Tampa Bay baseball: A Decade of Defeat

While they may have a potential of upside and a strong minor league system, in the last 10 years the Rays have been anything but contenders. They round their first decade out with a 645-972 record and 100 loss seasons in 2001, 2002 and 2006.

Again my selections for best player at each position are based on statistics earned with the Rays.

At catcher, the choice is between Toby Hall, who played for the team from 2000 to 2006, and John Flaherty, who played as a Ray from 1998 to 2002. Hall is the leader in games played at the position with 578 and in opening day games started with five. Flaherty appeared in 471 games in Tampa and started four opening day games.

The players are pretty similar in their contributions to the Tampa Bay offense in their careers, but I am going to give the nod to Flaherty, who had his career year in Tampa Bay in 1999 with a .271 average, 53 runs, 14 home runs and 71 runs batted in.

First base is far easier. Despite Carlos Pena's 2007 season of 99 runs, 46 home runs and 122 runs batted in, the nod is going to Fred McGriff, who played 550 games with the team from 1998 to 2001 and 2004. 

McGriff, while well known throughout his career in Toronto, San Diego and Atlanta, made huge offensive contributions during his time in a Rays uniform. McGriff represented Tampa in the 2000 All-Star game and put up three straight 25-plus, 100-plus runs batted in seasons in 1999, 2000 and 2001.

Second base poses a challenge with no clear winner. You certainly can't ignore Jorge Cantu's offensive explosion in 2005 when he hit 28 home runs and drove in 122, while hitting .286. The problem, as Tampa Bay fans know all too well is what happened to Cantu after that season. 

The rest of his Big League career, which as spanned only another two years, he hit 15 home runs, scored another 52 runs, drove in a mere 75 and batted .250. What a disappointment.

Miguel Cairo, the franchise leader in games played at second base, should be considered too despite his weak offensive numbers. Cairo played for the Rays from 1998 to 2000, appearing in 389 games. He had back to back 20-plus steal seasons in 1999 and 2000 and hit a respectable .295 in 2000.

Because of Cantu's strange disintegration of offense in 2006, I am going to name Cairo as the second baseman of the decade.

Shortstop, like second base, does not have an overly strong candidate, but I am going to give the honor to Julio Lugo, who played with Tampa from 2003 to 2006. In that time he had a 15 home run season (2003), a 39 steal season (2005), back-to-back 80-plus RBI seasons (2004, 2005) and a .295 batting average (2005).

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