The Drafting Genius of the Rays

The Rays are one loss away from elimination and are currently losing 2-0 in the 3rd innings of their game right now, so by the time you read this, the Rays season could be over. However, that does not take away from one incredibly impressive fact about their roster.

Five pitchers started more than 20 games for Tampa Bay this year. Here are those pitchers, along with their basic 2011 statistics:

James Shields: 33 GS, 16-12, 2.82 ERA, 8.1 K/9, 2.3 BB/9
David Price: 34 GS, 12-13, 3.49 ERA, 8.7 K/9, 2.5 BB/9
Jeremy Hellickson: 29 GS, 2.95 ERA, 5.6 K/9, 3.4 BB/9
Wade Davis: 29 GS, 4.45 ERA, 5.1 K/9, 3.1 BB/9
Jeff Niemann: 23 GS, 4.06 ERA, 7.0 K/9, 2.5 BB/9

I am also including Matt Moore in this post, even though he was not even called up to the major leagues until September, he is a huge staple in the future of this Rays rotation, and he made one dominant postseason start in game one of this Rangers series.

So what do all six of those players have in common? They were all drafted by the Rays. That should not be some spectacular thing, but in these days of free agency, it has become quite a rarity. The Rays are a small market team, they had the 2nd lowest payroll in all of baseball this year. Despite that, they have found a way to make the playoffs three of the last four years, including making a trip to the World Series in 2008. They do that despite having no chance to compete with the Yankees and Red Sox in free agency; the Rays can't even afford to hold on to their star players for long, as evidenced by their loss of Carl Crawford last offseason. However, they remain competitive because they have been probably the most successful team in the draft every year for a number of years.

It's not even just hitting on first and second round picks, check out where the above pitchers were drafted:

Shields - 16th round, 2000
Price - 1st round, 2007
Hellickson - 4th round, 2005
Davis - 3rd round, 2004
Niemann - 1st round, 2004
Moore - 8th round, 2007

Only two of those players were first round draft picks, and only one of them has performed like a first round pick (not to take anything away from Niemann, but he's not a top of the rotation arm). It is incredibly what Shields has done after seeing that he was passed up by every team in the league for 15 rounds before finally being selected. He was one of the best pitchers in the game this year. The Rays know how to draft pitchers, and that is what has kept them competitive.

The Rays don't have the best offense, which has held them back in this series and almost stopped them from making the postseason, but they have enough fire power to complement that incredible pitching staff and keep them in the race every year. Here are some of their notable drafted hitters:

Evan Longoria - 1st round, 2006
B.J. Upton - 1st round, 2002
Desmond Jennings - 10th round, 2006
Reid Brignac - 2nd round, 2004

Here are the Rays first round draft picks for the last 12 years:

1999: Josh Hamilton (yes, that Josh Hamilton)
2000: Rocco Baldelli
2001: Dewon Brazelton
2002: B.J. Upton
2003: Delmon Young
2004: Jeff Niemann
2005: Wade Townsend
2006: Evan Longoria
2007: David Price
2008: Tim Beckham
2009: LeVon Washington
2010: Justin O'Connor, Josh Sale, Drew Vettleson
2011: Jake Hager, Mikie Mahtook, Taylor Guerrieri

Hamilton, Baldelli, Upton, Young, Niemann, Longoria, and Price have all made impacts in the major leagues. The Rays have also been loading up on the first round picks the last two years, and I'm sure we will be hearing some or all of those names being called up to the majors and making an impact in the near future.

The Rays are a perfect example of a small-market team finding a way to compete with the big boys. What they do with their draft picks is spectacular, and it seems like teams like the Pirates should get out a pen and start taking notes.