2002 Tampa Bay Devil Rays season

2002 Tampa Bay Devil Rays
LeagueAmerican League
DivisionEast
BallparkTropicana Field
CitySt. Petersburg, Florida
Record55–106 (.342)
Divisional place5th
OwnersVince Naimoli
General managersChuck LaMar
ManagersHal McRae
TelevisionFSN Florida
WMOR-TV
WTSP
(Joe Magrane, Dewayne Staats, Todd Kalas)
RadioWFLA
(Paul Olden, Charlie Slowes)
WLCC
(Ricardo Tavares, Enrique Oliu)
← 2001
2003 →
Tropicana Field on Opening Day in 2002

The 2002 Tampa Bay Devil Rays season was their fifth since the franchise was created. This season, they finished last in the American League East, and managed to finish the season with a record of 55–106. Their manager was Hal McRae who entered his first full season and last season with the Devil Rays.

Offseason

  • November 8, 2001: Ryan Freel was signed as a free agent with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.[1]

Regular season

Season standings

AL East
Team W L Pct. GB Home Road
New York Yankees 103 58 .640 — 52‍–‍28 51‍–‍30
Boston Red Sox 93 69 .574 10½ 42‍–‍39 51‍–‍30
Toronto Blue Jays 78 84 .481 25½ 42‍–‍39 36‍–‍45
Baltimore Orioles 67 95 .414 36½ 34‍–‍47 33‍–‍48
Tampa Bay Devil Rays 55 106 .342 48 30‍–‍51 25‍–‍55

American League Wild Card

Division leaders
Team W L Pct.
New York Yankees 103 58 .640
Minnesota Twins 94 67 .584
Oakland Athletics 103 59 .636
Wild Card team
(Top team qualifies for postseason)
Team W L Pct. GB
Anaheim Angels 99 63 .611 —
Boston Red Sox 93 69 .574 6
Seattle Mariners 93 69 .574 6
Chicago White Sox 81 81 .500 18
Toronto Blue Jays 78 84 .481 21
Cleveland Indians 74 88 .457 25
Texas Rangers 72 90 .444 27
Baltimore Orioles 67 95 .414 32
Kansas City Royals 62 100 .383 37
Detroit Tigers 55 106 .342 43½
Tampa Bay Devil Rays 55 106 .342 43½

Record vs. opponents

2002 American League record

Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14]
Team ANA BAL BOS CWS CLE DET KC MIN NYY OAK SEA TB TEX TOR NL 
Anaheim — 7–2 3–4 6–3 6–3 8–1 6–3 4–5 3–4 9–11 9–10 8–1 12–7 7–2 11–7
Baltimore 2–7 — 6–13 3–4 1–5 2–4 7–0 5–1 6–13 4–5 5–4 10–9 3–6 4–15 9–9
Boston 4–3 13–6 — 2–4 5–4 5–4 4–2 3–3 9–10 6–3 4–5 16–3 4–3 13–6 5–13
Chicago 3–6 4–3 4–2 — 9–10 12–7 11–8 8–11 2–4 2–7 5–4 4–3 5–4 4–2 8–10
Cleveland 3–6 5–1 4–5 10–9 — 10–9 9–10 8–11 3–6 2–5 3–4 4–2 4–5 3–3 6–12
Detroit 1–8 4–2 4–5 7–12 9–10 — 9–10 4–14 1–8 1–6 2–5 2–4 5–4 0–6 6–12
Kansas City 3–6 0–7 2–4 8–11 10–9 10–9 — 5–14 1–5 1–8 3–6 4–2 7–2 3–4 5–13
Minnesota 5–4 1–5 3–3 11–8 11–8 14–4 14–5 — 0–6 3–6 5–4 5–2 6–3 6–1 10–8
New York 4–3 13–6 10–9 4–2 6–3 8–1 5–1 6–0 — 5–4 4–5 13–5 4–3 10–9 11–7
Oakland 11–9 5–4 3–6 7–2 5–2 6–1 8–1 6–3 4–5 — 8–11 8–1 13–6 3–6 16–2
Seattle 10–9 4–5 5–4 4–5 4–3 5–2 6–3 4–5 5–4 11–8 — 5–4 13–7 6–3 11–7
Tampa Bay 1–8 9–10 3–16 3–4 2–4 4–2 2–4 2–5 5–13 1–8 4–5 — 4–5 8–11 7–11
Texas 7–12 6–3 3–4 4–5 5–4 4–5 2–7 3–6 3–4 6–13 7–13 5–4 — 8–1 9–9
Toronto 2–7 15–4 6–13 2–4 3–3 6–0 4–3 1–6 9–10 6–3 3–6 11–8 1–8 — 9–9


Opening Day starters

Notable transactions

  • June 4, 2002: B. J. Upton drafted by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in the 1st round (2nd pick) of the 2002 amateur draft. Player signed September 16, 2002.[2]
  • June 4, 2002: Elijah Dukes drafted by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in the 3rd round of the 2002 amateur draft. Player signed August 21, 2002.[3]
  • September 22, 2002: Released Toe Nash, the day after he was released from jail.[4]

Roster

2002 Tampa Bay Devil Rays
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders Manager

Coaches

Citrus series

The annual interleague games between the Florida Marlins and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays were played in June and July. They are known as the Citrus Series. The Devil Rays won the series 4-2.

