X-Rays Spex

A Below Average Rays Fan Blog

  • Categories
    • The New What Next
    • Looking Backward While Moving Forward
    • Lineups
    • Hot-Stove
    • Two Minute Hate
    • This Week in Rays Baseball
    • Caption Contests
  • About
  • Events
  • Contact Us

Kevin Cash: AL Manager of the Year

November 11, 2020 By Schmitty Leave a Comment

After being named an AL Manager of the Year finalist for a third consecutive season, the Tampa Bay Rays skipper Kevin Cash finally received the honor many felt he was due on Tuesday. It’s the first time Cash has won the award, and he becomes the second manager to be honored in franchise history.

Cleveland manager, and long time friend, Terry Francona, made the announcement on MLB Network.

https://twitter.com/RaysBaseball/status/1326316989976031232?s=20

That was pretty cool. For me personally, if you’re going to get an award and you’re going to receive it from somebody, I don’t know if you could pick somebody better for everything he’s meant to me and my family. Just a pretty special person.

— Kevin Cash

Cash led the Rays to a 40-20 record in the truncated season — the best mark in the American League — despite starting the 2020 campaign with a 5-7 record. Tampa Bay really turned it on from that point though, going 35-13 across the final 48 games. Their .667 winning percentage was the top mark in franchise history. Still, a slow start wasn’t the only hurdle Cash and the team had to overcome, as the Rays lost a half dozen pitchers for the season due to injury, and they also had six players sidelined during summer camp due to COVID-19.

Cash credited the organization for allowing him and the team to weather the storm.

It’s a really special group, it’s a special place to work. I think it’s our job as staff to do everything we can with what’s being afforded to us.

— Kevin Cash

And while Cash had been pilloried for pulling Blake Snell in Game 6 of the World Series (cough, it was the right decision although he leaned on the wrong hurler in relief of Snell), he guided Tampa Bay to — and through — every level of the postseason; the Rays swept Toronto in the first round of the playoffs before heading to the final games of set in each of the next two series — outlasting the Yankees in the Division Series and the Astros in the Championship Series to win the pennant.

When asked by Tricia Whitaker (Fox Sports Sun) what helped him stay so even-keeled and consistent as a manager, Cash gave a self-deprecating response, which is par for the course.

Well, my daughters were the first to ask ‘Why did you take Snell out in game 6?!’ So when you’re getting it from your daughters, you can handle it from anyone. They keep me grounded.

— Kevin Cash

Cash beat out Charlie Montoyo, who guided the Blue Jays to the postseason, and (now) former White Sox Manager Rick Renteria for the award. Cash told Neil Solondz (Rays Radio) it was great to be on TV with Montoyo for the announcement as Cash says he’s learned a great deal from the team’s former third base coach and bench coach.

The Rays manager received 22 (of 30) first-place votes, five second-place votes, and one third-place vote to finish with a total of 126 points. He was left off two ballots. Renteria finished second with 61 points, while Montoyo finished third with 47 votes. All votes were submitted prior to the start of the postseason.

In south Florida, Don Mattingly of the Marlins won honors in the NL, beating out Jayce Tingler of San Diego and Dave Ross of the Cubs. It is the first time Mattingly has won the Manager of the Year award.

Looking back on the contentious decision to pull Snell in Game 6 of the World Series

November 4, 2020 By Schmitty Leave a Comment

Blake Snell was pulled in favor of Nick Anderson after 5-1/3 innings of shutout ball in Game 6 of the 2020 World Series.

Seven days have passed since Kevin Cash made the contentious decision that many viewed as the death knell of the Tampa Bay Rays in the 2020 World Series — pulling Blake Snell after 5-1/3 scoreless innings. Hell, even I called it a bad move at the time, and in the heat of the moment. Since then though, many analytics-driven sites like FanGraphs, the Athletic, and Baseball Prospectus have come out generally in favor of Cash’s decision, while other more traditional outlets have turned Cash into a pariah. I’ve heard both sides of the discussion, and I have finally at peace with the decision. However, I will say that Cash did make a costly error: he called upon Nick Anderson instead of Diego Castillo or Ryan Thompson.

