The final regular season standings and leaders:
Final Rays team stats:
One of owner Stuart Sternberg's goals was to improve the defensive efficiency. We just barely did, moving up from 13th to 12th in the league. We actually had a positive zone rating for the most of the season but we lost it probably due to Melvin Gutierrez and his 75D at SS going back to the bench when Dane Ayers and Ricky Widmar came back.
Individual batting stats:
So yeah, Jaiden Hardaway. He merely had the 11th-best season in MLB history by a position player:
He might have been as high as 4th all-time had he not had a mini-slump in September as at the beginning of the month he was on pace for 12.2 WAR. You also have to feel a little bad for Bo Angeac and Victor de Jesus; in normal years, they'd be MVP winners with those kind of numbers, better than many past MVPs. Speaking of MVPs last year's winner Dayle Jenkins had 4.0 WAR in less than half a season and he'd have been right up there with Angeac and de Jesus if he played a full season.
Final pitching stats:
We definitely had 3 aces this year, with Aparicio the presumptive Cy Young winner for the second time in three seasons. It's really a shame we lost Jon Soranno, he had a breakout season and would have been a great 4th starter come playoff time. Despite Danny Medina having better overall numbers than Nate Thompson, it will be Thompson in Game 4 as he pitched better as a starter than Medina did. And even though he tailed off in August and September, Kikuo Kawase had a truly remarkable season for a reliever. So did Tim Siqueiros for that matter, 3.1 WAR is an excellent number for a relief pitcher.