Records of 63-99, 69-93 and 69-92 robbed the Rays of any instant credibility they had sought. Attendance plummeted, and Tropicana Field gained a reputation as the most tepid home environment in the sport.
Even as the club tried a more traditional building plan centered on draft picks and young trade acquisitions, it often encountered terrible luck. Josh Hamilton, the No. 1 overall pick in the 1999 draft, is an All-Star these days, but only after drug addiction forced him out of the game and caused the Rays to give up on him. With such unsteady blocks, the Rays' structure continued to teeter.
"It was pretty bleak, man," Huff remembered. "Every year was a fight just to win 70 games. The crowds were dead. There's only so much you can take as a player when you're so desperate to compete and win. You start to lose your mind."
There's no simple answer to how it all came together for Tampa Bay.
They never drafted lower than eighth from 1999 to 2008, and two of those high picks, Evan Longoria and B.J. Upton, are among their stars. They parlayed another top prospect, Delmon Young, into their No. 3 starter, Matt Garza, and their superb defensive shortstop, Jason Bartlett.
But since Andrew Friedman took over baseball operations after the 2005 season, the Rays have done far more than sit back and wait for high draft picks to pan out. They have excelled at finding fallen prospects such as first baseman Carlos Pena and starter Edwin Jackson, whose talents blossomed later than anyone expected. They have accumulated one-time regulars such as Floyd and Eric Hinske and plugged them into productive part-time roles. They have revamped a defense that had been terrible for years into one of the best in the league.
The blend has worked so well that players feel almost bulletproof.
"It usually takes only one thing to spark it, and then it's [smooth sailing] for us," Longoria said after spurring a comeback win over the Orioles with a long, two-run homer and several great plays at third. "I think it's just a belief in each other and belief in our team. We all just feed off each other."
The Rays' miracle train seemed to be coming off the tracks before the All-Star break, when they lost seven straight. So manager Joe Maddon called a meeting.
"Did you really think we'd go through the whole season without a bump in the road?" he asked the players.
Said Floyd: "It was like, you're right, that was our bump. We just stayed together."
