Surprising that there's not already a thread about this news  - the guy behind the small market success story in Tampa has taken a new gig in Los Angeles.

 

Now he'll have a much bigger budget to apply his own version of Moneyball. The Rays had some terrible teams that lead to some very high draft standing. They developed a lot of homegrown players and used an analytic approach to evaluating their team and free agents. The were able to rejuvenate many seemingly washed up players by hiding their weaknesses and emphasizing their strengths.

 

Lately the Rays have struggled, and the lack of budget has remained an issue throughout Friedman's tenure in TB. His more recent drafts have failed to produce the same level of talent, will it be different in LA?   

His success in TB was definately starting to fade, but that often happens once high first round picks start to turn into low first round picks.  Still, he made some very nice trades and was innovative with his method of extending young players.  It was always a gamble to extend 21-year-olds, but he understood that the future dollars were much less than what he was handing out in today's dollars.  I do like a front office that is creative and agressive.

Edited October 15, 201412 yr by nicksaviking

Smart move by Friedman to jump ship when it was clear the Rays are going to continue to fade. He keeps his reputation intact and his successor is the one who looks bad during the down years trying to rebuild the franchise.

 

Sort of like what MacPhail did to Ryan.

Rays had 10 straight top 10 draft picks.... only 2 of which were above 5. Yeah, I ****ing hope they can get some good players out of that. The Rays fleeced the Twins with the Delmon Young trade and got a good SS and SP for a role player. The shine of the Rays is fading for sure. A strength of theirs has been finding good SP, combined with modernizing the game.