The 2020 (and beyond) Tampa Bay Rays

[Art Deco]

Movin' on...



The Rays are headed to the ALCS thanks to a strong outing from rookie Greg Bookhart and a big game from Series MVP Jimmy Leonard after a 4-1 win at Yankee Stadium. Bookhart held New York to 1 run in 6 innings and Leonard tripled and scored early and added some breathing room with a solo homer. Satoshi Sato pitched 2 strong innings in relief and Mike Barkley cleaned up for his 1st Rays postseason save. Based on the Rays' playoff pattern going back to 2028, surviving the DS has meant a championship, so hopefully history holds. Who will we be playing?



That would be the Seattle Mariners, who eliminated the White Sox as Chicago has no playoff series wins to show for consecutive seasons of 106 and 109 wins.

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The fight for the right to play the Reds in the NLCS:

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[Art Deco]

The Rays got off to a good start in the ALCS with a hard-fought 3-2 win over Seattle at Publix Park. Jim Brophy was solid outside of a 2-run homer allowed, and the Rays scored in each of the middle innings to take the victory. Jon Callahan's RBI single broke a 2-2 tie in the 6th and the Rays did squander opportunities to widen their lead, including in that 6th when they had the bases loaded with one out after Callahan's hit but couldn't push across another run. Dan Gregory in particular is having a brutal postseason so far, going 0-5 with 5 LOB today and hitting .091 overall. The bullpen did the job with Satoshi Sato going 2 strong innings and Mike Barkley cruising through the 9th for the save. Gordie Ager will try to make it 2-0 tomorrow.

Speaking of 2-0, that's what the Giants are against Atlanta in the NLCS as they victimized former Ray Chris Toombs:

[Art Deco]

Rollin' along...



The Rays turned on the offense tonight after only scoring 3 times in Game 1, banging out 19 hits in a 10-3 rout of the Mariners to go up 2-0 in the ALCS. They scored early and often even though Gordie Ager didn't need too much support after pitching 8 innings with one earned run allowed. Jimmy Leonard had a big early homer, Doug Johns 3 hits including a bases-clearing double which broke the game open, and even the scuffling Dan Gregory had 3 hits. Brad Jackson will try to give the Rays an overwhelming 3-0 lead in a couple of days at Seattle.

[Art Deco]

The Reds get back in it behind former two-time Rays World Series winner Danny Romero:

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Ain't gonna sweep...



It was a frustrating game for the Rays as they failed time after time to build on their early 2-0 lead and it eventually came back to bite them when Seattle came back in the late innings and took a 4-3 win to pull them within 2-1 of the Rays in the ALCS. Seth Williams had a big early triple but left 7 men on base while the big guns of Alexander and Barela were 0-8 with 9 men left on between them. Brad Jackson was rolling until he wasn't, and now Greg Bookhart will hope to replicate his ALDS performance in a pivotal game that will be difference between going up 3-1 and being tied 2-2.

In the NLCS:



Hopefully this series isn't a harbinger of the ALCS as its first three games followed the same pattern with the home team winning all of them, and that continued into a fourth as the Reds have evened it up. A couple of former Rays figured into it with Jim Gebers homering for Cincinnati while Billy Haroutunian went 5 scoreless innings in relief to keep the Reds in the game.

[Art Deco]

A big, big win...



Greg Bookhart, ladies and gentlemen. The rookie with ice water in his veins came through again tonight to give the Rays a 3-1 ALCS lead after pitching the series-clinching win in the ALDS the week prior. Meanwhile the bats didn't hit the cover off the ball - with one exception. That was Josh Alexander who was called out yesterday for not coming through when needed but did tonight with a 2-run homer off former Ray Tony Rey in the 6th to break open a tense, scoreless game, and added a key RBI single for some insurance in the 8th. Now the Rays will throw their ace Jim Brophy at the Mariners tomorrow with a chance to finish the series.

In the NLCS:



What a day for former Ray Jim Gebers as the 3B homered twice, drove in 7 and led Cincinnati to a rout of the Giants and gave them a 3-2 series lead after falling behind 0-2. San Francisco's just gotta hope this is going to be one of those series where the home team wins all the games as they return to California for Game 6. Otherwise we could be headed for our third straight Rays-Reds World Series.

[Art Deco]

Bring on the Reds or the Giants...



