The Case for Barry

Written By: Matthew C.K. Bradwell
Creative Editor

Increased media coverage.
Higher ticket sales.
Larger national interest.
And a few historic* home runs.

Those are the reasons that the Tampa Bay Rays (still doesn’t sound right) should sign Barry Bonds.

Sure, there are the obvious drawbacks. Bonds brings with him an almost unprecedented media circus, the scorn of baseball writers across the country, a really big chair and the risk of being unable to play due to his indictment for perjury and obstruction of justice. And he’s not exactly the most upbeat guy on the planet.

(I would also have included fan alienation as one of Bonds pitfalls, but you need to have fans for that to be a concern)

But if no press is bad press, the Rays could stand only to gain from signing the demonized slugger.

Tampa Bay has had the misfortune of playing in the AL Northeastern Coastal Cities division since it’s inception in 1998 and has yet to finish above .500 or higher than fourth place. They do consistently out sell the cross-state Marlins, but to deem them a successful franchise based on that comparison would be the same as rewarding a D student for outscoring Forrest Gump on an aptitude test.

But thing’s aren’t all bad in Tampa Bay. Scott Kazmir, Dioner Navarro, Willy Aybar, Rocco Baldelli, Carl Crawford and B.J. Upton represent a group of gifted young players who are capable of developing into a talented core. Highly touted third base prospect Evan Longoria is waiting in the minor leagues and will likely see big league playing time this season. The franchise continues to benefit from revenue sharing, making a splash in the 2006 off-season, signing Japanese infielder Akinori Iwanmura. All of these factors should combine to make the Rays a competitive team.

In 2011.

Before then, general manager Andrew Friedman needs focus on building as much revenue as possible so they can sign the young players to long-term deals and continue to improve via free agency.

Bonds represents the perfect opportunity for the Rays to get cash fast. Future almost-Hall-of-Famer Omar Vizquel told Sports Illustrated that he likes not having Bonds around because it allows the team to focus primarily on baseball. That’s all well and good for the Giants, but the Rays have no business just focusing on baseball in 2008. They are not going to win their division, not by any stretch of the imagination, they probably won’t even sniff a .500 record and will have serious competition from the Baltimore Orioles for a fourth place finish.

But they can use Bonds to get attention and attention begets revenue and in today’s MLB, revenue begets success.

Besides, it’s not like the Rays are afraid to use nonsensical disproportionate beast-things to appeal to their fans.