The Rays are one of the more fascinating teams to project almost every year. Next season should be no exception. Tampa Bay went 40-20 in last year’s shortened season, entering the postseason as the American League’s top seed. The Rays made good on that status, knocking off the Blue Jays, Yankees and Astros in successive series to claim their first pennant in twelve years. A six-game defeat at the hands of the Dodgers in the Fall Classic kept the franchise from their first World Series title, but there’s no doubt the 2020 season was a success.
Whether they followed that up with a quality offseason is debatable. Tampa Bay declined a club option on Charlie Morton and traded away Blake Snell, subtracting two of their top three pitchers. Tyler Glasnow and Ryan Yarbrough are back, likely aided by offseason additions Chris Archer, Rich Hill, Michael Wacha, Collin McHugh and Luis Patiño. The bullpen was an area of strength for the Rays in 2020. That figures to again be the case, with Nick Anderson, Pete Fairbanks and Diego Castillo leading a talented group that throws wildly varying profiles and arm angles at opposing lineups.
There’s a lot more continuity on the position player side. The Rays bring back nine of the ten players who took at least 100 plate appearances last year (Hunter Renfroe being the player who departed). Yet while the offense was very good during the regular season in 2020, the bats largely went cold in the playoffs (with postseason star Randy Arozarena an obvious exception). Should we expect a return to form from those regulars who propped up a lineup that was the league’s eighth-best (by wRC+) in the regular season? There’s also the potential for baseball’s top prospect, Wander Franco, to make an impact this year, although that unsurprisingly won’t be at the start of the season.
Baseball Prospectus’ PECOTA system forecasts a season in the 87-win range; their median outcome has Tampa Bay finishing second in the AL East (behind the Yankees) but securing a Wild Card spot. FanGraphs’ Depth Charts aren’t as optimistic, pegging the Rays at 84 wins and behind the Yankees, Blue Jays and Red Sox in the division. Splitting the difference, we’ll set the over/under at 85.5 wins. Should we expect another postseason run for the Rays in 2021?
(poll links for app users)
i think its them or the Yankees for the final WC spot
Blue jays > rays
Well yes, that’s my assumption. the aforementioned pair fight for second behind the Jays.
Idk, I just can’t see the Jays coming up with the much needed pitching. Top 3 offense in baseball, but their pitching is very weak. High 80’s win total imo.
Jays pitchers are looking good. Excellent job by their management and coaches.
Ahahahahaha! And I thought you were better than that darkside
When grading Toronto’s SP, I think it has to be taken in context.
Outside of LA (where the Dodgers have 9 true #5 or better Starters), there aren’t many – if any – teams who will use a traditional rotation.
This year will require 10 or more bulk arms (capable of 3-4+ IP) to make it through.
While the Jays may not have any big brand names behind Ryu, their bulk depth is better positioned than that of TB or NYY.
So, Toronto should be in great shape through the deadline … but that’s when these 3 will separate.
September/ October will still reward teams that profile with 2-3 TOR calibre arms, so – discounting any possible injuries – the ALE will likely come down to who is most aggressive at the deadline.
Let’s see the Jays’ young talent jell together over a long season. Right now, I still see them competing with Boston for the third position in the East. I believe in JDM having a huge rebound which lengthens the lineup and feel whichever staff performs better the full year will grab third. Under that premise, I easily see the Rays getting to 86 wins.Hoping I’m wrong but until the Rays have two consecutive down seasons, I can’t vote against their system outperforming expectations. They do it most seasons so why should I expect 2021 to be different?
Top 3 offense in all of baseball? I don’t see that happening.
Starscream – The Blue Jays are going to be good in 21, but the Rays will have the best pitching in the AL East. No team has better bulk depth than Tampa (well, maybe the Dodgers). Tampa has 6 legitimate starters, another 2 whose careers have mostly been starter types and 5 top prospects banging on the door in AAA, plus the top Pen from 2020 returning even stronger. When a Chris Archer goes down next year, the Rays will counter with Josh Fleming (3.7 xFIP in his rookie year) or top prospects Luis Patino or Shane McClannahan. Plus, there is no team better suited to managing the difficulties of coming off a Pandemic shortened 2020 than the Rays. They literally create new pitching trends every few years.
why do they need to jell? they were the same.young guys that were on the team last year and this isnt basketball or football.
and quite frankly thats the argument I’ll agree to disagree on because I think their offense will be good enough to cover for that.
