The Red Sox this past week showed us just how far the Tampa Bay Rays are from returning to the playoffs.  The Sox had bolstered their team in August by adding catcher/first baseman/hitter extraordinaire Victor Martinez, relief star Billy Wagner, defensive whiz at first base Casey Kotchman, and a fine defensive shortstop in Alex Gonzalez, and it still wasn't enough for the Sox to defeat the California Angels, who had better starting pitching and better clutch hitting.  The Sox must now decide whether David Ortiz at age 34 is too old to be their clean up hitter, and whether to empty their coffers to re-sign the productive Jason Bay, who should have been a Ray two Augusts ago.  They are also faced with having to decide on Josh Beckett, who had a great first half but faded down the stretch. 

       Having said that, the Red Sox are still a heck of a lot better off than the Rays, who need to decide what to do with a centerfielder who hits .220, a catcher who can't hit at all, and an $8 million dollar designated hitter who was so bad that if the Rays wanted to give him away, it's hard to imagine anyone would take him.  Making things worse, Pat the Bat is a bad actor who has pissed off management.  If the Rays did give him away, I, for one, wouldn't be surprised.  Adding to the Rays woes: their bench is terrible, and they don't have a closer, the one factor more than any other that cost the team a shot at a wild card spot.

       The purchase of Greg Zaun made Dioner Navarro's nose dive less problematic, but Zaun is 38 years old and can't catch every day, as much as we'd like him to.  Management expressed it's hopes and prayers that Navarro would return to his All Star form of two years ago, but you don't win pennants on hopes and dreams.  The Rays need to get themselves a reliable catcher who can hit .250.  The Angels have two, Mathis and Napoli.  Maybe Andy Friedman can pry one of them loose.  If he can't, the pitchers better step up and hold teams under three runs each game, because we'll never score with four .220 hitters in our line up like we had last year. (Carlos Pena was the other one.)

       The centerfield problem is more easily solved.  The Rays last year traded starter Edwin Jackson to the Detroit Tigers for outfield phenom Matt Joyce.  The kid can hit, hit with power, run, and throw.  But this year he didn't get to play.  The team chose to go with its Gabe platoon -- Gross and Kapler -- two fine men, but journeymen players, and production suffered.  It is expected that Joyce will be the Rays' starting right fielder next year, if he doesn't end up in center.  The Rays also have their poet laureate Fernando Perez, but Perez, who is injury-prone, is a far better wordsmith than hitter.  He appears to be a bench player at best.  If by chance the Rays do trade BJ Upton, Joyce could go to center, and once again the two Gabes would play in right. 

        I am at a loss at why the Rays wouldn't spend an extra $5 mil to buy a closer.  Without one, the team will lose that much money in lost season ticket sales.  Everyone is totally pissed off that the Rays sent fan favorite Scott Kazmir to the Angels in the middle of the pennant race.  And when JP Howell blew eleven games, everyone waited -- in vain -- for the Rays to shore up the pen.  Now we are being told that a rookie named Jake McGee is going to be the closer next year.  He has a great name, but good luck with that.  Let's see. The Twins have Joe Nathan.  The Yankees have Mariano Rivera.  The Red Sox have Jonathan Papelbon (who suddenly developed Grant Balfour disease throwing twenty straight fastballs to lose to the Angels in the final playoff game.)   Can Jake McGee do what those other guys can do?  Will Rays fans rush out to buy season tickets on that possibility?   Don't count on it. 

        Once again Rays management made it clear towards the end of the season that the reason the Rays can't afford to buy a closer -- or anyone else -- is the fault of us fans.  Even though attendance was up 30 percent, that didn't satisfy ownership.  After one good year Rays fans wanted attendance doubled.  Sorry boys.  That's not how it works.  You're going to have to build your fan base slowly.  After ten crappy years of Devil Rays baseball, the Rays have very skeptical fans.  We feel about Rays management the way Republicans feel about Barack Obama -- that talk is greater than action.   Making excuses for why management doesn't do something doesn't cut it with anyone.  You traded two excellent starting pitchers, Edwin Jackson and Jason Hammel, for minor leaguers.  Try trading your top kids in the minors for major leaguers.  That's what Detroit did when they acquired Edwin Jackson and Aubrey Huff.  And that still wasn't good enough to get them into the playoffs.  The shortstop kid Brignac looks pretty good.  Trade him and a pitching prospect for a closer.  It's what you could have done when Jason Bay became available two years ago.  There's a kid pitcher closing in San Diego named Heath Bell.  Trade for him.  Trade for Billy Wagner.  Trade for anyone with experience who can get people out in the ninth inning.

         There are no greater fans in the world than Rays fans.  We go to all the games.  We have endured Esteban Yan, Jesus Colome, Vinnie Castilla, Juan Guzman, Casey Fossum, and even the utterly deplorable Ben Grieve.   We have put up with Chuck Lamar's trades, and Vince Namoli's tirades.  We have watched as Larry Rothschild, Hal McRae, and Lou Pinella managed teams that were never able to win more than 70 games in a season, not hard to do when the owner was taking all the profits and the millions in salary tax money and putting it all into his pocket.  And then in 2008 the Rays went to the World Series.  No one will ever forget that year.  There were actually two World Series games at Tropicana Field! 

          But fans being fans, we are no longer satisfied with finishing third to the Yankees and the Red Sox.  We want to be competitive.  We want to be able to win 90 games again.  But we need a catcher who can hit, and a reliable closer in order to be able to compete.  And we don't want to hear that the reason we can't have those players is because the Rays don't have enough money to get them.  And we certainly don't want to hear that the reason the Rays don't have enough money is that not enough fans turn out for games.  Prove to us that 2008 isn't a fluke, and the fans will turn out in droves.  Barack Obama will need to come through on health care, global warming reform, and Afghanistan is he's going to be considered a success.  Stuart Sternberg need only get us a catcher who can hit and a closer.  Compared to what Obama has to do, it's not too much to ask.