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Art Deco · 06-22-2023, 05:28 PM

Record: 34-19 (17-11 for the month)
1st place, AL East by percentage points over the 35-20 Yankees

In the end another pretty good month for the Rays although it took winning the final four games to make it so after they ran into their first stretch of adversity, losing 6 straight before that:

Wander and Elly are 1st and 3rd in RBIs across MLB and Taj leads MLB in ERA.

The offense keeps chugging along although they were shut out three times during May. The team batting average came down as it was always going to do, but we're still second in the league in runs scored. The pitching was a mixed bag but has still been solid overall. We did suffer one injury of note during the month as starter Drew Rasmussen left his first May start with a sore shoulder and will be out for a week or two in June. Former starter Jeffrey Springs took his place in the rotation and acquitted himself decently while April waiver claim Chase Petty was brought up to take Springs' place in the pen. In other moves Jose Siri came off the IL and basically will platoon with Brock Jones, with Cade Doughty being sent down to AAA as his ratings have cratered (40 contact!) and he wasn't hitting much as a result. Also we made a trade just before the end of the month:

Boston had really soured on Casas to the point where he's spent most of the year at AAA after an underwhelming 2025 (244/330/394). He did have a .413 OBP at Pawtucket with 8 homers and his ratings remain good (50/60 with a 70 eye and 60 contact potential). With Jace Jung struggling at DH (and prospect Junior Caminero on the IL at Durham), I'm looking for alternatives and Casas could be one. Interestingly right after the deal Jung went 5-12 with 2 HR and 5 RBI in the Oakland series to close the month, maybe he heard the footsteps).

Wander and Elly really carried the team through the month as most of the rest of the lineup regressed from April.

The pitching was pretty good, outside of our two most normally-reliable starters Pepiot and McClanahan. Pepiot's numbers for May weren't the greatest coming in but they were skewed by a 1 1/3 IP, 7 ER outing in his final start against Oakland, a game the Rays came back from 7-1 down to win 15-7. As alluded to earlier Springs was very good in his return to the rotation and new guy Petty showed off his power arm with 17 Ks in 9 1/3 IP (albeit with 6 walks).

Caminero significantly sprained an ankle and will be out until mid-June. Once he's back healthy and hitting he's a candidate to come up. Also a candidate to come up is this guy should we have a rotation opening:

Santana has been everything we'd hoped for when we dealt Kyle Manzardo (who's been a miserable 239/323/304 with 0 HR) and Matthew Peguero (who's taken over as LA's closer) to the Dodgers for him. He's more than capable of pitching in the bigs right now but needs an opening. And as we've been getting poor defense at SS from Devers and Winn (combined -5.8 ZR) there's a real possibility that Carson Williams comes up sooner than later to take over at SS.

So it's on to June and the Yankees certainly look like they're not going anywhere so it should be quite a battle.

06-22-2023, 05:28 PM	#46
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 7,613	May 2026 Record: 34-19 (17-11 for the month) 1st place, AL East by percentage points over the 35-20 Yankees In the end another pretty good month for the Rays although it took winning the final four games to make it so after they ran into their first stretch of adversity, losing 6 straight before that: Wander and Elly are 1st and 3rd in RBIs across MLB and Taj leads MLB in ERA. The offense keeps chugging along although they were shut out three times during May. The team batting average came down as it was always going to do, but we're still second in the league in runs scored. The pitching was a mixed bag but has still been solid overall. We did suffer one injury of note during the month as starter Drew Rasmussen left his first May start with a sore shoulder and will be out for a week or two in June. Former starter Jeffrey Springs took his place in the rotation and acquitted himself decently while April waiver claim Chase Petty was brought up to take Springs' place in the pen. In other moves Jose Siri came off the IL and basically will platoon with Brock Jones, with Cade Doughty being sent down to AAA as his ratings have cratered (40 contact!) and he wasn't hitting much as a result. Also we made a trade just before the end of the month: Boston had really soured on Casas to the point where he's spent most of the year at AAA after an underwhelming 2025 (244/330/394). He did have a .413 OBP at Pawtucket with 8 homers and his ratings remain good (50/60 with a 70 eye and 60 contact potential). With Jace Jung struggling at DH (and prospect Junior Caminero on the IL at Durham), I'm looking for alternatives and Casas could be one. Interestingly right after the deal Jung went 5-12 with 2 HR and 5 RBI in the Oakland series to close the month, maybe he heard the footsteps). Wander and Elly really carried the team through the month as most of the rest of the lineup regressed from April. The pitching was pretty good, outside of our two most normally-reliable starters Pepiot and McClanahan. Pepiot's numbers for May weren't the greatest coming in but they were skewed by a 1 1/3 IP, 7 ER outing in his final start against Oakland, a game the Rays came back from 7-1 down to win 15-7. As alluded to earlier Springs was very good in his return to the rotation and new guy Petty showed off his power arm with 17 Ks in 9 1/3 IP (albeit with 6 walks). Caminero significantly sprained an ankle and will be out until mid-June. Once he's back healthy and hitting he's a candidate to come up. Also a candidate to come up is this guy should we have a rotation opening: Santana has been everything we'd hoped for when we dealt Kyle Manzardo (who's been a miserable 239/323/304 with 0 HR) and Matthew Peguero (who's taken over as LA's closer) to the Dodgers for him. He's more than capable of pitching in the bigs right now but needs an opening. And as we've been getting poor defense at SS from Devers and Winn (combined -5.8 ZR) there's a real possibility that Carson Williams comes up sooner than later to take over at SS. So it's on to June and the Yankees certainly look like they're not going anywhere so it should be quite a battle.