With the final month of the season quickly approaching a question that has been repeated over and over again since the first month of games was in the books continues to be asked... How are they doing it? A couple of other questions are now being added to the list: How can they still be in first place? Doesn't a high payroll insure success? 

In response to these questions, here is a "getting to know you" visit with the current first place team in the American League East Division, the Tampa Bay Rays...

This team lives on pitching and defense... An amazing fact about this team is that there are currently four starting pitchers with 10 or more wins on the season and not one of them is named Kazmir!

Here are the Rays five starters:

  

Matt Garza - W-10 L-7 3 CG- 2 SO 3.71 ERA & Edwin Jackson - W-10 L-8 0 CG- 0 SO 3.91 ERA

Scott Kazmir - W-9 L-6 0 CG 0 SO 3.27 ERA

 

James Shields - W-11 L-8 3 CG 2 SO 3.75 ERA & Andy Sonnanstine - W-13 L-6 1 CG 1 SO 4.42 ERA

With only seven complete games among the starters, the importance of the Rays' bullpen cannot be overstated. This has been the achilles heel of the Rays over the years and the new ownership/management has made a concerted effort to shore up this one phase of the team.

The Rays' 2008 Key Relief Pitchers:

 

Grant Balfour W-4 L-2 43 IP 4 SV 1.47 ERA & J.P. Howell W-6 L-0 71.2 IP 2 SV 2.64 ERA

 

Troy Percival W-2 L-0 39 IP 27 SV 3.69 ERA & Chad Bradford W-4 L-3 47.1 IP 0 SV 2.09 ERA 

 

Trevor Miller W-1 L-0 33 IP 1 SV 4.36 ERA & Dan Wheeler W-2 L-5 56 IP 8 SV 2.57 ERA

Last night's game was a great example of the pitching prowess these Rays possess. Matt Garza went 7.2 innings of six hit, scoreless pitching before giving way to Grant Balfour and finally Dan Wheeler who combined to retire four consecutive batters and preserve a 1 - 0 win over the Toronto Blue Jay team that had an average batting average of over .300 for the past two weeks! It's been an unusual night when the Rays haven't been in the thick of things as each game winds down.

How could this great pitching suddenly come to the fore?

It takes team defense, and the Rays' management made several moves during the off season to solidify their defense.

The addtions that improved the team's overall performance:

 

Jason Bartlett and Akinori Iwamura have become a top SS / 2B combination.

Rookie All-Star Evan Longoria has displayed brilliance at 3rd base!

Three of the four Rays infielders are new to the team this year! They have made a vast improvement to the Rays' defense leading to the team's pitchers growing in confidence.

The Rays feature speed in left and center while rightfield has been covered by an able twosome:

Carl Crawford and B.J. Upton have worked to condense the Rays' outfield dimensions with their speed.

 

Two more first year players that have made a big impact on the 2008 Tampa Bay Rays' outfield defense are Eric Hinske who came from that team up in Boston and Gabe Gross a former Brewer.

The other two regular performers on the field:

Carlos Pena has done yoeman's work over on first base.

The maturation of 2007 acquisition, All-Star Catcher Dioner Navarro (yes, a catcher from Puerto Rico) has been another huge key to the Rays' astounding success this year!

It's one thing to have good pitching and defense, but it's quite another to consistently put runs on the board. This is where the baseball pundits all point when trying to determine the Rays' weaknesses, and rightfully so. As it stands today, the Rays don't have an everyday player with a batting average over .300. This is very unusual for a team with one of the best records in baseball, but it points out the fact that this team is running on great chemistry. It's loaded with young talent that is just learning how to play winning baseball. It seems that every game has a new hero step up and make a key hit or make a key play, almost without fail. Even while several of the team's stars have been injuried and out of the lineup, somehow the hits just keep coming!

Manager Joe Maddon and his staff have done an admirable job keeping the wheels on this team in the face of all sorts of adversity and I expect to see Joe win Manager of the Year in the AL as a result. The team has come together and stood up to the two bullies of the AL East and so far are doing their best to hold off the inevidentible onslaught everybody is waiting to see from the defending World Champions and yet we are now just beginning to hear people wondering out loud whether these young Rays will falter or not... There's one month left. Can the Rays hang on?

Here are some action shots over the course of the season:

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Yankees' dirty play turns into a brawl last spring... Yankees wanted to know what the problem was!

 

Navarro and Hinske were on time early in the season.

A May edition of Sports Illustrated in which Carl Crawford hoists Derek Jeter over his head, seemed to make a mockery of the Rays as they competed with the Yankees and Red Sox for the AL East lead...

Boston's Coco Crisp uses offensive base running tactics, gets thrown at resulting in a brawl last June. "I protected my own players and that's what we need to do around here," Shields said. "We've been getting stomped around the last 10 years and it isn't going to happen anymore. I had to let them know early and let them know right away."
 

Longoria came along and made his presence known almost immediately with his veteran like demeanor.

While the team's true veteran, Cliff Floyd makes his presence know both on and off the field.

 

Iwamura and Bartlett celebrate a double play while Troy Percival takes the Rays' fans on another roller coaster ride...

 

Carl Crawford and Carlos Pena finally got their bats going after early season injuries.

