Why is this the new thing now? The fact that the Rays got good in 2008 didn't make the previous 10 years of garbage baseball any less garbage-y. If the Astros get good with their merry band of prospects, it won't change the fact that they played [expletive] teams for like 5 years in a row on purpose. You can be aware of what the 'plan' is and still not like that you have to watch terrible teams for years waiting for it to hopefully work. [expletive], if we turn into a big market Rays, the 10 years of losing would be completely worth it. As it stands now, the Rays are looking at 4 playoff seasons in 7 years. If we lose for 10 years to get that, that's not a great result. They've also had to deal with the AL East at it's peak during those 7 years and working with a limited budget.