[h=1]Tampa Bay's unheralded stars[/h][h=3]The Rays should no longer be seen as a pitching-and-defense-only squad[/h]
By Paul Swydan | ESPN Insider
Ever since the Tampa Bay Rays became a contending team back in 2008, they have had a reputation as a pitching-and-defense team. It's a reputation that was never more apparent than last season, when the team finished third in pitching WAR.
This season though, Tampa, which moved up two spots this week to No. 11 in the ESPN Power Rankings, showed that it has plenty of thunder on offense as well, and it might be time to rethink that reputation.
It seems as if the Rays have gone from Internet darlings to fairly passé recently, and nowhere is this better exemplified than in the person of Evan Longoria. He has long been one of the best players in the game, but injuries kept him from amassing bulk stats last season. He was still productive when he played, as his .378 wOBA can attest, but it was in only 74 games. This season, he has already played 85 games and has matched the 17 homers he hit last season.<offer></offer>
In fact, his .289/.366/.525 line, which is again good for a .378 wOBA, is one of the best in the game. Couple that with his usual stellar defense, and Longoria has been one of the five most valuable players in the game. Yet neither the fans, his peers nor Tigers manager Jim Leyland saw fit to put Longoria on the American League All-Star team. That's a shame, and hopefully an error that will be corrected once players start backing out due to injury. But it does beautifully illustrate how Tampa's offense has operated outside of the spotlight.
Longoria is driving the bus, but the rest of the Rays have not been mere spectators. The team entered Sunday with a 112 wRC+ (when removing pitchers' plate appearances), which was third in the AL and fourth in all of baseball. On the flip side, they rank just 16th in ERA and 12th in FIP.
The Rays have been doing everything well on offense. Focusing just on the AL, we can see that they entered Sunday in the top five in runs, home runs, walk and strikeout rate, batting average and on-base percentage. And their .159 ISO was also within a whisker of the top five.
Best of all, it's been a total team effort. Of the players currently on the active roster, the only ones who aren't at least decent hitters are Yunel Escobar, Jose Molina and Sean Rodriguez -- none of whom are full-time starters. The team has the potential to trot out a good hitter at essentially every position on the diamond.
One of the more surprising players this season has been at first base. When the Rays signed James Loney, it was almost an afterthought. After being imported to the AL last year, Loney hit .230/.264/.310 for the Red Sox down the stretch. Now, perhaps some of that poor performance can be attributed to the seemingly poisonous atmosphere in the Boston clubhouse last season, but you'd have to squint a lot to give clubhouse chemistry the credit for boosting Loney's performance to his current .317/.370/.473.
Always a good contact hitter, Loney has been walking more this season, and stinging the ball when he does put it in play. Entering Sunday, his 29.2 percent line drive rate was tops in the game among qualified hitters.
Also coming on has been Matt Joyce. He had a rough first month -- at the end of April he was hitting just .225/.286/.451. Since, he has hit .250/.343/.460, good for a 66-point jump in his OPS.
Another Ray who had a slow start was Ben Zobrist. He posted a .309 wOBA in April, but saw that number jump to .328 in May and .367 in June. Normally a jack-of-all-gloves, Zobrist has mainly manned second base this year, and having his bat there is a huge plus for Tampa. One of the biggest reasons Zobrist is seeing less and less outfield time as the season progresses is the ascendance of Wil Myers.
Called up on June 18, Myers hit safely in 16 of the first 20 games of his big league career. He had just one hit in most of those, and he hasn't shown much of a batting eye yet, so he is definitely a work in progress. The patience should come once he adjusts. He posted a double-digit walk rate at every full-season stop in the minors.
Still, with home runs like the one he cranked in his Tropicana Field debut, he has displayed the effortless power that made him a top-10 prospect two years running. He has just an 86 wRC+ now, but if he progresses as expected, he should be a valuable weapon down the stretch for Tampa.
Rounding out the group of players that started slowly but has heated up recently is Desmond Jennings. The 26-year-old center fielder hit just .227/.303/.392 through April, but he's been hot of late, hitting .414/.500/.621 in his first 34 plate appearances of July. Obviously that's a small sample, but looking at the season overall Jennings has been well above average. He's one of just 11 players to have already posted double digits in both homers and steals, and assuming he stays healthy, he should cross the 20-20 threshold by season's end.
The Rays have a good complement of hitters and are led by a true superstar in Longoria. Their pitching isn't exactly bad this season, but their hitters are leading the way. As we move into the second half, it's time to stop thinking of Tampa as a pitching-and-defense-only squad.
