They have scored by far the most runs in either league...have have given up by far the fewest runs scored in either league.

They are doing more than a few things right.
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Overpay every front office executive you have by 100% and you'd still be out no more than the cost of an average middle reliever.

It's completely inexcusable that DeWitt hasn't fired this entire front office and attempted to poach literally every single member of the Rays staff he can get to say yes.

Even if the guy's sole goal is profit - how does retaining Mozeliak over the Rays guys lead to maximizing it?

At a point, it's just laziness on DeWitt's part.

And if the Cardinals had lost guys like Baz and Springer to serious injury, we'd hear nothing but excuses from the front office and local media to how it's hamstrung their ability to compete.

The Rays don't miss a beat. They sign Eflin and turn him into a viable 3rd starter and call up Taj Bradley.

Meanwhile we'll only pitch Zack Thompson in blowouts and have Liberatore toiling in AAA because Jake Woodford threw 5 decent innings once.
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They’ve also been blessed with an incredibly soft start to the season. They’re 1-2 against teams who aren’t actively tanking.
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Sure.

But everyone says "Man, their schedule is soft - anyone could beat those guys..."

And then those lousy teams still managed to win 40% of their ballgames.

When the Rays are going 8-2 or 9-1 against the kind of teams that other squads go 6-4 or maybe 7-3 against, that means something.
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Feel like Zach Eflin has been more of an under the radar quality pitcher for a few years now and less of someone the Rays just turned into a solid arm.

I was talking with some friends that are Phillies fans about what they were going to do with him last year. He's had a 1.2 or lower WHIP for 4 years. Doesnt dig his own grave with walks. And across the board all of his expected numbers have been in the 3's since like 2018. The main wart was he was susceptible to giving up HR's a bit more than you would like, which so far in Tampa hasn't been an issue... yet.
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And these fans don’t appreciate it, at all. They play in a shithole but on the field, there is always talent.
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Last year a knee issue shut him down and when he came back, the Phillies put him in a high leverage relief role on their way to the World Series. A definite valuable piece to a pitching staff.
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Sure - but the market didn't value him that highly.

When the Rays were willing to give him the biggest FA contract in the HISTORY of their franchise, that told me he was worth a heck of a lot more than the market was supporting.

He's a strike thrower that the Rays have figured out how to get his stuff from roughly league average to probably 20% above league average. Add that increase in stuff to his command and you have...I dunno...Kevin Gausman potential?
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Oh, their scouting and player development is incredible, no doubt about it. I just don’t believe they are as good as their record so far shows.
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Well given that their present record has them finishing 140-22, I don't think that's too thin a limb to go out on...
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I think I'm being sucked in with false hope. :-)
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When the only good thing to come of DeJong getting called up is a hack like Taylor Motter gets DFA'd you know your roster sucks depth in big way.
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As TLR used to say.....You can't win the division in April but you can sure lose it in April. We are experiencing that this year. If they don't get it turned around pretty quick the hole will be too big to dig out of.
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This team lost the division in February when they decided that they had 'too many' starting pitchers.

Because John Mozeliak fucking sucks at his job.
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Flaherty has looked better with each start. Montgomery has been stable. maybe Liberatore and trade for a #2 starter using some of of our outfield talent and we can compete and win a DLCS. Still going to need more to win a WS.
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