Clockwise from upper left... Ben Zobrist, Rocco Baldelli, Shawn Riggans and Willie Aybar have all played a role in the Rays continued post All-Star break success...

While it seems that all of baseball wants the Tampa Bay Rays to just go away...

I'm hoping the celebrations have just begun!

Regardless of how it all turns out, I want to thank you guys for one hell of a ride!

 

With over half of the 2008 MLB season in the books I thought it was appropriate to figure out which teams have the easiest time of it as they proceed through the next couple of months trying to make the playoffs…

I took the current MLB Power Rankings and then tied that to each team’s remaining schedule of games to come up with a Strength of Schedule (SOS) ranking similar to what is used in football.

 

Here was the situation through the games played on the Fourth of July…

 

Power     American League                Record                   Remains

Rank                East                              W – L                     H – A

1              Tampa Bay Rays                53-32                       34-43

5              Boston Red Sox                  52-37                       40-33

16           Baltimore Orioles                 44-41                       42-34

10           New York Yankees              45-42                       36-39

13           Toronto Blue Jays               41-46                       40-35

 

9.0          Division Rank-1                 235-198                  

 

Rank                Central                         W – L                     H – A

2              Chicago White Sox              49-37                     40-35

4              Minnesota Twins                 48-38                     30-46

14           Detroit Tigers                         43-43                     42-34

22           Kansas City Royals              39-48                      38-37

27           Cleveland Indians                 37-49                      40-36

 

13.8        Division Rank-3                 216-215

 

Rank                West                             W – L                     H – A

3              Los Angeles Angels             52-34                     37-39

7              Oakland Athletics                  47-39                     33-43

12           Texas Rangers                         44-43                     36-39

26           Seattle Mariners                      34-52                     37-39

 

9.6          Division Rank-2                  177-168

 

 * * * * *

 

Now for a look at each team’s SOS… These were determined by using the opponent’s Power Rank and multiplying by the number of games played against each opponent, with one variation. One point in the rankings was subtracted from the home team’s Power Rank to weight the results in favor of the home team, just as in reality the home team has a certain advantage. Hopefully this will yield more realistic results to these findings. Finally the results were then tallied and divided by the number of remaining games to be played…

 

Here is the Strength of Schedule determined by this method: (the easiest schedules are listed first)

 

Power                                            
                                         Current

Rank      Team                                     SOS        Rank      Standing        Games Out   

4              Minnesota Twins               13.92            1          2nd-Cent.                1

2              Chicago White Sox            13.11            2          1st-Cent.                  -

1              Tampa Bay Rays                12.84            3          1st-East                    -

14           Detroit Tigers                      12.58            4          3rd-Cent.                  6

3              Los Angeles Angels         12.28            5          1st-West                  -

7              Oakland Athletics              11.49            6          2nd-West                 5

27           Cleveland Indians               10.68            7          5th-Cent.                12

5              Boston Red Sox                 10.58            8          2nd-East                    3

22           Kansas City Royals           10.39            9          4th-Cent.                 11

16           Baltimore Orioles                10.34            10       3rd-East                   10

12           Texas Rangers                    10.05            11       3rd-West                   8

26           Seattle Mariners                   9.46            12       4th-West                 18

13           Toronto Blue Jays                8.93            13       5th-East                  13

10           New York Yankees               8.49            14       4th-East                  10

 

Here is how it appears, and always with the injury disclaimer, if these teams play as they have and considering the quality of their competition:

 

In the East, the strongest division in baseball, Tampa Bay has the inside track towards winning the AL East. Let’s face it, if the Rays just play .500 ball the rest of the season, they will end up with over 90 wins. With their pitching and defense coupled with an awakening offense, this team will not play at or below .500. This is a young, low paid team that now knows it is a force to deal with and they are playing with confidence. The Red Sox are going to have to hustle to make it into the playoffs as a Wild Card and I expect to see them doing whatever they can as they open their wallet to once again shore up their chances. Competition will come from the AL Central for the Wild Card berths. Like it or not, the Yankees chances are slim and none…

 

The West division is actually considered the second strongest in baseball and it is shaping up to be a race to the finish. Here is another example of a young, low salary team challenging the established team with a big salary and older players. Can the Angels stay healthy and withstand the Athletics as they attempt to force the issue? The Rangers have been playing better ball lately as well, but they face a tougher schedule. The Rangers will have something to say about who eventually wins this division. I look for the Angels to end up winning this race with no candidate here for the Wild Card…

 

The Central division rounds out the top three of the six divisions in baseball coming in third in the divisional Power Rankings. I look for a real shootout here as the White Sox, Twins and Tigers will go toe to toe through the final three months of the season.  In this case, the Minnesota Twins represent the youthful, lower salary team trying to take the division from two older, much more well healed teams from Chicago and Detroit.  What in the world happened to the Indians? When it’s all said and done, I look for the Twins to come out on top and the White Sox to be a strong Wild Card team out of a division that was all but handed to the Tigers at the start of the year…

 

Yes, the three strongest divisions all reside in the American League. Wonder who will win the All-Star Game???

 

Tomorrow, look for a similar rendition of the Senior Circuit.