00:00How surprised are you with this Rays baseball team?
00:04Here we are, July 4th.
00:05You know, everyone said at the beginning of the year, David,
00:08that this was a team that maybe was going to be in transition
00:10as they're trying to look for a new stadium
00:12on whether they're going to stay in the Tampa Bay-St. Pete area
00:15or move potentially to Orlando or Nashville.
00:18And here they are.
00:19They're four games up heading into the day in the American League East
00:23with a payroll of $100 million versus the Yankees.
00:27Are you surprised?
00:30Yes and no.
00:31Yes, because you just call it out.
00:33$100 million, small market team.
00:35They have no business being where they are.
00:37But no, because this is what they do.
00:39This is what the Rays have always done.
00:41This is what I know the Marlins have the two titles and the Rays don't.
00:44But the Rays have been far more relevant over the last 30 years overall
00:47than the Marlins because they continuously stay in contention and compete.
00:52And they've been there more than the Marlins have outside of the two titles
00:56because they know how to build a team.
00:58And I know their GM and president left to go build the Dodgers,
01:01and now he's got a dynasty over there.
01:03But they were doing it right in Tampa.
01:05And when everybody zigs, they zag.
01:07Back in the day when it was let's do small ball,
01:10the Rays went out there and they did money ball,
01:13got the players who got on base and the ones who hit the home runs.
01:16Now that everybody's doing money ball,
01:18the Rays are going back to small ball.
01:19And they're bunting and they're stealing bases and they're scoring runs.
01:22They just zig when everybody else zags and they're doing it with players that
01:27nobody really knows because they have a small, small roster.
01:30They know how to scout and they know how to draft and that's the bread and
01:32butter of it.
01:33But at the end of the day,
01:34it's still going to be the behemoth of the Dodgers and the Yankees.
01:38And I think the most surprising part about the AL East isn't so much that the
01:42Rays are on top, which is surprising enough.
01:44It's that, you know,
01:46last year's American League champion Toronto Blue Jays are in that division.
01:48The team that's considered the best in the American League,
01:51the New York Yankees are in that division.
01:52The Red Sox are always supposed to be good or in that division.
01:55Yet it's Tampa on top when everybody else is fighting for second and third
01:58place.
01:59How about this in the American League?
02:01The worst teams in the American League right now are only seven games out
02:05from a playoff spot.
02:08Is it parody or bad baseball going on in American League this year?
02:12I actually think it's bad baseball.
02:14I don't think there's anybody really good in the American League.
02:16I mean, the Yankees are supposed to be the best team in the league.
02:20There's nobody in the central division that's any good.
02:22I mean,
02:23you're looking at the White Sox who lost a billion and a half games two years
02:26ago or in second place in that division.
02:28And the AL West is kind of upside down.
02:31You know,
02:31the Rangers weren't supposed to be this good and they're all 500 teams.
02:35At the end of the day,
02:36I'm not sure who comes out of the American League.
02:40You still have a New York Yankees roster that should be better than anybody,
02:43but the Rays are the only team with more than 40,
02:46more than 50 wins right now.
02:48And you're throwing the odds up there as,
02:50you know,
02:50the Yankees are still the favorite and the Mariners should be there,
02:53but nobody has stepped up to take control.
02:55I just don't think any of those teams are that good.
02:57I just don't think any of those teams are really good.
02:57Yeah.
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