As a general rule, the performance of a pitcher across the first few innings predicts nothing as it relates to how he will perform across subsequent frames. True, Snell was dominant against the Dodgers through 5-1/3 innings, however, there was no guarantee that he would carry that forward. As Mitchel Lichtman (MGL Baseball) noted, it improved his expected ERA by 1/4 of a run, give or take. Yet that improvement would be negated the third time through the order.

Snell, like most other pitchers, faces some trouble the third time through the order. Over his career, his wOBA jumps dramatically from .263 the first time through the order to .321, while his SLG tops out at .413. In 2020, his .913 OPS allowed the third time through the order is far worse than what a fresh reliever should have been able to hurl.

(Credit: FanGraphs)
(Credit: FanGraphs)

Furthermore, there is evidence that Snell was tiring. Both Snell’s fastball and curveball velocity dropped precipitously. For reference, a pitcher with a fastball at 94 mph, instead of 96 mph, is about a half-run of ERA worse. And once his velocity started to fall, it was likly to continue until he ran into trouble.

As Eno Sarris (the Athletic) detailed, “His last fastball against Austin Barnes was his slowest fastball of the night, and a full tick below where he’d been sitting so far in the game. And Snell has been, in his career, 23 percent worse than league average when it comes to third-time through the order. If his personal splits in that might not matter (we’re still only talking about 432 regular-season plate appearances in which he’s seen a lineup a third time), the league has established third-time through the order splits that matter. Snell had not finished the sixth inning all season.”

Snell’s fastball to Barnes was two miles per hour off his average during the contest. Craig Edwards (FanGraphs) noted that when Snell’s fastball was at least 95 mph during the regular season, he coaxed swings-and-misses on 13% of pitches. However, when his fastball velocity fell under 95 mph, his whiff rate was just 9%. That was on display during Game 6. Snell got four swings and misses on his seven hardest fastballs of the night, and six on his hardest 13. Yet on the 16 pitches below 96.5 mph? The left-hander induced just two whiffs.

Put simply, Snell did his job quite effectively but he was getting tired and he was set to face the top of the Dodgers’ order for the third time.

Cash was in control of arguably the best bullpen in baseball — the stable as it were — with a good number of arms that had proven fairly successful against Los Angeles up to that point. And staked to a 1-0 lead against a team that hadn’t been shutout all season, the choice was about who would be the most effective hurler to replace Snell. This is where I believe Cash made the wrong decision.

Cash went with Anderson, who held opponents to a .091 BA/.138 OBP/.182 SLG/.320 OPS line during the regular, which was better than even Snell’s first time through the order stat line. However, Anderson had struggled in the postseason.

The vertical movement on his fastball had dropped by almost two inches since the start of 2019, while his heater was down almost two full ticks from 2019 to now. Anderson, who regularly lives at the top of the zone, wasn’t able to get his fastball above hitter’s bats, or with the velocity that would make the pitch effective. As Sarris put it, “All year he’d had less movement and velo, and as that trend worsened, so did his results.”

After the game, Anderson conceded that he didn’t feel great.

Workload, 2020 season, the whole thing is just crazy, honestly. Not having a normal routine, lifting, the season, everything — it’s been crazy. I didn’t feel as good as I would have liked to, but it’s the big leagues; you’re not going to feel good every time. I was still confident. It wasn’t the situation, it wasn’t being in the World Series or anything like that. Not a lot of gas.

— Nick Anderson

Cash probably should have gone with Castillo or Thompson (and his 59% ground ball rate) to get the outs and use Anderson against the softer back end of the order before handing the ball over to Pete Fairbanks. Or, the Rays offense could have scored more than one run, rendering all of this back-and-forth moot.

At the end of the day, an unpopular decision was made and no amount of prognostication will change the outcome. Cash had made similar decisions all season long, and those moves got the Rays to the World Series with the best record in the American League. Should he have been pilloried for being consistent? In my opinion, probably not.

BBWAA Awards finalists announced; Kevin Cash named as an MOY finalist in the AL

November 3, 2020 By Schmitty Leave a Comment

For the third consecutive year, Kevin Cash has been recognized as a finalist for the BBWAA AL Manager of the year.

On Monday, the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA) announced the three finalists for each of the 2020 BBWAA Awards representing each league for the Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year, Manager of the Year, Cy Young, and Most Valuable Player awards. And for the third consecutive year, Tampa Bay Rays manager Kevin Cash has been recognized as a finalist for the AL Manager of the year.

