Tuesday, March 21, 2023

Newsletter Excerpt, March 21, 2023 -- "Rays, and the Guardians"

 

This is a preview of the Joe Sheehan Baseball Newsletter, an e-mail newsletter about all things baseball, featuring analysis and opinion about the game on and off the field from the perspective of the informed outsider. Joe Sheehan is a founding member of Baseball Prospectus and has been a contributor to Sports Illustrated and Baseball America. He has been writing about baseball for 25 years.

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"What connects these two teams is that they complicate the modern criticism of teams for not spending money. Spending money on players isn’t an end in itself, but a means to build a winner. The Rays and Guardians have run low payrolls while routinely winning. Over the last ten years, the Guardians have the fourth-best record in baseball, the Rays the seventh-best. Those ranks are second and fifth in the AL alone. Between them, they’ve accounted for 11 playoff berths in those ten seasons, and the AL hasn’t contested a postseason without at least one of them since 2015."