2002 Tampa Bay Devil Rays season

2002 Tampa Bay Devil Rays
Major League affiliations
American League (since 1998)
Eastern Division (since 1998)
Location
Tropicana Field (since 1998)
St. Petersburg, Florida (since 1998)
Other information
Owner(s)	Vince Naimoli
General manager(s)	Chuck LaMar
Manager(s)	Hal McRae
Local television	FSN Florida WMOR-TV WTSP (Joe Magrane, Dewayne Staats, Todd Kalas)
Local radio	WFLA (Paul Olden, Charlie Slowes) WLCC (Ricardo Tavares, Enrique Oliu)
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The 2002 Tampa Bay Devil Rays season was their 5th since the franchise was created. This season, they finished last in the AL East division, and managed to finish the season with a record of 55-106. Their manager was Hal McRae who entered his 1st 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.

Regular season

Season standings

AL East	W	L	Pct.	GB	Home	Road
New York Yankees	103	58	0.640	—	52–28	51–30
Boston Red Sox	93	69	0.574	10½	42–39	51–30
Toronto Blue Jays	78	84	0.481	25½	42–39	36–45
Baltimore Orioles	67	95	0.414	36½	34–47	33–48
Tampa Bay Devil Rays	55	106	0.342	48	30–51	25–55

Record vs. opponents

2002 American League Records 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

• Brent Abernathy
• Steve Cox
• Chris Gomez
• Ben Grieve
• Toby Hall
• Bob Smith
• Tanyon Sturtze
• Jason Tyner
• Greg Vaughn
• Randy Winn

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.
• 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.
• September 22, 2002: Released Toe Nash, the day after he was released from jail.

Roster

2002 Tampa Bay Devil Rays
Roster
Pitchers 40 Wilson Álvarez 37 Brandon Backe 45 Dewon Brazelton 38 Lance Carter 46 Jesús Colomé 38 Doug Creek 36 Luis de los Santos 39 Lee Gardner 58 Travis Harper 48 Delvin James 54 Jason Jiménez 17 Joe Kennedy 51 Steve Kent 52 Tom Martin 61 Travis Phelps 24 Ryan Rupe 59 Jorge Sosa 53 Jason Standridge 49 Tanyon Sturtze 41 Paul Wilson 43 Esteban Yan 60 Víctor Zambrano		Catchers  6 John Flaherty 44 Toby Hall 15 Paul Hoover Infielders  3 Brent Abernathy 28 Steve Cox  5 Félix Escalona  9 Chris Gomez 19 Aubrey Huff 25 Russ Johnson 20 David McCarty 10 Jared Sandberg 26 Andy Sheets 20 Bob Smith 29 Jason Smith		Outfielders  4 Jason Conti  8 Carl Crawford 18 Ben Grieve 33 Damian Rolls 14 Jason Tyner 23 Greg Vaughn  2 Randy Winn		Manager 11 Hal McRae Coaches 50 Jackie Brown (pitching) 55 Glenn Ezell (bullpen) 16 Tom Foley (third base) 22 Billy Hatcher (bench) 47 Lee May (first base) 35 Milt May (hitting)

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)	Pro Player Stadium
June 15	Marlins	Devil Rays	3-0	Pro Player Stadium
June 16	Devil Rays	Marlins	4-1	Pro Player Stadium
June 28	Devil Rays	Marlins	4-0	Tropicana Field
June 29	Marlins	Devil Rays	3-2	Tropicana Field
June 30	Devil Rays	Marlins	6-5 (12 innings)	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

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

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

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

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

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

References

• 2002 Tampa Bay Devil Rays team page at www.baseball-almanac.com
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