A mere two days before the official start of Spring Training, the Tampa Bay Rays hosted their 20th annual Fan Fest at Tropicana Field. The X-Rays Spex crew was in tow (myself, Ian, and Adam) — along with 16,000 other, eager fans — and we collectively documented some of the sites and sounds from the unofficial kickoff to the 2015 season.
Per usual, the Rays hosted a good number of fan forums with coaches, players, and announcers. They, however, deviated from the norm somewhat and hosted a forum on sabermetrics between Neil Solandz (Rays Radio Network) and James Click (Rays Director of Research and Development). Discussed were the Rays use of advanced statistics to not only build a roster, but to get and/or maintain an edge on teams like the Yankees and Red Sox who can outspend Tampa Bay. Despite a tired arm from holding my phone up for 18+ minutes, I captured the discussion which you can see below.
Please excuse the orientation of the video and any shakiness.
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All told, version 2015 of Fan Fest was yet another success. The challenge for the Tampa Bay Rays is to sustain that enthusiasm throughout the course of the season.
I wrote about the Matt Silverman/Kevin Cash pre-Spring Training presser Friday. Unfortunately I didn’t have any streaming audio or video from the press conference then. Low and behold I do now, thanks to our friends at DRaysBay. You can see those video clips, which include bulleted insights from Ian Malinowski, below.
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- “We’re going to be a very good defensive club, especially in the outfield.” True.
- Silveman said that the struggles offensively last year were not so much about not creating chances, but about not capitalizing on them. He said that they’ll be fine if they can “capitalize on [their opportunities] more with a more balanced lineup.” There are a lot of things balance can mean, but replacing Jose Molina with someone who is not Jose Molina is surely a part of that.
- For reference, the Rays were last in the American League in runs scored last year, and were in a four-way tie for second to last in wOBA, which is not park-adjusted. But when you throw in the adjustment by using wRC+, they were eighth, so there’s some truth to Silverman’s assertion that they’ll be okay offensively.
- Kevin Cash is not committing to running the offense any particular way.
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- Matt Silverman says that the AL East is difficult.
- Matt Silverman says that predictions will probably be wrong.
- Kevin Cash hasn’t seen much of Rene Rivera yet, but he says that from what he’s seen, Rivera is very good at communicating with his pitchers.
- Matt Silverman is excited about improving the pace of play.
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- Kevin Cash is excited about getting to see everyone, everything is good, nothing is a problem.
- Cash says that guys will hit in “similar spots [in the lineup] to get them some stability.”
- Matt Silverman “will make sure that they don’t get too swayed” by spring training performances. (In other news, what quad-A player will we get into arguments on the site over this season after he has a good spring? Suggest and vote in comments)
- Kevin Cash can be funny.
*Italics denote the words of Malinowski.
Noteworthiness
- Marc Topkin mentioned three very good questions that beg to be answered going into Spring Training the other day. I have a couple of questions to add to that list. I’ll be working on that piece shortly.