After disappointing 2010, James Shields has been dominant for Tampa Bay Rays

Any way you slice it, James Shields was the Tampa Bay Rays’ worst starting pitcher in 2010.
His 5.18 ERA was nearly a run higher than any of Tampa Bay’s other four regular starters, his 1.46 WHIP was also a rotation worst, and his staggeringly poor -1.3 WAR number was the worst of any Rays player – pitcher or otherwise.
League-wide, Shields allowed the most earned runs (117) and total bases (410) in the majors, tied for the most hits allowed (246), and allowed the second-most home runs (34).
If there was a weak link on a Tampa Bay staff that finished second in the American League with a 3.78 ERA en route to its second division title in three years, it was Shields.
This year, though, Shields has been the Rays’ Most Valuable Player.



As Tampa Bay fights to stay competitive with the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox in its post-Carl Crawford era in the American League East, Shields has suddenly become one of baseball’s most dominant pitchers.
Entering Tuesday, Shields leads Rays starters in ERA (2.29), WHIP (0.96), strikeouts (117), strikeouts per nine innings (8.65) and innings pitched (121.2).
He is in the top five in the American League in each of those categories.
In four starts since June 6 — when the Rays went 14-6 over their last 20 games — Shields has gone 3-0 with a 1.06 ERA.
When he takes the mound Wednesday afternoon for a 12:10 p.m. start against Cincinnati, Shields will be riding a streak of three straight complete games, and will be going for his third shutout in his last four starts.
Besides Shields, only Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee and Justin Verlander have more than three complete games the entire season.
Since its initial postseason run in 2008, Tampa Bay’s success has been built on homegrown stars overachieving to counteract their big market division rivals’ high-powered free agents.
As the midway point of the season nears, Tampa Bay finds itself only 2.5 games behind New York and 2 games behind Boston entering Tuesday night’s action.
The Rays don’t have the spending power of those clubs, and they certainly can’t match either of those teams’ offensive firepower.
But if Shields can continue pitching like an ace, Tampa Bay will make a run at defending its division title

Buckhorn again raises eyebrows with talk about Tampa Bay Rays' future

TAMPA — Seems like every week Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn is thinking out loud about the future of the Tampa Bay Rays in ways that raise people's eyebrows.
Buckhorn said in a radio interview Tuesday that he believes the team will leave St. Petersburg.
"The Rays and the city of St. Petersburg are going to have to resolve their issues," Buckhorn told J.P. Peterson on WQYK-AM 1010. "There is a contract. And there are ways out of contracts. And there are prices to be paid for breaking contracts.
"But that's got to be between the city of St. Pete and the Rays," he added. "My personal opinion is that they will come. I think the Rays have made it clear that that is not a stadium they want to continue to play in."
If the Rays do leave St. Petersburg, Buckhorn said, and not for the first time, he thinks the best place for them to land would be downtown Tampa.
But asked whether he thinks the Rays will move to Tampa, Buckhorn said, "No. It's my belief that at some point the Rays will leave St. Petersburg … and I absolutely want to be ready when that happens."
On Wednesday, Buckhorn said it's clear that playing at Tropicana Field doesn't work for the team.
What about St. Petersburg itself?
"There may be other locations in Pinellas that work for them," Buckhorn said. "I don't know."
He said he bases his comments on what he has read in the paper and the numbers, not anything from the Rays
To the contrary, Buckhorn said he only met Rays principal owner Stuart Sternberg for the first time before throwing out the first pitch at the Rays game Monday night.
"We had a great chat, but it was nothing specific," he said on the radio.
Earlier this week, Buckhorn told the Times he is not talking about the team's future with the Rays, nor with anyone in either the Tampa or St. Petersburg chambers of commerce, nor with any third parties.
"I'm not getting involved," he said.
But he is talking.
This spring, he told St. Petersburg Mayor Bill Foster, "I'm not going to be the boyfriend in your divorce."
Then last week, he noted that the Rays were sponsoring a big business lunch in downtown Tampa. He told a crowd of 500, "I see the Tampa Bay Rays. Welcome to, uh," then in a whisper, "downtown Tampa."
Now there's this stuff on the radio.
Asked whether making flirty comments doesn't complicate things, Buckhorn said, it shouldn't.
"If you can't have fun with some of these arguably serious situations, you would melt," he said. "Humor is a great way to break the ice and hopefully move the discussion along."
Foster doesn't see it that way.
"Do I think he's helping?" Foster said. "No, I don't, but I understand his role as the mayor of Tampa. And I would appreciate people respecting my role as the mayor of the city of St. Petersburg."
Foster said he believes the economy plays more of a role in determining fan support for the Rays than the Trop or its location. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers didn't blame the city, the stadium, the fans or the bridges when they didn't sell out games last season, he noted.
If anything, Tampa leaders should bring fans over to home games by the busload to demonstrate that the Howard Frankland and Gandy bridges are no big deal, he said.
"That's how we save the team for the region," Foster said.