Built By College Depot Espn Gameday Home


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Built By College Depot Espn Gameday Home

Built By College Depot Espn Gameday Home

The Early Years

The Tampa Bay Rays (or Devil Rays at the time) were introduced to the league as an expansion team for the 1998 season. Calling Tropicana Field their home since their inception, the Rays went through growing pains like every young club does. Their first season went pretty much as expected, finishing last in the A.L. East with a record of 63-99. In fact, their first 10 seasons went pretty much like this. From the 1998 season until the 2007 season the Rays franchise never had more than 70 wins, with a winning percentage just barely north of 40%.

A lot of this has to do with mismanagement, mainly in the front office. Future all-star Bobby Abreu was traded hours after being drafted by the Rays in the 1997 expansion draft for SS Kevin Stocker, who never donned the Rays uniform, and found his way out of the MLB in 2000. Super slugger Josh Hamilton was drafted with the first overall pick in 1999, and had great success in the minors. However, his well-documented drug problems were too much for the Rays, and they essentially let him go. The rest, as they say, is history. The Rays chose P Heath Bell in the 69th round of the 1997 draft, but never signed him. He was then signed by the Mets as a free agent in 1998, and was an all-star selection for San Diego in 2009 and 2010 and is now one of the best closers in baseball. The 23rd round of the 2002 draft saw OF Jacoby Ellsbury selected by Tampa, but again he did not sign. He then played three years of college before being drafted by the Boston Red Sox.

The list goes on of good players being drafted by the Rays that are not there anymore, or never were. These names include 1B Aubrey Huff, OF Matt Diaz, P Nick Blackburn, OF Luke Scott, P Jason Hammel, P Mike Pelfrey, P Tommy Hunter and 1B Ike Davis.