2007 Tampa Bay Devil Rays Predictions
There are not a lot of good things that we can say with our 2007 Tampa Bay Devil Rays predictions. The team doesn’t have a lot of depth with their starting five, their bullpen is not very deep, and their lineup has a lot of holes. The potential is at least their with the group of hitters, but the pitching will be an Achilles heel. Bet on sports using your checking account!
We can’t really say enough about Scott Kazmir. This guy is going to have all kinds of potential to have a Cy Young type season on a losing team. He posted a 10-8 season last year with a 3.24 ERA, but his season was cut short due to injuries. The guy struck out 163 batters in only 144 innings and is the guy of the future for this squad. It really ends there though for Tampa as the next in line is Jae Seo, a guy who went 3-12 with a 5.33 ERA last season. You can’t do much damage in this division with a number two hurler like that. James Shield was a rookie last season who came in and went 6-8 with a 4.84 ERA, but he gave up a lot of hits and walks. We’ve never been high on Casey Fossum nor his 5.20 lifetime ERA in 110 starts. Don’t expect him to come out of nowhere and suddenly be able to get people out this year. JP Howell is a 23-year old who does have some potential, but look for him to develop later down the line, this is a learning year for him.
In the outfield Delmon Young is only 21 and has loads of potential. He hit .317 in 30 games last season and could help this team a ton offensively. Hopefully Rocco Baldelli can get a full season for Tampa because he can hit for a decent average, steal some bases and hit a couple home runs. It’s hard to believe that Carl Crawford is only 25, but he’s developing into a real All-Star. Power, speed, and average, there really isn’t anything this guy can’t do. Too bad the infield isn’t going to give them much help as Cantu and Wiggington are the only names you have probably ever heard of, and they are always used in the same breath as “terrible.”
The oddsmakers are not putting a lot of stock into this team and I supposed it’s easy from this article as to why that is. The projected win total is only 67. This means that everyone expects this team, in one of the toughest divisions in baseball, to lose almost 100 games. We are going to take the over on that just due to the fact that the offense will put up a few runs and Kazmir is going to be worth 15 or so on his own.
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