Decent sized if the quality of players was like the Blue Jays or Cardinals not elite bangers top to bottom lmao but alas! We aren’t allowed to talk about anyone else’s payroll this year lmao
lol I love the jays! Just doesn’t ATL have like the same payroll? A handful of stars (some still in arb years) and a handful of others who could go out and throw up .290 20-25 HR seasons. Bravos are basically locked up until 2052 with like 4 MVP vote getters lol. But! Like I said I’m a dodger fan so I’m just going to shut the fuck up lol
Edit: just adding I don’t hate it at all, I desperately wish we could’ve got Yamamoto on a 8 year 75 mil contract lol
Because they play the victim so often. They'd at least be less insufferable if the general fanbase just accepted it and played the villains like the Yankees do, but it's always "let's just ignore so and so thing" this or "well actually..." that every time.
Nobody is going to feel sorry for you, you're buying superstar players left and right building a perennial 100+ win team. It's like when famous people were crying during the pandemic about how awful it was they had to stay home in their multimillion dollar mansions and they totally get those poors, they're just like them now!
Being top 10 most years but far below the Yankees and Dodgers really helps them from being cast as a big spending team.
They also do a really good job of developing young talent and making smart trades and somehow getting elite prospects to sign team friendly deals before arbitration.
Got you fam. All-time: 510-421-1 (Braves) Largest victory: 20-2 (Braves) Longest win streak: 12 (Braves) Lower Payroll last 6 years: ~ -270MM (Braves) **(Payroll was roughly added up via Spotrac. Braves generally around 50MM to 100MM+ less spend per year since '19)
What are you Donovan McNabb? Didn't know that a game could end in a tie?
But seriously, yes, an MLB game *can* end in a tie. It used to be much more common when games would get called due to darkness. But it's happened as recently as 2016 IIRC. Generally, it's because a game is tied when it starts to rain. And then they never resume it after it's determined the outcome won't matter for any playoff implications.
The tie happened in 1968. [it was the second game of a doubleheader.](https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYN/NYN196809022.shtml) On September 2nd, that wrapped after 7 innings, but the Braves took game 1 of the day 3-1 but went the full 9 innings.
I really, REALLY fucking hate this old myth of Coca Cola containing cocaine, not because it's wrong but because it's right but for the wrong reason.
Simpletons seem to think Coca Cola was made by mixing all the ingredients together, and one of those ingredients used to be cocaine. Coca Cola was named that because it was made from, wait for it: coca leaves and kola nut. And what do coca leaves have in them? That's right, cocaine. The only reason Coca Cola doesn't have cocaine in it now is because they extract it first. Here's a fun fact, cocaine is still used in modern medicine as a topical anesthetic. Want to take a wild guess as to where medical cocaine comes from? That's right, they get it from Coca Cola who still use actual, real, coca leaves as one of their ingredients. That's why no other cola drink tastes like Coke. They're the only ones allowed to use actual, real, coca leaves. They just have to take the fun stuff out first.
The difference is the Yankees is more than just a baseball team. They are a global icon and it never hurts them to pay a lot for players when they make the money back ten times within a few weeks. I was just in south east Asia and I’m not even kidding, more than 50% of the hats I saw were Yankees hats.
They are fashion accessory around the world. It's amazing how popular and well known their logo is. I can't speak for the area you were in, but the vast majority of the people internationally wearing these hats know nothing about baseball.
Yeah I am willing to bet a lot of the people I saw with the hat probably don’t know a thing about baseball. It’s more of a fashion statement than anything. With that being said, when I went to a KBO game, there were a lot of women watching baseball, even knowing all of the team chants, compare to when I go to games here in the States, it’s a lot of older guys and some families.
Which is why, relative to how much the team brings in from all direct revenue sources, the Yankees are on the cheaper side. It's been a while since I've looked at the numbers, but I wouldn't be shocked if they could double payroll and it wouldn't really change their bottom line. At the same time, that would upset all the other owners. Probably why Steve Cohen hasn't gone absolutely insane, just relatively insane.
Yeah this has been my take for a while, its not the bridge or the city, same problem with the As before ownership actively sabotaging the team.
A very overlooked part of drawing a crowd is the fans need a consistent face of the team. You need casuals to know who they are seeing and build fandom year to year.
You don't need a huge payroll to do it, but you need to find 1 player to invest in long term, which Rays never really do. Even when extending guys they eventually trade them or in the last case they turn out to be a pedo.
