"To see a team that has the ability to score without needing to run the ball out of the yard, it's really refreshing. But also, I do think it can lead to more sustainability. Teams that are dependent on homers are just that — dependent on homers to put up big innings. Yes, we'll always take them, and I'm definitely excited to see us hit some more, but it is really cool that our athleticism has the ability to put us in ball games." -- Drew Rasmussen
Just reading that, it makes me frustrated and the more you read THIS you might be in the same boat. The Rays don't have the same financial resources that the Yankees do and they don't even need them. They are still leading in the AL East because they have proven for years now, they do more with less.
I mentioned that to someone I work with the other day and I got the "Yeah, but how many championships do the Rays have?" Obviously none, but everything we have is in the past. We just like to reminisce about it because we have been fantasizing about it since 2009 with no results and a terrible manager in Aaron Boone and a washed up GM in Brian Cashman and owner Hal Steinbrenner who doesn't care about winning like his old man did.
So neither team is basking in championship glory, but the Rays have the competitive edge that the Yankees just don't. That's why we are 4.5 games behind them and chasing them with our old tactics. We are that team that needs to launch the ball out of the yard and relies on the long ball. We obsess over launch angles, exit velocity instead of focusing on fundamental baseball.
The Yankees and their bloated $336 million payroll can flaunt their league leading home run honors all they want but the $108 million Rays are playing better baseball with the most sacrifice bunts, fourth most in stolen bases AND have the fewest strikeouts. The strikeouts is one of my biggest pet peeves with the Yankees. They are all or nothing. We've been running this same playbook over and over again and it isn't running.
When do we stop and realize maybe we shouldn't be putting all of our eggs in "top prospect" players baskets like Spencer Jones who are incomplete players and just groom good ballplayers like the Rays? It hasn't worked. It really isn't rocket science. The old cliche says "if it ain't broke don't fix it!" and it's time to face the music, the Yankees are beyond broken. They are worse than the IKEA furniture sitting in your living room that you didn't read the instructions when you tried putting it together. Instead, you had a bunch of leftover pieces from the box and suddenly one day your furniture collapsed on you.
That's the Yankees. Filled with a bunch of leftover pieces because the team wasn't properly assembled. Because let's just keep Anthony Volpe up in the majors even the he sucks while we also have a capable Jose Caballero. It's stupid! The Yankees do LESS with MORE resources. The Rays are just the opposite. At some point one of these teams is bound to figure it out. My money goes on the Rays figuring it out first though because the Yankees are just an insanity train.
I'm tired of being the team that does less with more. I'm tired of writing about it. I am tired of complacency. We have more financial resources than the Rays do....we just don't have the baseball brains to run it and win.
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