2002 Tampa Bay Devil Rays season explained

Tampa Bay Devil Rays
Season:	2002
League:	American League
Division:	East
Ballpark:	Tropicana Field
City:	St. Petersburg, Florida
Record:	55–106 (.342)
Divisional Place:	5th
Owners:	Vince Naimoli
General Managers:	Chuck LaMar
Managers:	Hal McRae
Television:	FSN Florida WMOR-TV WTSP (Joe Magrane, Dewayne Staats, Todd Kalas)
Radio:	WFLA (Paul Olden, Charlie Slowes) WLCC (Ricardo Tavares, Enrique Oliu)

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

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	CatchersInfielders	Outfielders	ManagerCoaches (pitching) (bullpen) (third base) (bench) (first base) (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)^[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	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
C	85	330	85	.258	6	42
1B	148	560	142	.254	16	72
2B	117	463	112	.242	2	40
SS	130	461	122	.265	10	46
3B	102	358	82	.229	18	54
LF	63	259	67	.259	2	30
CF	152	607	181	.298	14	75
RF	136	482	121	.251	19	64
DH	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

G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
76	281	73	.260	4	33
69	251	41	.163	8	29
78	222	57	.257	3	21
44	168	36	.214	0	9
59	157	34	.217	0	9
41	149	37	.248	4	22
45	111	24	.216	1	12
21	89	26	.292	0	6
26	65	13	.200	1	6
18	63	11	.175	1	6
12	34	6	.176	1	2
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

G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
33	224.0	4	18	5.18	137
30	196.2	8	11	4.53	109
30	193.2	6	12	4.83	111
15	90.0	5	10	5.60	67
3	14.0	0	3	11.57	7
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

G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
42	114.0	8	8	5.53	73
31	99.1	2	7	5.53	48
37	85.2	5	9	5.46	60
23	75.0	2	3	5.28	56
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

G	W	L	SV	ERA	SO
55	7	8	19	4.30	53
34	0	2	1	5.65	41
32	2	7	0	8.27	33
29	2	1	0	6.27	37
26	1	2	0	4.78	36
12	1	1	0	4.05	8
9	0	0	0	6.92	6
8	2	0	2	1.33	14
5	0	0	0	5.40	5
2	0	0	0	16.20	1
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

References

Web site: Ryan Freel Stats.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/u/uptonbj01.shtml B.J. Upton Statistics
https://www.baseball-reference.com/d/dukesel01.shtml Elijah Dukes Statistics
News: Gainesville Sun. Gainesville, Florida. Devil Rays release troubled Toe Nash. September 22, 2002. 8C. New York Times Management Services.
Web site: Box Score of Game played on Friday, June 14, 2002 at Pro Player Stadium.
Web site: Box Score of Game played on Saturday, June 15, 2002 at Pro Player Stadium.
Web site: Box Score of Game played on Sunday, June 16, 2002 at Pro Player Stadium.
Web site: Box Score of Game played on Friday, June 28, 2002 at Tropicana Field.
Web site: Box Score of Game played on Saturday, June 29, 2002 at Tropicana Field.
Web site: Box Score of Game played on Sunday, June 30, 2002 at Tropicana Field.
Johnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 3rd edition. Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 2007