A reminder of just how amazing this Rays run is

What looked like a non-race for the AL Wild Card has become a race, as the Rays have gotten streaky hot, and the Red Sox have cooled off big time. I wanted to take some time to show the drastic difference between the two in payroll. The Red Sox payroll currently sits at about 160 million dollars. Back when it was 25 man rosters, this was about 6.4 million dollars a player. Now that it is 40 man rosters, its 4 million dollars a player. The Tampa Bay Rays' payroll, on the other hand, is 42 million dollars. On 25 man rosters, that is 1.68 million dollars a player. In current September 40 man rosters (if a team paid all their players "minimum wage" determined by baseball, the payroll would be 16 million), it is just barely 1 million dollars a player. So each Red Sox player is being paid at least 4 times as much, on average, than Rays players. The Red Sox have 88 wins, which means they spend about 1.8 million dollars per win. The Rays on the other hand, spend about $450,000 per win. According to WAR and Saber-metric calculations, a team with all "replacement players" would have a .320 winning percentage (the Astros have a .346 winning percentage), which would be 49 wins at this part of the season. The Red Sox have 39 wins over the replacement level, giving them a team WASP of 4102 (higher than the "Halladay Standard" 3000). The Rays have 36 wins over the replacement level, and with their smaller salary, their WASP is around 1166, nearly 4 times more efficient than the Sox. If Joe Maddon doesn't win manager of the year and Andrew Friedman executive of the year, then the award process is broken. Theo Epstein and Terry Francona have done a great job in Boston, winning 2 World Series, but it should be put in perspective. I know that Boston employees some famous sabermetrician experts, but they are just a Yankee-like big money cudgel and that's how they win. Spend big and hope it works out, and that's what is wrong with baseball right now.