00:00But every single year, ah, come on now.
00:02Rays can't do it again.
00:03They lost more players here.
00:05Looking at their starting, who are these guys?
00:07Never heard of half of them here.
00:09It doesn't matter.
00:10Last year, playing outside in heat and humidity, I loved it, Craig.
00:13Like, ooh, this is where you want to be with Tampa Bay.
00:15Betting games, team total to the over.
00:17Now we get back to trough baseball.
00:19And as you take a look midway through May, you know who's in first place in the ALEs?
00:23It's not the New York Yankees.
00:24It's the Tampa Bay Rays with a two-game lead over the New York Yankees.
00:3029-15 on the season, 7-3 in their last 10.
00:33You take a look at their last five ballgames.
00:35What is it with the Rays?
00:36Is it the front office, Craig?
00:38Is that you get lulled to sleep by playing?
00:40You can keep hiring all their executives.
00:41And I guess if you look at the Dodgers, you could say, well, you know, Andrew Friedman,
00:45he ran the Rays.
00:47He's running the Dodgers.
00:47They're winning the World Series.
00:48And they've had a lot of really good executives to come out of there.
00:51But, Donnie, they just find different ways to beat you,
00:55whether it is playing great defense or constantly bunting the ball
00:59or trading some of their best players and everyone's freaking out.
01:03And then the next guy up is just as good, if not better, than the last guy.
01:07Player development is just out of this world.
01:09Not to mention, every bullpen guy they bring in, Donnie, looks so strange.
01:14It's like, this guy throws sidearm.
01:15This guy throws 100, but he also throws 80.
01:17Like, it is just a – they have a plan.
01:21They stick to it.
01:22And it tends to work.
01:23Now, the difference with the Rays over the last year or two, Donnie,
01:27as opposed to, like, those kind of – they had a couple of middling years there
01:30where they didn't win, like, 90, 95 games.
01:32It's all of a sudden now they have Junior Camonero, right?
01:35Like, Camonero's become a star.
01:36Jonathan Aranda's a really good player, too.
01:38And so with all of these fundamental things that you have,
01:41you have to have a couple of big guys, too.
01:43You know, like, you have to have that.
01:45They definitely have it figured out.
01:46So if you're a Rays fan, it's a fun team to watch.
01:50And if you're playing on the other side,
01:52you literally don't know what this team is going to do.
01:54Are they going to double steal?
01:55Are they going to try and bunt for a hit?
01:56No, they're going to pull the bat back.
01:57No, they're going to bunt.
01:58I mean, it is – it's wild watching them play.
02:03And Saturday's game in particular, you know,
02:05this was a game that went into extra innings.
02:07And they just – the only reason why they lost this one is because
02:09it got blown up in the 10th.
02:10So I would say, Donnie, very high probability for me
02:16that they're in the American League Championship Series.
02:18I really do think that.
02:20I don't know if they're going to win it all.
02:21And sometimes you run into these teams that add players at the deadline.
02:24I don't know the Rays are going to do that.
02:26But if there's any prop for the ALCS, I think they get there.
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