When Will Tampa's Bubble Burst

Alright, Allen Funt and Ashton Kutcher, you can both come out now and tell the entire baseball world that we're on Candid Camera or that we've been Punk'D. The joke has officially been played out, and we'd like things to return to normal now.

It's time to remind the Tampa Bay Rays that they are a perennial basement team and have no business leading the American League East over teams like Boston, New York, and Toronto. The bandwagon can't take any more weight without the wheels falling off.

Yes folks, we're seriously talking about the team formerly known as the Devil Rays leading the A.L. East by 2 ½ games and having the best record in baseball in July. The Tampa Bay Rays, the same team that has finished out of fifth place once in their existence, making the excursion to fourth in 2004 before settling back into fifth every year since. A team whose season best win total of 70 looks like it will be completely shattered by this year's squad, which have already mustered 51 as of July 2, 2008.

So should we be surprised at this stage? After years of stockpiling top draft picks and hearing how every one of them was helping create the best farm system in baseball, should it come as a shock that at one point something was finally going to click and this team was going to take off? Somewhere along the line though, people forgot to tell them that they have to work their way into contention, not catapult into it. But fueled by pitching, timely hitting, and a desire to win that the team has never known before, that's exactly what they've done.

Are they legit? The numbers certainly seem to suggest they are:

Team ERA - 3.65 (4^th)

Hits Allowed - 673 (2^nd)

HR Allowed - 70 (3^rd)

Runs Scored - 390 (11^th)

Batting Average - .263 (11^th)

OBP - .340 (8^th)

HR Hit - 90 (9^th)

Stolen Bases - 90 (1^st)

Run Differential - +58 (6^th)

What makes the team scarier is the plethora of young talent it still has in the system, something that could make them serious players at the trade deadline. If any team has the ability to acquire a guy like C.C. Sabathia or Brian Fuentes to better an already impressive pitching staff, even if it is just a stretch drive rental, it's Tampa. And if they choose not to resign the acquisition, as a team with a strict budget, they'll be more than happy to pocket the draft picks and continue to build their farm.

So the question comes back around. At midnight, will the tower tell this Cinderella that it was all just a dream, or will the fairy tale season keep plugging away? Maybe we should just click our heels and find out.

Sources

MLB Sortable Team Stats, MLB.Com

Candid Camera, Wikipedia.com

Punk'D, Wikipedia.com