The Case Against the Tampa Bay Rays

I didn't like the Rays before, and like them even less now.

Ok as the resident Rays fan from St Pete, I have to take some exception to this article. Do we have an owner that is so cheap that he makes Marge Schott look like Big Daddy Warbucks? Absolutely. Do we have nerdish analytics based management that squeezes every ounce of under valued talent out of players before sending them on their way? Yes

Don't blame the players who wear the uniform and don't diss us fans. We root for the uniforms because player movement makes a lifetime commitment to any one particular team the unicorn rather than the rat. As for the analytics aspect, just because our bean counters and yes that is what they are, figured out a better way to build a mousetrap, don't blame the players and fans. Every other small market team in baseball would be doing the same thing if they knew how to do it correctly. Our talent evaluators are second to none. Why do you think the richest of the rich, the Dodgers hired away Friedman to run their organization. Our stadium blows. It is a football stadium built on a flood plain. But we make it work. And almost without exception, the players we get rid of get well paid by another team see Carl Crawford, Chris Archer, Matt Garza, James Shields et al. I am happy that our players get to experience success at an early part of their career and can take that going forward in their careers. If you want to hate the owner, and nearly everyone in St Pete does, get in line but don't hate the team.

The kind of dork who has a favorite GM instead of a favorite player

Ha ha. Them might be fighin' words on this site!

Don't blame the players who wear the uniform and don't diss us fans.

I don't believe the article is doing that at all, in fact the writer defends the players against the cheapskate owner who slammed them for not being good enough to start for Tampa's 2020 playoff opponents.

But to cheer against the team is to blame the players.

This article did nothing to convince me that the rays are the evil franchise and must be defeated.

Do I dislike the owner? Yes. In fact, I dislike the owner of all 30 clubs.

but I don’t root for or against teams based on their owner, but based on the players on the team

Other than Kevin Kiermaier there are no Tampa players I dislike, and several I'm fond of. How the team is run has nothing to do with them.

I'm a Cubs fan, but hate the owners and the way they run the team. All of the things called out here are things literally every team tries to take advantage of and are all wrong for it. The Rays just excel at it better than the rest. Mostly because they develop their plan and stick to it. They aren't the only ones to evaluate players the way they do, manipulate service time the way they do, use options they way they do, etc... they just do it better than everyone else. Every team already tries to maximize each of these things to their advantage and the fact the Rays do it so well with things such as one of the cheapest owners, poor ballpark, poor ballpark location, etc... speaks more to the talent of the players and personnel in the organization. Makes me root for them more so they get the recognition they deserve.

I love the way they stick to their plan, both in development and execution... it's fun watching them execute so well on the field across all levels.

The writer acknowledges the Rays are good at what they do. Nobody's denying that. The point is that what they do isn't good for baseball: not for the fans, not for the players. It's just good for the owner's bottom line.

If that happens, so be it. If you want disincentive this process, then the next CBA needs to raise the floor big time on what teams must spend. The Pirates total payroll was less than at least 6 players on the Dodgers. That is wrong

But cheering against the Rays to spite the ownership doesn't do anything except hurt the players.

Win or lose, the Rays will continue to operate the same way they do. Win or lose, every other team will continue to operate to try to be more like the Rays.

The stadium thing is something totally different - I think bringing baseball back to Montreal would be great - idk if having a hybrid Mon/TB team is the way to do it though ha

I'm not following your logic, ryno. Does cheering against Jeff Bezos hurt Amazon employees?

What good does it do though if Youre also cheering for/supporting Facebook, Walmart, apple, etc.

My point is that hey don’t do anything everyone else doesn’t also do.

they don’t take guys and prevent them from making more money, they just win with guys who haven’t been offered that money yet.

The article to me read as a pirates fan who’s mad that his team can’t do what Tampa has done, while pretending to be mad about what Tampa is doing.

Okay, I interpreted the article very differently from you, then.