Jim Brophy had a nightmarish 2nd inning and for a while it looked like Seattle might climb back into this series, but the Rays bats wore down Mariner pitching and they pulled away for a 9-4 win to send them to the World Series for the 3rd straight year. The keys tonight were Brophy settling down to throw 3 scoreless innings and the two quick runs they got back in the 3rd. Tony Cordova had the game-winning hit, an RBI double to put them up in the 6th, and then Jimmy Leonard and series MVP Josh Alexander added homers to put the game, and series, to bed. Will we have Rays-Reds III or Rays-Giants for the first time? Stay tuned.

[Art Deco]

We're going the distance!

[Art Deco]

Bring on the Giants! The country was spared a third straight Rays-Reds Fall Classic thanks to San Francisco pulling out a win with a run in the 8th inning in a tight tense game to beat Danny Romero and the Reds. So the Rays will reunite with old friend Omar Rodriguez, who probably wasn't teammates with hardly any of these guys since he was traded nearly five years ago. Game 1 will be in two days at Publix Park.

[Art Deco]

Disaster averted...



Originally the story of this game was going to be how another rookie came up big in the postseason for the Rays, as Tomas Laboy took advantage of a rare start to drill a 3-run homer as part of a 4-RBI day to put the Rays ahead to stay 5-2 on their way to winning Game 1 of the World Series against San Francisco. Or perhaps how Gordie Ager was unhittable outside of an early 2-run homer he allowed. But instead the story of the game was the Rays' bullpen meltdown as first Freddy Zamora let the Giants within 5-3 in the 8th and then after Josh Beckett had seemingly sealed the game with a 2-run homer to make it 7-3, Mike Barkley really came unraveled, giving up a 3-run homer and then two more hits for the tying run in an epic blown save. Fortunately though the Rays offense picked up the pen in the bottom of the 9th as Seth Williams walked and stole second, and after Josh Alexander was walked Luis Barela (having a relatively quiet postseason) stepped up and delivered a single to center to score Williams with the walk-off winner and the Rays still won after all.

So we're all happy they won but not so much in the way it happened. Fortunately wins are more important at this time of year than style points and Jim Brophy will try to send us to California up 2-0 tomorrow.

[Art Deco]

We're just going to outhit the bullpen I guess...



It was deja vu all over again at Publix Park as the Rays' bullpen blew another lead only for the offense to immediately reply and take the win. This time it happened earlier in the game but the result was the same as the Rays are now up 2-0 on the Giants in the World Series thanks to an 8-5 come-from-behind win. Josh Beckett's RBI triple and Jon Callahan's sac fly to bring him home made it 3-0, but despite the shutout in progress Jim Brophy was battling baserunners throughout, and he put the first two on in the 6th. Sean Forbes came in and made a real mess, loading the bases and then unloading them while Jose Mendoza gave up a 2-run double to old friend Omar Rodriguez to put the Giants on top 5-3. But the bats responded in the bottom half, loading the bases and then scoring three times without a hit on a bases-loaded walk to Doug Johns, a Josh Beckett HBP, and Callahan's second sac fly of the game. Tony Cordova added an RBI single and then Jimmy Leonard hit a rare homer off a lefty in the 8th, his 7th of the playoffs, and Satoshi Sato put an end to the bullpen nonsense by retiring all 6 Giants he faced for his first career postseason save. The Rays will try to end this before the calendar turns to November, and Brad Jackson will take the mound for Game 3 at Oracle Park.

[Art Deco]

One more to go...



For a change the Rays didn't have to overcome a blown lead as the bullpen acquitted itself pretty well tonight in a 6-4 win in San Francisco which gave the Rays a commanding 3-0 World Series lead. Brad Jackson was solid if nothing else, but Dan Anderson, Freddy Zamora and Mike Barkley (bouncing back from his Game 1 debacle) got the job done and an opportunistic offense scored enough runs. The Rays took advantage of a couple of Giants errors to score their first two runs and expanded the lead in the 6th on a 2-run Tony Cordova single (it took us nearly two seasons but we finally found a catcher to consistently hit after Mike McKee left). After the Giants pulled within 4-3 Josh Alexander went to work, first with a solo homer in the 7th and then with an RBI double in the 8th. So Greg Bookhart, the rookie who has been dazzling in ALDS and ALCS wins so far, gets a chance to close it out tomorrow.

[Art Deco]

Keep the champagne on ice...



