Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 112 | Tampa Bay Rays | Profile & Projection

Episode Date: March 14, 2020

Tampa was a tough out for Houston in the ALDS last season. Do the Rays have enough dudes in this lineup to take them to the next level? Let's talk about their chances this year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Yeah, it's another team profile and projection episode a day, every day, until opening day. And today, we're talking about the rays. Ray up, Jake, a little ray of sunshine, a little AL East team in contention to do some good things. You like the rays. Love the rays. I love the fact that the A's and rays were back to back in this. I love the Rays, man. They, um, and, you know, we did some parallels between the A's and the Rays, East Coast, West Coast, worldwide from the club to the park and lot.

They don't have the dudes in the lineup that the A's can scare you with. I mean, a Maddie Chapman, a Matt Olson, uh, Simeon. But, uh, they have a couple dudes, Austin Meadows. If he can get better, he's going to be a scary guy. Plus, he's a friend of the program. And their arms are special, scary dudes. Like, if it comes together, I think the race may be the first team that, like, for the, so we talked about this a little bit.

For the A's, for everything to come together, and it's how baseball works. Like, the A's can win a World Series. We've covered a couple teams that can win a World Series. But they'd need a lot of stuff to break their way. Like, the Rays, if they just have a couple things going to. go right. They are a very legitimate World Series contender. The Ray's arms are much better than the A's arms. I mean, they're frightening.

IMO. They're arms that can be nationals-level quality like we saw last year. I mean, Glass, no, my guy, Snell is, you know, a year removed from a sigh young. Charlie Martin. Mm-hmm. Charlie? We haven't even mentioned Yolly Trinos.

Can I tell you something a little crazy about? Love the race. Can you tell you something a little crazy about the raise? Tell me something crazy. Their 40-man roster, guess how many of them are homegrown? 38. 12. Homegrown.

Oh, okay. Guess how many are trades? 12, 14, and then it's 26. On the nose, 26 trades. Yeah. Two free agents. What did they do this off season? They had sneaky one of the busiest offseason.

They sneak around. They're sneaky. Check out this. I'll go through it real quick. Sneak balls. Mani Margoe acquired from the Padres. Love it. Acquired from the Padres.

Jose Martinez acquired from the Cardinals. Randy AraZarina acquired from the Cardinals. Cal Stevenson acquired from the Astros. Payton Baddenfield acquired from the Astros. I don't know those guys. Hunter Renfro acquired from the Padres. Xavier Edward Slaptic Prospect acquired from the Padres. Brian O'Grady acquired from the Astros.

acquired from the Reds. Curtis Mead acquired from the Phillies. I know some of those names we don't care about, but I'm just saying they had a busy off season. They do things. They have to operate differently. They don't even play in a baseball stadium. They do things differently, and they figured it out.

And it's also, it's kind of ridiculous and, well, I don't want to give away my over-under later, but the teams that operate more efficiently in baseball, the Oakland Athletics, the Rays, some of the bigger teams have adopted that, the Yankees, the Braves, the Dodgers. And now we're talking about the powerhouses in Major League Baseball. Grow a farm, make some sneaky trades, be efficient,

and then what those other teams can do is at a Giancarlo Stanton or at a Mookie Betts or whoever it is. The Rays and the A's can't do that. Again, that she's not do. The Rays, maybe not. The A's ownership. Well, the GM can't, the ownership can. Yes.

So that's a whole other thing for another time. But yeah, man, I mean, the raise have a young core of really good players. They always have more talent on the way. And they just have like a cycle at this point. Like they traded Tommy Fam because they knew Tommy Fam's got two years left. So they got value for them and they were never going to be able to resign them. So they kept it moving. And it sucks if you're the raise.

And that's the whole Blake Snell slap dick prospect. but that's how the rays have to operate. And guess what? They're really good at it. They also lost. You said they lost Tommy Fan. They also lost Emilio Pagan. It's Pagan Ways.

They lost, there's a couple other losses here. They, where was it? Travis Darno. Avicel Garcia Darno. Sogarde. Matt Duffy is gone. So there's just some names that, you know, They added all the trades.

They also added Jake's guy, Yoshi Sutsugo. I'm not going to say I'm the biggest Yoshisusugo fan out there. I think you can say you're the biggest Yoshi Sutsugo fan in the South Bronx. As of right now. As of right now, yeah. There's a chance. I don't know. I think you could claim that.

