BLUE, I just saw this myself yesterday.
I will be contributing a major writeup on the Devil Rays in the next month, on accounta my being a resident here (Clearwater) since teams inception.
In short:
They've really, really been disappointing, especially with the way they blew tens of millions on Wilson Alvarez, Roberto Hernandez, Jose Canseco, Greg Vaughan, Vinny Cashstealer, and even Fred McGriff.
That being said, in the past 18 months this team has made some extremely postive moves.
They've got over 80 players in camp with 40+ that have significant major league experience.
For the first time ever, this team will hav 25 major leaguers on the roster come opening day, instead of 15 plus ten spares.
If they raise their BA five points they would be sixth in the league.
If they lower the ERA by .4 they will be in top half of pitching.
I think they will do both.
If this team plays up to previous history of their opening day roster, I think they could push 80 wins. Of course, if 4-5 key players go DOWN on me, they'll still threaten 70. And with the youth (Baldelli, Crawford, Huff, Lugo, Hall, not to mention most of the pitchers), it's not an utter stretch that 4-5 guys could go UP and they would bust 80 wins.
I was waiting with baited breath for the Season Win Totals, expecting 70 (it's 69.5), so I could pound the OVER.
Then I saw this CARIB prop.
IF my optimistic vision is on target, they will definitely finish at least 4th. AND FIFTEEN TO ONE.
We can't deposit until late next week, but plan to drop $300 on this prop. It would thus be the largest single sports wager I've ever made.
I guess you could say I do NOT think this is a sucker bet.