The standings:
The Rays are coasting their way to another division title and 100+ win season, so no issues there. A look under the hood:
Somehow we've become a bad baserunning team despite leading the league in steals; perhaps we're not taking the extra base enough or something since the CS don't seem out of whack and we're not getting guys thrown out left and right. Our defense has been pretty good by the standards in this save although it was even better a week or two ago before a recent slump. And the bullpen has had its struggles with Willie Minier the only guy I can truly count on as even Satoshi Sato has had his issues. I will note that guys like Josh Grote and B.J. Turner have pitched better lately, as has Mel Mejia. The individual hitting stats:
What an incredible half-season from Dave Frick. He dropped below. 400 last week, went back as high at .405 during this last series before a couple of 0-fers sent him back below. Yuji Morioka has been a revelation and plays 70 D at 2B; my only regret is that I signed him to a mere 1-year contract and now he wants a 9-year extension which I ain't giving a 31-year-old. But the one skunk at the party has been Luis Barela, who just can't seem to get hot and has a very pedestrian half-season 1.4 WAR which is almost unimaginable for a guy who's been the MVP the last 4 years running. Guess giving him that team-record $37M/year contract extension is going to bite me. The pitching stats:
Gordie Ager is having a Cy Young-caliber season and Greg Bookhart isn't far behind him, but after that it's been solid but not spectacular among the Rays starters and as mentioned earlier the bullpen has been something of an adventure. A lot of Satoshi Sato's problems stem from that .406 BABIP which is even more of an outlier given how overall well the defense has played so far. This staff is certainly good to get us through the regular season but I worry about them come playoff time. I might still feel better trading for a solid starter or shutdown reliever over the next month.