A lot of people seem down on the Jays’ pitching, but I don’t see another rotation or bullpen in the American League that is miles ahead of theirs. The Yankees have one sure thing in their rotation, and that’s Cole. Twins, White Sox, Rays, anyone in the west… no great rotations there either.
@ enteluj88;
The Rays, Indians, A’s, Astros, and Twins will all have better pitching than the Jays.
Also keep in mind that pitching is supported by defense, not hitting. All of the above teams have better defenses then the Jays.
I’d suspect as the season rolls out there will be other AL teams with better pitching as well. I’d suspect the Jays pitching winds up somewhere in the middle of AL teams
The Yankees are the best of the AL East when it comes to TOR possibilities. Cole and Kluber are capable of being as good as any other 1-2 in baseball. Kluber has ?’s but he wants on more contract and has had plenty of rest. The question is the #3 spot. If Tallion can stay healthy and productive until Severino returns the Yanks should have one of the best 1-2-3 in the game. Not to mention Garcia and Schmidt are ready for a shot with Gil probably getting a late season call up. There should be at least one future TOR in that group. For once Cashman has put together a squad of starters that can match the talent of the bullpen.
Their main question like every other year is if their bats can actually stay on the field. For once because of the quality of their depth the starters should be just fine.
The difference last year between the Rays and Blue Jays was 22 games over a full season. Sorry, the Jays haven’t closed that gap yet.
it wouldn’t have been 22 in a full seasons so the point is moot. the 2020 Rays would not have won 108 in a full 162 game schedule.
Why not? The Rays were clearly the 2nd best team in the sport last season.
I do agree the Jays have improved, but they’ve won 90 games only once in the past 27 seasons, while the Rays have won at least 90 three straight seasons. The Jays still have a lot of ground to make up to close that gap between them and the Rays.
My thought is, the Rays were kind of built for a sprint last year. They still would have been very good, but probably mid-90wins over 162? I think the gap between them and the Jays over a full 2020 would have been closer to 10-12 games.
The same reason the Rays succeeded in the sprint is why they will succeed in the marathon after Covid, their depth. The Rays have so many MLB quality arms that they can withstand numerous injuries to any position, including pitching. The reason the Rays can make the opener work is because they have dozens of guys that can get MLB outs. They’ll feel the Snell and Morton losses and n the playoffs, but not the regular season.
because 108 is historically good. Rays were great last year but 108 is a heck of a number. they could have finished with 10 less wins then that and still locked up the #1 seed.
Sure, maybe they would’ve fallen off a bit over a 162, but over the past 3 seasons the 2nd best team in MLB has had 106, 102 and 103 wins for an average of 103.7 wins. The Rays were clearly the 2nd best team in baseball last year and there is zero reason to think they wouldn’t have been a 100+ win team over a full season with 105+ wins definitely possible.
This is a classic case of thinking a team won the off season and therefore is significantly better. The Jays were the third best team in their division and until I see otherwise that’s how I see them now.
The Yankees are easily winning the division
okie dokie
Easily? Nope. Rays and Yankees are at best a coin flip for the Yankees. Both will make the playoffs and easily surpass 90 wins this year. Not sure who gets to a 100 wins and the division title.
Reds2021 – The Yankees have a good team on paper, but every year we hear the same party line of how they suffered so many injuries to key positions. The Yankees are a brittle team (this year even more so with that pitching staff), and coming off the Pandemic shortened season, I’m expecting them to not be nearly as good as they are projected to be because of… wait for it… so many injuries to key positions. They may still win the division, but it won’t be easy.
Glad someone sees the facts. The excuses of the injuries every year are so old by now…. they have weak and injury prone players, and that’s all part of scouting reports that teams pay attention to it’s not by luck that all the same guys get hurt every year
Plus, looking at NY they really did nothing to improve over what they were last year this winter. The pitching additions of Kluber and Taillon only replace the pitching they lost in Tanaka, Happ and Paxton. After that they did nothing but re-sign guys who were already there. They finished up over .500 last year only because they went 9-1 against Boston and the joke of a starting rotation they featured last season. Boston has improved that significantly coming into 2021, to the point where splitting their games with NY is a realistic possibility.
