He's extremely tough to hit the first two times through the order. However, the third time through, teams hit .302/.366/.486 off him. The Rays treated him as their "ace" and so they weren't inclined to pull him when he got in trouble before the 7th inning. Used properly and with a good middle inning bullpen, he'd be closer to his FIP of 3.40. The Ray's pen wasn't very deep. No doubt the manager stuck with Archer a lot, and when he did get pulled, the pen let in his runners. So while he's a very good pitcher, with excellent stuff, he's not a true ace as he's basically a 6 inning guy. I'd still be very interested with Santana as a part of a package if the plan is to sign another big bat like Hosmer which would allow them to move Thames to RF in platoon with Perez or use Phillips there when Brinson shows he can hit enough to play nearly every day in CF. A Thames/Perez platoon could be as productive as Santana alone. The key would be replacing the production at 1B. As a Chris Archer fantasy owner, I concur with this assessment. Pretty sure he's got a lot of innings under his belt too.