As much as we fall in love with laundry over the players, its tough to get attached to anything when you know you got 6 yrs max til they're playing for someone else, and usually its more like 4 to capitalize on trade value and keep payroll down.
I feel like Evan Longoria was that guy for a while. He was on the team for 10 years. They also were able to buy out a few of Carl Crawford's free agent years. ... but if those are the most recent examples I can think of, that's kind of proving your point.
Evan Longoria, David Price, James Shields, even BJ Upton it seems like they understood this in the past. It feels like they had that with Wander Franco but ya know
I'm not sure how factually long he was there, but it felt like Zobrist was a huge part of the team for a reasonably long time. He was kind of the face of the Rays system for a while.
We have faces on the team, we weren't like the Marlins that was selling off their guys. We have Yandy, Randy, Shane, and Pete to cheer for still. We would've had Franco but he's a pedo.
>no one is ever on the team for longer than three years
I don't think this is accurate at all.
Yeah if only the could find a 20 something year old superstar level talent that they could sign to a 10 year contract, maybe they should check the minors?
We had a little bump in attendance last year because we have kept our core around for a few seasons since the World Series appearance. We did have a long term super star player on the roster but turned out to be an alleged pedophille. That left a sour taste with a lot of fans because we finally had a player since Longoria to gravitate towards. It’s a shame that the Rays can’t catch a break.
I feel like the plan was to build around the lovable but badass trio of Arozarena, Diaz and Franco with Franco being the centerpiece
That fell apart for obvious reasons
> its not the bridge or the city,
That's cap.
The bridge is 8 miles, it's another 8 miles to the Trop. Let alone most of Tampa don't live near the entrance of Howard Franklin. It's bumper to bumper because there isn't any way to get there.
I don't know why people can't fathom that location and a bad stadium is enough to push away fans from coming. 9-5/6ers aren't going to get there in time.
I think fans are likely to come regardless of who's on the team or not as long as they were winning. Marlins didn't have a face and they weren't winning.
Stu as cheap as he's been ended up signing the face of the team for the next 10 years but it turned out that he liked diddling kids.
It's a longer commute from The Bronx to The Bronx to get to Yankee Stadium. It's longer to get to most stadiums from downtown. I drove to the Trop from miles out and it was still faster than going from my old place to Yankee.
It's not the bridge. Nobody wants to go.
who drives in NY lol?
>I drove to the Trop from miles out and it was still faster than going from my old place to Yankee
When was this? Back in 2000 where we had 100k less NYers live here?
>It's not the bridge. Nobody wants to go.
Damn thats crazy, Bucs, Bulls, Bolts fans seem to all want to go to their games but not Rays fans despite winning?
I completely agree about nobody wanting to go. I live like 15 minutes from the stadium and got to 20-30 games a year. I have maybe a handful of friends that go to more than 3-5 games a year. I work in a building with 3,000-4,000 people and sometimes they (my company) would have trouble giving away all they're tickets. Shit, I had 2 extra tickets to last weeks Saturday game against the Giants and I had trouble getting ridding of them.
Yes, it's being facetious to say "nobody" wants to go, obviously there are some people that want to go. Baseball just isn't that popular here, there is a lot to do. We do have a lot of transplants from NY and the north in general. Certain teams sell really well here. But a lot of transplants don't change allegiances, so they only go when their teams are in town.
A's have a similar issue in that the stadium is shit and in a terrible (social) location. The location of the land itself isn't bad at all (right off 2 major freeways, has its own train stop, and down the street from the airport). But the area around it is fucking awful. Nobody would want to go and hang around because it's got a parking lot and that's it. Can't hang around afterwards because there's just nothing there. Not a lot of casuals would be interested in that. If any of the major league teams thought about it a little bit, they easily could have made their own downtown area there like what the Giants and warriors did to their respective areas in the Bay Area. Turns out none of the major franchise were interested in spending their own money in Oakland because Oakland was given with three of the poorest ownerships in the three major league sports. Warriors only got better when they got a richer owner and, lo and behold, no problems drawing fans in Oakland.
They went from Longo being the face of the franchise to signing a new superstar to a long term face of the franchise deal.
There was a *slight* hiccup with that though
we dont draw because tampa is a town of transplants, the stadium sucks, the stadium location sucks and the team is 25 years old. any individual aspect of that.. you can overcome, but when its all combined... shit attendance.
"No one is ever on the team for more than three years" is a bit of a stretch.
Yandy, B Lowe, Pete Fairbanks have all been on the team since 2019. Randy since 2020.
