Tampa Bay

[NHNative]

What do the experts say are our chances?

[notin]

On 9/18/2026 at 8:07 AM, NHNative said:

What do the experts say are our chances?

To what?

Catch Tampa? None.  9.5 back with 8 to play. That race been run.

Defeat Tampa this week? Solid, especially after taking game one.

Arrive in Tampa? A bit late but it was always fairly high.

Leave Tampa on a flight that departs on time?  I go with a solid 10-15%.  

Defeat Tampa in the postseason? Let’s get through round one first.

And make that depart one 5-10%

 

[Bellhorn04]

The Sox are 6-5 against the Rays this year, starting 1-5 but now having won 5 in a row.  As for predictions, I make none.  I refrain from trying to predict outcomes of baseball games any more.  It's a hilariously random game.

[NHNative]

1 hour ago, Bellhorn04 said:

The Sox are 6-5 against the Rays this year, starting 1-5 but now having won 5 in a row.  As for predictions, I make none.  I refrain from trying to predict outcomes of baseball games any more.  It's a hilariously random game.

Yes--but it can be a fun distraction.

[JoeBrady]

2 hours ago, Bellhorn04 said:

It's a hilariously random game.

It is by far, the most mathematically precise, and most incredibly random activity in human history.

[NHNative]

Its a great game!

[Bellhorn04]

1 hour ago, NHNative said:

Its a great game!

It's the best.  Somebody said "baseball is life, the rest is just waiting."

[scs1918]

Is this the worst stadium in the MLB ?

 

[moonslav59]

41 minutes ago, scs1918 said:

Is this the worst stadium in the MLB ?

It's not meant to be a MLB stadium.

The A's play in a similar park.

This begs the question, what is the current worst MLB stadium?

Angels Stadium?

Comerica Park?

Rogers Centre? Rate Field? Nationals Park? Kauffman Stadium?

[mvp 78]

On 9/19/2026 at 8:44 PM, moonslav59 said:

It's not meant to be a MLB stadium.

The A's play in a similar park.

This begs the question, what is the current worst MLB stadium?

Angels Stadium?

Comerica Park?

Rogers Centre? Rate Field? Nationals Park? Kauffman Stadium?

Tampa isn't meant to be an MLB stadium? 

[NHNative]

2 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

Tampa isn't meant to be an MLB stadium? 

Wasn't it? It was built as a multi-purpose field including baseball. It is small.

[mvp 78]

7 minutes ago, NHNative said:

Wasn't it? It was built as a multi-purpose field including baseball. It is small.

Total capacity with tarps off is 42k. That's close to top 10 in the league. 

[NHNative]

30 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Total capacity with tarps off is 42k. That's close to top 10 in the league. 

Sorry--I was referencing the distance to the fences. Left-center and right.

[moonslav59]

7 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

Tampa isn't meant to be an MLB stadium? 

Not if fly balls can reach catwalks.

[moonslav59]

On the old BDC site, I once started a thread called "The Rays Won't Go Away" as a reply to ole softlaw's claim that they'd "fade away in the dog days of summer."

It turned out to be one of the longer threads on the site, as the Rays just kept exceeding expectations year-after-year.

Here they are again.

While they are 11th in runs scored and 6th in runs allowed, they just recently passed the sox in run differential. They always seem to win with smoke and mirrors. (One can argue they win by playing good defense and always having a top manager at the helm.)

Pythagorean never works for the Rays. They defy the math. They have 9 more wins than projected. Imagine Sox fans looking at their top 10 batters by PAs and seeing these OPS numbers for 7 of them!!!!

.592, .622, .633, .688, .696, .700 and .707

They only have one batter over .807.

That's like 5 black holes and 2 gray ones.

With all the complaining about the Sox offense, here is a comp to what I just presented for the Rays:

Only on batter over .785 is pretty close, but check out the lowest OPS among the top 10 batters by PAs in 2026:

.624 Duran (stunningly still second in PAs)

.646 Story (8th in PAs and on the rise)

.656 Wong (10th in PAs with the .721 Anthony about to pass him)

.683 Monasterio (6th but not playing much anymore)

The rest are over .727....

.727 Durbin

.729 Sogard

.746 Yoshida

.760 Rafaela

The Sox have 5 guys over .727: the Rays have 3 over .707.

 

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

I just posted on another thread that Rutschman's OPS is .616 for the Red Sox.

But the guy he replaced was only .535 for Boston, so that's an upgrade (by I think 81/1000ths).

Plus, my son reminds me that Adley's true value is to the pitching staff as an All-Star catcher. Better tell that to the front office that must keep making the interim bat him 3rd in the line-up.