The Rays found themselves the unusual victims of a shutout as the Giants kept the World Series going by taking a 2-0 win at Oracle Park. Tampa Bay outhit San Francisco 9-3, but 8 of the 9 hits were singles, Doug Johns grounded into a pair of key double plays, and Tony Cordova was thrown out at the plate. Greg Bookhart meanwhile was as great as ever, giving up only one run on one hit through 5 2/3, but he would have had to have been perfect. Gordie Ager will give the whole clinching thing another shot tomorrow in Game 5.

[Art Deco]

Halfway to the Yankees!



The Rays won their 13th World Championship and third straight overall today, defeating San Francisco 4-0 to take the World Series in a gentleman's sweep. It was their second three-peat after winning it from 2028-2030. Doug Johns, the goat last night after short-circuiting a couple of Tampa Bay rallies by grounding into double plays, blasted a 3-run homer in the first inning, turning trick into treat on Halloween night. Gordie Ager wasn't dominating but kept the Giants off the board for 6, and then the bullpen which struggled early in this series combined for 3 1-hit innings with Mike Barkley at the bottom of the dogpile:



The now-annual boat parade will take place in a couple of days in downtown Tampa. I'll have the team's playoff stats in next post and then the always-fun offseason begins.

[Art Deco]

Always forget to post these, but not this time. The hitting stats:



Sorted by OPS since WAR is really goofy in these samples. Aside from Jimmy Leonard, who may have had his swan song with us given one left of team control and a $22M+ salary projected, Seth Williams had a great postseason, seemingly always on base. Williams had a big dropoff from his 2042 MVP season but looked like that player when it counted the most. The pitching stats:



Gordie Ager was a great pickup at midseason and these playoffs showed how good Greg Bookhart can be when his BABIP is .271 instead of .371. Bookhart was 2nd on the staff in WAR but had an inflated ERA due to an inflated number of hits allowed while he kept the ball in the park. His ratings are still below his potential so he could really be something, perhaps the best pitcher we've ever drafted.

[Art Deco]

As is the case when we win, we'll start off with the trophy:



Owner Jorge Rios has given me a payroll of $190M to work with next year. Generous but as always we try to get by with as little as we can spend.

Here are the salaries we're looking at for 2044 (only those making more than minimum listed), which total $183M:



Free agents are Jon Harbour, Mike Barkley and Edgar Suarez. As to the list above, Freddy Zamora is being non-tendered. He's great but already overpaid at $16M so I'm sure as hell not paying him $22M. I'll try and get him back as a free agent with a more reasonable deal as he asked for $32M when I inquired about an extension. Also as alluded to several times before this is when Jimmy Leonard gets dealt as he's in his last year of team control and I already have 4 everyday-quality OFs (Willis, Mendez, Gregory, Johns). Also it's time to deal Kevin Morley as he lost the starting job to Tony Cordova and Nelson Bocardo is more than ready to take over as the backup. Meanwhile the owner has given me his usual "sign one of our free agents" demand. Usually it's some overpaid vet I'm content to let go with a replacement waiting but this time it's Harbour who will only want about $5M/year, so I've made him an offer since he's pitched well in middle relief for us and we'll have some bullpen openings.

Awards season:

Gold Glove: Brad Jackson won another one at P. Perennial winner Dan Gregory lost out to Boston's Chris Parham in CF as Gregory played only about 2/3 of the season and didn't pile up the ZR numbers he usually does.

Reliever of the Year: Satoshi Sato led AL relievers in WAR at 3.7 but finished second to KC's Willie Minier who had 42 saves, a 2.19 ERA and 3.2 WAR. Over in the NL the winner was none other than Dave Brown, our supplemental 1st round pick of last year traded to the Phillies in the deal which brought Luis Barela. Brown had an incredible season with 42 saves, a 1.95 ERA, 116 Ks in 73 IP, only 1 homer allowed and 4.9 WAR, the most I think I've seen from a reliever in this save. Of course Barela may win another MVP so it was worth it but Philly got a lot out of the deal with Chris Williams having a bounce-back season and Andy Ruggles hitting homers and pitching in their rotation.

We interrupt awards season for some news:



This will make the owner happy for once, despite all the World Series titles.

Silver Slugger: Josh Beckett (2B), Luis Barela (3B) and Josh Alexander (DH) were winners. I don't consider anybody else on our team snubbed.

Rookie of the Year: Greg Bookhart finished a distant 5th with only one first place vote (mine). If he stays healthy, long-term I think he's more valuable than the 4 who finished ahead of him.