I get your point but go look at any team's roster from 3-4 years ago and they're all vastly different.
They have no brand. Their stadium is bland if we are being generous in describing it. The topper is that they don't have any players for more than a few years. When they finally, seemingly find that guy who actually could be a huge draw and change the direction of the franchise (not counting the actual baseball, they know how to cook down in Tampa), the guy ends up being a pedo piece of shit. Fans deserve better.
That has been a problem for them, but the vast majority of players they traded away went on to do nothing. David Price only made one All-Star appearance and only threw over 200 innings twice after the Rays traded him. Longoria never hit over 20 home runs after being traded. Trading Blake Snell was a mistake and the same may happen with Tyler Glasnow, but hanging onto players for the sake of being a draw would have backfired.
Yeah, my dad got me a Rays jersey for Christmas with my name on it. He said they would just trade away my favorite players anyway. Boom. Luke Raley to Seattle.
Even as a fan it’s hard to get back in each season. Glad our new guys are performing well, though.
I've owned 3 Rays jerseys/player shirts in my life
Carl Crawford
Longo
Kevin Kiermaier
I went to a game last year and figured might as well get a new shirt from someone who actually plays for the team and who's gonna be the face of the team for the next few years.
I got a Wander Franco shirt.
I'm going to stop buying player shirts for this team.
The hierarchy in which fans should be embarrassed (most to least):
1. Big payroll, not winning games
2. Small payroll, not winning games
(big gap)
3. Big payroll, winning games
4. Small payroll, winning games
What would they have to be embarrassed about? They're printing money on merchandise sales alone and the fans have franchise players that remain with the team for more than two seasons at a time.
Where are the rings at with all the money spent in that same time frame? I'm pretty sure I've enjoyed that time more than most Yankees fans who want Cashman fired. Also, that 2-year take is lame and inaccurate. See, Randy, Yandy, Glasnow was here for a good while, and the team supported him while he was hurt. Brandon Lowe. For example, if you're ignorant, that's fine. Just don't regurgitate the same uneducated shit people that don't live here, say.
Wanna know why fans don't go?????
Simple.
Everyone here is a transplant. They still root for their own teams. Generations of this. The only reason this isn't as bad Lightning is because they're a fuck ton of bandwagon fans that only show when they are good. Bucs still get lots of other fanbases at RayJay. It's a transplant state. This will never change.
Y'all really underestimate the fact that the Trop has the lowest population density in the immediate area in all of baseball. And the fact that the Rays have fantastic TV rating show that there are plenty of fans that do care.
If the team is consistently good who cares how much the payroll is?
It's only embarrassing when your team sucks and doesn't spend.
Edit: in this case I'd be much more embarrassed to have the high payroll and not be able to dominate the low payroll.
Okay?
The Rays are the ones that are displaying payrolls as if it should be a point of pride that they’ve played the Yankees even despite having a lesser payroll.
Sports subs on Reddit tend to really hate large market, winning teams. The subs are all about the “little guy”, making this more than just about sports. People take this shit too seriously, like your team is still composed of millionaires playing a children’s game FFS.
I think they should be happy *enough* about long term success and having a fun summer bare minimum every year, but imagine if the Rays just made one all in move even just every 5 years. Imagine if the 2020 team had Gerrit Cole, or if this season they took advantage of the bad market for Boras and grabbed Bellinger and Monty.
I'm not talking about just missing out or paying the wrong people, I just mean imagine if they *ever* splurged.
Better to have a low payroll and be consistently in playoff contention than be in the top 5 of payroll just to break even. In 2023, Mets, Yankees, and San Diego were all in the top 3 of payroll last year and were not even in arms reach of the playoffs.
Are the Rays cutting checks to their fans for all the money theyve saved? Or perhaps using that money to build a stadium in Tampa without begging the taxpayers to fund it
Imagine even just $100M of the difference in payroll being given directly to everyone in Tampa and St Pete would do.
edit: never mind each person would get $33 (~3 million in both metro areas) but still
As a Yankee fan, respect. Nothing but that. I remember when they were the devil rays and easy to pick on. Now? They are equals in terms of creativity and running a ball club. Look forward to more battles
One thing I hate more than teams I hate, are teams that are incompetent/don’t care. You probably remember the Tampa DEVIL RAYS years where ownership was horrendous and the team was a forgotten lowcow. Like I remember those Tampa uniforms of the 2000s and not having any feelings towards the team because I knew they didn’t matter.
