It’s time for the second edition of This Week in Rays Baseball. We’ll do our best to recap all of the happenings with your Tampa Bay Rays from the past week.
- The Rays made their first round of cuts Saturday, reassigning four players to minor-league camp: Nevarez, Paduch, Patterson, Schenk. They’re expected to make their second round of cuts Monday.
- Luke Scott and Sam Fuld both missed time because of hamstring issues. Scott should be back in the lineup Monday, though it’s unknown when Fuld will return. Fuld’s spot on the opening day lineup is not in jeopardy. Tim Beckham is out indefinitely, following an injury incurred Friday when he was hit in face by thrown ball. The incident happened Friday on back field at the Rays training complex. Beckham, who received stitches under right eye, noted that it was scary incident but it could have been worse, and expects to miss only couple days. Finally, Desmond Jennings rolled his ankle in Saturday’s game, though he should be back in the lineup Monday as well.
- We took the show on the road Tuesday, where we watched the Rays take on the Twins in Ft. Myers. The game was great, the weather was outstanding, and I learned a valuable lesson when watching baseball outside: wear sunblock. You can read the tweet by tweet account of the game via our official Twitter feed, and see a scrapbook of photos from the game via our official Flickr photostream.
- We got news Wednesday, that Mark Teixeira is out for 8-10 weeks with a strained right wrist. With the loss of big Tex along with the loss of Curtis Granderson, I think the Yankees are effectively neutered for 2013.
- We combined forces with All Sports Talk as a means to dominate the blogosphere — I mean, contribute a piece on the Rays for their AL East preview.
- Both Alex Cobb and Chris Archer had outstanding performances on the bump this week. The first Rays’ starter to be stretched out to four innings, Cobb allowed only one hit and walked none, while striking out five. He also induced five groundouts, which are his specialty. Chris Archer followed Alex Cobb and put up three shutout innings where he walked two, but didn’t allow a hit. Archer also struck out three in his 41 pitch (22 for strikes) outing where he posted a 54% K/BB percentage. True it may be meaningless since this is only Spring Training, but Chris Archer has a 0.00 ERA in Grapefruit League play. That’s pretty cool if you ask me.
- Kyle Farnsworth finally took the hill for the Rays Friday against the Phillies. Farnsworth worked a 1-2-3 inning while hitting 92 mph on the stadium radar gun. He noted that there are no current concerns about his previously balky right elbow.
- The Rays took on the Phillies for the second straight day Saturday, unleashing a 15-run offensive onslaught that gave Tampa Bay their eleventh win of the 2013 Grapefruit League season. They’ve amassed more Spring Training wins in 2013 then all of 2012. Oh yeah, this happened in Saturday’s game.
- Ben Zobrist killed it in Sunday’s WBC matchup between the USA and Canada.
- Rays primary owner, Stu Sternberg, noted that he is optimistic about his negotiations for a new stadium, but says nobody wants to hear him talking about stadium things so he will focus on baseball. So yes, dear friends, he talked about the stadium saga while trying not to talk about it at all.