Date Winning Team Losing Team Score Venue
June 14 Devil Rays Marlins 4-3 (14 innings)[5] Pro Player Stadium
June 15 Marlins Devil Rays 3-0[6] Pro Player Stadium
June 16 Devil Rays Marlins 4-1[7] Pro Player Stadium
June 28 Devil Rays Marlins 4-0[8] Tropicana Field
June 29 Marlins Devil Rays 3-2 [9] Tropicana Field
June 30 Devil Rays Marlins 6-5 (12 innings)[10] Tropicana Field

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
C Toby Hall 85 330 85 .258 6 42
1B Steve Cox 148 560 142 .254 16 72
2B Brent Abernathy 117 463 112 .242 2 40
SS Chris Gomez 130 461 122 .265 10 46
3B Jared Sandberg 102 358 82 .229 18 54
LF Carl Crawford 63 259 67 .259 2 30
CF Randy Winn 152 607 181 .298 14 75
RF Ben Grieve 136 482 121 .251 19 64
DH Aubrey Huff 113 454 142 .313 23 59

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
John Flaherty 76 281 73 .260 4 33
Greg Vaughn 69 251 41 .163 8 29
Jason Conti 78 222 57 .257 3 21
Jason Tyner 44 168 36 .214 0 9
Félix Escalona 59 157 34 .217 0 9
Andy Sheets 41 149 37 .248 4 22
Russ Johnson 45 111 24 .216 1 12
Damian Rolls 21 89 26 .292 0 6
Jason Smith 26 65 13 .200 1 6
Bob Smith 18 63 11 .175 1 6
Dave McCarty 12 34 6 .176 1 2
Paul Hoover 5 17 3 .176 0 2

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Tanyon Sturtze 33 224.0 4 18 5.18 137
Joe Kennedy 30 196.2 8 11 4.53 109
Paul Wilson 30 193.2 6 12 4.83 111
Ryan Rupe 15 90.0 5 10 5.60 67
Luis de los Santos 3 14.0 0 3 11.57 7
Dewon Brazelton 2 13.0 0 1 4.85 5

Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Victor Zambrano 42 114.0 8 8 5.53 73
Jorge Sosa 31 99.1 2 7 5.53 48
Travis Harper 37 85.2 5 9 5.46 60
Wilson Álvarez 23 75.0 2 3 5.28 56
Delvin James 8 34.1 0 3 6.55 17

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G W L SV ERA SO
Esteban Yan 55 7 8 19 4.30 53
Steve Kent 34 0 2 1 5.65 41
Jesús Colomé 32 2 7 0 8.27 33
Doug Creek 29 2 1 0 6.27 37
Travis Phelps 26 1 2 0 4.78 36
Lee Gardner 12 1 1 0 4.05 8
Brandon Backe 9 0 0 0 6.92 6
Lance Carter 8 2 0 2 1.33 14
Jason Jiménez 5 0 0 0 5.40 5
Tom Martin 2 0 0 0 16.20 1
Jason Standridge 1 0 0 0 9.00 1

ESPN25 Worst Team of All-Time

In 2004, ESPN was celebrating 25 years of the network since its founding in 1979. The network decided to honor the first 25 years from the best to the worst and everything else in between. The Rays were ranked 16th in the actual ESPN Worst Team Result of the first 25 years conducted by ESPN and its users. The users put them higher at 13th than the original airing as the worst team by only 3 spots.

Farm system

See also: Minor League Baseball
Level Team League Manager
AAA Durham Bulls International League Bill Evers
AA Orlando Rays Southern League Mako Oliveras
A Bakersfield Blaze California League Charlie Montoyo
A Charleston RiverDogs South Atlantic League Buddy Biancalana
A-Short Season Hudson Valley Renegades New York–Penn League Dave Howard
Rookie Princeton Devil Rays Appalachian League Edwin Rodríguez

LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Durham[11]

References

  1. ^ "Ryan Freel Stats".
  2. ^ B.J. Upton Statistics Baseball-Reference.com
  3. ^ Elijah Dukes Statistics Baseball-Reference.com
  4. ^ "Devil Rays release troubled Toe Nash". Gainesville Sun. Gainesville, Florida: New York Times Management Services. September 22, 2002. p. 8C.
  5. ^ "Box Score of Game played on Friday, June 14, 2002 at Pro Player Stadium".
  6. ^ "Box Score of Game played on Saturday, June 15, 2002 at Pro Player Stadium".
  7. ^ "Box Score of Game played on Sunday, June 16, 2002 at Pro Player Stadium".
  8. ^ "Box Score of Game played on Friday, June 28, 2002 at Tropicana Field".
  9. ^ "Box Score of Game played on Saturday, June 29, 2002 at Tropicana Field".
  10. ^ "Box Score of Game played on Sunday, June 30, 2002 at Tropicana Field".
  11. ^ Johnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 3rd edition. Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 2007