The schedule for the awards follows, while the MLB Network will exclusively televise the live announcements of the winners of each award during BBWAA Awards Week from November 9-12.

The complete list of award finalists is below.

AL Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year:

  • Cristian Javier (Houston Astros), Kyle Lewis (Seattle Mariners), Luis Robert (Chicago White Sox)

NL Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year:

  • Alec Bohm (Philadelphia Phillies), Jake Cronenworth (San Diego Padres), Devin Williams (Milwaukee Brewers)

AL Manager of the Year:

  • Kevin Cash (Tampa Bay Rays), Charlie Montoyo (Toronto Blue Jays), Rick Renteria (Chicago White Sox)

NL Manager of the Year:

  • Don Mattingly (Miami Marlins), David Ross (Chicago Cubs), Jayce Tingler (San Diego Padres)

AL Cy Young Award:

  • Shane Bieber (Cleveland Indians), Kenta Maeda (Minnesota Twins), Hyun Jin Ryu (Toronto Blue Jays)

NL Cy Young Award:

  • Trevor Bauer (Cincinnati Reds), Yu Darvish (Chicago Cubs), Jacob deGrom (New York Mets)

AL Most Valuable Player:

  • José Abreu (Chicago White Sox), DJ LeMahieu (New York Yankees), José Ramírez (Cleveland Indians)

NL Most Valuable Player:

  • Mookie Betts (Los Angeles Dodgers), Freddie Freeman (Atlanta Braves), Manny Machado (San Diego Padres)

Cash was nominated for the Manager of the Year award in each of the last two seasons, yet he finished third after leading Tampa Bay to consecutive 90+ win seasons in 2018 (90) and 2019 (96 and a playoff berth). Votes are made by the national BBWAA writers at the end of the regular season.

This season, Cash led the Rays to the best record in the American League, while they won the AL East for just the third time in franchise history. At 40-20 on the season, it was just the second time Tampa Bay had the best mark in the AL in spite of season-ending injuries to six pitchers, and more than a dozen injured list stints overall, not to mention six other players that were shelved during the regular season or summer camp due to COVID-19.

Rays opt not to exercise club options with Morton and Zunino, although both are open to returning

October 31, 2020 By Schmitty Leave a Comment

The Tampa Bay Rays declined Charlie Morton’s option on Saturday.

On Friday, the Tampa Bay Rays chose not to exercise the club options on right-handed-hurler Charlie Morton and catcher Mike Zunino. Morton’s option was valued at $15-million, while Zunino stood to make $4.5-million if his option was to be exercised. Both are now free agents.

Charlie Morton “wasn’t surprised” that Tampa Bay declined to exercise the club option, given the lack of certainty in the midst of the pandemic, however, the team’s Senior VP/GM Erik Neander left the door open for Morton — as well as Zunino — to be part of the 2021 club. The veteran right-hander told the Tampa Bay Times that the team’s decision doesn’t mean they won’t try to work something out. 

If there’s mutual interest, the next step is gauging what that looks like.

— Charlie Morton

Neander noted the Rays’ desire to bring Morton back for a third season, and that they are looking for a “creative” way to keep him in the fold, including an incentive-laden deal. Per Neil Solondz (Rays Radio), Neander didn’t want to be too revealing about the conversation with Morton and said they didn’t get into too many specifics.

If he still wants to play next year and things line up in a way where it could be here and he sees it that way, we’re going to do everything we can to make that happen and to be as creative and supportive to his considerations and needs and what’s most important to him and his family as we can be.

…Charlie’s been very open about the uncertainty in his future and where he’s at. Frankly, felt it’s best to let him catch his breath, let him process, let him make some decisions with his family and to have those conversations but to give this a little more time to play out and see where things go. Would love nothing more than to have Charlie back and to have him part of our club next year and we’ll have a little more time to do that, it won’t be by way of picking up the option itself.

— Erik Neander

Morton is now one of the best pitchers on the free-agent market, although it is uncertain how much interest he will have exploring deals with other teams. He makes his home in Bradenton, a key point in his decision to sign with Tampa Bay after the 2018 season. During the postseason, Morton said he would discuss the possibility of retirement with his family if Tampa Bay declined his option, although if what is written above speaks to anything, he wants to continue his career with Tampa Bay.

