‘Grades are not in the order of ransom’ Tampa Bay’s 9 consecutive wins with a reason
The storm of the Tampa Bay Race, which is synonymous with ‘low-cost, high-efficiency’, is fierce. After the opening of the regular league, Pajuk ran 9 consecutive victories.
Tampa Bay won a 11-0 home game against the 2023 American Professional Baseball Major League (MLB) Oakland Athletics held in St. Petersburg, Florida, on the 10th (Korean time).
Tampa Bay has won all nine games since the opening of the regular season without losing once. The 9-game winning streak at the start of the regular season is the first record in 20 years since the Kansas City Royals in 2003.
If Tampa Bay adds 4 consecutive victories in the future, it will stand shoulder to shoulder with the 13 consecutive victories in MLB opening, set by the 1982 Atlanta Brace and the 1987 Milwaukee Brewers.
Tampa Bay’s winning streak is surprising because it’s not just about winning. Tampa Bay scored a whopping 75 points during the 9-game winning streak and gave up only 18 points. The goal difference is 57 points.
The first time in MLB history that a run-run difference of 50 points or more in nine games since the opening date dates back to the 1800s. This is the first time since 1884 St. Louis Maroons (+78 points) and New York Gothams (+63 points).
In addition, Tampa Bay won by 4 or more points in all 9 games after the opening. It is the first team since the New York Yankees (10 consecutive wins) in 1939 to win more than 9 consecutive wins while winning by more than 4 points after opening.
In addition, Tampa Bay defeated Oakland 11-0 for two consecutive days and set a new record of two consecutive shutout victories with 10 or more points. If they score 10 or more runs and win a shutout against the Boston Red Sox on the 11th, they will establish a record of 10 or more shutouts in three consecutive games since the New York Giants in 1885.
Tampa Bay is MLB’s representative small market team. The total annual salary of the starting roster team this season is only $73,866,101 (approximately 97.4 billion won). This ranks 28th out of 30 MLB teams. The only teams with a smaller team annual salary than Tampa Bay are the Baltimore Orioles ($64,998,499) and the Oakland Athletics ($56,895,000).
The total annual salary of Tampa Bay’s team is one-fifth of that of the New York Mets ($344,663,493), which is in first place. It even falls short of the combined ransoms of Max Scherzer ($43,333,333) and Francisco Lindor ($34,100,000), who rank first and second in annual salary in the Mets.
The Tampa Bay Club is based in St. Petersburg, Florida, USA. St. Petersburg is a small city with a population of less than 300,000. Including the population of neighboring areas, it is only about 3.2 million people.
The stadium facilities are also the worst. Tropicana Field, the home stadium, is currently the only fully enclosed indoor stadium in MLB. Opened in 1990, the facility itself is outdated. Since it is an indoor stadium, it is noisy and the air is bad.
In addition, the stadium’s location is not good, so no spectators come regardless of the team’s performance. The record for the largest number of spectators among the six games held at home this season was 25,025 who visited the opening match. The average audience stays in the 10,000 range.
However, regardless of players’ ransom or name value, Tampa Bay’s momentum is skyrocketing. Born in 2001, Wander Franco, a shortstop in his third year in the big leagues, has a batting average of .351 with 4 homers and 9 RBIs. Cuban native Randy Arosarena is batting .371 with two home runs and 11 RBIs.
Franco’s salary is around $2.45 million, while Arosarena’s is only $4.15 million. The highest-paid player on the team is right-handed pitcher Zack Eflin at $11 million. Tampa Bay signed a three-year, $40 million contract with Eflin, who qualified as a free agent ahead of this season, which is the highest free agent contract in club history.
Although there are no expensive players and the size of the club is poor, Tampa Bay has maintained its status as a strong team for the past few years with a net operation. Since 2019, it has advanced to the postseason for four consecutive years and stepped on the stage of the World Series in 2020. It seems that there is no difficulty in advancing to fall baseball this season.
Tampa Bay’s strength is its solid training system. Even if the players’ salaries are not high, they spare no investment in nurturing promising players. Even if expensive players are not brought in from outside, the team maintains its power by constantly producing good players on its own.
The bold game strategy leading the league also led to good results. The shift system that changes the position of the defender according to the recent runner situation and batter tendency, and the opener that allows a reliever to play short innings as a starter were the first unconventional strategies introduced by Tampa Bay. The platoon system, in which batters are selected according to the left and right pitchers, is also actively utilized.
Tampa Bay’s blast shows well that winning or losing in professional sports is not determined by money alone. Tampa Bay is proving that even if you don’t have money, if you have a good idea, you can succeed. 토스카지노
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