The Rays had a tough offseason losing Carl Crawford to the rival Red Sox and Rafael Soriano to the rival Yankees. Even worse, the Rays lost Dan Wheeler, Grant Balfour, and Joaquin Benoit from what was a fantastic bullpen and Matt Garza in a trade as well as Carlos Pena and Jason Bartlett.
That is a whole lot to replace year to year and it should be a tough transition season for the Rays. The good news is that they are stocked with prospects and given a year or two should bounce back, but this could be a very long season for Rays fans.
The rotation is solid and could be one of the best young starting staffs in the league (the oldest is James Shields at just 29 years old) The problem is they are going to have to pitch a lot of complete games as the bullpen went from very good to downright scary.
The Rays will not be horrible this year, but will be an average team trying to compete with the Red Sox and Yankees and average is not going to see any postseason chances this year. The good news, 2012 looks to be a banner year for the Rays.
Video: Jim Bowden previews the 2011 Rays.