Cy Young:



Brophy becomes the club's 12th Cy Young winner and 10th different in this save (not counting Tyler Glasnow, Christian Little and Andy Aparicio winning twice). Gordie Ager finished a solid second and look who finished fifth! 38-year old Nate Schultz who won 20 games for us in back-to-back seasons about 10 years ago and bounced back from a 20-loss season in Arizona last year to have a great year with the Yankees. Good for him.

MVP:



Move over, Frank Robinson! Not only does Luis Barela win MVP in back-to-back seasons but he becomes only the second player in MLB history after Robinson to win an MVP in both leagues. It was nearly unanimous but Josh Alexander, who looked like the front-runner through the first 2/3 of the season, picked up one vote (it wasn't me!). Down-ballot, Jimmy Leonard finished 10th.

We move from awards season to trade season with a couple of big ones:



Morley was ticketed to go, but it hurts a little to give up Moranchel, who is an excellent prospect. But we're already loaded at 3B with MVP Luis Barela and Tomas Laboy, who had a good rookie season. Plus Moranchel is only a 40 defender at third and we have a 1B and DH too. But enough about him - let's talk about Parham, the guy we got. It says "RP" above but that's because he's a two-way player who as mentioned earlier in this post won the AL Gold Glove in CF. He primarily played CF with Boston, hitting 302/335/438. He's a good but flawed offensive player who can hit for average but doesn't have a lot of power and doesn't walk much. The Sox only used him 4 times in relief but we're going to use him more in that role as look at these ratings:



He'll spell Dan Gregory in CF and be used as a defensive replacement on offense, otherwise we'll use him out of the pen as he'll effectively give us a 15th pitcher.

Big trade #2:



There goes Jimmy Leonard, who had 6 great years for us in which he hit 156 HR. What about the return? We'll start with Cunningham, another potentially elite reliever we've added:



He's a lefty and could be our Zamora replacement. He came up mid-season as a rookie and was impressive, earning 1.0 WAR in 40 IP with an 11/41 BB/K ratio and 15 saves. Baer meanwhile is one of the better young catching prospects in the league, having hit 276/348/435 with 33 doubles and 5 HR in 92 games and is rated 60 defensively with a 65 arm. We don't need Baer with Cordova and Bocardo but this was the best value offer we received for Leonard and I possibly trade Baer or Bocardo later this winter.

Finally! A scouting discovery worth discovering:



I shouldn't bag on these guys too much since we recently did discover a pretty good prospect in Jon Morales and Andy Aparicio, one of the best pitchers we've had in this save, was a scouting discovery himself. And there's a lot to like about Vigil, especially in getting a top prospect for free.

December 12: Old friend Kikuo Kawase is headed to the Big Apple on a 2/19.6 deal with the Mets. He's now 37 and coming off a mixed bag of a year with the Dodgers where he had a career-high 3.77 ERA.

December 13: 2042 AL Cy Young winner Tim Levitt, now 34, signed a 4/92 pact with the Dodgers. Levitt did drop off considerably last year.

December 21: Added OF/P Josh Schwartzlow and P Jonathan Melendez to the 40-man roster.

Rule 5 time again. Schwartzlow is an intriguing two-way player we acquired in a minor league deal with the Mets last May. He could serve as an adequate 5th starter or alternatively play the OF (average-mediocre defensively) and hit .290 with 20 HR. We don't need him now but injuries may make him useful. Melendez was our first round pick in 2040 who probably wouldn't have been taken. He has a future as a swingman but hasn't quite lived up to expectations.

December 22: The Rule 5 Draft came and went, and the only player taken was a former Ray as low-average slugger Randy Bahr was selected by San Diego from the Phillies, who had signed him to a minor league deal shortly after season's end when we let him go. Bahr was a 2nd round pick of ours back in 2034 and is 27 now, and if we ever feel the need for one of these type of players we still have Randy Rappaport, Chris Gentile and Jared Richardson.

December 23: Former Ray Joe Trader signed a minor league deal with Texas.

December 24: Well there go our two late-inning relievers from last year. Mike Barkley signed a 1/6.6 deal with Philly - I kind of dropped the ball a bit there as I was looking to re-sign him for something like this but figured it would take longer for his price to drop. Freddy Zamora meanwhile went to Milwaukee on a 4/39.2 deal which I certainly wasn't looking to do. So right now Satoshi Sato is our closer with Sean Forbes and the newly-acquired Jon Cunningham and Chris Parham the leading setup candidates. There are still a few veteran relievers out there I could sign and/or trade for. Another possibility is that with Joel Gird and Johnny Soland presumably healthy for 2044 I move Jose Mendoza to the pen and make him a late-inning power reliever.