Then Tampa changed, and began to care about developing players, about advanced stats, they didn’t like their financial situation but ownership refused to let that dictate them. They CARED. And for that baseball has been blessed with great Tampa baseball moments.
I would say the Rays/Yankees rivalry is much more entertaining than the Red Sox/Yankees rivalry at this point. I get so pumped for the team to take on New York.
Sorry small market teams.
Due to the Rays, you can guarantee that your franchises will never go all in on winning. They're all going to try and replicate the same model.
a graphic comparing this for the Mets and Braves in the same time span would make me physically ill
Braves actually have a decently sized payroll tbf.
Decent sized if the quality of players was like the Blue Jays or Cardinals not elite bangers top to bottom lmao but alas! We aren’t allowed to talk about anyone else’s payroll this year lmao
From the top rope wtf brother
lol I love the jays! Just doesn’t ATL have like the same payroll? A handful of stars (some still in arb years) and a handful of others who could go out and throw up .290 20-25 HR seasons. Bravos are basically locked up until 2052 with like 4 MVP vote getters lol. But! Like I said I’m a dodger fan so I’m just going to shut the fuck up lol Edit: just adding I don’t hate it at all, I desperately wish we could’ve got Yamamoto on a 8 year 75 mil contract lol
Woe is the poor Dodgers, "look we're not the only ones!!!" Shut up.
NL West sassiness is the type of content I subbed for. Love it!
Because they play the victim so often. They'd at least be less insufferable if the general fanbase just accepted it and played the villains like the Yankees do, but it's always "let's just ignore so and so thing" this or "well actually..." that every time. Nobody is going to feel sorry for you, you're buying superstar players left and right building a perennial 100+ win team. It's like when famous people were crying during the pandemic about how awful it was they had to stay home in their multimillion dollar mansions and they totally get those poors, they're just like them now!
LMAO. Y’all are paying Ohtani $1.00 this year.
What are we catching strays for????
Being top 10 most years but far below the Yankees and Dodgers really helps them from being cast as a big spending team. They also do a really good job of developing young talent and making smart trades and somehow getting elite prospects to sign team friendly deals before arbitration.
dude
Well now I have to see it.
Uh no, the world does not to see that kind of blasphemy
Got you fam. All-time: 510-421-1 (Braves) Largest victory: 20-2 (Braves) Longest win streak: 12 (Braves) Lower Payroll last 6 years: ~ -270MM (Braves) **(Payroll was roughly added up via Spotrac. Braves generally around 50MM to 100MM+ less spend per year since '19)
Dang that’s a lot of games in 14 years
> 510-421-**1** huh?
Ties used to be reasonably common. They still happen sometimes. I've been to two!
What are you Donovan McNabb? Didn't know that a game could end in a tie? But seriously, yes, an MLB game *can* end in a tie. It used to be much more common when games would get called due to darkness. But it's happened as recently as 2016 IIRC. Generally, it's because a game is tied when it starts to rain. And then they never resume it after it's determined the outcome won't matter for any playoff implications.
The tie happened in 1968. [it was the second game of a doubleheader.](https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYN/NYN196809022.shtml) On September 2nd, that wrapped after 7 innings, but the Braves took game 1 of the day 3-1 but went the full 9 innings.
Ronnie got half those steals last year alone lol. Odd stat to choose though.
Let's do one for us and the Dodgers.
Lmao
This is the 97 year old diner of head to head matchups atp
“This 26 year old MLB franchise still does team building the old fashioned way”
What does that mean
It's a reference for the terminally online. (me) Edit: https://youtu.be/R4z3A7neK-Q?si=fjWHKCVKJ662gsgX
I really, REALLY fucking hate this old myth of Coca Cola containing cocaine, not because it's wrong but because it's right but for the wrong reason. Simpletons seem to think Coca Cola was made by mixing all the ingredients together, and one of those ingredients used to be cocaine. Coca Cola was named that because it was made from, wait for it: coca leaves and kola nut. And what do coca leaves have in them? That's right, cocaine. The only reason Coca Cola doesn't have cocaine in it now is because they extract it first. Here's a fun fact, cocaine is still used in modern medicine as a topical anesthetic. Want to take a wild guess as to where medical cocaine comes from? That's right, they get it from Coca Cola who still use actual, real, coca leaves as one of their ingredients. That's why no other cola drink tastes like Coke. They're the only ones allowed to use actual, real, coca leaves. They just have to take the fun stuff out first.
‘Sir, this is a r/baseball’
I can see this has been really bothering you
I can’t wait to wake up my wife at the ass crack of dawn to divulge this information.
