Decided to compromise on posts for this dynasty, instead of annual or monthly I'm going to do bi-monthly, or 3 posts a regular season. This will take us through the trade deadline in the second post so it's kind of a neat dividing line.
Record: 30-21
First place AL East, 1 game up on Baltimore
It was a pretty decent start to 2024 for the Rays, better than last season's at least and they went on to win 103 games. Not expecting them to get as ridiculously hot as they did midseason last year so we'll just take what we have for now. No injuries of significance, and no real changes to the lineup. The only roster move of interest we did make was to take
Ryan Pepiot out of the rotation and call up
Taj Bradley to replace him. Pepiot had been struggling (2-2, 5.20 in 6 starts). The other moves of note were to send down
Colin Poche and
Shawn Armstrong, and replace them with Bradley and
Colby White, who was up last season for a bit and has looked really good in the pen with his 70 stuff.
We did make a trade to bolster the staff in mid-May though, sending 1B prospect and 2022 #1 pick Xavier Isaac to Oakland for swingman
Jack Perkins, and the righty with 75 stuff out of the pen has been excellent for us in his first several appearances.
On the offensive side
Michael Busch wasn't producing off the bench so he was sent to Durham in late May and
Austin Wells, acquired in that preseason trade with the Yankees, was recalled after hitting 312/412/759 with 15 HR in 112 AB at Durham. One thing I've noticed with the new saves in OOTP24 is that minor league hitting has exploded, so I'm mentally discounting a lot of the numbers I'm seeing but Wells' numbers were backed up by his ratings which got a boost from the scouts.
Nobody's off to an amazing start this year in MLB with our 30-21 record only bettered by the Dodgers at 31-20. The Orioles have been red-hot and hard to shake with their youngsters really coming through - Gunnar Henderson was AL Batter of the Month for May, Grayson Rodriguez Pitcher of the Month and Coby Mayo Rookie of the Month.
Nothing to complain about here, except for the lack of homers as several of our guys are off their normal pace. Still we're 2nd in the AL in runs scored so just imagine once they start hitting them out, I guess.
Solid hitting all around with
Brandon Lowe off to a better start than 2023 and
Josh Lowe really coming into his own.
Miguel Vargas' sophomore jinx has been the big problem -he's driving in runs but not doing much else as he hasn't hit for power and 263/288/378 is what I expect from
Taylor Walls, not my DH. Wells may start cutting into his at-bats against righties if Vargas doesn't turn it around.
Again, solid numbers for the most part and Springs has pitched better in his last few starts after a very rough beginning to the season. You might notice
Shane Baz's name absent here - the righty has not gotten his command back since returning from TJ surgery and has been horrible at Durham (an 8.31 ERA in 47 IP) and just went back on the IL DL with a tender elbow so I'm not counting on anything from him. And as mentioned earlier, Perkins has been lights-out since coming over from Oakland.
Down on the farm:
Our big international amateur signing of the January period was Gracia, so good that he's ranked #3 overall in baseball among prospects. He has 80 contact and 80 power potential but he's a long way away. Closer to the current day Bradley is already up with the big club and pitching well while blocked prospects Mead and Manzardo continue to rake. #7 & #10 are already up with us as well and #12, Saggese has not stopped hitting since we picked up from Texas before the season started for Vidal Brujan. So plenty of help to be used as depth or trade bait as we go forward.
Speaking of trade bait, we'll check in again at the end of July and see if we made any deals before the deadline.