After a bit of a sluggish start the Rays have really turned it on as of late. The hitting remains middle-of-the-pack but the pitching has been outstanding led by
Hugo Najera who's had a historic half-season so far.
And there's the dichotomy I was mentioning. One thing I just noticed is that we've played 48 home games and only 32 road games, quite the disparity and inflating the overall record a bit here. Anyway, the offense is good but not great while the pitching most certainly is. And even more impressive is that the staff is backed by a mediocre-to-lousy defense.
Lots of good and bad here. The good: Gurrola continues to emerge as a budding star and the veteran trio of Haro/Rutschman/White continues to pull its weight. And a special shoutout to Ransom, the rookie SS we thought was going to be a utility guy but whom we couldn't keep out of the lineup. The bad: Pino, a star coming off a 6-WAR season, can't snap out of his funk and has been trending downward, only good for the occasional homer of late and with his defense poor he's not contributing a lot. Also there were high hopes for the rookie Arroyo when he was called up a month ago but he hasn't been able to hit his way out of a paper bag.
Ah but just look at the pitching. Najera's historic ERA is buoyed by some BABIP luck (especially considering the defense as a whole) but even at that he's been incredible (his FIP is 2.31). Lennon (who is a victim of the defense) and Jimenez would be Cy Young contenders if not for Najera, and Vargas has been solid. It's a shame we lost Whitfield to close after how dominant he was in the role and Whitehead has done alright but is prone to blowing a few.
David Gonzalez might really be our best reliever but he's suffered with an absurd .413 BABIP (his FIP is 2.00) and could end up the closer.
Oh man this is one bleak farm system with nobody even close to being a top 100 prospect. Going to need to hit it big in the upcoming draft.