During a Zoom call with the media, Neander also made mention of Morton and Zunino’s impact on the roster over the past two seasons in a number of ways.

He’s wonderful. And made sure he knew just how much we appreciated not only his on-field contributions the last two years, but everything he did to advance our group culturally, his leadership and guidance for pitchers, second to none.

…The intangible benefits of him for this staff, and the work he did behind the plate were a huge reason for our success as well, and another nice conversation and a door that’s going to stay open.

— Erik Neander

With a roster deadline looming to reinstate players currently on the 60-day Injured List, the Rays also made a variety of moves on Friday which will clear room on the 40-man. Tampa Bay lost catcher Michael Perez on waivers to the Pirates, as well as right-handers Andrew Kittredge and Chaz Roe, and catcher Kevan Smith — all of whom became free agents after clearing waivers.

It would appear the Rays are set to completely revamp their catching mix this offseason.

With the seven moves (including Aaron Loup becoming a free agent) the Rays now have 35 players on the 40-man roster.

Yet, as Solondz notes, Jalen Beeks, Yonny Chirinos, Colin Poche, and Cody Reed, all on the 60-day injured list, need to come off that list and be formally added on Sunday.

To that end, the Rays are expected to add prospects OF Josh Lowe and INF Taylor Walls to the 40-man roster by the November 20th deadline (so they won’t be exposed to the Rule 5 draft), so they will need to make another move in the near future to make room for both.

This is the end, beautiful friend, the end

October 28, 2020 By Schmitty Leave a Comment

Blake Snell looked like 2018 Snellzilla on Tuesday, but, sadly, that wasn’t enough to keep him in the game. (Photo Credit: Tampa Bay Rays)

Put a fork in a light socket it, the 2020 season has come to pass after a 3-1 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers — capping a 32-year World Series title drought in Chavez Ravine. They truly earned it.

Good hitters take advantage of pitcher’s mistakes, and Los Angeles proved that throughout the 2020 World Series. Tampa Bay is a good team whose bats started to go cold 1-1/2 months ago, culminating in a combined 1 R/5 H/2 BB/16 K/0-for-4 wRISP night and conclusion to the season. Good pitching defeats good hitting, and, well … the Dodgers outpitched the Rays.

Before I move on, I would like to touch on Kevin Cash’s contentious decision to pull Blake Snell from the game after 5-1/3 shutout innings. I do not think it was the right call, and I’m not certain that Cash will ever be able to convince me, Rays fans en masse, or his players, otherwise. Snell has believed in his team all season, and it’s rather depressing that his manager didn’t believe in his ability to pitch to batters a third time through the order. BUT, solely placing the blame for the loss on Cash would be rash and irrational at best. After all, the Dodgers averaged six runs per game during the regular season, didn’t win any walk-offs run until late into the truncated season, or fare as well during close games like the Rays because they consistently bludgeoned their opponents. What’s more, they hadn’t been shutout all season.

This is what happens when you pair Moneyball decision making with resources 10-times greater than that of the Rays. I digress.

Snell was pulled after having thrown 73 pitches. And true, he was pitching very well, however, at an average of almost 14 pitches per inning, he was likely to go one, maybe two more innings at best before Cash called upon The Stable, which really didn’t live up to its billing during the postseason — Ryan Thompson precluded. That is, even if Snell threw a shutout throughout an extended outing, all bets would be off once the relief corps took over. The loss ultimately rests on the shoulders of the skipper and Tampa Bay’s offense. After all, an old saying applies, “You can’t win games when you don’t score runs.” Consider that the non-Randy Arozarena part of the lineup went 3-23 with a pair of singles, two walks, and 15 punch-outs.

At the end of the day, Tampa Bay rode the pitching staff all season long, but especially in the second half when the offense began to fall off — from the 10th series on (see: the graphs above). The postseason only magnified the Rays’ offensive malaise.

It has been a long night preceded by a long day, which, itself, had been preceded by many long weeks and months. I am tired and fading fast. But, I will leave you with a few thoughts I tweeted earlier.

Haven’t processed it fully but I will say I’m so proud to have covered this team this year.

Countless accomplishments in the most trying season we’ve ever seen in MLB.

