half a mind to install Strickland there against righties as Nate's a lefty with a pronounced platoon difference. #10
Jonathan Guiterrez is probably also ready for the majors, but the same caveats apply - he's a lefty-swinging 1B.