Maddon seeks to maintain Rays’ performance level
That is, beside you are counting spring training, where Joe Maddon is anxious to get to work after agreeing to a 3-year contract extension that could keep him in Tampa Bay’s dugout thru 2015. Low Juice Sports Betting
The Rays formally announced the agreement with the 58-year-old manager during a meeting at Tropicana Field.
Maddon has led the team to the playoffs three of the past 4 seasons and feels they have got a wonderful chance of getting back again this year. Low Juice Sports Wagering
Maddon declared while he is flattered by speculation that he’d have been attractive to other teams if the Rays hadn’t locked him up long term he had no wish to leave Tampa Bay, that has an accomplished young roster capable of saying for championships for many years to come.
Maddon is 495-477 in 6 seasons with the Rays, who struggled thru a decade of futility prior to finally posting the 1st winning report in organization history in 2008, when they not only confounded the chances by finishing before the NY Yankees and Boston Red Sox for the AL East title but made their first World Series show.
Tampa Bay won arguably baseball’s toughest division again in 2010, and then beat a 9-game deficiency in September to edge Boston for the American League wild-card spot on the final night of last season.
Maddon has excelled notwithstanding fielding a team whose payroll is one of the lowest in baseball. A year ago, the Rays lost 6 big players to free agency and traded 2 others, yet won 91 games to finish 2nd in the AL East, which traditionally has been dominated by the big-spending NY Yankees and Red Sox.
“We’ve truly grown a lot over the past 1 or 2 years,” declared Maddon, who lost 101 games in 2006 — his 1st with Tampa Bay — and 96 the following season.
The Rays have averaged 92 wins the previous 4 seasons. And with one of baseball’s youngest and deepest pitching revolutions and what could actually be a better offensive attack led by Evan Longoria, B.J. Upton, Ben Zobrist, Carlos Pena and Luke Scott, Maddon said the club has everything it takes to return to the postseason.
“We’ve come up short the last 2 years in the playoffs, but we did get there,” Maddon expounded, alluding losses to Texas in the divisional round in 2010 and 2011.
“We’ve got to increase that a little bit as we go forward. … It’s around winning. It is regarding getting to the last game of the season and winning it next time we get an opportunity to be there.”
Rays executive vice chairman of baseball operations Andrew Friedman lauded Maddon’s ability to connect with players, build young talent and always “put the organization 1st” in making choices.
“I think one of his greatest strengths is something that isn’t discussed just about enough,” Friedman recounted. “Everything Joe does is under the role to make this organization better in both the short term and the long run.
Maddon was entering the last season of a 3-year extension he signed in May 2009. Prior to his arrival after spending more than 30 years in the Angels organization, the Rays went 518-775 under the team’s three prior managers.