Okay. I mean, I will. I'll claim much more than that. But he's, like, I'm assuming his family likes him more than... But they don't know. They're not in South Bronx. But again, I watch the height. video. Yeah. And I am all in on Yoshi Susugo. And he played a song at spring training when he

comes to hit that sounds like he's saying Susugo. I forget what it is. But yeah, I mean, if he can be an impact for, and again, so we talk about teams that do things differently. The Rays basically are going to try to mix match you to death. Austin Meadows is going to start every game. Hopefully Yandi Diaz can take a step for them as he did in the playoff game. Kiermeyer, They're going to roll out there every day because he is special defensively, probably Willie Adamas, because he actually did some really nice things at shortstop last year. But they can do lefty-righty stuff that can torture you on a certain day. They have Brandon Lau, Nate Lau, G-Man Choi, Susugo, who are lefties,

and then they have guys like Hunter Renfro, Yandi Diaz, Mani Margo, Jose Martinez. The Rays are going to show you every combination. They can mix and match with the best of them, because that's how they're, have to operate. And again, like I said, they're really good with it. And we personally live in fear when the Reyes make a trade because they are a well-run organization. So when you see someone like Manny Margoe come over, who's a former big-time prospect,

you know, you wonder what they can get out of him. He's special defensively. Hunter Renfro kills left-handed pitching. So the Rays are probably going to maximize that where the Padres kind of tried to make him an everyday guy and it didn't work out great for him. So I don't know. I mean, their lineup is going to be tough on a given day. They can mix and match with the best of them.

And same with all of their pitching throughout the bullpen. You are just a big fan boy. I really am, man. I think the A's and the Rays are both underrated. And man, like I was trying to say, and I said really weirdly at the top, because I didn't plan on saying it at all. But, like, we haven't even dove into the pitching yet. But if Tyler Glassnow, Charlie Morton, and Ian Snell, Blake Snell.

Ian Snell. Ian Snell is a former pitcher that, like, didn't pan out, but I always reference him. I used to play with him in my nerdy baseball game. What about 2A. McKay? You're adding him to the list? 2A. McKay can be good. I'm not expecting him to be special pitching-wise yet. Glass-no, Morton, Snell.

If they're at the peak of their powers come playoff times, nobody wants to play that team. No, no. That's what I was saying about the A's. Their pitching doesn't scare you. Like the Rays can. But the Rays, I mean, they arguably have the best pitching staff in baseball. There's a lot.

Like, Snell's had one good season. Glass now hasn't even had it. That's a young level season. Amazing. Yeah. But then he was hurt and he's coming off some injuries. Like, if they're firing on all cylinders, yes, top three, easy argument to do it.

But, like, you got to wait out and see some of that. On paper. And, like, projected paper, not even result paper. Ryan Yarbrose are close and good friend. Yeah, Yarbrose is awesome. I like Yarbrough. This is the song that Susudo comes up to. You ready?

Yeah. It's Phil Collins. Oh, what's the lyric? Susu-sudio. Studio. Yeah. I mean, he didn't choose that. Someone chose that for him, but that's a good move by him.

Maybe it found him when he was overseas. I don't know. I mean, when Hadeki Matsui, his walk-up music, because he didn't care. So the Yankee music people, would just play Billy Joel. He loves to Billy. I knew that would get the people going. Matsui likes porn and hiding home runs.

Damn. What is this? What is this? Drinking milk? Yeah. Nice. Good for you. Coach ballgame.

Shout out. Ooh. Ooh. I mean, who's their fifth starter? That turned on you fast. Right now they have it listed as Charlie Morton, Tyler Glassnow, Yanni Chorinos, Ryan Yarborough, and Trevor Richards. That's excluding.

Blake Snell, who has been nicked up at spring training. So if Snell's there, they have like a legit five-man rotation, and they may not even be opening and bulking that much. Because they did it with Yanni and they did it with Yerbrough for a while as they were like easing them into innings limits and like the season and their professional careers. But both those guys did so well that they broke through and just became starters. So are we not, are the raise not going to be?

Are they going to be more traditional? additional with starters and relievers? It'll be interesting to see. Charlie Morton has proven that he's, you know, good enough that he, you're not going to mess with any of that bullshit. Yeah, I mean, he started 33 games. Last No is a special talent that you're also not going to mess with that. You want him to get into a routine and do what he can do.

