Failure is engrained in baseball, with missed swings and bobbled ground balls and hanging sliders, and for executives, there are the free agent signings that don't work out, the trades that turn out to be a bust, and the good deals that could've been made.
But in the last year, Rays general manager
Andrew Friedman and the Tampa Bay baseball operations staff has pitched the front office version of a perfect game, in keeping with a long-range plan that was begun long before that. Virtually every transaction that the Rays have made, going back to last year's June draft, has worked out, and contributed to Tampa Bay's strong start and ascension, for the first time, into the ranks of contenders.
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Buster Olney
