Welcome to the first part of our annual preview series. This year, we present for each team a 60-word-or-so takeaway from 2020, a 162-word-or-so preview for the 2021 season, a win prediction, and a song… Read more »
Posts Tagged: Tampa Bay Rays
AMERICAN LEAGUE EAST The A.L. East asks the question: What do you get when you combine one recent champion (Red Sox), the best regular season team of the last decade (Yankees), a perennial close-but-not-quite contender… Read more »
A song to play while you’re reading about the Rays: “Roll With It” by Oasis It is eight years since Jonah Keri’s The Extra 2% was published and over a decade since the remarkable 2008… Read more »
The heel team of the 2018 offseason was definitely going to be the Pittsburgh Pirates. In January, they traded the top pick in the 2011 draft, pitcher Gerrit Cole, because he was likely to get… Read more »
The 2016 Rays were a disaster, even by the measure of the franchise’s boom or bust track record. After being picked by PECOTA to be the projected division winner, they finished last in the AL… Read more »
USA Today came out with its projected final standings for 2017 last week, which naturally demanded a team-by-team assessment of these lines. Chad Stewart and Jim Turvey decided to do just this, deciding whether they would… Read more »
Last week, the Rays made the type of deal that many thought they would make at some point this offseason: they traded one of their many MLB level starters–Drew Smyly. What is more surprising is… Read more »
The Tampa Bay Rays will celebrate their 20th season in 2017, and for much of that history they’ve been defined by their off-field actors: original team owner Vince Naimoli oversaw some very poor teams and alienated any potential fans in the first several years of ownership before being bought out by Stuart Sternberg.
Tampa Bay Rays Picked by most to finish last in the AL East, the Tampa Bay Rays have outpaced their projections by being only 3 games out of first with a 46-45 record. This outpaces… Read more »
The brain drain hit Tampa Bay this offseason, and it hit them hard. General Manager Andrew Friedman fell victim to the old “Dumptruck Full Of Money” gag and left to become President of Baseball Operations… Read more »
Episode 23: Benching Bryce Harper/Why We Were Wrong About the White Sox – August 17th, 2012.
Episode 24: The Rays Are Rolling/Assessing the Angels’ Strange Season – August 20th, 2012.
Jackie Bradley might yet turn out to be an odd man out in the Boston Red Sox outfield. The Sox traded Yoenis Cespedes in December, but they still have Hanley Ramirez, Rusney Castillo, Shane Victorino,… Read more »
The Oakland Athletics acquired Ben Zobrist and Yunel Escobar from the Tampa Bay Rays on Saturday, sending in return John Jaso, top Oakland prospect Daniel Robertson, left-hitting minor-league outfielder Boog Powell and cash. I wrote… Read more »
Continuing the revolving door of the A’s offseason, the A’s have made a big move to prove that the rebuilding plan is happening right now, and isn’t a long term move. To that point, they have traded John Jaso, Daniel Robertson, and Boog Powell (Herschel “Boog”, not John “Boog” of yesteryear) for Ben Zobrist and Yunel Escobar. First, let’s talk about the players coming in.
The Tampa Bay Rays have won at least 90 games in each of the last four seasons, and in five of six. Despite perhaps the worst financial standing of any team in baseball, they’re a… Read more »
Whenever the Arizona Diamondbacks turn out to be the third team in a trade, I find myself wondering why they didn’t simply sit it out. The complexity of those transactions means there will nearly always… Read more »
Mark Reynolds took one for a team full of players just like him prior to the 2011 season. New Arizona Diamondbacks GM Kevin Towers dealt Reynolds as part of an effort to correct the 2010… Read more »
Of the six or seven major potential prizes in MLB free agency this winter, B.J. Upton probably presents the most uncertainty. That statement is more loaded than it seems, too. Upton plays the outfield. He’s a… Read more »