Honestly, other than Baltimore who should be horrible this year, the other 4 teams in the AL East all have enough talent and questions about them where I could see any order of finish 1-4 among them. Anyone who thinks any of those 4 is clearly going to be above the others is kidding themselves or viewing things through severely tinted glasses.
Have you started day drinking, @darkside?
J/k. But you really are a lot more optimistic than Las Vegas & Fangraphs, etc in re Toronto. A whole lot (~ 12+ games). Just a hunch/guess?
Anyway:
I voted yes & yes.
The AL East will send 3 teams to the postseason; Yanks, Blue Jay’s, & Ray’s. I see nothing to really contradict that order which tallies with Vegas.
Tampa Bay did an admirable job in replacing Snell & Morton with volume. But that’s a couple pretty high quality arms. There will – obviously – be some form of downgrade.
The East is out & away the toughest division in the AL. Perhaps all this snow will indeed melt & we’ll start getting some answers soon.
I think you have to put the Twins or White Sox as one of the WC. They are to good to miss the playoffs especially in the Central. Maybe the A’s or Astros could to. I can only see 2 of the AL East because it will be really competitive. The Red Sox are better but not playoff caliber yet. The O’s are a complete powerhouse to.
Yeah, the fact that they’ll beat the hell out of each other was something I did give consideration to.
In the end, I just believe in these teams more than I do the white sox. I think they’re counting really heavily on *all* of their young players to continue to improve. That’s tough to see happening. I think they are at least a year away yet.
But – yeah – I can see how someone else who plays in a weaker division could tally more wins than Toronto or Tampa in a “victim of circumstances” kind of way.
I can see that. The back end of the Sox pitching is very young and Dallas and Lynn or old. Bullpen is very young to
Chicago is certainly an up & coming team & they’ve had two good off-seasons in a row. They just had a pretty far journey to make back towards relevancy.
Maybe they’ll have a season like the Yanks had in ’17 & burst into the upper echelon of teams. That’s just really hard to do. Lots of things need to break right.
I do think if a different squad gets in ahead of Tampa it’ll be more about the differing levels of competition like you mentioned.
One thing.
Gonna be a helluva pennant race to listen to while I’m fly fishing this summer.
Bet.
to be fair, the estimations on the gap between the two teams vary widely. quite frankly I dont think the Rays properly replaced the players they lost and im skeptical that some of last year’s performers play up again.
point being its not a matter of the Jays winning the offseason rather then the Rays not doing so.
Who do you think can’t replicate their numbers from last year? No one on the Rays seemed to have a crazy outlier type of season and some guys like Austin Meadows looked to have unexpectedly down years. Once you take into account a full season of Arozorena and likely half season of generational prospect Franco leads me to think the offense will be improved over last season.
Miss the playoffs 84-78. Tough for the Rays to maintain success.
Anyone who believes the Rays are an 84-87 win team and are missing the playoffs drinks from the MLB sponsored Koolaide of Only The Rich Teams Can Be Good. Rays have the best team they’ve had in over 10 years, with top prospects banging on the door to make them even better. Hell, they haven’t won fewer than 90 games (on a percentage basis for last year) in the past 3 seasons, including 2018 when they put a pitching staff together primarily with openers and bulk starters (and still finished with a top 10 pitching staff). Ignore the Rays at your own peril. They’re going to be really good..
They are going to be really good in 2022 and beyond. Believe it or not there can be transition seasons and the Rays are in one. Their offense is 4th best in the division and that’s not even debatable.
I was arguing for a transition year 3 months ago, but with the signings of Wacha, Archer, Hill, and McHugh, plus the addition of Patino and the fact that Fleming and McClanny are looking so good in ST, I’m now a believer the Rays are going to be a serious threat in 21. Throw in a healthy and motivated Meadows, a full season of Aroz, the addition of Franco post-June, and I would take the Over on 87 wins.
Put another way, the Rays only losses from last year are Snell and Morton. Their additions are Aroz, a healthy Meadows, Franco at some point, and all the pitchers I named above. Rays will have top 10 pitching, guaranteed. And even if you aren’t a believer in 2020, you can’t discount their 90+ wins in 2018 and 2019.
If there’s any team that can win after losing starters of the caliber of Snell and Morton, it’s the Rays.
