Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
The Tampa Bay Rays had the luxury of trading two of their starting pitchers this offseason because of having one major one that looked poised to break out. The transformation of Matt Moore this season has made Tampa’s move look real good.
Moore is 5-0 with a 1.95 ERA in six starts after winning his first five starts. He did struggle during his last start, but is a completely different pitcher than he was last season.
Moore gave up just one run or fewer in four of his first starts and allowed just two runs in the other start. The 2012 season was one where Moore didn’t come close to reaching his expectations with a 11-11 record as he was obviously looked at to do much more after his breakout performance when he came up late in the 2011 season.
The Rays were just 14-16 on the season going into Monday’s play, so no one else is doing anything worthwhile besides Moore this season so far.
It is going to be up to Moore to continue pitching the way he has all season or this Tampa Bay team is going to find themselves below the .500 mark. I would have to say that Moore is obviously the best pitcher on the roster now. He has surpassed David Price in my opinion, and Alex Cobb is now the No. 2 starter on this team.
I think that Moore will finish with at least 15 wins when the season concludes. It won’t be enough to get Tampa Bay to the playoffs, but at least the Rays know they have their No. 1 starter for a long time to come.
Andy Schmidt is a columnist/writer for RantSports. Follow him on Twitter @ASchmidtSports, like his Facebook page or add him to your network on Google.