AL East title ✔️
ALDS Champs ✔️
ALCS Champs ✔️
First World Series appearance since 2008✔️#Proud

— Tricia Whitaker (@TriciaWhitaker) October 28, 2020

This year has been a dumpster fire. The pandemic and the political strife that has put all of us within a certain economic bracket in an unfortunate and uncertain position. The Rays, however, have been a bright spot over the last three months. They were the David to the Goliath’s — the Yankees and the Astros — throughout the regular season and the postseason. The 2020 Rays played like a “next man up” scrappy ball club in spite of numerous injuries and challenges. To paraphrase DeWayne Staats, while I didn’t enjoy tonight’s outcome, I truly enjoyed the ride. The Rays proved to the baseball world that they are a team that deserves to be noticed. Sure, there is some retooling that needs to be done during the winter, but as Dave Wills said during the radio-side of tonight’s broadcast, this team isn’t going anywhere. They have a young, exciting, and solid core of big-league players, and a farm system filled to the brim with talented players. And while I am sad things ended on a dour note, I’m also ecstatic that OUR small market ball-club was better than 28 other teams, and that they came within two games of defeating the best team in baseball. I believe they call that bittersweet.

I wanted to thank all of you that have followed the blog, conversed with us on social media, or both. You can expect offseason and Hot-Stove content leading into the 2021 season, among other things. Y’all are the best, thank you for all that! Also, thank you to the Tampa Bay Rays for putting together a magical season.

Pitchers and catchers report in a little over 3-1/2 months, Rays Up!

In addendum

…As if this year wasn’t f****d up enough:

Justin Turner came out of the game because of a positive test for COVID-19, per Fox.

— Bill Shaikin (@BillShaikin) October 28, 2020

2020 couldn’t help but be 2020 even at the end of the World Series

— Eno Sarris (@enosarris) October 28, 2020
  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • …
  • 422
  • Next Page »

Follow Us!

Follow Us on FacebookFollow Us on Google+Follow Us on TwitterFollow Us on FlickrFollow Us on RedditFollow Us on TumblrFollow Us on SoundcloudFollow Us on Instagram

Sign the pledge to support the Rays' future in St Pete!

Sign the Pledge
Buy Rays Tickets

baseball-forever-logo

Recent Posts

  • Rays deal Jose Alvarado to Philly in a three-team trade; Erik Neander on the Blake Snell trade
  • Rays trade Blake Snell to San Diego in a five-player deal
  • Rays sign Michael Wacha to a one-year, $3-Million deal; pitching notes
  • Rays re-sign Mike Zunino to a one-year, $3-Million deal with an option for the 2022 season
  • Rays deal Nate Lowe to Texas; acquire an RHP from St. Louis in the Rule 5 Draft

Recent Comments

  • belowaverage on Rays Fan Fest 2016; Baseball Forever campaign kickoff
  • Steve Zierfen on Rays Fan Fest 2016; Baseball Forever campaign kickoff
  • belowaverage on Rays Announce 2016 Spring Training Schedule
  • Nancy U. on Rays Announce 2016 Spring Training Schedule
  • Berdj J. Rassam on On Cabrera, Boxberger, Nava, Smyly and More

Categories

  • Caption Contests
  • Hot-Stove
  • Lineups
  • Looking Backward While Moving Forward
  • Polls
  • Rays Roster Moves
  • The New What Next
  • This Week in Rays Baseball
  • Two Minute Hate
  • Uncategorized

Tags

AL east Alex Cobb AL Wildcard Race Baltimore Orioles Baseball Ben Zobrist Blake Snell Boston Red Sox Chris Archer David Price Drew Smyly Erasmo Ramirez Evan Longoria Fernando Rodney Grapefruit League Hot-Stove Interleague Play Jake Odorizzi Jeremy Hellickson Joe Maddon Kevin Cash Luke Scott Matt Andriese Matt Moore MLB New York Yankees New York Yankees Suck Rays Rays Roster Moves Rays Stadium Saga Rays vs Blue Jays series preview Rays vs Red Sox Series Preview Roberto Hernandez spring training stadium saga Starting Lineup Tampa Bay Tampa Bay Rays the trop Toronto Blue Jays tropicana field Tyler Glasnow Wil Myers Yankees Yankees Suck

Copyright 2014 X-Rays Spex