ST. PETERSBURG — Tampa Bay Rays owner Stuart Sternberg is in town for the series with the Boston Red Sox. He addressed the media before Wednesday’s 8-5 victory.
Here is what he had to say:
On Tuesday’s crowd of 17,692, the smalles to see a Rays-REd Sox game in more than two years:
“We could have expected a few more fans.”
On if the small crowds for this series (Wednesday’s game drew 19,148) changes how Sternberg feels of this market:
“Everything that happens changes how I feel. All it is is input and it’s constantly a work in progress. If every game was sold out in the month of September, it would change the way I would think then.”
On the Rays struggles:
“I think we’ve seen some guys having extraordinary season and I think we’ve seen a few guys have well below par seasons. The game, it’s a very small margin of error sometimes. The difference between turning a double play or not getting to a ball or not moving a runner over sometimes shows. You can’t get away with anything, especially in this division and in the American League for sure.”
On the Rays’ playoff hopes:
“I’m proud that we’ve gotten to September ... obviously, the goal is to win it and walk away and not look back, OK? That wasn’t going to be the case. It’s never going to be the case in this division, especially. But the goal was to get to September and play meaningful baseball games. I had clearly and the team had clearly looked at this run that we have here — Boston, Detroit, New York, Boston — as this year’s gauntlet as we saw last year’s gauntlet when we came out pretty well. A couple few games here or there and we wouldn’t be having this conversation. Little breaks help determine those sort of things.”
On the recent moves:
“We had a hole to fill — I felt, at least — at catcher. We took in Gregg Zaun. It cost us money, it cost us a player, we added payroll. Gregg Zaun to this point has performed great. He’s probably helped win a game or two — at least one that we know of — and has done well. At this point where we are, (vice president ofd baseball) Andrew (Friedman) addressed what happened with Scott (Kazmir) and what we did, but we got players back who I think are very significant and I feel very comfortable. Gregg Zaun was immediate help, Russ Springer was immediate help. Sometimes you add, sometimes you subtract. That’s where we are.”
On the perception that the Kazmir trade was a salary dump:
“Fans should always be looking for us to push forward, bore ahead, to hell with the torpedoes, keep going forward. We’ve got to balance everything that goes on, and I look at this as the whole organization and the franchise, and we do what we think is in the best interest of the franchise. We’re not going to be right 100 percent of the time, but our track record’s pretty good and I feel pretty good about that deal and the rationale that went into it.”
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