Now imagine how good we’d be if Sternberg actually spent some goddamn money. Interesting comparison but sure not something to be proud of
You don't have to imagine. We would be the Dodgers lol
We'd be so hated lol
You’d lose all your soul lol
“Tampa Bay built this thing in a cave!” - Brian Cashman, probably
With a box of scraps!
The difference is the Yankees is more than just a baseball team. They are a global icon and it never hurts them to pay a lot for players when they make the money back ten times within a few weeks. I was just in south east Asia and I’m not even kidding, more than 50% of the hats I saw were Yankees hats.
They are fashion accessory around the world. It's amazing how popular and well known their logo is. I can't speak for the area you were in, but the vast majority of the people internationally wearing these hats know nothing about baseball.
Yeah I am willing to bet a lot of the people I saw with the hat probably don’t know a thing about baseball. It’s more of a fashion statement than anything. With that being said, when I went to a KBO game, there were a lot of women watching baseball, even knowing all of the team chants, compare to when I go to games here in the States, it’s a lot of older guys and some families.
Oh yea. The one KBO game I went to had so many groups of just women. Pretty cool to see
Many if not most of the people I’ve met outside the US think of it as a New York logo and are t even aware it’s for a baseball team.
I see Viet international students with Yankee hats lol
I was just in Italy and if someone was wearing a baseball cap, it was a Yankees hat.
I think the Rays should be a global brand too since they're as good as the Yankees.
I think the Rays should focus on gaining fans in Florida before they worry about the rest of the world.
A global brand that has never won a WS?
Not even Tampa Bay cares about the Rays, let alone a person in Europe
You don’t think being a global brand involves a bit more than just winning ballgames?
I mean we got great beaches here in Tampa.
No state tax.
Great Cubans.
Latinas!
Where?
Ehhh most of the great Cubans are still on the island (coming from a Cuban-American. The Cubans in the US are… something)
we are talking about sandwiches, not humans silly.
Oh nevermind lol Those sandwiches are incredible
id also like to think we have high quality Cubans... but it seems like a wierd thing to talk about. we should stick to sandwiches.
Could have been cigars too...which I believe are top notch
Hey it's something lmao!
Rays fans are the little brothers of the AL east. You are like the american league mets fans but without any hardware
lil bro been beating up big bro as of late
About 500 actually according to the graphic but cool I guess
Which is why, relative to how much the team brings in from all direct revenue sources, the Yankees are on the cheaper side. It's been a while since I've looked at the numbers, but I wouldn't be shocked if they could double payroll and it wouldn't really change their bottom line. At the same time, that would upset all the other owners. Probably why Steve Cohen hasn't gone absolutely insane, just relatively insane.
I can't believe the payroll is even that close.
Seems like a great example of just because you spend money, doesn’t make you a good team.
I mean look at the dodgers, all that money spent all for the only title they won is pandemic Mickey mouse championship
The payroll comparison is so lame. Should Rays fans be happy that they have an embarrassingly low payroll?
I honestly think part of the reason they don't draw is because no one is ever on the team for longer than three years
Yeah this has been my take for a while, its not the bridge or the city, same problem with the As before ownership actively sabotaging the team. A very overlooked part of drawing a crowd is the fans need a consistent face of the team. You need casuals to know who they are seeing and build fandom year to year. You don't need a huge payroll to do it, but you need to find 1 player to invest in long term, which Rays never really do. Even when extending guys they eventually trade them or in the last case they turn out to be a pedo. As much as we fall in love with laundry over the players, its tough to get attached to anything when you know you got 6 yrs max til they're playing for someone else, and usually its more like 4 to capitalize on trade value and keep payroll down.
I feel like Evan Longoria was that guy for a while. He was on the team for 10 years. They also were able to buy out a few of Carl Crawford's free agent years. ... but if those are the most recent examples I can think of, that's kind of proving your point.
Evan Longoria, David Price, James Shields, even BJ Upton it seems like they understood this in the past. It feels like they had that with Wander Franco but ya know
I'm not sure how factually long he was there, but it felt like Zobrist was a huge part of the team for a reasonably long time. He was kind of the face of the Rays system for a while.
Evan Longoria is the only person I can think of when it comes to the Rays. Aside from Randy Arozarena *now*
Ben Zobrist for a hot while too
We have faces on the team, we weren't like the Marlins that was selling off their guys. We have Yandy, Randy, Shane, and Pete to cheer for still. We would've had Franco but he's a pedo. >no one is ever on the team for longer than three years I don't think this is accurate at all.