[Jasonbay44]

On 9/19/2026 at 8:01 PM, scs1918 said:

Is this the worst stadium in the MLB ?

 

It’s gotta be up there. I have a goal of visiting every MLB stadium. I’ve visited 18 so far and the Rays and White Sox are my two least favorites.

[moonslav59]

14 minutes ago, Jasonbay44 said:

It’s gotta be up there. I have a goal of visiting every MLB stadium. I’ve visited 18 so far and the Rays and White Sox are my two least favorites.

I saw a season opener there many years ago. It was the "closer by committee" season. I think it was Chad Fox who blew the opener.

I didn't think the stadium was as bad as I expected. I guess the A/C felt nice on a warm humid April day.

[Jasonbay44]

2 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

I saw a season opener there many years ago. It was the "closer by committee" season. I think it was Chad Fox who blew the opener.

I didn't think the stadium was as bad as I expected. I guess the A/C felt nice on a warm humid April day.

It was air conditioned really well which was nice. I actually went to game on Friday.

I prefer outdoor stadiums anyway, but can appreciate a good dome. I preferred Astros, Brewers and Marlins over the Trop. 

I found it a bit hard to track the ball with the white roof and the catwalk and ball hitting ceiling nonsense is really stupid/annoying and seems to only be an issue in Tampa. Also just didn’t really seem like there was any kind of atmosphere or anything there. 

[moonslav59]

35 minutes ago, Jasonbay44 said:

It was air conditioned really well which was nice. I actually went to game on Friday.

I prefer outdoor stadiums anyway, but can appreciate a good dome. I preferred Astros, Brewers and Marlins over the Trop. 

I found it a bit hard to track the ball with the white roof and the catwalk and ball hitting ceiling nonsense is really stupid/annoying and seems to only be an issue in Tampa. Also just didn’t really seem like there was any kind of atmosphere or anything there. 

There was obviously zero effort to try and add any sort of uniqueness to the place. Nothing to add any character or flair.

I guess maybe that is all there is unique about it: it's plainness.

 

[scs1918]

This post made me look at current MLB stadiums.

I came across a top 30 article from someone who recently visited all 30. The author's bottom two were minor league fields the A's and Steinbrenner field. His first actual MLB was White Sox which I guess is called Rate field as his worst. Unfortunately, he didn't include Tampa's stadium.

Kaufman rated bad too but I like its visuals and I used to hate that field with Astro turf everything except that fountain. I still have nightmares of Kevin Seitzer. The series he got 10 or 12 hits off of the Sox.

I still think any stadium that has cat walks that affect play is the worst. My memory tells me both hitters that hit the cat walks scored. One was the game winner.

 

[scs1918]

I had to look it up: Aug '87 Seitzer actually got 6 hits in one game, only 8 for the weekend. Memories...

[mvp 78]

15 hours ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

I just posted on another thread that Rutschman's OPS is .616 for the Red Sox.

But the guy he replaced was only .535 for Boston, so that's an upgrade (by I think 81/1000ths).

Plus, my son reminds me that Adley's true value is to the pitching staff as an All-Star catcher. Better tell that to the front office that must keep making the interim bat him 3rd in the line-up.

For now, trade was an overpay. He needs to ball out at some point to make up for it. Bad use of resources. 

[mvp 78]

10 hours ago, scs1918 said:

This post made me look at current MLB stadiums.

I came across a top 30 article from someone who recently visited all 30. The author's bottom two were minor league fields the A's and Steinbrenner field. His first actual MLB was White Sox which I guess is called Rate field as his worst. Unfortunately, he didn't include Tampa's stadium.

Kaufman rated bad too but I like its visuals and I used to hate that field with Astro turf everything except that fountain. I still have nightmares of Kevin Seitzer. The series he got 10 or 12 hits off of the Sox.

I still think any stadium that has cat walks that affect play is the worst. My memory tells me both hitters that hit the cat walks scored. One was the game winner.

Ranking MLB Stadiums that I've been to that now don't have MLB games: 

Olympic Stadium

Oakland Coliseum

[NHNative]

Back at Fenway tonight! Woo hoo!

[JoeBrady]

15 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

I didn't think the stadium was as bad as I expected.

I thought the same about Oakland's park.  Obviously I didn't get to see the inner workings, but I enjoyed the park itself.

[JoeBrady]

14 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

There was obviously zero effort to try and add any sort of uniqueness to the place. Nothing to add any character or flair.

I guess maybe that is all there is unique about it: it's plainness.

 

We have the RS and Cubs to thank for most of the recent stadiums.  We probably had a 30-year period where every stadium had to hold 50,000-55,000 people, even though they knew they would never get more than 35,000 on average.  Then Camden followed our example that smaller is usually better.