The clock has struck midnight in TB, it’s over.
At worse they are around .500 this year and back at trying to contend for the next decade. Their team and farm simply has too much talent.
I said no, and while I know they will prove me wrong, I just can’t confidently say yes. I know Michael Wacha will rise from the dead to place #2 in Cy Young voting behind Lucas Giolito, but I just can’t confidently say yes whenever the Sox and Jays each got better this off-season (respectively).
This team feels like the Nationals of the A.L. Still a good team, but with good competition in that division and a fairly shaky structure, I could easily see them being both 90-72 or 82-80.
The easiest money in MLB futures is the Rays over 85-87 wins. The lady 3 seasons the Rays have won 90, 96, and were on a 108 win pace last season. The Rays winning 90+ this year is about as close to a guarantee as you can get in this sport outside of the Dodgers and maybe Yankees.
Could happen but it’s definitely not easy money. Their rotation is a joke compared to the last 2 seasons.
Rays over achieved last year. Can they do it again? Over under seems about right. If they do make the post season I don’t see them doing much unless a rookie pitcher is great from the get go. Wacha Archer could pitch to a 3.5 4 era. I liked both those signings especially Archer. I don’t blame them for their moves. I thought Morton was slightly too expensive for the injury decline risk. Rays if anything follow a formula. Regardless if Snell is overrated and can’t go over 5 innings or he is still cy young contender, you make that trade for that return. Loved that trade for the Rays.
A lot rides on the young arm of Luis Patino. If he’s able to excel in Tampa, I’d look for the Rays to be solid AL East contenders. If Patino isn’t ready to be a #2 or #3 starter in Tampa, they are going to have to rely too much on a rebound from Archer or Wacha and on the health of Rich Hill. I guess that could happen but it’s much more of a gamble. Should all of this happen: Patino blossoms, Hill is able to pitch 100+ innings and either Archer or Wacha returns to form, the Rays could actually run away with the division for the second year in a row. Even though they didn’t spend much, Tampa is still the most interesting team in the AL East.
Dorothy – I don’t think you’re being negative on the Rays, but you’re trying to fit the Rays into the proverbial “this is what you must do to be good” narrative of MLB. Coming off the Pandemic shortened season, I would be shocked if anyone on the Rays’ pitching staff averages more than 2X or 5 innings per start. The Rays have a legitimate 10 person rotation (and a top Pen) and will be very creative with how they use their arms all year. My expectation is the occasional use of an opener, a 2x / 5 inning cap, and starters pitching on 5 full days rest throughout the season (calling up someone from Durham to implement when necessary), but this being the Rays, who knows what they’ll try out. I also expect the Rays to end the year with 1-3 of Fleming, Patino and McClanny being regulars in the rotation and pushing at least Hill to the Pen. The future is now for the Rays.
Really thought of comment, I like it
While Snell had a solid year in 2021 and that loss will leave a hole Morton hardly had a stellar regular season. His loss should shouldn’t be hard to replace. Archer’s best years were with the Rays and now he’s back in his comfort zone. You never know what rabbit the Rays will pull out of their hat with that pitching staff. They seem to have a knack for it. Aside from that Arozarena only played in 23 regular season games and had only 76 PA/64 ABs. It is likely he’ll be there the entire season and is an upgrade over the departed Hunter Renfro. Will Meadows bounce back to his 2020 form? Who knows but he certainly can’t be worse than he was in 2020. I think the prophets of doom may have whiffed on this one.
The Rays also have Shane McClanahan and his 100 mph fastball who didn’t pitch an inning in the regular season in 2020.
McClanny has been absolutely dominant all Spring. He’s gonna be good. Plus, Honey, McKay and Ryan. The Rays will have plenty of young arms to play with all year.
They have the prospects to get help at midseason, but they don’t work that way, they could get Ramirez without losing franco or castillo ? Gray? Marquez?
MikeD – They’ll probably just call up reinforcements from Durham. Patino and McClanny are ready now (both top 100 prospects). McKay and Honey (returning from injury) should be ready before mid-season. Ryan (the youngest of the bunch) has looked good in Spring and could be a 2nd half call up if necessary. That’s another 5 top arms available to the Rays when needed, on top of Fleming who looked really good last year in his rookie year (and even better so far this Spring) and Collin McHugh (who is probably long relief at the start of the season). I’d be shocked to see the Rays trade for pitching. That’s not what they do.