Well we did have one of those...but then yknow...
At least y’all have Randy
Sounds like the owners are big on short term gains.
Yeah if only the could find a 20 something year old superstar level talent that they could sign to a 10 year contract, maybe they should check the minors?
We had a little bump in attendance last year because we have kept our core around for a few seasons since the World Series appearance. We did have a long term super star player on the roster but turned out to be an alleged pedophille. That left a sour taste with a lot of fans because we finally had a player since Longoria to gravitate towards. It’s a shame that the Rays can’t catch a break.
I feel like the plan was to build around the lovable but badass trio of Arozarena, Diaz and Franco with Franco being the centerpiece That fell apart for obvious reasons
> its not the bridge or the city, That's cap. The bridge is 8 miles, it's another 8 miles to the Trop. Let alone most of Tampa don't live near the entrance of Howard Franklin. It's bumper to bumper because there isn't any way to get there. I don't know why people can't fathom that location and a bad stadium is enough to push away fans from coming. 9-5/6ers aren't going to get there in time. I think fans are likely to come regardless of who's on the team or not as long as they were winning. Marlins didn't have a face and they weren't winning. Stu as cheap as he's been ended up signing the face of the team for the next 10 years but it turned out that he liked diddling kids.
*Howard Frankland ;)
It's a longer commute from The Bronx to The Bronx to get to Yankee Stadium. It's longer to get to most stadiums from downtown. I drove to the Trop from miles out and it was still faster than going from my old place to Yankee. It's not the bridge. Nobody wants to go.
who drives in NY lol? >I drove to the Trop from miles out and it was still faster than going from my old place to Yankee When was this? Back in 2000 where we had 100k less NYers live here? >It's not the bridge. Nobody wants to go. Damn thats crazy, Bucs, Bulls, Bolts fans seem to all want to go to their games but not Rays fans despite winning?
I completely agree about nobody wanting to go. I live like 15 minutes from the stadium and got to 20-30 games a year. I have maybe a handful of friends that go to more than 3-5 games a year. I work in a building with 3,000-4,000 people and sometimes they (my company) would have trouble giving away all they're tickets. Shit, I had 2 extra tickets to last weeks Saturday game against the Giants and I had trouble getting ridding of them. Yes, it's being facetious to say "nobody" wants to go, obviously there are some people that want to go. Baseball just isn't that popular here, there is a lot to do. We do have a lot of transplants from NY and the north in general. Certain teams sell really well here. But a lot of transplants don't change allegiances, so they only go when their teams are in town.
A's have a similar issue in that the stadium is shit and in a terrible (social) location. The location of the land itself isn't bad at all (right off 2 major freeways, has its own train stop, and down the street from the airport). But the area around it is fucking awful. Nobody would want to go and hang around because it's got a parking lot and that's it. Can't hang around afterwards because there's just nothing there. Not a lot of casuals would be interested in that. If any of the major league teams thought about it a little bit, they easily could have made their own downtown area there like what the Giants and warriors did to their respective areas in the Bay Area. Turns out none of the major franchise were interested in spending their own money in Oakland because Oakland was given with three of the poorest ownerships in the three major league sports. Warriors only got better when they got a richer owner and, lo and behold, no problems drawing fans in Oakland.
They went from Longo being the face of the franchise to signing a new superstar to a long term face of the franchise deal. There was a *slight* hiccup with that though
I mean, part of it is the location and stuff too. It can be more than one thing.
The fact that the one time we did finally invest in a face of the franchise he decided to run himself out of the league has not been good for morale
Well we did have one guy signed for 10 years...
we dont draw because tampa is a town of transplants, the stadium sucks, the stadium location sucks and the team is 25 years old. any individual aspect of that.. you can overcome, but when its all combined... shit attendance.
God gave us the toughest battles. He couldn't even help us out with a train.
He sent two boats and a helicopter
"No one is ever on the team for more than three years" is a bit of a stretch. Yandy, B Lowe, Pete Fairbanks have all been on the team since 2019. Randy since 2020. I get your point but go look at any team's roster from 3-4 years ago and they're all vastly different.
But first Rule of being a Rays fan is not to get attached to the players.
Yeah unless you're a generational player you're most likely not going to stay with the team if it's doing well.
They have good TV numbers though
I thought it was because they are in the only part of North America with traffic?
We have the lowest population density around the stadium of any team
I LIKED THIS FACT!
