The Tampa Bay Rays and Sabermetrics

We had some family over for dinner last night, and we all watched the end of the Red Sox/Rays game, in which the Rays were sent to the World Series.

It brings up an interesting subject, sabermetrics, the science of winning baseball games. Many were first introduced to the idea by Michael Lewis’ book Moneyball, which may or may not be made into a feature film. Moneyball describes the statistical analysis and strategy that allowed the Oakland Athletics to win 90 games for multiple seasons, all while maintaining the lowest dollar payroll in Major League Baseball.

The Tampa Bay Rays are a prime example of using sabermetrics to win baseball games. They are the most successful turnaround story in baseball history. In the 2006 offseason, they made some major changes in the front office and management:

Shortly after the season ended, Stuart Sternberg, who bought into the ownership group in 2004, took over from Vince Naimoli as managing general partner, thus taking over executive control of the team. He immediately fired Chuck LaMar, the team’s general manager, and most of the front office. Sternberg decided not to have a de jure General Manager, calling the position “outdated.”

The team focused its rebuilding efforts around young stars:

“…outfielders Carl Crawford, Rocco Baldelli, and Jonny Gomes, infielder Jorge Cantu (who hit 28 home runs and drove in 117 runs in 2005) and pitcher Scott Kazmir (who finished in the top 5 in the American League in strikeouts). [...] Delmon Young and B.J. Upton — considered two of the best prospects in all of baseball.”

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The front office became convinced that the Devil Rays would not contend in 2006 and they traded several veteran players who were not in their future plans for younger players who were expected to contribute more in future seasons.

Beginning anew in 2007, The Devil Rays had the youngest starting lineup since the 1983 Minnesota Twins. Attendance was up, spectacularly.

After all their toil to improve the team, at season’s end in 2006 and 2007, the Devil Rays still had not achieved a good win-loss record. After the 2007 season, they rebranded themselves just “the Rays”, and rolled-out new uniforms. Also, they beefed up their payroll spending, which was a major change as it was approximately $24 million in 2007, lowest in the majors. This allowed them to keep some of their better talent.

This season, their plan has come to fruition. They’re now in the world series, and they have sabermetrics to thank for getting the players that would best contribute to a winning season. Other teams pay up for big-name talent that don’t further the team’s goals.

Rays beat Bosox 3-1, advance to World Series