If you recall I took part in their American League East roundtable earlier this season, well Rich and Patrick were kind enough to offer me a follow up post on the site concerning the Rays. That post went up today, and here's a snip:

Of course Maddon himself is a symbol of the patience exhibited by this franchise. A team looking to make a statement to the fan base that losing isn’t acceptable could’ve easily declined Maddon’s dual options for this season and next. After all Maddon guided teams had finished with the worst record in the league both of the past two seasons, but the Rays persisted that Maddon was indeed the man to lead this team through its transition.

And yes, I used a Tom Petty reference. I'm not proud of it either. Big thanks to everyone at Baseball Analysts and if you're not reading that site daily you're missing out on some very good content.