RINGOLSBY: Heat will be on Rays in 2009

By Tracy Ringolsby, Rocky Mountain News

Published October 30, 2008 at 8:21 p.m.

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Photo by Doug Pensinger / Getty Images

The Tampa Bay Rays have reason to be proud after making it to the World Series, but they'll need to realize things will get tougher, not easier, beginning next season.

For a franchise that hadn't lost fewer than 92 games or finished higher than fourth place - and that was only once - in its first 10 years of existence, Tampa Bay has plenty of reason to be proud, even if it came up short in the World Series.

But the Rays also need to consider themselves warned.

It doesn't get any easier from here. In fact, it gets tougher.

Now comes the real challenge. Now manager Joe Maddon has a team that has been successful, so teams will pay a little more attention when the Rays come to town, and Maddon is going to have to stay on top of the young players whose focus could stray without even knowing it.

The Rockies found that out the hard way in 2008. They were the postseason darlings a year ago, sweeping Philadelphia in the National League Division Series and Arizona in the NL Championship Series, only to be swept by Boston in the World Series. This year, the Rockies never were a serious factor and flipped back below .500.

They aren't alone, though.

Before the Rays' emergence from the worst record in the American League in 2007 to the World Series in 2008, there had been 31 teams in major league history to rebound from a losing record one season to make a World Series appearance the next. Only five of them managed to advance to the postseason two years in a row.

Seven slipped back below .500 the next year, and five of those teams were among the last six to go from a losing team to a pennant winner. The only exception in the last 18 years were the Marlins, who went from 79-83 in 2002 to world champions when they beat the Yankees in the 2003 World Series to 83-79 in 2004.

No team fell harder than the 1998 Marlins, who went from 80-82 in 1996 to 1997 World Series champions (beating Cleveland) to 108 losses after then-owner H. Wayne Huizenga didn't wait for the championship parade before ordering the dismantling of the team in a major salary dump.

Infield chatter

* Stan Kasten, former president of the Braves and current president of the Nationals, is the most mentioned candidate to assume a similar role in Toronto.

* The Angels could work a multiplayer deal that would send Chone Figgins to the White Sox and bring first baseman Paul Konerko to Anaheim. Angels scouting director Eddie Bane was the Dodgers scout who signed Konerko as a first-round draft choice out of high school.

* Almost before the champagne spills were mopped up in the World Series winners' locker room, the Marlins shipped first baseman Mike Jacobs to Kansas City for pitcher Leo Nunez. The Marlins also are looking to move left-hander Scott Olsen to limit payroll increases. They have 17 arbitration-eligible players.

Out in left field

With all the teeth-gnashing about the way the postseason drags into the final days of October, one way to shorten things would be to eliminate off days. That also is one way to make sure the best team has a better chance to win.

A game in which the postseason participants are based off their success over a 162-game schedule puts a regular-season emphasis on a team's depth. That isn't the case in the postseason, though, with the abundance of off days. A team can win a World Series using only three starting pitchers in the month of October because of the added days of rest thanks to off days.

Eliminate the off days. Force teams to go with five-man rotations and find out which team has the depth needed to be a champion.

Closing statement

Ed Wade is now the general manager of the Houston Astros. Fired three years ago by the Phillies, he watched their world championship from afar.

But at least Wade was acknowledged for the work he did with the Phillies, which puts him ahead of former Astros general manager Gerry Hunsicker.

When the Phillies clinched the NLCS, current general manager Pat Gillick, on national television, quickly mentioned that the heavy lifting in building this team was done by Wade, who put the scouting and player development departments in place. That was similar to 2002, when then- Angels GM Bill Stoneman invited his predecessor, Bill Bavasi, fired the previous fall, to sit in the general manager's box at Anaheim Stadium because "he put the team together."

Three years ago, when the Astros won the NL pennant, a year after Hunsicker left the organization, owner Drayton McLane was so vindictive, he refused to allow Hunsicker, who still lived in Houston, to even buy tickets to a World Series game.

Every player on the Astros World Series roster had been with the team during the Hunsicker regime.

Hunsicker may not have enjoyed the outcome of this World Series, but at least he got to attend in his role as a special adviser with Tampa Bay, which lost to the Phillies in five games.

The rotation

Five teams that went from a losing record one season to the World Series the next and returned to the postseason the next season:

Mile High Watch

* With manager Clint Hurdle on vacation this week and general manager Dan O'Dowd headed to the GM meetings next week, the Rockies' coaching search has been put on hold.

Organizational pitching coach Jim Wright, who was the Rockies' pitching coach in 2002, is believed to be set to become bullpen coach. But decisions await on the bench coach, third base coach and hitting coach.

Triple-A Colorado Springs manager Tom Runnells and his hitting coach, former big-league manager Rene Lachemann, are in the mix for the bench coach and third base coaching jobs, as is roving minor league infield instructor Rich Dauer.

Original Rockies manager Don Baylor, former Dodgers and Pirates manager Jim Tracy and former Orioles manager Sam Perlozzo are in the mix for the bench job. Former Mets manager Willie Randolph, who put the Rockies on hold because of his pursuit of the Brewers' managerial opening, is a long shot. Perlozzo also would seem a possible fit at third. Tony Muser, a former manager of the Denver Zephyrs and Kansas City Royals, and former Rockies player Greg Colbrunn are known candidates for the hitting coach position.

* Right-handed pitcher Shane Lindsay, his career slowed by a multitude of injuries, seems to be benefiting from his assignment to the Phoenix Desert Dogs in the Arizona Fall League. He made the AFL's midseason All-Star Game and is being moved from the bullpen into the rotation, replacing Arizona prospect Max Scherzer. Lindsay struck out eight in 71/3 innings of relief, and his fastball registered 91-97 mph.

* Marcus Giles, released by the Rockies out of spring training last year, went on an extensive workout program during the summer and, at age 30, "wants to come back and play," agent Joe Bick said.

* Jayson Nix, the Rockies' starting second baseman on Opening Day this season, agreed to terms on a one-year deal with the Chicago White Sox.

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