Until this current 7-game win streak it had been an extremely frustrating season with the Rays losing game after game they should have been winning, primarily thanks to a bullpen that statistically is pretty good but has been about as un-clutch as imaginable and that's reflected in the major negative discrepancy in our actual record vs our expected (Pythagorean) record. Fortunately the AL East collectively spun its wheels and despite the mediocre start they still find themselves in first place, hopefully auguring well when we get some positive regression.
As I mentioned a couple of posts back, parity reigns supreme in MLB this year with only the Brewers separating themselves from the pack as the majors' top team. As the Rays have shown all it takes is a hot streak to make a move in the standings.
A look at the underlying numbers shows this isn't a ~.500 team; in fact it should be the dominant team in the AL right now. But our well-chronicled woes and bad luck have kept the record down so we'll just have to keep up these numbers and let the wins flow from them. This is a really bad defensive club, though with the primary culprits being our keystone combo of Wander Franco and Ozzie Albies, who sport ZRs of -4.3 and -4.5 respectively. Wander at least makes up for it (and then some) with the bat, but Albies has not hit well this year and is barely above replacement value. Also, after holding his own last year with a neutral fielding numbers, Casey Schmitt is a defensive liability at 3B too (-3.3 WAR). Pete Fairbanks has been much-maligned this year with the blown saves - and his 16 walks in 27 IP has a lot to do with it - but you can also see why he has a .411 BABIP.
We've really been a 4-man offense this year with Wander, Tork, Mead and DeLoach carrying things with Albies and Schmitt dropping off significantly from last year. And the bottom third of the order has been a black hole with Cartaya not hitting like we'd hoped (although he's picked it up a bit lately after being down to around .167) and Mears (RF) and Ozuna (DH) have largely been worthless. Changes could be in the offing with those two. Ozuna has already been relegated to platooning against lefties with Josh Lowe back, but Lowe has been anemic with the bat as well. By the way Andrew Vaughn has been raking for Milwaukee since we traded him, which figures.
With the exception of the back end of the pen (Fairbanks and Hendriks), the pitching has been sterling this year. The rotation has been extremely consistent with only our #2 guy, Luis Castillo, having some struggles this year, and Mac is a Cy Young contender. Our long guys (Whitley & Sears) have been exceptional although it's been a struggle for Aaron Ashby since coming over but his stuff is still great with control the issue.