It's hard to assess the 2013 Tampa Bay Rays until Andrew is done with his bottom fishing in the Under $5 stocks errrrrr... Players. But the reality is with the departures of BJ Upton, Carlos Pena, Jeff Keppinger, and probably Luke Scott you've taken 70 HRS and 234 RBIS out of a line-up that struggled to hit. You've taken your war horse of a starter out of your rotation in James Shields. You've lost Wade Davis, Burke Badenhop. possibly JP Howell and Kyle Farnsworth out of your pen. And Boston and Toronto have made significant upgrades of their roster. I guess we say this every year only to see Joe Maddon work his magic and win 90 games. But even Cinderella had to turn in her slippers...... Hopefully January and February will bring some hope to Rays fans

cincy, don't know if 90 games is gonna 'cut it'.......didn't last year. ST oughta tell the story though! Merry Christmas man!

Merry Christmas! The AL East will be a war. 5 good to great teams.

I won't say the Rays are good or even going to be yet..Still need some producers to replace whats missing..

Right ... and ... give-or-take ... some 500 strikeouts, too!

The AL East is going to be a tough one again and the rays will be right in it, but the O's are for real, Toronto, on paper, looks hard to beat, the Red Sox have made some good moves....Right now the Yankees look like the weakest link in the division, and that's fine by me.....There will be one, maybe two more deals done by the Rays in January to solidify the team.....watch for it!

Ok ,I see your point and respect it..I'm not so sure that up to now that I can agree with your .500 prediction..Mainly on the fact this team did not improve enough offensivly..If Longo for some reason gets hurt again what then??? Yes we can fill the field position but Who will make up for his bat in the line-up??

Time will tell and water will always seek it's own level..One big bat and I'd agree with you.

If the players now on the roster project to their career numbers, the Rays will have a significantly better offense than last season and that doesn't even take into consideration the chemistry effect. I don't see the Rays adding "one big bat" without weakening the club somewhere else. Sure, it would be a nice addition but 90 wins for "no hit wonders" speaks volumes...they will pitch and defend and now "they will hit"...plenty good enough IMO.