Yanni, I think you could still mess around with a little bit. Yanni's funky in what he does. So maybe Yard Rour or two. But, yeah, Snell, when he's right, you're not going to do that. So I think they'll still do it, you know, tasteful discretion is the name of the game, baby. But no, I mean, they don't need to. They don't need to because of the Chris Archer trade, if we're being completely honest. Yeah, so at the end of last season, Yarbrough started, he started his last 12 games or something like that.

Nine games. He started his last nine games. So once they were like, you're a starter now. And I think Yanni was the same thing. And dude, right now in AAA, they have. have, they currently have listed McKay, Honeywell Jr., the former top prospect, who's, who's been on a hellish rehab journey. But, I mean, if he can do what he used to do, he's, he's a special pitcher. Jalen Beaks, the guy they got back in the Nate Voli trade, he's already been up in pitching at the Major League level to a decent quality level. Like, they have eight deep starting

pitchers if they really want. And that's what you need to get through a baseball season. And like if Jalen Beaks, Brent Honeywell or Brendan McKay were a fifth starter on a team, we'd be like, nice. Yeah, not bad. And those, currently that's three of their AAA rotation as listed on fan graphs. I mean, that could, when the rosters officially get announced, that could change pretty quickly. But, I mean, the race. All right, so what about their lineup? Like, you have, they projected as Low, Meadows, Diaz, Choi, Renfro as the fifth,

suit Sutsugo as the six. Adomis, Kiermeier, and you know, that's top heavy. Kiermire's not going to give you much. I mean, that's just being honest. Kiermire's not going to give you much offensively. Willie Adamas, maybe.

Hunter Renfrew, like, has he? So he kills lefties. He's not very good against Rides. But again, but this is Ray's baseball. So Joey Wendell right now is on the bench and he can give you a quality at bat. He's probably going to get some at Bats v. Rarities.

They have Nate Lowe or Lowe. I forget how the lows and LOWs on Tampa. There's two of them and they're different. There's third. There's a top prospect of theirs is on the way. Another low. L-O-W-E? Yes.

And there's a nightmare. There's multiple pronunciations. You can't do that to us. Bullshit. The race just are, their offensive game plan is they're going to switch you to death. If you start a left-handed pitcher, they're going to bring in Manny Margo,

Jose Martinez. Man, it'd be interesting to see if Jose Martinez could get a full year of at-bats because he's been pretty good with the stick, but he's been in the National League, and they don't have a DH. So, yeah, I just think they're going to switch it up on you, and that's the game the race play. Renfro's good versus lefties. Yes. I mean, you don't see as many lefties, so it's a bad, the worst side of the split.

Right. Like, I think he's going to be a strict platoon. You know, I think Mani Margo, I mean, him and Kiermeyer, there were some rumors about a two-man outfield because those guys cover some of the most ground in the game. I just think Austin Meadows is a lock. He's a special talent.

He's a middle of the lineup on every team kind of guy. Yandi will see if he can be that for the raise. He had the special playoff performance. And Brandon Lowe, Lowe, you know, He's supposed to be a talented guy, but it's Ray's baseball. They have all of the pitching they want, and they just feel on a given day they're going to left right you to the death. Pitching and hitting. Cash was fun.

Breaking news. My sister just had her second child. Welcome to the world. Edison. Edison? Yeah. Like the light bulb? Mm-hmm.

Nice. Thomas. Yeah. Thomas Edison. Yeah. Yeah. It's cool. Sorry.

I'm happy for it. Is Edison the first name? Yes. Are we going Ed? Eddie, maybe? Eddie. I don't know. Ike and Edison.

I can Ed. I can Ed. I can Ed. Their rules is they don't want any name that's in the top 100 baby names. Right. And then they also, like, Jewish thing, it has to be after the most recent relative that died. Has to the same letter. So it had to be an Eke.

So we knew it was an Eke coming in. We knew as an Eke. Okay. I thought they were going to go Eke. I can Eke. I can Eke. Yeah, that would be cool. Ezekiel

Ezekiel But that's probably in the top 100 Ezekiel Ezekiel Is that what you meant to say Ezekiel That's pronounced Ezekiel Right

You go either way with it He's saying you can't I thought we didn't want to name In the top 100 Ezekiel Yeah That's a bizarre pronunciation Of Ezekiel

It can't be in the top 100 I thought these were the rules Same spelling I was putting an E at the end Bookend E's What? You had the front wrong, not the background. I'm trying to be weird with it, man.