December 27: After bouncing around between Cincinnati and Baltimore and back the last couple of years, former Rays IF Ramon Ruiz found stability with a massive 5/87 deal with the Padres.

December 30: One of the game's top hitters over the past decade, Edgar Medina, signed a 3/55.8 deal with the Mets despite now being 36. Medina is a career .330 hitter with 279 HR but over the past couple of years he's become a .290-15 HR type of guy, useful but not the beast he was all those years tormenting us with Texas.

[Art Deco]

As is custom we start the second half of our offseason report with the results of the Hall of Fame voting:



Congrats to Acuna, Jimenez and Rutschman. The latter two were rentals for us with Jimenez a rare moderately successful one, hitting 275/315/544 with 14 HR and 36 RBI in 51 games in 2031 as part of a career-high 57-homer season (the first 2/3 of which were spent at Coors Field), although we were bounced in the ALDS that year with Eloy going 0-16. That was one of only four years in which his teams made the postseason.

Rutschman meanwhile was one of the all-time rental busts for us the year before (2030). He hit 213/302/355 with only 4 HR and 23 RBI in 44 games after batting 313/382/589 for the first four months in Baltimore. He didn't fare any better in the postseason at 208/271/245 (yes he only slugged .245) in 53 AB with no homers but despite his lack of contribution he still picked up a ring, the only one of his otherwise-stellar career.

Elsewhere Rafael Devers' run at 75% bounced back some; after getting 68% in 2042 he fell back to 47% but jumped again 15 points. Shohei Ohtani also made an impressive first-year showing at 62%. Not shown here is Manny Machado dropping off the ballot at 14%, along with first-timers falling short of 5% such as Matt Chapman and former Rays Daniel Espino, Brandon Marsh, Gabriel Moreno and Connor Kirkley.

Best injury yet:



Also one of our former stars has decided to throw away his money by opening a restaurant:



Good luck Jon, you'll need it!

January 12: Another former Ray is on the move as Vinny Willard leaves Cincinnati for Milwaukee on a 1-year deal paying him just over $1M. Seems like a bargain since he was worth 2.3 WAR last year going 7-5, 3.41 although he is coming off a partially torn labrum.

January 14: The Dodgers continue to bolster their rotation. After signing former Cub and NL Cy Young winner Raul Robles last month they traded with Texas to get Chris Blain, who was 18-4 in 2042 with Chicago and 8-5, 3.40 with 2.3 WAR last year between the White Sox and the Rangers.

January 22: Former Rays starter Nate Schultz, who had a great bounceback year with the Yankees last season after losing 20 with Arizona in 2042, decided to go back where he struggled as he signed a 2/41.6 deal with the D-backs.

January 26: Edgar Suarez, who did a nice job for us out of the pen after being acquired from the Padres at mid-season last year, became the rare free agent to go back to the team he was traded from as he rejoined the Padres on a 1/2.5 deal.

February 2: We actually received a decent trade offer from the AI for a change as Colorado offered us Andy Randall for 18-year-old prospect Jon Morales. Randall was a 4-WAR player who led the NL in OPS last year at .931 playing in Coors (his home OPS was 1.011 while his road was .861, although Publix Park is a pretty good home park to hit in as well). He's only 25 and making the minimum this year but is due for arbitration next year, projected for $5M. Of course the problem is that we don't have a lineup opening for him - he plays a 40 RF and we have 5 good outfielders already, and our DH is spoken for by a perennial MVP candidate named Josh Alexander. However Alexander gets very expensive next year, projected for $22M in arbitration the next two seasons. Very intriguing, though. Morales is the #34 prospect in baseball but will he develop into someone who leads the league in OPS? Stay tuned on this one as I'll leave the 14-day window to make the deal open.

February 8: Former Ray Ron Adams, once one of the brightest young pitching prospects before injuries derailed his career, can still get teams to pay him $ despite being "wrecked" as Seattle went 2/12.6 for a guy who only pitched 83 innings last year.

February 15: Decided to pass on that Rockies offer for now; if I need a cheaper alternative for Alexander next year I have plenty of time to find one.

