ANOTHER LEVEL
Why the Tampa Bay Rays do ‘Moneyball’ better than the A’s
Maybe Hollywood picked the wrong team. The Tampa Bay Rays, with a payroll more meager than the A’s, are in the World Series for the second time in 12 years.
The A’s and Billy Beane, glorified in the movie “Moneyball,” haven’t gotten close. That’s 17 years and counting since Michael Lewis wrote the book about the little team that could.
“The thing the A’s do really well is find guys off the scrap heap,” FanGraphs baseball analyst Ben Clemens said. “The Rays just have done it to another level.”
And that level has led Tampa Bay to a matchup against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the Fall Classic that started Tuesday night.
Oakland and Tampa Bay play under similar restraints, but the Rays have taken their version of “Moneyball” a step further. Take pitching, for instance.
The A’s had a strong bullpen this season, but Tampa Bay has a crew of relievers that Rays manager Kevin Cash called a “whole damn stable of guys who throw 98 miles per hour.”
The f lame-throwers not only defeated Houston in seven games for the American League pennant, but they also eliminated the powerful Yankees.
“In my opinion, it’s simple,” A’s television analyst and former pitcher Dallas Braden said about Tampa Bay. “You can look at the average fastball that the Rays are featuring. That’s
the starting point. In the A’s bullpen — although they throw the ball well — not many guys are throwing 98 with consistency. That’s every one of these dudes coming out of the bullpen for the Rays.”
Similar to the A’s, the Rays see the value in a deep bullpen that offers different looks.
Jokim Soria, Yusmeiro Petit, Jake Diekman and T. J. McFarland, for example, represent a broad spectrum of arm angles, pitches and velocities for Oakland.
Tampa has that type of depth, too, but with mostly high-velocity arms. The Rays have three closer-level relievers who don’t always close.
They got them with creative offseason moves that didn’t inflate the payroll, which this season was a prorated $28.2 million, 28th lowest out of Major League Baseball’s 30 teams. Oakland’s was 25th, at a prorated $36.7 million.
Tampa’s bullpen collectively is earning $4.75 million in pro-rated salary this season. They acquired hard-throwing reliever Peter Fairbanks from the Texas Rangers for rookie sensation Nick Solak. In a more complex transaction, Tampa traded outfielder Jesus Sanchez, a topfive prospect, to Miami for
closer Nick Anderson.
“Most teams would kill to have Oakland’s bullpen,” Clemens said. “And most teams would say they wouldn’t want to give up the resources Tampa gives up for their bullpen.”
While Oakland is more likely to foster and mold high-ceiling prospects into low- cost stars (see Jesús Luzardo, Matt Chapman), the Rays focus on replenishing their farm system until they overflow with options.
“The Rays have more prospects than space to play them,” Clemens said.
And because of that, a transaction such as Tampa giving up top pitching prospect Matthew Liberatore to the St. Louis Cardinals for then- relatively nameless outfielder Randy Arozarena and hard-throwing reliever Jose Martinez didn’t sting as it probably would have in another organization.
Arozarena has seven homers this postseason and just became the first rookie position player to be named MVP of a league championship series.
“Randy Arozarena, I don’t have any words to describe what he’s done, what he’s meant to us this postseason,” Cash said Saturday after the Rays beat Houston in Game 7.
With lots of depth, Tampa concocts lineups and pitching matchups for any situation. The Rays don’t need to pay for a star hitter, nor do they need the
time and resources to develop one. Their competitive advantage is setting up what they have for success.
“The Rays have a lot of middling hitters — the Stephen Piscottys and (Chad) Pinders of the world,” Clemens said. “They just hide them from their bad matchups well. I don’t think their best offensive player is better than Matt Chapman, or second-best player is better than Matt Olson.”
T he A’s experienced Tampa’s depth firsthand when the Rays beat Oakland in the AL wild- card game last season. With left-hander Sean Manaea on the mound for the A’s, the Rays stacked all of their right-handed hitters into a lineup that had Oakland manager Bob Melvin scratching his head.
The Rays left themselves with no backup outfielders
and had undrafted rookie Mike Brosseau hitting ninth and playing second in place of Joey Wendle, a more typical everyday player.
In the divisional round this season, Brosseau hit the series- clinching home run off Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman.
But even on a budget, Tampa isn’t totally nameless.
The Rays have 2018 American League Cy Young winner Blake Snell anchoring their rotation. Backing him is veteran World Series champion Charlie Morton, whom the Rays locked in for two years on a bargain deal because of concerns that previous injuries would hinder the 36-yearold curveball maestro.
Morton, who won a title with Houston in 2017, was the winning pitcher against
his former team in Game 7 of the ALCS.
The A’s championed Moneyball — and by all means, we can see its core tenants still working in Oakland even as Beane may have one foot out the door. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Beane could leave the organization if his RedBall Acquisition Corp., a special-purpose acquisition company, completes a successful merger with John Henr y ’s Fenway Sports Group. The Fenway Sports Group is the principal owner of the Boston Red Sox.
Andrew Friedman — the Los Angeles Dodgers’ president of baseball operations and the Rays’ former front office leader — adopts the Moneyball principles in his own way. He was 28 when he took over Tampa’s front office in 2006. Two years later, Friedman’s Rays were in the World Series.
“Payrolls don’t decide the standings,” Friedman said in a Los Angeles Times story published Monday night. “And I think we see evidence of that every year. I think having a really deep, talented roster regardless of what your payroll is, is the key to winning games and that’s what (the Rays) have.”
The spotlight will be on Friedman and his former team this week.
Back in Oakland, all the A’s have are a book and movie.