Tag Archives: Yunel Escobar

Looking Backward While Moving Forward: All Hail Kings David, Escobar, and Zobrist

It was a hallmark type game that you’ve come to expect out of the Rays, a game that had everything: excellent pitching, outstanding defense, and a scrappy offense that was able to push across five runs — all on base hits. Tampa Bay again moved a game closer to owning sole possession of first place Wednesday night, with a 5-1 win against its AL East rivals Boston. Handcuffing the Red Sox, the Rays made a four run deficit feel like a wide chasm that was impossible to cross. And to be fair, it was an impossible chasm to cross when you consider that nothing was getting by the Gold Glove caliber infield of Longoria/Escobar/Zobrist/Loney. I’ll highlight (below) a few things that I may have neglected to talk about in our live blogged coverage of last night’s game, on our Tumblr page.

This Week in Rays Baseball: A Status Report at the Half-Way Point

The Rays have had an interesting first half of the season. Filled with exceeded expectations and dashed hopes, Tampa Bay has played the role of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde well. They’ve been both dominant and anemic offensively, have had good starting pitching no starting pitching whatsoever, and the same can be said about the bullpen. In this edition of This Week in Rays Baseball, we’ll take a brief look at the first 81 games of the season, and see how the 2013 Rays compare to the Rays of the previous two seasons.

Hot-Stove: A Winter Meetings update of sorts

It’s been an interesting last couple of days. First the Rays acquired James Loney from the Boston Red Sox, signing him to a one year, $2MM contract. Then late last night Tampa Bay signed Yunel Escobar to a one year, $5MM contract with two $5MM options for 2014 and 2015. Former Ray Jeff Keppinger signed …

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Hot-Stove: Tampa Bay close to a deal with SS Yunel Escobar (Updated)

Update: Rays beat writer Marc Topkin tweeted that the Rays have acquired former Blue Jays shortstop Yunel Escobar late last night. Topkin also confirmed what we speculated, “With Escobar as the every day SS, the Rays will restore Zobrist to the multi-position role, playing OF, 2B and some SS.” We’ll have more on this acquisition …

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