February 22: The Rockies sent former Rays star 3B Bo Angeac to Arizona (which is where we traded him to for Josh Beckett, Jon Callahan and Doug Combs many years ago) for a couple of minor leaguers. Angeac is now 38 but led the NL in slugging at .556 playing in Coors last year with 36 HR and 112 RBI so there's still something left in the tank.

A free agent signing!



This year's veteran reliever on a 1-year deal is Chris Martin, not to be confused with the Coldplay lead singer (who would now be 67) or the former MLB reliever who pitched for Atlanta in the teens and 20s (who would now be 57). Our Martin as you can see from the career numbers above is a long-time lefty veteran closer who still has 80 stuff and saved 32 games for Houston last year. The only negative is that he's rated "fragile" and he is 36, so we'll see how much we get from him. But he was the best reliever on the free agent market and fills our needs.

February 27: Claimed P Jimmy Leonard on waivers from the New York Yankees; waived and designated P Alex Stephens for assignment.

Jimmy Leonard is back! Well not that Jimmy Leonard. This one was a first-round pick of the Yanks in 2039 but they put him on waivers. He's more a control/command guy with 60 movement and control, and 55 (potential 60) stuff as a reliever. He can also start but his stuff is rated 45/55 for that. He has options so he was intriguing as a free flyer. Well not completely free, as the Chris Martin signing filled up our 40-man roster so we waived Stephens once again to make room for him. We'll probably get him back and see if he's willing to go to Durham again.

March 22: Despite a 33-HR, 101-RBI season last year with Minnesota (one that albeit came with a .223 BA), former Rays slugger Pat Moyer had to settle for a minor league deal with the Angels.

[Art Deco]

We made it through spring training without any injuries, so I guess I should consider myself lucky, or maybe they'll start coming in droves after the season starts.

To get down to 27 we had to make a couple of deals and some moves. First off a deal that was actually proposed by the AI for Minnesota:



This worked out well because Rappaport was out of options and Thornton has one left, so he's going to Durham despite hitting .290-12-50 as shown above in half a season as a rookie with the Twins. He'll be the first OF up if we have an injury and could have a real role on next year's team.

Next up was this minor deal:



Burgess was not only out of options but had the right to refuse a minor league assignment so even if we got him through waivers we'd probably have to just release him. He was out most of last year, his stuff has diminished some, and he had a poor spring so we weren't keeping him. So something is better than nothing and Phelps is just barely something, a poor-fielding 2B with some pop who's on a minor league deal. He's basically minor league depth.

Finally, we DFA'd Joe Flores, out of options and who might still hit 30-35 HR if someone put him in the lineup everyday but he wasn't beating out former MVPs Seth Williams or Josh Alexander for a 1B/DH spot. I'd still like to keep him around, so hopefully he clears.

Our depth also meant some tough cuts to go down to Durham. Joel Gird, who missed most of last year after winning a rotation spot, came back with a slight diminishing of his stuff but might still be better than Johnny Soland, who also came back with diminished stuff after his near season-long injury. Nevertheless Gird had an option and the rotation is full even after moving Jose Mendoza to the pen, so off to Durham he goes waiting for the first staff injury. Also Jon Callahan, who started at SS for us in the World Series last year while Dave Frick was hurt, was sent down. And Nelson Bocardo is long overdue for a spot but I didn't like what I was offered in trade for him so down he goes as well. That leaves this opening day roster:

C-Cordova, Baer
1B-S.Williams
2B-Beckett
SS-Frick
3B-Barela
IF-Laboy
OF-Willis, Gregory, Johns, Mendez, Parham (who can also pitch)
DH-Alexander

SP-Brophy, Ager, B.Jackson, Bookhart, Soland
LR-Harbour, Mendoza
MR-Combs, D.Anderson, Pretty (also Parham when not playing CF)
SU-Forbes, Sato, Cunningham
CL-C.Martin

I will note that Ed Pretty, who was so awful over the last 2/3 of the year despite no diminishment of his 80 stuff, had a brilliant spring and looked more like the reliever who accrued 1.9 WAR in both the 2041 and 2042 seasons than last year's disaster so he could graduate to a setup role if he continues like that in middle relief.

The preseason predictions:



The predictions really, really like us, projecting the Rays to hit .301 as a team and have a 3.45 team ERA on the way to 114 wins. 114 wins is kind of normal for this team, but usually not predicted; most years we're between 100-110. Interestingly it sees a big year from Brad Jackson, who wasn't as good last year and had a terrible spring. Otherwise, it's really bullish on the A's - the Jimmy Leonard acquisition should definitely help them.