By Paul Swydan | ESPN Insider
Ever since the Tampa Bay Rays became a contending team back in 2008, they have had a reputation as a pitching-and-defense team. It's a reputation that was never more apparent than last season, when the team finished third in pitching WAR.
This season though, Tampa, which moved up two spots this week to No. 11 in the ESPN Power Rankings, showed that it has plenty of thunder on offense as well, and it might be time to rethink that reputation.
It seems as if the Rays have gone from Internet darlings to fairly passé recently, and nowhere is this better exemplified than in the person of Evan Longoria. He has long been one of the best players in the game, but injuries kept him from amassing bulk stats last season. He was still productive when he played, as his .378 wOBA can attest, but it was in only 74 games. This season, he has already played 85 games and has matched the 17 homers he hit last season.<offer></offer>
In fact, his .289/.366/.525 line, which is again good for a .378 wOBA, is one of the best in the game. Couple that with his usual stellar defense, and Longoria has been one of the five most valuable players in the game. Yet neither the fans, his peers nor Tigers manager Jim Leyland saw fit to put Longoria on the American League All-Star team. That's a shame, and hopefully an error that will be corrected once players start backing out due to injury. But it does beautifully illustrate how Tampa's offense has operated outside of the spotlight.
Longoria is driving the bus, but the rest of the Rays have not been mere spectators. The team entered Sunday with a 112 wRC+ (when removing pitchers' plate appearances), which was third in the AL and fourth in all of baseball. On the flip side, they rank just 16th in ERA and 12th in FIP.
The Rays have been doing everything well on offense. Focusing just on the AL, we can see that they entered Sunday in the top five in runs, home runs, walk and strikeout rate, batting average and on-base percentage. And their .159 ISO was also within a whisker of the top five.
Best of all, it's been a total team effort. Of the players currently on the active roster, the only ones who aren't at least decent hitters are Yunel Escobar, Jose Molina and Sean Rodriguez -- none of whom are full-time starters. The team has the potential to trot out a good hitter at essentially every position on the diamond.
One of the more surprising players this season has been at first base. When the Rays signed James Loney, it was almost an afterthought. After being imported to the AL last year, Loney hit .230/.264/.310 for the Red Sox down the stretch. Now, perhaps some of that poor performance can be attributed to the seemingly poisonous atmosphere in the Boston clubhouse last season, but you'd have to squint a lot to give clubhouse chemistry the credit for boosting Loney's performance to his current .317/.370/.473.
Always a good contact hitter, Loney has been walking more this season, and stinging the ball when he does put it in play. Entering Sunday, his 29.2 percent line drive rate was tops in the game among qualified hitters.
Also coming on has been Matt Joyce. He had a rough first month -- at the end of April he was hitting just .225/.286/.451. Since, he has hit .250/.343/.460, good for a 66-point jump in his OPS.
Another Ray who had a slow start was Ben Zobrist. He posted a .309 wOBA in April, but saw that number jump to .328 in May and .367 in June. Normally a jack-of-all-gloves, Zobrist has mainly manned second base this year, and having his bat there is a huge plus for Tampa. One of the biggest reasons Zobrist is seeing less and less outfield time as the season progresses is the ascendance of Wil Myers.
Called up on June 18, Myers hit safely in 16 of the first 20 games of his big league career. He had just one hit in most of those, and he hasn't shown much of a batting eye yet, so he is definitely a work in progress. The patience should come once he adjusts. He posted a double-digit walk rate at every full-season stop in the minors.
Still, with home runs like the one he cranked in his Tropicana Field debut, he has displayed the effortless power that made him a top-10 prospect two years running. He has just an 86 wRC+ now, but if he progresses as expected, he should be a valuable weapon down the stretch for Tampa.
Rounding out the group of players that started slowly but has heated up recently is Desmond Jennings. The 26-year-old center fielder hit just .227/.303/.392 through April, but he's been hot of late, hitting .414/.500/.621 in his first 34 plate appearances of July. Obviously that's a small sample, but looking at the season overall Jennings has been well above average. He's one of just 11 players to have already posted double digits in both homers and steals, and assuming he stays healthy, he should cross the 20-20 threshold by season's end.
The Rays have a good complement of hitters and are led by a true superstar in Longoria. Their pitching isn't exactly bad this season, but their hitters are leading the way. As we move into the second half, it's time to stop thinking of Tampa as a pitching-and-defense-only squad.