I can’t talk myself into Boston or Toronto being better than the Rays in 2021. This is an easy over for me.
The question is how many games the other 4 teams will take from Tampa in the head to head. It is possible that the Rays are still good enough to reach the postseason but will miss it thanks to a stronger division. It is possible the Rays play great against the Central and West, but do not win enough in-division games to come up short.
Same applies to the rest of the division except for the Yankees. Yankees need to stay healthy. That is their problem.
This is the argument about the rays every single year and every non rays fan who just listens to MLB network and every other radio show or article online about how they’re gonna be worse this year but that’s never the case. The rays starting pitching was actually depleted last season with injuries and snell and Morton weren’t very good in the regular season. Everyone is infatuated with Snell now because he was dominating one playoff game and now everyone thinks he’s god. Yes the rays took a step back in reliable starting pitching but getting back Honeywell, McKay and adding Wacha, Archer, Hill, McHugh plus getting work during the season from Mclanahan and patino and Ryan their depth easily surpasses the Yankees and Blue jays in pitching depth. And while I don’t believe he’ll keep up the pace a full season of Arozorena and a healthy Meadows who was and all star in 2019 and has hit 4Hrs in spring this year already. With the typical great defense thus Rays team will once again shut up every single person in here who thinks the Blue jays getting springer and Matz just closed up 20 games lol and the people who think the Yankees adding nobody this offseason will somehow make them much better. We get it you guys are national media baseball fans… not fans who dive into numbers and proof. It’s all about the names on the jerseys for you people
anyone saying 20 games is missing the point. it was a 20 game lead PACE. there was no way the Rays were finishing with ~108 wins in a full 162 last year, regardless of how good they were, and it would have been fair to reason. the Jays would have won more then 86. whatever the gap is, yes I believe it will be made up with the loss of Morton and Snell vs the additions of Semien, Springer, etc because of the simple fact that I would have liked tbe incumbents on the Blue Jays alone to improve and I’m far from bullish on some of the Rays better 2020 players performing like their 2020 selves and the replacements they added being apt replacements. you speak of big names but I’d argue blind faith in a team regardless of its complexion from year to year is just as big a fallacy.
Yeah pace? You don’t think I know we didn’t play 162 games no dip they didn’t win 108 games jack a. They added some offense to an already good offense wow that’s impressive… have you seen their pitching? Like at all? And not spring training games…. they’re horrible. Springer and semien don’t close that gap to the Rays and Yankees I’m sorry. Good pitching beats good hitting and everyone knows that. Morton wasn’t any good in the regular season if you paid any attention and frankly snell wasn’t very dominant either. Morton had almost a 5 ERA between McHugh and Wacha splitting those innings under a 5 ERA is fault achievable. And Archer and Hill should average around a 4 ERA which yes is above Snell and it should be a slight decline so you’re not too far off of equal then you throw in Mclanahan and patino and McKay and Ryan and Honeywell. The pitching is much deeper this year than last year and it should set the Rays up to be even more successful this year
Yes pace. A 108 pace is absurd. Sure maybe they could have kept that pace up, but that would have been very unlikely. you’re also forgetting that all the guys they added eithet sucked or were terribly injured last year. all of those guys are liable to have a big injury and you cant realistically rely on any of those prospects because Honeywell is never healthy, McKay missed last year, and McClanahan and Patiño arent givens to be ready yet. as mentioned above, Springer and Semian arent the point. its more a matter of the incumbents on each team and how each team filled holes opened by outgoing free agents or traded players.
“Names on a jersey?” “Not fans who dive into the numbers and proof?” You do realize that the Rays might very well be good and that other teams might also be good is not out of the range of of possibility.
No I do realize that it’s just every single year the Yankees are project 95+ wins and the rays get like 82-85 just because they’re not the Yankees. I’m not gonna argue I’m gonna let the season play out and again like the last 3 years say I told you so. People have these arguments about the Rays literally every single year about how they aren’t gonna be good because they subtracted some names people recognize and they end up doing better.
I think it will be a dogfight between the Rays and the Jays, it might take 85 or 86 wins to secure one of the Wild Cards. I think the other Wild Card will likely be between the Athletic’s, Indians, or the Twins. We’ll see what happens.