Congrats to your sister. Talk about the race for once. You haven't said anything yet. It's just been me blabbering. I hate their stadium. Oh, here's something very important that I'm the biggest change I'm hoping to see with the race. Yeah. Is a switch at whoever controls their social media.

Because whoever runs the race Twitter is an embarrassment to baseball. Go on. I think it's like a soccer mom. Like it comes off very like... Offensive in a way? Yeah, it comes up very like a mom trying to talk trash with her teenage sons. Right. And the son is like so embarrassed.

Right. And that's how I'm the son in the situation. Okay. I'm just like, Jesus Christ, you guys are bad. So. But I'm scared of them as a Yankee fan. Not incredibly scared because a lot has to break right with the pitching. Like they haven't, like what we're saying, like, what we're saying, like,

Snell, Morton, Glassnow, Yarbrough, like... Does it? Yeah. It's never happened. Those three guys, Charlie Morton's the only rock right now. Like, Snell is battling injuries right now, coming off battling injuries. Right, but even, okay, let's put Glasnow and Snell in a bucket. Snell's won a sigh young, but he got hurt.

We'll see what that is. Glassnow is as talented as they come. He also got hurt. I mean, Yanni Trinos and Yarbrer are going to keep you in every game. Yeah. If not do better than that. Charlie Morton's really good. So, I mean, if you've got both of those guys as a coin flip, let's say you get one.

I mean, the raise are still going to pitch. And even if they don't, I mean, we talked about the AAA. I mean, they've got McKay, Honeywell, and Beaks waiting. Yeah, but we're not comparing them. We're past the point of thinking about regular season. Like, this team will be in the playoffs, I think. Wild card game or whatever. So all I'm thinking about is comparing them to the upper echelon of teams.

They're going to be able to pitch either way. I don't know. I can see them reying themselves out if there's, like, injuries and they're battling with it. But if everyone's healthy and pitching to their ability, I think they have one of the best rotations all of baseball. I just don't think that's a lock. I think Charlie Morton is the only guy that's a lock for that. Yeah, I just feel like we're, as we're getting to the- Like Yarbrose. I feel like as we get to the upper echelon teams, you could say that with every team. No, because, like, I'm saying that besides Morton and Snell. Okay.

Those are the only two pitchers that have pitched a full season of good starting pitching. I mean, Trino's and Yarborough. They've never been 30 games starting pitchers or 25 games starting pitchers. I mean, that's because the race have doctored with them. Exactly. They've thrown innings. Like, they've thrown enough innings to qualify for that. Like, Yarborough's got two full seasons.

He just got abused the raise way. Yeah, but maybe the mix and match helps him. I don't know. Like, Turinos, Trino's threw a buck 33 innings last year, which. Yeah, and at the end, they, The Yarborough, they went back. Yeah. I'm just still saying, like, we still haven't seen it.

Okay. And they got rid of Stannock, their opener. So, like, who's going to be their opener now? That's fine. I'm not really worried about that. Their bullpen's still really good. And their bullpen will be good. It's crazy good.

They're both, like, I don't care. They could have lost all their players from the pen last year and replace them with, like, eight new bullpen guys. And I'd still be like, well, that's going to be good. Just because that's how they operate. Anderson broke out for them in a crazy way last year. Diego Castillo's dirty. Alvarado's dirty.

Chas Roe has the craziest slider in baseball. Colin Poshay and Oliver Drake are like weird, lefty, righty, sicko versions of each other. So where's their weak spot? Because I think their weak spot is the lineup. It's the back end of the line. It's the lineup being able to put together runs in a playoff series. Yeah. Because, you know, in playoff, you're going to pull the pitcher when they're done.

and whoever the rays bring out of the pen, I guess that's what I'm saying. Whoever the rays bring out of the pen is going to be able to pitch. I agree with that. So it's just who can get hits on this team, and I think that's the difference between the Rays and the A's. The A's, you know when that lineup circles around, and you have to go through Simeon, Chapman, handsome strong boy at first base,

and potentially Luriano, if he could take a step up. With this Rays lineup right now, it's Austin Meadows or bust. Like, is Susugo going to take the leap? Is Brandon Lau, low, Yandi Diaz? Like, none of those other guys do it for you. And, like, Choi, what's... I mean, G-Man, Choi is a nice and okay ball player, but I think, you know, there's a chance in a playoff game

he could be batting cleanup for them. And that's just not... I mean, yeah. That's not where you need to be. Choi was his first full season last year. Yeah. Yeah, the lineup's interesting. It is a lot.

