Saturday, December 5, 2015

Comparing the Yankees & Rays Lineups


We’ve had so much success in comparing the lineup for the New York Yankees to both the Toronto Blue Jays and the Tampa Bay Rays that I decided to compare the Bronx Bombers to the rest of the American League East as well. That continues this afternoon with a comparison of the New York Yankees and the Tampa Bay Rays. The Rays struggled to put runs on the board in 2015 and relied heavily on their pitching, led by Chris Archer and Nathan Karns. Karns is gone and Brad Miller is in, will that improve the Rays offense and put to bed their offensive woes that kept them in fourth place in the AL East in 2015? Not likely but let’s take a look anyway.

Catcher
Brian McCann/ Rene Rivera



First Base
Mark Teixeira/ James Loney



Second Base
Robert Refsnyder/ Logan Forsythe



Third Base
Chase Headley/ Evan Longoria



Shortstop
Didi Gregorius/ Brad Miller



Left Field
Brett Gardner/ Desmond Jennings



Center Field
Jacoby Ellsbury/ Kevin Kiermaier



Right Field
Carlos Beltran/ Steven Souza Jr. 



Designated Hitter
Alex Rodriguez/ Logan Morrison


Looking at the final tally I have the New York Yankees “winning” six spots out of the nine. Remember, bolded player wins. The Rays offense stunk up the joint for much of the 2015 season but the team stuck around in the second Wild Card chase despite it all. The Rays are now trading from a position of power, prospects and pitching, in hopes of improving the offense a bit. As it stands right now, and again we will do another one of these before the 2016 season begins after the free agency dust begins to settle, the Rays offense is only marginally better than it was in 2015. The pitching, in my opinion, took a step back both in the rotation and the bullpen. Alex Cobb will be back and Matt Moore should be better but that means very little when you’re losing games 1-0 and 2-1. As it stands today I see a lot of that happening and a lot of, well no probably not a lot of but a few, unhappy fans inside Tropicana Field this season. 

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Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)