There are numerous reasons to think the Rays will or won’t make the playoffs. We know them all down here. I have watched and been a fan of this team since it’s inception and I, along with everyone else here, have been waiting for that breakout year like the Bucs or the Lightning had. The Rays compare more to the Bucs for me as I believe this is the first of many years of relevance. The Lightning had a more of a flash and dash type of thing and have struggled to remain a power since their Stanley Cup victory. The Bucs have been up and down since their Super Bowl run yet were “almost” there many times before. It’s hard to predict what the Rays will be. Here are some reasons to think they won’t make the playoffs.

  • The Pink Sox will make a run as they’ve been there before and have the firepower to overcome mediocre pitching.
  • The Rays have yet to really slump yet this year. Aside from the losing streak going into the all-star break, they haven’t stumbled over themselves too much.
  • Injuries have started to hit at the wrong time. Crawford, Longoria and Percival are down and the only one of those three I would really count on contributing down the stretch would be Longo.
  • They have the toughest schedule in baseball in September with a horrific 9 game road trip going to Toronto, Boston and New York. They follow that up with Boston and Minnesota at home. Pretty scary!

Now for some reasons to think they will make the big show.

  • They seem to win games that make no sense. They win with timely hits, quality pitching and great defense. Not that that doesn’t make sense but there are no guys putting up superstar like numbers and it’s a different guy every night getting it done. We’ve had clutch hits from reserve players like Aybar, Gross and Riggans. How can you count on that?
  • They are winning without Longoria, Crawford and Percival. In this same note they’re winning while not getting the production they thought they would from guys like Upton, Crawford and Pena. Pena and Upton have been better lately along with Floyd and Hinske and you could argue that they all might get hot down the stretch. It also appears that Kazmir may be shaking off his recent struggles so that helps.
  • They have a large enough lead at this point that they should at least get a wild card.

Let’s throw all that crap aside now and point out the number one reason that we should know that the Rays will make it to the playoffs. Skip Bayless has jumped off the bandwagon. That’s right, with this genius finally jumping off the Rays train we can all rest comfortably. This is the guy who picks against everything sane and goes with the most outrageous predictions he can find. I find Bayless entertaining and I’m sure part of his agenda is meant to be over the top, but if he picks against you then you are destined for great things. I will now prematurely congratulate the Rays on their playoff birth based on this alone!