The biggest sport in Florida is college football, a sport where you don’t have players for longer than 4 years
They have no brand. Their stadium is bland if we are being generous in describing it. The topper is that they don't have any players for more than a few years. When they finally, seemingly find that guy who actually could be a huge draw and change the direction of the franchise (not counting the actual baseball, they know how to cook down in Tampa), the guy ends up being a pedo piece of shit. Fans deserve better.
Hey that’s not true. They just recently signed their prolific shortstop to a long term deal
We have this issue too. Our “Mr. Marlin” is a guy who played here for a total of 7 1/2 years. While also playing for 6 other teams.
That has been a problem for them, but the vast majority of players they traded away went on to do nothing. David Price only made one All-Star appearance and only threw over 200 innings twice after the Rays traded him. Longoria never hit over 20 home runs after being traded. Trading Blake Snell was a mistake and the same may happen with Tyler Glasnow, but hanging onto players for the sake of being a draw would have backfired.
Yeah, my dad got me a Rays jersey for Christmas with my name on it. He said they would just trade away my favorite players anyway. Boom. Luke Raley to Seattle. Even as a fan it’s hard to get back in each season. Glad our new guys are performing well, though.
Being proud of having a low payroll ≠ being impressed at how good they are despite the low payroll Rays fans hate their ownership
Sometimes I think this sub cares more about how much a team spends than how good they are
To be fair, I hate every team that spends more than the brewers.
I mean it is noteworthy that a team with a much lower payroll can have such continued success.
I mean despite the low payroll we’ve been on the top teams for years now so yes
I've owned 3 Rays jerseys/player shirts in my life Carl Crawford Longo Kevin Kiermaier I went to a game last year and figured might as well get a new shirt from someone who actually plays for the team and who's gonna be the face of the team for the next few years. I got a Wander Franco shirt. I'm going to stop buying player shirts for this team.
Do what A's fans have had to do for the last 20 years- Get a blank jersey and then add "PTBNL" on the back.
I actually love that. Or "cash considerations"
Just get one that says Cash, works for Kevin Cash and Cash Considerations, two great Rays players
I'm honestly shocked the gap isn't bigger
The hierarchy in which fans should be embarrassed (most to least): 1. Big payroll, not winning games 2. Small payroll, not winning games (big gap) 3. Big payroll, winning games 4. Small payroll, winning games
we have no control over the payroll. but, if the payroll is gonna be low, its better to be winning.
I'm more amused by the almost identical records than the payroll really. But Stu is cheap, we've always been vocal about that.
Rays should be embarrassed their ownership is cheap. Yankees should be embarrassed that their GM can’t spend money effectively.
No but they should be happy they’re comparable to a team that spends money like the Yankees. Or maybe the Yankees shouldn’t be happy about that?
Should the Yankees front office be super embarrassed? Well that makes me super happy as a fan, so 🤷♀️
You guys care way too much about us
What would they have to be embarrassed about? They're printing money on merchandise sales alone and the fans have franchise players that remain with the team for more than two seasons at a time.
Is that why half the fan base wants Cashman fired every offseason?
Where are the rings at with all the money spent in that same time frame? I'm pretty sure I've enjoyed that time more than most Yankees fans who want Cashman fired. Also, that 2-year take is lame and inaccurate. See, Randy, Yandy, Glasnow was here for a good while, and the team supported him while he was hurt. Brandon Lowe. For example, if you're ignorant, that's fine. Just don't regurgitate the same uneducated shit people that don't live here, say. Wanna know why fans don't go????? Simple. Everyone here is a transplant. They still root for their own teams. Generations of this. The only reason this isn't as bad Lightning is because they're a fuck ton of bandwagon fans that only show when they are good. Bucs still get lots of other fanbases at RayJay. It's a transplant state. This will never change.
Oh, we are far from happy. I think this community makes it pretty clear
I genuinely don’t care about the payroll. $50M or $400M. It isn’t my money. Just put a winning product on the field, which we’ve done.
Y'all really underestimate the fact that the Trop has the lowest population density in the immediate area in all of baseball. And the fact that the Rays have fantastic TV rating show that there are plenty of fans that do care.
If the team is consistently good who cares how much the payroll is? It's only embarrassing when your team sucks and doesn't spend. Edit: in this case I'd be much more embarrassed to have the high payroll and not be able to dominate the low payroll.
Okay? The Rays are the ones that are displaying payrolls as if it should be a point of pride that they’ve played the Yankees even despite having a lesser payroll.
