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This Week in Rays Baseball: The “Grapefruit League Action Has Started” Edition

Chris Gimenez (Photo by David Albers, Naples Daily News)

It’s been a fairly eventful week, with the official start of both Spring Training and Grapefruit League play. The Rays ended the first weekend of play with a 2-1 record, following victories over the Twins and Red Sox, and a loss to the Pirates. The Rays will be in Port Charlotte on Monday and Tuesday for a pair of games against the Red Sox and Astros, in Bradenton Wednesday for a game against the Pirates, back home Thursday for a game against the Tigers, in Dunedin Friday for a game against the Blue Jays, and back home Saturday and Sunday for a pair of games against the Orioles and Twins. Before we look forward to the upcoming week, we should probably take a brief look back over the past nine days since our last weekly recap.

The Rays hosted their annual Fan Fest on the 16th. 25,000 Rays fans (including the crack reporters from X-Rays Spex), 63 Rays players, nine coaches, Astro, 40 former major leaguers, and two MLB Network personalities attended the fan favorite event at the Trop. Ahem, some of us may have rubbed shoulders with a few noteworthy folks in the Rays front office, like Matt Silverman.

The Rays announced the acquisition of 34 year-old OF/DH Jack Cust. Tampa Bay signed Cust to a one-year minor league contract.

We posted a metric butt-ton of links on the 18th, including links to the Rays 2013 promotional schedule and the MLB 411 composite projections. I still think those links are worthy of your time.

David Price made it known that he probably won’t be a Ray over the long-term, while a land owner in Ybor City made her intention clear; her desire is for the Rays to buy the property and build a facility in the blighted section just outside of downtown.

The Rays announced that they’ll send five players to the World Baseball Classic: LHP Alex Torres (Venezuela), INF/OF Ben Zobrist (United States), RHP Fernando Rodney (Dominican Republic), LHP Cesar Ramos (Mexico) and C Jose Molina (Puerto Rico) from the major league camp. A pair of minor leaguers will also appear in the WBC, INF Leonardo Reginatto and INF Iago Januario, both are on the roster for Brazi. It bears mentioning, this is Brazil’s inaugural appearance at the WBC.

We know, Shields is still on our original mock-up. Mentally replace Shieldsy with Cobb and voila! Problem solved.

We’ll be making Raymones shirts sooner than later. We’ll charge a minimal cost for the shirts, and will put up ordering information soon.

MLB Trade Rumors broke news of the Colorado Rockies alleged interest in Rays starter, Jeff Niemann. Denver Post sports columnist, Troy Renck, noted that he’d be,

Surprised if the Rockies did something before seeing the rotation cycle through a few times.

Leslie Anderson’s impressive performance early on has begun turn heads within the Rays clubhouse. “He looks really good, he’s a different player than the last time I saw him,” said Rays skipper Joe Maddon. Coming off of an impressive 2012 season with the Durham Bulls, Anderson has become the point of speculation over whether he’s ready to make the leap to the bigs. Though he’s been solid at the plate thus far, knocking in five RBI in the last two days, questions still linger about his defensive performance. Time will tell, but the Rays initial $2MM investment could pay off sooner than later.

Hey, we’re not going to have to worry about Curtis Granderson for the next ten weeks. Granderson went down with a fractured arm after getting hit by a pitch on the 24th. Not being one to laugh at the misfortune of others, I must say that this could be enough to give the Yankees pause. Will it sink them in 2013? I guess we’ll have to see.

Finally, you can read our recap of the first three Rays games of the Grapefruit League season here and here.

Rays Beat the Twinkies By A Score of 10-7

Juan Sandoval (Courtesy of the Tampa Bay Times)

The Rays are now 2-1 on this, the second day of Spring Training play. Suffice to say, it was a nail biter of a game. Tampa Bay really showed up at the plate, scoring 10 runs on 15 hits, including a big two-run Mark Thomas blast in the 10th inning. Check out the box score and game highlights below.

Rays 2/24/13 box score (Courtesy of CBS Sports)

Rays 2/24/13 offensive line (Courtesy of CBS Sports)

Rays 2/24/13 pitching line (Courtesy of CBS Sports)

Game Highlights and Lowlights

Chris Archer’s first three pitches were all fastballs, registering at 93, 97, 96 on the radar gun. Archer looked good on the mound, hitting 97 on the gun multiple times. Archer needed 21 pitches to get through the first inning vs. Twins, but allowed only a walk, to Joe Mauer. According to his after game interview (below) he was working on his change-up and reportedly didn’t mind the higher pitch count.
Jake Odorizzi had an 18-pitch debut inning for Tampa Bay which was marred only by a walk.
Though Vogt went 0-22 last season at the plate, he hit a single and a double Sunday. Yeah I know you’re asking yourself, why couldn’t he do that last season?!
Juan Sandoval got himself into some trouble in the third, but he limited the damage. It bears mentioning, Sandoval is blind in his right eye.
Alex Torres looked shaky at first in the fourth inning. Though he stranded a man in scoring position after allowing a one-out double.
Leslie Anderson had another good day at the plate, hitting a pair of big hits for for second straight day. Anderson extended the lead to 6-2 with a two-run single in 9th, following that up with a 10th inning RBI base hit to give the Rays an 8-7 lead. Anderson now has five RBI after two days of Grapefruit League action.
The Rays and the Twins played an extra inning game on the second day of Grapefruit League action after Jimmy Patterson gave up a three run homer in ninth to Brandon Boggs. Patterson was inevitably pulled from the game and credited with five earned runs.
Mark Thomas crushed a two-run blast in the 10th to give the Rays a 10-7 lead.
This isn’t Rays news, but it’s big news nonetheless, Curtis Granderson fractured his right forearm after getting hit by a pitch Sunday. He’ll be out for 10 weeks.

