With the end of the regular season comes deep contemplation… and season-long grades! Last time I handed out grades, the sample size was still small enough to require a gimmicky approach; this time we’ve had all 162 games to figure out what was up with this roster.
And it’s not all bad (despite how many Rays fans feel right now). The Rays finished the year with yet another losing season (their fourth straight), but the advanced metrics liked them a lot more. Baseball Prospectus’ third order winning percentage had the Rays as the fourth-best team in the AL and eighth-best team in all of baseball (ahead of the Red Sox, Twins, and Rockies).