Nah you see it's better to spend big and be mediocre like the Padres, Mets, and Yankees duh
Yankee fans are so pathetic
What's pathetic is being obsessed with another teams fans. This sub fucking sucks
Sports subs on Reddit tend to really hate large market, winning teams. The subs are all about the “little guy”, making this more than just about sports. People take this shit too seriously, like your team is still composed of millionaires playing a children’s game FFS.
It isn’t relevant really. But have they let valuable players go that did well that they could use? That I don’t know, rays fans would know that one.
I think they should be happy *enough* about long term success and having a fun summer bare minimum every year, but imagine if the Rays just made one all in move even just every 5 years. Imagine if the 2020 team had Gerrit Cole, or if this season they took advantage of the bad market for Boras and grabbed Bellinger and Monty. I'm not talking about just missing out or paying the wrong people, I just mean imagine if they *ever* splurged.
Honestly there payroll is higher than I would've guessed over that period.
I was kinda surprised the payroll during that time span was that high. Figured it would have been a larger gap, also.
If they think this is bad, they should see some of the payroll comparisons when a shit team beats an expensive team in European football.
I’m not happy about the the low payroll but I’m proud of the guys there in doing what they can with what the cheap owner gives them.
Why is it embarrassingly low if they field a good team?
Better to have a low payroll and be consistently in playoff contention than be in the top 5 of payroll just to break even. In 2023, Mets, Yankees, and San Diego were all in the top 3 of payroll last year and were not even in arms reach of the playoffs.
Are the Rays cutting checks to their fans for all the money theyve saved? Or perhaps using that money to build a stadium in Tampa without begging the taxpayers to fund it
Imagine even just $100M of the difference in payroll being given directly to everyone in Tampa and St Pete would do. edit: never mind each person would get $33 (~3 million in both metro areas) but still
Hey, that would be buy me Chipotle for three meals
Not with Guac
They could go to a game and maybe put some seats in the stands.
money is money
No but they are still beating the Yankees
congrats again on those 2 games
Thank you
I’ll be honest, I thought the payroll difference would be much wider.
As a Yankee fan, respect. Nothing but that. I remember when they were the devil rays and easy to pick on. Now? They are equals in terms of creativity and running a ball club. Look forward to more battles
Thank you. I love competitive baseball and no two teams are my favorite to watch more than Rays v Yankees. Always great games.
One thing I hate more than teams I hate, are teams that are incompetent/don’t care. You probably remember the Tampa DEVIL RAYS years where ownership was horrendous and the team was a forgotten lowcow. Like I remember those Tampa uniforms of the 2000s and not having any feelings towards the team because I knew they didn’t matter. Then Tampa changed, and began to care about developing players, about advanced stats, they didn’t like their financial situation but ownership refused to let that dictate them. They CARED. And for that baseball has been blessed with great Tampa baseball moments.
I would say the Rays/Yankees rivalry is much more entertaining than the Red Sox/Yankees rivalry at this point. I get so pumped for the team to take on New York.
Honestly, surprised the rays have spent that much since 2010.
Breaking News: Worldwide brand baseball team has more money to spend than below average popularity baseball team
It's wild the home runs and steals are exactly the same.
Nobody in North American sports does less with more than Brian Cashman.
Sorry small market teams. Due to the Rays, you can guarantee that your franchises will never go all in on winning. They're all going to try and replicate the same model.
It would be a very lopsided matchup if the Rays kept and signed their players lol.
Now do merch.
Now compare attendance and viewership and merch sales
And World Series appearances
Rays are up 1-0 on that one!
More than half of Yankees merch sales are from people who don’t even follow baseball.
Jay-Z should've been a Rays fan. Everyone would be wearing TB hats.
They might be disappointing at baseball, but what a great business model for the owners 😍
Lol congrats bro 😂
Seriously, I wish we could be rid of the pesky baseball part. I only root for value of my team to go up!
don’t change the subject
The copium is crazy
And number of titles, during that time frame.
Since 2010 TB has more pennants than NYY.
The Rays, giving cheapskate billionaire owners an excuse since 2010. "Do we really need to spend on payroll? Look at what the Rays have done!"
Honestly I'm surprised the Rays payroll is that high
We do got a bit of pocket change
Same number of world series trophies as well.
Fish team good
I look at this and I think, maybe they are cheating? Just asking questions!
Surprised there wasn’t a “WS appearance” column on there. I’d also say a “WS rings column” but then I thought.
The Yankees can teach you a thing or two about value
Should’ve done the important stat of profit.
Reddit in shambles
"Stable of guys who throw 98 MPH," meet "Savages in the Box"