Click the screenshot for a post game interview with Rays starter, Chris Archer.

The New What Next: Rays Lineup 2/24/13

Rays 2/24/13 starting lineup vs the Twins:

Fuld CF
Rod 2B
Vogt DH
Duncan 1B
Gimenez C
Thompson RF
Bourgeois LF
Fontenot 3B
Archer P

Noteworthiness
Ben Zobrist, initially scheduled to play, is noticeably absent from today’s lineup. Zobrist said he’s fine, and the Rays suggested that he take day off between games. He wanted to play all week to prep for WBC.

Rays End the First Day of Grapefruit League Action 1-1

PORT CHARLOTTE, FL - FEBRUARY 23: Kelly Johnson #2 of the Tampa Bay Rays fields the ground ball and throws to first base during the game against the Pittsburgh Pirates on February 23, 2013 in Port Charlotte, Florida. (Photo by Leon Halip/Getty Images) — PORT CHARLOTTE, FL – FEBRUARY 23: Kelly Johnson #2 of the Tampa Bay Rays fields the ground ball and throws to first base during the game against the Pittsburgh Pirates on February 23, 2013 in Port Charlotte, Florida. (Photo by Leon Halip/Getty Images)

The Rays ended their first day of Grapefruit League action with a 1-1 record, following a 3-2 loss at the hands of Pittsburgh and a 4-3 win against the Red Sox.

It’s kind of hard to note the good, bad, and argyle of the Red Sox game since it wasn’t on the radio, though we are pretty excited to see that Leslie Anderson drove in two runs while going yard, finishing the day 1-2 at the plate. Desmond Jennings also had a good day at the plate, going 2-2 with a run, while Jack Cust went 1-4 on the day.

Steve Slowinski of DRaysBay noted that Leslie Anderson,

Did hit the first homerun of the spring for the Rays…but in the field, I was less than impressed. He seemed awkward at first base and slow to react on grounders. Maybe it was just a bad game for him, but there’s definitely a reason Anderson has remained Triple-A fodder for so long.

Pitching wise, Alex Colome and Brandon Gomes both had good days on the mound, each going an inning and striking out a batter. Colome allowed a walk, while neither gave up a hit.

On the flip side of things, the Rays took a loss to the Pirates. Tampa Bay didn’t score a run until the eighth inning, following a Kiermaier base hit which drove in Weglarz and OF Rich Thompson. Thompson ended the day 1-3 at the plate, while Yunel Escobar and Kelly Johnson each had a hit.

Pitching wise, the Rays looked impressive early on, with Roberto Hernandez, Jeff Niemann, and Fernando Rodney each putting up 1-2-3 innings. Niemann and Rodney looked very impressive, with the tall righty striking out two while showing really good off speed stuff. Rodney struck out the side, shooting the moon as he made his way to the dugout. Enny Romero also looked sharp, going two innings and giving up a pair of hits, while working through a troublesome inning with a pair base runners without relenting a run. Recent acquisition, Mike Montgomery, had a rather tough outing, giving up five hits, a walk, and two runs (both earned) in the sixth.

Line vs Pitsburgh — Box Score (Courtesy of Yahoo Sports)

The Rays will take on the Twins tomorrow in a 1:05 game, in Ft. Myers.

It’s A Great Day For Baseball, Let’s Play Two!

Happy First and Second Games of the Spring day! We figured that we’d share some fun/good news with you to celebrate. We plan to have the Raymones shirts ready to go by opening day. Even better, we’ll be sending them to any who may want one, assuming we can get them printed up beforehand. We’ll be charging the minimal cost of printing and shipping to recoup any, and all, expenses that we may incur. Don’t worry you cheap bastards, they won’t cost much. After all, we’re not trying to make any money from you, dear readers. However, we certainly wouldn’t deny you the privilege of giving us beer or food money.

I digress.

The original mock-up is below. Since the front four pitchers of the rotation (Helly, Price, Moore, and Cobb) have been set, we’ll be replacing Shieldsy’s name with Cobb. We’re also tinkering with the idea of printing the X-Rays Spex logo on the back, just beneath the collar.

We’ll put up pricing and ordering information as we get closer to printing these shirts up. Until then, enjoy the next few weeks while we count down the days until April 2nd.