Tampa Bay Rays So Far: Bad Managing, Under-Performing

Seventeen games in, and things are looking far from rosy for dear old Joe Maddon.

Hampered by injuries (the toll is currently 10 on the DL) and bad decisions, the Rays have gone 7-10 in what would appear to be another good 'ole Rays season, one that their weary fans, including me, are getting rather bored of.

The blame shouldn't be directed solely at Maddon, though. A sputtering offense has a grand total of 87 runs in 17 games, averaging out to 830 runs for the whole year.

Now, for another team, this may not be too bad. But for the Rays, the offense is meant to be their trump card. In a team that has little in the way of consistent pitching, there is little else to get excited about. We all got tired of getting excited about 'the future' midway through last year.

However, the buck stops here. In this case, 'here' is Joe Maddon. Allow me to review what has been going on thanks to Mr. Maddon.

The big story of the year was the trade that said goodbye to Delmon Young and Brendan Harris and hello to Matt Garza and Jason Bartlett.

Problem of the matter is, shortly after saying hello to Mr Garza, everyone promptly said goodbye as he went on the 15-day DL with a pre-existing injury woe.

As for Jason, well, the less said about his performance so far, the less it will hurt for all the suffering Rays fans.

So, resulting from Scott Kazmir and Matt Garza being on the DL, four of the pitchers in starting rotation are inconsistent youngsters whose performances are very unpredicatable.

Oh yeah, James Shields looks like he's one of them. So make that five of five.

The best looking pitcher of the lot is Edwin Jackson, who has followed on from his strong finish to 2007, directing his immense arm power to something that roughly constitutes the strike zone on a regular basis (2-1, 2.84 ERA).

Incredibly enough, the best looking part of the Rays organization this year is—shock—the bullpen. But even those guys have been made to look bad by Joe Maddon.

His poor replacement decisions have led to more than one loss. Prime example: the April 12 loss to the Orioles at home.

After Howell pitched a perfect eighth inning, he was inexplicably replaced by Miller (remember here, Howell used to be a starter and is more than capable of pitching two innings). He deserves credit for pitching perfectly for two-thirds of the ninth before being replaced by Wheeler, who got the final out for the Rays.

But this was after he gave up the game-winning solo homerun.

This type of scenario has occured on more than one occasion, and it leads to the  question: Exactly what is Joe Maddon doing?

And don't get me wrong, I'm not putting down Dan Wheeler. He's been one of many breaths of fresh air in the Rays' bullpen—a good reliever who has done some good work in what is still a young season.

What I'm complaining about is that when a pitcher has gotten in his groove and has pitched some very good baseball, Maddon yanks him for no good reason.

And no, replacing a pitcher for another who may be better "matched," whether it be due to numbers or left/right handedness, is not a good reason.

A starter isn't replaced the first time they come up against someone with good numbers on them, or when someone who hits well against whichever arm is being pitched from.

Unless the pitcher has a truly awful record against the on-deck man, he should not be replaced either. Goodness knows, it would have still had the Rays on a winning season.

Having bashed on an underperforming Rays' organization for whatever reasons for ages, things can't help but look good for the future.

Yes, we've all heard it before, but with the DL starting to reduce in numbers and confidence high, the rest of the season should be above the standard set so far.

Carl Crawford may not be hitting what he should, but he will, because well, let's face it, he's Carl Crawford (.295 lifetime, .253 through 2008 and on course for 18 homeruns this year). If that's not enough look at it like this, he will be hitting what he should long before David Ortiz will be hitting what he should be.

The only parameter left is fielding. Errors over the last few games have been costly, leading to three unearned runs last night alone.

Jason Bartlett needs to get his act together (four errors in the last seven games, hitting a paltry .203), or he will be replaced by either a healthy Ben Zobrist, or a promising Elliot Johnson who will be eager to prove himself after making the team as a non-roster invitee.

To conclude: Maddon needs to get it together, the pitching needs to get consistent, the young lineup needs to keep its collective head, but the offense should take care of itself with a short DL.

Go Rays!