Comments on: The 2011 Tampa Bay Rays: This Year’s 2002 Oakland A’s

By: XtreemIcon

XtreemIcon — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 01:22:58 +0000

I get it.

By: Clayton Collier

Clayton Collier — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 01:10:18 +0000

I forgot about Zobrist, I’ll give you that. But Kotchman is somewhat of a journeyman and Joyce never proved himself really until this year.

1-2-3 punch I am talking about the postseason rotation.

And yes their closer had a good year… But that’s not the point.

The point is they lost Soriano and just about every man in the 2010 bullpen and still put together a top of the line pen, offense and rotation.

By: XtreemIcon

XtreemIcon — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 01:02:27 +0000

Clayton, I don’t think you’re giving the Rays enough credit. Longoria’s a beast, sure, but Upton had a disappointing year. It was good, but no one would look at this numbers and think they were solid. And the rest being rookies, journeymen or washed up, I think Matt Joyce, Ben Zobrist and Casey Kotchman would beg to differ. The 1-2-3 punch is there, but Davis and Niemann are very solid back of the rotation pitchers. They also had a great year from their closer.

By: t agee

t agee — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 20:50:21 +0000

Didn’t they lose in the first round last year? I believe they did. Plus they didn’t even just let guys go free agent, they also traded a pretty damn good pitcher from the Major League roster for the #27 ranked prospect, Chris Archer 23, AAA and the #92nd rated prospect Hak Ju Lee, 20 SS AA and younger AAA depth.

So they’ve replenished an already very good farm system with 11 picks in the first 60, made a trade for two higher end prospects not far away, picked up younger emergency fill in/backup types and still won 90 games and made the playoffs.

Hmmmm. So a team can prepare to win today while simultaneously preparing (ahead of time) to win tommorow, and even do it on 40 M?

Wow. Who woulda thought.

By: Metsie

Metsie — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 20:30:17 +0000

And when they get eliminated in the first round of those playoffs will it prove once and for all that letting your best players go in the name of not spending money is a BIG MISTAKE and can’t ever win anytyhing but false hope?

By: Donal

Donal — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 20:06:20 +0000

So, your whole argument can be boiled down to “magnets, how the #$%^ do they work?”

By: Clayton Collier

Clayton Collier — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 19:54:06 +0000

Bayonne, my point in this was saying “Wow, the Rays were absolutely gutted, and yet here they are in October yet again.”

I thought that last night when Longoria hit that home run, then my next thought was, “Wow the A’s were gutted in 2002 as well and managed to do the same.”

I wasn’t trying to say “Moneyball Rays” because that isn’t what this is. They had alot of young talent in the farm system, not to mention alot of them with speed, that kept them in it despite the massive loss of players.

By: Bayonne Mets Fan

Bayonne Mets Fan — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 19:20:21 +0000

This idea of thinking that teams the win with lesser payrolls are somehow smarter or onto something is ridiculous and it’s really getting out of hand now. It also is throwing a monkey wrench into enjoying what is REALLY happening and that is good ballplayers playing better than other good ballplayers at any time. Also sometimes high contracts can be a burden on the performance of the player who signed it as we’ve seen before so there are a lot of intangibles that come into play.

When the A’s beat the Mets in the 1973 World Series we weren’t bothering looking at each team’s payroll so see if somebody was smarter than the other guy.

When the Mets beat Boston in 1986 i don’t remember talking about each team’s payrolls back then either.
Or when the Mets beat the Cardinals in 1988 did we waste time discussing the team’s payroll?
Same when Mets won in 1999? What was Braves payroll or Mets? Or Arizona’s I really do not care to be honest

I don’t even know the Yankee payroll vs. Mets payroll in 2000 and I’m sure it didn’t matter. Or the Mets payroll and the Giants payroll that year either. I wasn’t thinking about that when Benny Agbayani hit that HR

I could go on and on like t agee but you get my point.

By: alex68

alex68 — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 18:48:24 +0000

ahhhh, the moneyballin A’s.. i remember. they still LOST in the first round that year.

By: Mr North Jersey

Mr North Jersey — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 18:18:29 +0000

In a division many consider the toughest in baseball the Rays won 91 games. Just incredible.