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Best team in the AL East

DirtDirtDirt

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Your Tampa Bay Rays

Excluding the mostly eliminated O's and Jays

Tampa, unbelievably, have the best lineup in the division (ignoring the stats that reflect the Yankees have a good offense because they were awesome in April and May)

Tampa's starting staff with Cobb returning to pre-surgery form, is probably neck and neck with Boston, and Brett Honeywell can put them over the top as having the best in the division

Barring a trade, I dont see some offensive bustout for Boston, although their pitching can keep this a 2 team race



Go Rays, Big Rays fan here!
 

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cerealboi

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Might be right. I posted yesterday a trivia question no one could get without cheating: the Rays have 3 of the top 11 errr. . . top 10 AL WAR leaders per fangraphs. With Cobb, Archer, and Odorizzi looking good too they may be tough. The guy who pitched against the Sox on the Thursday before the allstar break looked tough too.


Who knew guys like Morrison and Dickerson would finally break out?
 

DirtDirtDirt

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Might be right. I posted yesterday a trivia question no one could get without cheating: the Rays have 3 of the top 11 errr. . . top 10 AL WAR leaders per fangraphs. With Cobb, Archer, and Odorizzi looking good too they may be tough. The guy who pitched against the Sox on the Thursday before the allstar break looked tough too.


Who knew guys like Morrison and Dickerson would finally break out?


Yeah, I know we joke about steroids, but between Logan Morrison and Justin Smoak, 2 guys that have basically sucked for about a decade....Yeah

But its unreal, Souza has contributed, even a nobody like Mallex Smith has done well at the top of that lineup

I remember Longoria bitching at the front office for trading Logan Forsythe, who is like the worst thing about the Dodgers, while De Leon is another arm in the Tampa system expected to do big things

I think youre talking about that Faria guy, yeah, he's been really good, and apparently this Honeywell is supposed to be fantastic

Boxberger in front of Colome is very good

Team is pretty damn solid
 

soxfan1468927

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I actually think people should keep an eye on the Rays. I can see them being in the wild card race down the stretch.

They went 13-27 in one-run games last year, that is unlikely to happen again. If Ramos is healthy (and even if he is just an average catcher due to the knee), that's a huge upgrade over the dumpster fire they were throwing out there at catcher last year. Kiermaier is a damn good player, turning 27, and even if he just maintains what he did last year but stays healthy this year, that's a big improvement. He could be a 20 HR, 30 steal guy, with a really low CS%, .340 OBP, and tremendous centerfield defense just by improving slightly and being healthy.

Dickerson gets to move to DH with the acquisition of Rasmus, and with Rasmus on a 1-year "show me" contract coming off his worst season, that should be an improvement. A full season of Matt Duffy, who probably won't be as good defensively at SS as he was at 3rd, but still a defensive improvement over Brad Miller who gets to shift to 2nd where he likely won't have as much of a negative impact.

Archer finished the season better than he started it, and him, Snell, and Odorizzi could be a really good 1-2-3. And who knows on Cobb, De Leon, and Andriese for the back of the rotation, but there's certainly potential there.

Losing Forsythe hurts and outside of Colome, their bullpen isn't very good, but no one should be surprised if this team is in the race to the end.

I did post this back in February. Obviously some of my points as to why were very wrong.
 

DirtDirtDirt

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I did post this back in February. Obviously some of my points as to why were very wrong.


You did call it, as far as their starting pitching potential

I liked the Jays starting staff, you liked the Rays a lot more
 

Rock Strongo

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Might be right. I posted yesterday a trivia question no one could get without cheating: the Rays have 3 of the top 11 errr. . . top 10 AL WAR leaders per fangraphs. With Cobb, Archer, and Odorizzi looking good too they may be tough. The guy who pitched against the Sox on the Thursday before the allstar break looked tough too.


Who knew guys like Morrison and Dickerson would finally break out?
Souza too

rays team ERA is 4.10
sox team ERA is 3.72

sox rotation has one guy over 3.75

the rays have 3

food for thought.
 

DirtDirtDirt

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Souza too

rays team ERA is 4.10
sox team ERA is 3.72

sox rotation has one guy over 3.75

the rays have 3

food for thought.


Id give the Sox the edge right now with the staff, but Cobb seems to get better with every start, and the Rays offense, amazingly has a pretty big edge
 

soxfan1468927

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You did call it, as far as their starting pitching potential

I liked the Jays starting staff, you liked the Rays a lot more
I wrote it down, but completely forgot to hit "Post Reply" back then, but I also had the following:

Logan Morrison is also due for a break out year. I'm predicting 40 HR power out of this guy
 

redseat

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Rays are really starting to turn things around and really are creeping up on the AL and will give the Yankees and Red Sox a lot of headaches. Seems like Archer finally has found his groove, Morrison hits everything
 

soxfan1468927

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Id give the Sox the edge right now with the staff, but Cobb seems to get better with every start, and the Rays offense, amazingly has a pretty big edge
Red Sox have been shut out 8 times this year. Tied for the most in baseball and already 2 more times than last year.
 

redseat

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Red Sox have been shut out 8 times this year. Tied for the most in baseball and already 2 more times than last year.

How many players thrown out at home? They have to lead the league in that too
 

cerealboi

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How many players thrown out at home? They have to lead the league in that too


Really don't mind Betts getting thrown out at home with two out last night. These idiots have a tough time stringing their singles together (well once someone gets in scoring position their balls shrivel up). Push it, go 1st to 3rd if at all possible. I know losing those potential runs at home sucks, but I just have no confidence that anyone in the lineup is going to get the RBI in the next AB.
 

redseat

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Really don't mind Betts getting thrown out at home with two out last night. These idiots have a tough time stringing their singles together (well once someone gets in scoring position their balls shrivel up). Push it, go 1st to 3rd if at all possible. I know losing those potential runs at home sucks, but I just have no confidence that anyone in the lineup is going to get the RBI in the next AB.

True, they are what 2 for 65 with RISP
 

AllBettsAreOff

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I thought the Rays would do well because of their pitching, but their rotation hasn't been very good. Cobb has a 3.59 ERA, but his strikeout rate is only 15.6% and he isn't getting nearly as many groundballs as he used to. Having the Rays defense behind him helps, but it doesn't seem very sustainable. I wouldn't expect Faria to keep his 2 ERA up either, but he's looked pretty impressive for a rookie. Snell has great stuff but the command is a work in progress. Odorizzi's just getting hit hard and he walks a fair amount of guys.

Rays currently are 5th in MLB in wRC+. You'd think Longoria would be leading the way, but not quite. It's been Dickerson, Souza and Logan Morrison, all in the top 10 in the AL in WAR.
 

DirtDirtDirt

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Red Sox have been shut out 8 times this year. Tied for the most in baseball and already 2 more times than last year.

Did I hear the Yankees have shut them out 3 or 4 times?

And I think they have shut outs in only 2 other games

Something like that
 

soxfan1468927

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Did I hear the Yankees have shut them out 3 or 4 times?

And I think they have shut outs in only 2 other games

Something like that
Yankees have shut them out 3 times, and have 3 other shutouts total.
 

$500 Million

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I really regret the Yankees 21-9 start this season, they fooled a lot of people.

Including me.
 
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