FanHouse AndrewFriedman

NEW YORK -- The quote of the day on the Rays' lineup card Tuesday, as picked by manager Joe Maddon, was from 19th century biologist Thomas Huxley:

"The only medicine for suffering, crime and all the other woes of mankind, is wisdom."

Huxley was an early proponent of Darwin's theory of evolution, and 150 years later, Tampa Bay can also vouch for survival of the fittest in the AL East.

Since the Rays' playoff chances are virtually extinct.

Less than 51 weeks ago, Tampa Bay clinched its first-ever postseason trip, on the way to a pennant and a trip to the World Series.

Now the Rays are doing little more than playing out the string.

Both MLB's awards season and the General Managers Meetings got off to predictable starts at a dinner at the St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort on Monday night:

For orchestrating one of the most remarkable success stories in the history of Major League Baseball, Andrew Friedman of the Tampa Bay Rays is The Sporting News' choice as Executive of the Year for 2008.

Friedman, executive vice president of baseball operations, made all the right moves for manager Joe Maddon as the Rays rose from last to first in the American League East, amazing insiders all year with their dynamic, consistent play. Their 97-65 record was the league's second best, behind the Angels' 100-62.

Friedman kept the young nucleus of his talented roster essentially intact while pulling off a major offseason deal with Minnesota that brought shortstop Jason Bartlett and starter Matt Garza to solidify the defense and the rotation. A role was found for Willy Aybar, whose play during the absence of third baseman Evan Longoria was vital down the stretch.

Next Wednesday, with significantly more fanfare than this, it will be announced that Joe Maddon won the AL Mananger of the Year award. But really, after watching Maddon's tactical struggles in October, is there any doubt that the majority of the credit should be assigned to the people who put the pieces in place, rather than Maddon himself?

Sure, Maddon deserves a lot more credit than someone like Chuck LaMar; the fact that it's impossible to quantify his impact on the clubhouse doesn't mean it should be ignored entirely. But it's worth remembering that despite who we all saw on TV all October, it's Tampa Bay's front office that was the main reason this team came together as quickly as it did, and Friedman and Co. are also the reason the Rays will continue to be contenders in the coming years.

David Price and the Rays are celebrating right now, and for good reason. But a lot of things have to go right for a team to ascend as quickly as Tampa Bay did, and some of them are inevitably beyond your control.

In this case, the uncontrollable event involved a Brandon Inge at bat in a Royals-Tigers game in 2006. Baseball Prospectus' Rany Jazayerli explains:

At the end of the 2006 season, the Kansas City Royals (you knew they'd be involved in this post somehow) were trying to complete an improbable sweep in Detroit, a sweep which would not only knock the Tigers out of first place, but just as importantly (since the Tigers and Twins were both going to the playoffs), would move the Royals a game ahead of the Devil Rays for the worst record in the majors.

The final game of the year went into extra innings. In the bottom of the 11th against Joe Nelson, with one out the Tigers got back to back singles from Ordonez and Guillen, with Guillen taking second base after an error. The Royals intentionally walked Ivan Rodriguez to pitch to Inge, who could have driven in the winning run without benefit of a hit. Instead, Inge struck out on a 2-2 count. Jimmy Gobble came in to retire Curtis Granderson, the Royals scored in the 12th, and held on to win.

Eight months later, the clear #1 player in the draft, David Price, was selected #1 overall - and because of the outcome of the game the previous October 1st, that #1 pick was the property of Tampa Bay.

Andrew Friedman and Co. did an incredible job of putting this team together, but sometimes you just have to get lucky. Price got two outs in the 11th inning of Game 2, and famously recorded the final four outs last night; without Brandon Inge's strikeout, the Rays don't have Price, and we might be looking at a Red Sox-Philles World Series right now.

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.

When does 13 days equal a year? The answer will come at the end of the 2013 when the Tampa Bay Rays will not have to worry about losing Evan Longoria to free agency. Instead, because they had him spend a couple of weeks in Durham, he'll be their property through 2014. All that future planning didn't really hamper them in the present, either. Longoria will be in the lineup today and should remain there through 2014.

The spot on the roster opened up thanks to a well-timed hamstring strain from stopgap Willy Aybar. Andrew Friedman, the Rays head of baseball operations, feigned a forlorn attitude about Longoria's arrival.

"Obviously we've been decimated by injuries a bit and it's not necessarily the ideal way that we wanted to call him up but we're confident in his ability to adjust at the plate and what he brings to us defensively is something that we felt was very important where we're going. We'll see what happens and reassess when Willy is ready to come back.''

Now that they've ensured another year under their control, its time for the Rays to turn Longoria loose on the American League and take whatever bumps come along. Unless Longoria is a bust of New Coke proportions, Aybar will become the utility man upon his return to health. It's always exciting when a big-time prospect makes his major league debut but Longoria's arrival has been so anticipated that Tampa police may need extra tasers to keep everyone under control.