Lots of doom-and-gloom in these parts lately. And, frankly, I am partly to blame.
I have been writing lots of ho-hum pieces complaining about our team. What a spoiled brat I am.
Is it possible that I am disappointed with a team that is in the thick of the wild card race? Is it possible that I am disappointed with a team that is above .500? Is it possible that I am disappointed with a team that is winning games despite the fact that Will Rhymes has 120 at bats? (Truth be told, there are a lot of teams in D-Rays history on which Will Rhymes could get 100+ at bats. None of those teams were 50-47).
What a difference a few years make. If this was 2008, we’d be celebrating the Rays’ improbable success. Right? Hey, we were in last place last season but now we have a winning record! Playoffs? Really? Cool! Just the possibility would be exciting.
But that same success in 2012 is disappointing because we have tasted the postseason all of 3 times. Weird. What are we? Yankee fans? World Series or bust?
We are letting a change in perception affect our ability to relax. This team can be fun. Last night proves it. Every night, Joe Maddon sends out a starting pitcher that has a pretty good shot of turning in a gem. And, every night our team has a better than even chance of winning. That is HUGE.
After all, we are winning a lot compared to 1998-2007. Trust me, that was actually depressing baseball. I was there. It made those of us working in the Press Box weird. We would have given our left arm for just a few weeks of the ‘disappointing’ ball this team is currently playing when we were mired in that stretch.
So, I challenge you. Put the postseason on the shelf. Relish this team night-to-night. Maybe 2013 will bring a juggernaut and maybe it won’t. Stop waiting for the best team ever and enjoy a really good team. To channel Joe Maddon for a minute, ‘live in the present tense.’
I’ll do it too. No more moping. No more ‘what could have been’ posts. Who knows? Maybe we’ll have a little fun with the rest of the summer.
While agreeing that we are a bit spoiled I think we can also agree that we have seen how good this team can be at times and it is frustrating as hell to see us put up 1 run twice in a row in 2-1 losses to the Mariners at home. Really? One Run?? It’s not that the M’s are the second coming of the 1970 Orioles or the 67 Cards. And seeing Hideki Matsui come up on key situations all night on Saturday and come up with a line of weak grounder to 2nd, DP groundout, and K to lead off the 9th then watch Joe pinch hit with him on Sunday night with 2 on and 2 out in the 9th?? I was PISSED to see that. So yes I am disappointed to see us lose games we should win and were this 2008, I would probably be thrilled we are in the hunt for a wildcard, but I think after tasting some success, we all know this team can play better than it is right now. Say what you will about Rhymes having 120 at bats, he is out hitting guys like SRod, Molina, Pena, and Scott who have more at bats and he is 85 points better than Matsui.
I guess the thing that strikes me is your statement that “we all know this team can play better than it is right now.” That seems to be the assumption underlying all the disappointing. And, I think it is a false premise. Could this group play better? Yes. Could it play so much better that their record would be fundamentally different? I say no. There was a lot of risk on this roster and, all the potential bad happened to hit. It’s going to happen sometimes when you deal in the margins like we do. But it’s not like a lot of these guys are performing below their career numbers. Right?
Actually a number of them are a fair amount below their career numbers. Scott is a career 260 hitter at 225, Pena may be a lowly 235 career hitter but that is a good bit above his current 195, SRod at 210 is still 15 points below his career average and Molina at 190 is 47 points below his career average. Sure we aren’t talking about Tony Gwynn numbers here but those are fairly substantial differences. The thing is, who besides Eliot Johnson is hitting about their career marks? Normally when some guys are having lousy years, others step up with big ones but not this year. Also, how did a good fielding team become such a poor fielding team in one year? Take away the error differential and this team is probably 4 or 5 games better than it currently is, even with the terrible hitting. No, I see a lack of focus at times that is killing them in little ways. It’s not a big swoon a la Boston late last year and much of this one, instead its a death of a thousand cuts with each one just bleeding the Rays a little more.