Meanwhile the Bankees are relying on a wife beater and three dudes who haven’t thrown a pitch in 2 years. Exciting stuff
@yandymania- after the Devil Rays lost Blake Snell(traded) Charlie Morton(free agency) not really sure what your expecting? You’ll be lucky to get one of those Wild Cards really. Think it’s definitely time to move so you don’t have to let your key players leave as free agents or you don’t have to trade them anymore? Smh
How much longer before the Rays get out of that stadium? Baseball needs this franchise to be able to actually generate some ticket revenue could you imagine how dominate this franchise would have been had they been able to extend some of the guys they’ve had come thru
if the fanbase turning out requires a new stadium then that doesnt reflect well on them.
Yawn
i mean cmon. it’s not a litteral dump. you should still be able to sit in the stands and watch the game if you actually want to do that.
People don’t go to the games for better reasons than that. Pointless discussing it when the obvious solution is either move to Tampa or move the team elsewhere
they go to the game for the team. if that’s not the case then perhaps the team in question isnt putting a goof product on the field.
Darkside it’s more complicated than that. I go down to the Trop once a year and if you visited the park and knew the layout of the greater area you would understand why turnout is what it is.
What would help is putting the stadium in Tampa.
exactly, I mean the TB Lightning sell out every game and their are located in the heart of Tampa. Bucs will sell out every game next year for sure. The Trop’s location has more fish than people around it its just a huge inconvenience for fans to drive to
There is 1 baseball team that plays in Tampa. But get this, it’s not actually the Tampa Bay Rays. No, it’s the Yankees A ball club. So the rays don’t play in Tampa, but their in division rival is somehow allowed to have a minor league team in Tampa (and literally right across the street from Raymond James Stadium (bucs))
Yandymania this has been established. But thanks.
Do what you do best; get angry, write something homer’ish. Your redundancy is not necessary. You can look up redundancy on your own time for self growth.
Shut up peasant. You invaded my comment string. I don’t want to hear anything from a carpetbagger like you
They put a better product on the field than every other team except the Dodgers.
@Kennethk- I agree with you 100%. Rays owe it to their fans to move so they can be more competitive in the AL East and of course I’m a Yankee’s fan saying that. If they stay in Tampa this trend will continue unfortunately.
THE RAYS DON’T PLAY IN TAMPA. KEEP UP!!!
The rays are just one of those teams you never bet against. Every year the surprise me in how good they are, so even though my gut says one thing, I might as well bet on them winning it all this year lol
The jays will only improve over the next few seasons. This is the start of their competitive window. The standings will be very similar to last year. Rays win division, yanks and jays fight for 2nd and a wildcard. Sox are close to .500, but a solid fourth. Orioles are going to suffer alot of losses at the hands of the rest of the division.
The season is organic, not static. Predicting win totals based on rosters as they stand on April 1 is a bit silly. Injuries happen, under-performance happens, over-performance happens, wonder-children from Baseball America flop, a team’s #45 prospect rises from obscurity; the trading deadline looms large.
They’ll need to the offense to step up…really, folks, Michael Wacha? And they need the Jays rotation to flop (it probably will) and the Red Sox NOT to have lots of planets align.
There is a certain amount of pixie dust to their approach, but it’s a scientific pixie dust; they capture the essence of baseball’s randomness…sometimes Brett Philipps gets a big hit.
They’re in the hunt. Fewer things have to go right for them to remain competitive than is the case in Toronto and Boston. The Yanks look to be the class of the division (and have the where-with-all to fix what ails them), and the O’s have surrendered (though they’re going to hit some and field some….but that pitching!).
Rays will probably be a playoff team.
B I N G O , Bob.
Saw an interview with Cox this spring. When asked about replacing the starting pitchers he lost, he smiled and said something about making it up with a lot of arms.
I’d suspect that the Rays will regularly use 7-8 “starting” pitchers that will mostly pitch 3-4 innings….less if they don’t have it that day.
If the Rays are similar to the 2015 Royals, they will be good. That team in 2015 was on a mission after losing the World Series in 2014. I’m merely looking at the psychological side of things but I think it matters. The Rays are still a really good team and usually well built for the long haul of a full season. I don’t expect them to win but I wouldn’t count them out right now.
