Chip Caray Gives Chuck LaMar Credit for Rays' Success

When a team has as much seemingly unexpected success as the Rays have, they tend to make a lot of people look very silly. It starts in the preseason, with so-called analysts predicting they'll win 70 games, and continues when people refuse to believe they're "for real" into August and September. But you'd think by now, as Tampa Bay is two wins away from the World Series, people would have figured out how and why they've been successful (from owner Stu Sternberg and GM Andrew Friedman on down), and that that success is likely to continue.

Most people may have, but as King Kaufman points out, TBS' Chip Caray certainly hasn't:

"[Upton] was the No. 2 pick in the 2002 draft and, sadly in our sport as in so many others, the men and women who have worked so hard to make these teams good often aren't around to enjoy the fruits of their labor. Chuck LaMar, the original general manager of the Rays, had a very big hand in building this current Tampa Bay club."

Are we talking about the same guy that ran the team for their first eight years of existence, when they went 518-777, losing 60% of their games? And it's not like he left the team in a great position to contend; the two years after he left, in 2006 and 2007, the team won 61 and 66 games, respectively. When Friedman took over, he had the task of completely overhauling the team; he did a great job, but that doesn't mean it was easy.

Upton certainly was a good pick (the Pirates took Bryan Bullington with the #1 pick that year), and LaMar also acquired long-time Rays Andy Sonnanstine, Carl Crawford, James Shields, and of course Scott Kazmir. But when you run a team for eight years, you're going to acquire some good players along the way, if only accidentally. The true measuring stick is winning, and LaMar quite obviously failed in that area.

In contrast, in less than three years at the helm, Friedman has acquired Evan Longoria, Dioner Navarro, Carlos Pena, Akinori Iwamura, Jason Bartlett, Cliff Floyd, Matt Garza, Edwin Jackson, David Price, and basically the entire bullpen. I think I know who should get credit here.