Tampa Bay Rays: Fantasy Baseball Preview 2008

Complete fantasy preview guide for the Tampa Bay Rays in 2008. Get key information on projected starters, fantasy gems and duds, as well as potential sleepers and breakout players.

Projected Starters
C - Dioner Navarro
1b - Carlos Pena
2b - Akinori Iwamura
3b - Evan Longoria
SS - Jason Bartlett
LF - Carl Crawford
CF - BJ Upton
RF - Rocco Baldelli
DH - Jonny Gomes

SP - Scott Kazmir
SP - James Shields
SP - Matt Garza
SP - Andy Sonnanstine
SP - Edwin Jackson
CL - Al Reyes
RP - Juan Salas
RP - Troy Percival
RP - Dan Wheeler

Top Reserves and Backups
Willy Aybar - 3b
Reid Brignac - ss
Joel Guzman - 3b/1b
Ben Zobrist - ss
Cliff Floyd - of
Shawn Riggans - c
Gary Glover - p
Jeff Niemann - sp
Chad Orvella - rp

Fantasy GEMS
Among the frontline of fantasy gems, Tampa Bay outfielder Carl Crawford continually finds himself in the top 5 of fantasy outfielders year after year. Blessed with superb speed that typically nets him 50 plus stolen bases every year to go along with a very good batting average just above .300, Crawford is a no-doubt fantasy gem in any scoring format.

Next on the list of Rays players is fellow outfielder BJ Upton. Upton finally came alive in fantasy leagues in 2007 and his booming talent should translate into at least 25 homeruns and 25 steals, maybe even a 30-30 year could be in the works for Upton. Either way, Tampa Bay has two potential top 5 fantasy outfielders in 2008. Not bad for a team that is not supposed to win games with the big boys in the MLB. At least they have players that can win fantasy championships!

Finally let's not forget the American League comeback player of the year in 2007, first baseman Carlos Pena. In 2007 Pena did more than his fair share of work for both the Rays and fantasy owners by belting out 46 homeruns, 121 rbi's, 99 runs, and a .282 batting average to boot.

Starting pitchers Scott Kazmir and James Shields also did their part in putting together good stat production years as well. 2008 may finally be the year the Rays put all their talent together and finish with a record above .500. Expecting Crawford, Upton, Pena, Kazmir and Shields to all produce fantasy worthy stats again in 2008 should be a good bet.