Archer had big K ranges, but never had the necessarily Tier level to crack the All Decade Rays
LINEUP: The Rays All Decade team starts off in underwhelming fashion with a very "Royals-like" lineup based around speed and contact, featuring only one OB 10 but 6 OB 9 hitters... more impressive is the eight players with 17 speed or better!! Leading off is all-time value play and superstar leadoff hitter Mallex Smith, whose got 23 speed, 3B at 17, and xb capability at 10!! Classic, throwback #2 type hitter Ben Zobrist is next. The sole OB 10, this is the second of three All Decade teams that Zobrist is on, and this is his best card -- he really does it all! A pair of OB 9, HR at 17 guys with A speed come next, giving the Rays power and dangerous ability on the basepaths. I really, really love this Meadows card, especially with that sneaky 3B at 16! Classic #5 hitter Carlos Pena brings 40+ HR power to the five hole and hopes to get opportunities to mash with guys on base. Following him is steady and balanced Tommy Pham, then fan vote winning Logan Forsythe, followed by a third OB 9 in a row with the "just nice getting him on base" John Jaso. Arguably the first Rays superstar turns the lineup over, as Carl Crawford has a super beastly OB 8 card with SO much speed and SO many extra bases! Yes, I think this offense can run into troubling dry spells in this All Decade league... but with so much speed, I think they're guaranteed to manufacture a couple runs a night, which could be enough for a .600 winning percentage and playoff berth!
ROTATION: With a pair of Tier 1 and pair of Tier 2 starters, the Rays' rotation is the same as the Dodgers tier wise.... but Tampa brings out a Control 6 starter every.... single.... time!!! I believe this will end up as the best rotation in the All Decade league, period. They start things out with 2018 Cy Young winning Blake Snell -- dude put up a Tier 1 with a 1-10 K range!!! He's a top notch force at the #1 spot and perhaps the best starter in the AL. He's followed by another Cy Young winner -- 2012 David Price. While "merely" a Tier 2, Price surrenders no doubles as he continues the C6 streak. Third is a surprising addition, but it's 2013 Matt Moore! Beautifully created by Matthew P, Colby's chart gave Moore a Tier 2, Control 6 card that'd be the ace of Baltimore.... and then finishing up the rotation is IP 4 Glasnow, who's an improved version of 2015 Cueto on the Royals. With no doubles on a Tier 1 card, Glasnow is a bonafide ace and a great guy to turn the rotation over! Also, thanks to the socks and sweet fauxback hat, the Glasnow card is one of my favorite looking pitcher cards that I've made! All told, without a doubt, this is the #1 rotation that I've put forward so far and I can't see it being topped anytime soon!
BULLPEN: Ok, ok, ok so I know we've done this several times now.... and I know how good the Yankees bullpen is.... and not to tip my hand, but I'm pretty positive Atlanta is going to have an absolutely filthy bullpen, but this has GOT to be the best bullpen in the American League for the decade!!! That's right -- move over Yankees, take a seat Baltimore and your Showalter shenanigans, hop off the throne you assumed when you bullpenned your way to two pennants KC..... Tampa Bay is the best. They have TWO Tier 0 pitchers, supplemented by another.... THREE Tier 1 pitchers. That's right -- their five relievers combine for a total tier score of 3!!! It's unbelievable and unprecidented and (cue Michael Scott voice) "frankly, kiiiiind of amazing." With straight Control 6 starters followed by this insane bullpen, we may have found the AL's dark horse All Decade contender!!
Overall, I think we've got to acknowledge that the "small ball" Rays are legitimate AL East and AL Pennant contenders! I think Tampa's pitching is the best that the AL has to offer, both rotation and bullpen wise. While the hitting isn't overly intimidating, the pitching will carry them to great heights and should be extremely fun (or frustrating) to play with. But how'd they come out points wise?? Tampa Bay, despite being one of the teams most strapped on a budget all decade, put together players whose Showdown burst through the 7000 point barrier, coming in at 7060 points!! Honestly, it's an impressive testament to their front office and gives me hope that, one day, Tampa will break through that next step to claim their first World Series title!!! Now 14/30 teams down, here's the current standings:
- Dodgers 8010 points
- Yankees 7920 points
- Nationals 7670 points
- Astros 7420 points
- Blue Jays 7140 points
- Rockies 7090 points
- Rays 7060 points
- Indians 6880 points
- (T8) Mariners 6880 points
- Orioles 6830 points
- Giants 6800 points
- Marlins 6750 points
- Tigers 6710 points
- Royals 6570 points
Ok as a Yankees fan I wasn't ready to admit but this team is GOOOOOOOOOD. Their lineup is sneakily ridiculous due to every one of their players coming in over 5 expected runs except for Jaso. Zobrist is a the top with 5.56 expected runs so they don't have the high end power of most teams, however they have the depth and speed to be competitive across the board. The only switch I'd make is putting Daniel Robertson's 2018 card instead of Forsythe which is about a half run advantage, which is really only due to 2 outs instead of 4. Extra 1 on defense is nice but already a solid defense to begin with, and +4 speed which is a slight help. I lean toward Robertson but don't think it's a major disadvantage eitherway.
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Ok all starters being 6 control is a huge advantage, and will make it easy to put some of the lower OB teams out of the game easily. Glasnow actually projects ahead of Snell based on my calculations at 4.83 and 5.15 expected runs, however the extra 2 IP do help. Moore is at 5.64 expected runs and PRice actually comes in at 5.83 due to singles counting a good bit more than walks do when it comes to expected runs.
Bullpen: Rodney comes in at 4.21 expected runs which puts him in the top 10% of MLB Showdown relievers out there which is unreal. Benoit comes in the top 20% or so at 4.36, Soriano just a bit behind him at 4.65 and McGee is #4 at 4.98. Boxberger behind him at 5.27, making this an all around VERY solid pitching squad.
I'm not going to lie, even as a Yankees fan, I think I might choose to play with this team over the Yankees just due to it being a very solid team with a lot more wriggleroom for randomness.
Yeah, I've followed the Rays since I moved to the Tampa area in 2000. Even though we live in Texas my son still has a lot of Rays stuff in his room...yet I'm still shocked at how good this team looks.
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