I cant see the red sox being in the mix… they will be improved, but that pitching is really bad.
There is no clear favorite in the AL right now. Many teams have potential to make the playoffs. It should be an exciting season for many teams.
Rays lost morton and snell but have the depth to offset it. I think they have more arms than normal
Their lineup is not that good, but they have depth. And they have depth at the milb level
I actually think theyre better than they were
Rays have crazy depth and that is going to be more important than ever this season, even with the loss of Snell and Morton I still got this team battling for the division and at least getting a wild card spot.
They will also make moves by the deadline to fix their weak spots as well to put them over, Yankees are the favorite and should be but I am not counting out the Rays either for the division.
Explain to me how the Yankees are the favorites over a team that worked them last year (7 games) after doing little to nothing to improve their team other than sign and trade for 2 dudes who haven’t thrown a pitch in 2 years. I mean if we’re just sitting here banking on lemahieu to hit .370 every year then I guess we have to project all of their players at the upper tiers of their potential production because they’re the yankees
i’d take the rays & jays over the yankees. stanton & judge playing in 120 games each seems like a stretch
its not a given that anyone in their rotation beyond Cole or their outfield stay healthy even half a year. if they get two from each group to stay healthy and perform to their potential then they will be in the mix.
Picking the Red Sox over the Rays is comical and shows how silly these statistical forecasts are.
Rays have an entire A+ rotation that won’t even start the year in the majors. McClanahan, Patino, McKay, Honeywell, Joe Ryan.. Their offense will be much better than it was last season with a full year of Randy and bounce back years from Meadows, Yandy an hopefully Yoshi. Gonna be a fun season for Rays fans
Tampa Bay is an amazing organization, but let’s ignore their ability to succeed on the cheap and focus on this year. Awesome pen aside, TB has as many ?’s with their starting pitching as the Yankees and Jays, but with the lowest overall group ceiling among the three staffs, which is paired with the worst offense in the division.
No way TB cracks 90 wins this year. The system is healthy as ever and I’m sure 2022 could be a return to serious playoff consideration, but I just don’t see it for this season.
Glasnow is not a question mark. Yarbrough is not a question mark. Fleming (if you even know who that is) is not a question mark. Hill wacha and archer don’t have to be expected to go more than 4-5 ip when they’re throwing in front of the best bullpen in the American League
Glasnow had a dozen great starts in 2019 but has otherwise been mediocre or injured. very talented pitcher but results are lacking.
Glasnow has a 3.32 career era with the rays. Regardless, the point is that he just has to give the rays around a 4.00 era which he will easily do
“Rays have the lowest overall group ceiling among the three staffs”? Seriously?
Setting aside the Rays’ backup rotation of 5 top prospects, you honestly think the Rays won’t find a way to maximize the hell out of their pitchers and finish the season in the top 10 pitching, maybe even top 5? You think guys like Archer and Wacha are going to pitch for the Rays like they did for their last team? You’re crazy if you do.
Why can’t the Rays crack 90 wins this year? They did that in 2018 when they used the opener in about 1/3 of their games and trotted out rookie pitchers Yarbrough and Chirinos. The Rays are going to be good. Maybe they win the division and maybe they don’t, but it’s ludicrus to think they are going to take a big step back.
Beyond sad that Tampa Bay completely restructured their starting rotation. But I’m hopefully about their new starters.
1. Springer
2. Biggio (I don’t like Semien here)
3. Bichette
4. Teoscar Hernandez
5. Vladdy
6. Gurriel
7. Rowdy Tellez DH
8. Semien
9. Janssen/Kirk
I have listed 9 reasons why the Jays will have a top 6 offence (Dodgers, White Sox, Braves, Padres, Yanks).
These bats paired with AVERAGE pitching will win 88 games.
I’m in a significant minority but I am firmly in the camp of the Jays winning the AL East by a very slim margin.
I’m telling you— a Vladdy breakout is coming and the Jays will compete in the East. I anticipate a Reese McGuire + prospect trade for a starter early in the season.
LOL. Vlad better break out because he’s been a pretty big disappointment so far, he of the 0.6 career fWAR.
The Blue Jays are going to be in the mix all year because of their bats. I still think they are battling for 2nd place in 2021, but you never know.
I REALLY want the answer to be no.
But it’s yes.