The Rays were a 90 win team last year - there was no reason to think they'd be worse.
As far as assessing teams - there is still not a ton of evidence to make great assessments. The Red Sox had an ungodly bad stretch of starting pitching against a fairly stern opening schedule, and the result is what it was.
Right now, only 6 of the 15 AL teams have positive run differentials - so that is a decent indicator that the playoff chase might not be all that daunting. Granted, the A's took a while to get going last year and there is just a lot of stuff - especially in the AL West - that has yet to really unfold. The O's and Royals are the only truly terrible teams in the league.