The greatness that is the Tampa Bay Rays

Well, of course not.

 

This talk about the Abreu trade reminds me of a story one of my Philly friends told me about the Von Hayes trade.

Apparently, someone asked Lenny Dykstra for his reaction to the trade.

"Great trade," Dykstra replied. "Who'd we get?"

 

A team with a $43 million payroll stared down and beat the $138 million Red Sox in both the regular season and ALCS, not to mention ran away from the $200 million Yankees. As far as I'm concerned, the Rays' bandwagon cannot be big enough. They deserve every bit of praise they get.

 

I can't argue with that.

 

Sure you can.

 

It's to difficult.

 

Money in baseball is like money in elections. Money doesn't guarantee success. See Mariners, Seattle 2008 as my first example.

Also, not to make excuses for the Red Sox, but they were gimped up badly. You play with who you have available, but a healthy Mike Lowell would have made a big difference in that series.

 

Re: money, it doesn't guarantee success (see: 2008 Tigers) but it can help when used wisely. I don't think there's any debate that the Red Sox and Yankees do use their resources wisely. The Red Sox came within one game of the World Series, and the Yankees in a "down" year "only" won 89 games. Add in the franchise history of all three teams and it's even more profound.

Re: gimpy Red Sox, tell the Angels that, see what their response is. And let's be honest, a lot of people assumed from the moment the Rays collapsed in Game 5 -- and especially when the series got pushed to a Game 7 with Jon Lester -- that the Red Sox would win that series. Gimpy or not, people expected the Rays to fold after the All-Star Break, then in September, then in the ALDS, then in the ALCS, then when they lost Game 1 in the World Series. Hasn't happened yet.

 

Only certain members of SportsJournalists.com.

 

You don't want to go there, do you?

 

whut?