Place Your Bets: It Seems the Rays are For Real

Tampa Bay is the surprise story of the 2008 Major League Baseball season – there's no question about that – but it's not just its decade-long-suffering fans that are happy; bettors are also cashing in on the red-headed stepchild of the American League East

July 7, 2008

By Jason Brough
Bodog Nation Contributing Writer

The Tampa Bay Rays came into the current MLB campaign like they have every season since being born into poverty in 1998: with very little shot of making the playoffs. Stuck in the same division as the free-spending New York Yankees ($209 million payroll) and Boston Red Sox ($133 million), Tampa Bay's $44 million in player salaries – the second-smallest payroll in baseball to the Florida Marlins' ($22 million) – didn't exactly translate into high hopes for the Tropicana Field faithful. In fact, if anyone was going to knock the powerful duo off their twin thrones, the Toronto Blue Jays ($98 million) would've been the prudent choice to do it.

Yet here we are, just past the halfway mark of the season, and the Rays (55-32) are the best team in all of baseball, let alone the AL East in which they hold a 4.5-game lead over the Red Sox, 9.5 over the Yankees. Winners of seven in a row after Sunday's 9-2 thrashing of Kansas City, the same franchise that's never won more than 70 games out of 162 are on pace to break that mark sometime in early August.

As any bettor knows, there's nothing sweeter than a winning team that's supposed to lose. The Rays have racked up a pile of profits for their backers, although that's assuming there were any backers in April.

One of the heroes of the Rays' run has been rookie third baseman (and preseason Bodog Nation fantasy pick) Evan Longoria, who boasts 16 homers and 52 RBIs in 77 games.

"There's a sense of calmness in our dugout," said Longoria, who had a two-run homer on Sunday. "It's incredible the things we're doing here."

With five home runs and 17 runs driven in over his last 13 games, Longoria joins Jermaine Dye (Chicago White Sox), Jason Giambi (New York Yankees), Jose Guillen (Kansas City Royals) and Brian Roberts (Baltimore Orioles) to make up the five American League players who fans will vote on to fill the last roster spot of the All-Star team.

"Right now he's playing with a lot of confidence," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "It's really not a surprise. This is what he's capable of doing. As the league learns him, and then he learns the league back, there's going to be some give and take going on. But I think you're going to see this kind of performance for many years to come."

Rays pitcher Andy Sonnanstine already has 10 wins. (AP Images)

Tampa Bay's pitching has also shown marked improvement after surrendering a league-worst 944 runs in 2007. Just how much better are things going in 2008? Andy Sonnanstine (who?) already has 10 wins and was brilliant in his last outing on Saturday versus the Royals, throwing seven shutout innings and giving up just five hits as the Rays took it 3-0.

Following an afternoon affair with the Royals on Monday, the Rays head out onto the road for six starting Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium when ace Scott Kazmir (7-3, 2.63) will face New York’s Andy Pettitte (9-6, 4.22).

The Rays are getting 8/1 odds to win the World Series, while the Red Sox are at 3/1 and the Yankees are relative long shots at 10/1.

Nothing Runs Like a Deere

Garcia is the favorite to win the British Open. (AP Images)

Sergio Garcia is the 9/1 favorite to win the British Open at Royal Birkdale the following week. After the Spaniard – and has there ever been a better time to bet on Spain? – it's Ernie Els (12/1), Phil Mickelson (14/1) and Padraig Harrington (14/1).

In a related story, the PGA Tour's John Deere Classic at TPC Deere Run goes Thursday in Silvis, Ill. Here's the field. Yep, pretty impressive array of talent there. You know it's bad when you're sending out a press release to announce that David Duval will be playing in your tournament. Nothing like pimping the world’s No. 383 golfer to get the fans revved up.

Nothing Like a Heavyweight Title Fight

Klitschko is the favorite to beat "The Tiger." (AP Images)

Wladimir Klitschko (50-3, 40 KO) will defend his IBF, IBO and WBO belts against Tony "The Tiger" Thompson (31-1, 19 KO) on Saturday in Germany. The big Ukrainian is also a big -650 favorite to beat the 36-year-old Thompson (+450), who didn't even start boxing until he was 27.

Also on Saturday, Jose Canseco (-280) is boxing former NFL running back Vai Sikahema (+200) and we'll all die a bit inside.

TOP PHOTO: Tampa Bay Rays rookie third baseman Evan Longoria boasts 16 home runs in 77 games. (AP Images)