Why I Love the Rays

I was born and raised in and around the Seattle area, cursing me to a life tied to the fortunes of a team assembled by a man who purposely acquired Horacio Ramirez and Jose Vidro as premier offseason acquisitions. Why then, is my second favorite team the one nearly furthest away from me geographically? Many reasons.

I love baseball, always have. As a kid growing up in the Seattle suburbs, I was inundated early in life with Mariners' baseball. I still remember the first game I attended when I was five years old, walking up the big ramps of the Kingdome, looking around in awe, mostly at how much concrete there was. From that point on, baseball consumed me. I collected baseball cards, played little league, went to as many games as possible, and if I was not doing any of those, I was probably outside tossing a rubber ball against a concrete wall with a taped up strike zone on it, assured that one day I would be throwing off a big league mound.

My obsession with baseball did not end with the actual game itself. I also immersed myself in fantasy baseball as well, beginning in the mid 90's with the mail-in leagues run by The Sporting News. In an effort to help figure out the best allocation of fantasy resources, I tracked every player's stats in a spreadsheet, thus beginning my life's work of being an incredibly huge baseball nerd. What I got out all those fantasy leagues and all the baseball video games that I would play was an intense appreciation for roster management. To this day, when I find time to play baseball video games, I don't actually play the games (I'd much rather actually play baseball than simulate playing baseball), but rather I tinker with the roster for hours on end and then just sim past all the games. That's the challenge I enjoy, constantly retooling, rebuilding on the fly, making draft choices, etc. As such, there's no wonder that I carry this view over to my fanship of major league baseball as well.

I go into each offseason (or sometimes sooner as the case may be, such as now), coming up with dozens of different plans for how I would shape a team were I to have complete control. It is remarkably pointless work, but I cannot help myself, that's what drives me. Obviously being a Mariner fan means I'm left with a pretty hollow feeling at the conclusion of each offseason, bemoaning what could have been and attempting to trick myself (I don't have to try very hard, I'm a sucker) into hoping for a good season from my well-intentioned but not very bright team. That doesn't stop me from keeping an interest in other teams as well, in particular, to other team's rosters and their management thereof.

That's where the Rays shine through the strongest. I cannot think of any other team in baseball that handles their roster as intelligently, as efficiently, as the Rays do, and they've been doing it since day one of the new front office. It doesn't always show up on the field right away, but that's the best part, every move they make is seemingly part of a larger overall plan that guides them far more strongly than the short-term goals in front of them. Always put your stock in with the smart people, they'll triumph more often than not in the end.

And that is what the Tampa front office is made up of. It's not just the obvious stuff that the more intelligent fans see and spot as good management practice like locking up young talent, caring about the draft and the like. It's little things as well that would go unnoticed by all but a select few lucky enough to know that the Rays are doing them. Those lucky enough to know that, for example, the Rays take a keen interest in the latest analytical research. That they're users of Pitch F/X data and that they are interested in Greg Rybarczyk's work with Hit Tracker. These tidbits do not come out often, but when you catch wind of them, you nod and say to yourself, "of course they do. It's the Rays. They get it."

For those looking closely enough, of which there weren't enough, that long term plan was obviously coming together quickly and the throw-away comments about the Rays being possible division contenders come 2010 started to appear more frequently in 2006 and 2007. It was a bastion of far off hope for those of us sick with being bludgeoned over the head with Red Sox/Yankees non-stop 8 months out of the year. Then this past offseason came and saw the Rays completely revamp their biggest weakness in team defense and front it with a solid rotation backed by youth and incredible depth and supported by a growing crop of young and talented hitters. Meanwhile, they've done a fabulous job at locking up that young talent to contracts that benefit both sides; offering security for the players in exchange for the same for the team along with a discount over the insane market rates.

Suddenly it wasn't a far away, "maybe 2010," dream of contention, but rather a specific, "wow the 2009 Rays are going to be good," target. And then, here's the great part of good planning, it breeds good luck, the plan came together even quicker than anyone on the outside, and I bet some on the inside, thought it would and we see the Rays sitting atop the 2008 AL East.

Make no mistake; the Mariners are my team and that's almost certainly never going to change for as long as they're in Seattle. My civic pride for this city far outweighs any rationality I have. But logic tells us that the 2008 Mariner season is over. I won't stop watching, but it's not the same without even a glimmer of hope of post-season play. The Rays still have that hope. Will they stay there? Maybe not for this year. But get used to seeing their name up at or near the top of the East for the next several years. They have the talent, both on the field and in the front office, to run with any team in baseball and neither looks like it's going anywhere soon.

If you need a winning team to root for in 2008, there's no better option. Go Rays.