The Rays were consistently at or near the top of the power rankings all season long, which is something that caused more than a few raised eyebrows. Early in the season, this occurred despite their having a sub-0.500 record! That they surged mid-season and became, at least for a time, a legitimate threat in the East was a modest vindication--but even so, we have a 0.519 W% team as our #2 overall team. Why? We're estimating that a team with the Rays' component stats should score 24 more runs than the Rays did as well as allow a whopping 53 fewer runs. Offensively, the Rays do rate as a below-average "clutchy" team by FanGraphs' clutch measures (-23 runs), which makes up to the offensive shortfall very well. On defense, though, I think they were just unlucky. ERA was very much in line with FIP & tERA, despite the Rays having an extremely good fielding team. Somehow, despite the good fielding, those extra runs were still scoring.