The Tampa Bay Rays uniforms and name changed before the 2008 season so that they could sever ties to their losing past. It seems to have worked. The Tampa Bay Rays shrugged off a decade of losing along with their blue and white jerseys and made it all the way to the World Series. Now, the Rays are the envy of the league–a full blown phenomenon that has yet again redefined the model of success in baseball.

The Tampa Bay Rays were the model for ineptitude since their league admittance in 1998. Even older heroes such as Wade Boggs and Fred McGriff could do nothing to change the fate of these perennial cellar dwellers. So when the Bays Rays uniforms were unveiled to a crowd of 9,000 in late 2007, there was little perceived reason for optimism. Plenty of teams have changed colors without really changing their colors. Perhaps it was the additional move of shortening their name to the Bay Rays instead of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays that did it.

The very next season things started to click in a big way for the Bay Rays. Manager Joe Maddon, signed to a two-year extension despite being last in the American League in 2007, demanded success from his players in the preseason. And even though this was the youngest ball club to play in the majors since 1983, they seemed to respond beginning to win game after game and eventually landing in the World Series. Even though they could not complete their miracle run, it is widely expected that the Bay Rays will be back in 2009.

The reason these Bay Rays are no one-hit wonders are the many moves that the Rays back office began when new management took over in 2004. Shedding their potential stars and their current big hitters, the Rays made a number of moves that would worsen the Rays in the short term but ultimately lead them to the World Series. First, as mentioned, they disposed of salary, shedding nearly $20 million in costs. Next, they signed man unknown young and inexpensive players. Ripping a page from the Oakland A’s manager Billy Beane’s “Moneyball” method, the Rays signed talent based not on scouting but on statistics. Except that their set of statistics were geared towards those explained in the “Fielding Bible,” they used defensive fielding statistics to construct their team.

This method was successful as the Bay Rays continually fielded one of the toughest defensive teams in the league in 2008 but what has the league marveling them is the money they spent to achieve this. Their payroll is the smallest in the league and not by just a few dollars. When they played the the Philadelphia Phillies, the Bay Rays faced a team that had triple the payroll of their mid-$30 million costs. Moreover, many of the teams they left behind had much greater payroll numbers. The Yankees, with over $200 million in player costs, have almost six times the salary costs of the young Rays.

The league has taken notice of the Bays Rays uniforms and their model for success. The offseason saw many expensive big hitters go unsigned in favor of lesser-known and much less expensive defensive specialists. For right now, the Bay Rays are a step ahead with a group of young, cheap talent that includes Evan Longoria, the Baseball Rookie of the Year in 2008.

Keep it locked here at Electro-Mech for all the latest in baseball news, trends, lates and greats, because we’re more than just an electronic baseball scoreboards manufacturer. We have a passion for sports, and it’s our pleasure to share that passion with you. We’ll make sure to be there when the scoreboards light up as our favorite players rack in the points.