MLB: Ray's Success Should Not Be a Surprise

This year has so far turned out to be a surprise year for many fans.  I don’t say teams because teams always predict they will do well until the last possible moment.  Here in this lies another interesting point.  True loyal fans know when a team is going to make a move and when it is going to be a long year.  Since the majority of the people are fair weather and bandwagon fans they all see winning a lot of games as a surprise.  The media is to blame for the term “surprise” these days.  To loyal fans surprises are never really surprises; they are just signs a plan is working.  This year seems to more so than usual with more than teams than usual experiencing these “surprises” but none have been bigger than Tampa Bay.

For starters look at Tampa Bay, almost any baseball fan would have told you the biggest surprise this year would be the Rays.  I think most true baseball fans know Tampa Bay was going to be successful this year, just not this successful.  It is funny the year they lose “devil” in their name they finally do well, but is just a coincidence.  The Rays have made some moves over the past five years and have built up a very good young team mainly through drafting and some key free agent signings—the success to any championship team.  The pitching staff ace was thought to be Scott Kazmir, but there are legitimate cases for other pitchers like James Shields.  I’m sure Mets fans have a bitter taste in their mouth after the Kazmir trade.  Turns out the Mets made one of the worst trades in history.  Another thing the Rays have going for them is good draft picks.  Regardless, this is one of the best pitching staffs in baseball and it is extremely young.  The Rays have been bad for so long so they have gotten top draft picks that have finally paid off.  Carl Crawford, BJ Upton, and James Shields are some draft picks that have become household names in the past few years.  The Rays know you can’t build a good team with just youth so they have brought in free agents nothing short of brilliantly.  Akinori Iwamura, Carlos Pena, and Troy Percival are only a few who have all contributed.   The latter two are players who teams gave up on, but have rediscovered themselves in Tampa Bay.  Everyone knows the Rays have made probably more bad decisions and as a result have finished last in their division every year except once since their inception in 1998.  This year I can almost guarantee the Rays will not finish last because partly of the recent ownership change and smart decisions.  This team is good enough to compete with the Red Sox and Yankees now and will be poised to make a serious run at winning the division next year.  A third team in this division makes this division very powerful and great for baseball, but that’s for a future blog.

The Marlins should not been as a surprise because of one reason.  Their scouts are the best in baseball no questions asked.  Year after year it seems they sell have sold of their team because of financial worries of being a small market team.  What they get back in return often seems lackluster and often times stupid.  Yet the Marlins still manage to compete every year and eventually make it back to the World Series in a short amount of time considering the circumstance. 

The other reason some teams are doing well and others bad is the same reason every year, pitching.  The Yankees, Tigers, and Padres have all had terrible pitchers this year.  Teams like the White Sox have done very well because of pitching.

By the end of the year I think the usual standings should take back over, but next year could be the year where we have completely different playoff teams.  One thing is for sure though, this makes baseball unique compared to any of the other sports.  Baseball is the most balanced of all the major sports with few teams being more powerful than the other.  The balance is also more evident than ever before, but that topic is for another day.