Rays and Marlins: Poor Playoff Prospects as Season Nears End

Depending on which team you're looking at, there are only 31 to 35 games left in the 2014 Major League Baseball regular season.  While the Florida teams of Tampa Bay (64-66) and Miami (64-65) can still put themselves into playoff contention with a super-hot streak in the remaining games, both of them will have to pass too many other teams to earn one of the wild card slots...and there is little to no chance that either will win their divisions.  The Rays are looking at this season as a down year (they made the League Championship Series last year), but for the Marlins, after going 62-100 last year there is a positive spirit and hope for the future.  Of course, with Miami, that's assuming that their management won't trade or sell off their star players in order to avoid paying them salaries comparable to general major league standards...a sad pattern typifying this franchise.  But maybe, just maybe, this time around they'll try to hold onto their standouts...but I'm not betting on it.

Tampa Bay is also known for underpaying its players, and they recently dealt away their ace Cy Young Award winning starting pitcher David Price, who had already settled with the Rays for $15 million this year, well below his market value.  When they traded him to Detroit in the final minutes of the July trade deadline, I realized that Rays management cared more about their financial bottom line than their fans.  It's hard to root for teams whose ownership holds them down and regards overachieving players as liabilities to be gotten rid of...