It's Meadows and Diaz. And put the pitching staff with the A's lineup, and I'm happy. Oh, yeah. Agree. And then you mix and match the bullpen. That'd be nasty. A little bit. That'd be an awesome team, yes.

I agree. If you combine those two teams, they would be an awesome team. Sucks that Kiermire doesn't do, like, anything worth a bat. I mean, he's a really. round. He gets a couple homers. He steals a couple bags. The base running thing. Who's the better, J.B.J. and Keirmeyer, two NL. East, center holders that are basically defense, right? Pretty much. Who's the better bat between the two of them? Oh, Lifetime?

Holy shit. Holy shit. Look at this. They were both, they were both started their major league career in 2013 when they were 23 years old. Sure. And they both are still playing 2019 at 29. So like their comparison. I don't know the game's played there, but I'm comparing the two of them. J.BJs played more games. Good amount more games.

But, dude, they're really similar. They're really similar players. Kiermire has the better batting average. And J.BJ. has the better on base percentage. And they both have 720 OPSs. Should you look at that. I knew they were both defense first center fielders, but I didn't realize their stats are kind of that similar.

Kind of makes sense. You need to hit at like a minimal level to be allowed to play defense at their level every day. Yeah, but it's below average offense. Keir Meyers is 98 OPS Plus and JBJ is 92 OPS Plus. Su Suu Yeah. Suu Suu go. Who has made more money in their career? I lean

I lean Kierremeyer because they paid them earlier That's just a salary And it says that J.BJ gets 20 million in Kiermire 8th So I don't know total earnings Similar guys What else you got on the race

Scared of them and not scared of them At the same time It's going to be interesting What Ray's team comes into the playoffs Yeah And injuries And I mean I'll take this to Negativeville a little bit because we mentioned Austin Meadows.

I mean, like if he wasn't in this lineup, he gets nicked up. And you're putting in Manny Margo or someone like that. Yeah, it gets bad. I mean, that lineup gets bad quick. Like, I mean, a significant drop from a lot of the teams we've seen lately. Do they have any offensive guys coming up? So they do have the top prospect in baseball, Wander Franco. They say he's two years away.

It'll be interesting to see if he rakes if the rays get the itch to call him up a little. Can Brandon McKay hit? I have no idea. There's another low low low low low. Rowe's arena who's having a really nice spring. He's an outfielder for them. Do we think there's like a raise trade to be made? Always.

But like a big one. Like we're the raise and we're here to compete. No. They want to out. They want to, they want to, they want. Like, here's a couple big prospects. Let's get Frankie Lindor. I think it's almost against, against their, like, code to make the big splash.

They can't make that part of what they do. They're like, we don't do that. Because then if it works, they have to make big splashes. Yes. And they can't do that. Yeah, you can't even open that jar of pickles. Otherwise, you're just eating pickles nonstop. Charlie Morton's a free agent.

Or no, he's got a club option. They're not going to be sellers, guaranteed. I mean, I guarantee you, but there's no way. No. They're going to be buyers, but, I mean, even if they're buyers, they probably do some three-way trade shit because they're the raise. They are the raise. I mean, that's all, though.

Those are the only two guys. They don't have anyone that's going to be a free agent in 2021 because it's such a young team. They have two guys, Charlie Morgan and Mike Zunino, who have a club option. Sure. That's all. You can think they're going to flip your boy Susugo? Don't say stuff like that I mean they sign him to a two-year deal

Yeah What if he's fucking phenomenal And at the end of this season He's got one year left The Rays just flip him I think they just use him for his two years Say it was an incredible signing and move on Protect him with a draft pick

Yeah It'd be funny if they flipped him Just like his audition to the MLB And now they're going to make money off of him Or whatever Business All right What's their overall?

Over Under, do you have it? Give Jose Martinez some at bats. Like watching him play. Me too. It looks like a pitcher hitting. Not, but he's good. But he's good. No, I know what you're saying. I didn't, I didn't mean like his swing or anything. It just the way he stands in the box. He's tall. Tall and lanky. He looks like a pitcher. It wasn't an insult. It wasn't an insult. It's about that. But I'm not saying he's bad. Right. I'm saying physically. I'm going over. Don't care what the number is. Number is 97. That's not right. It's not right. It's not Right, yeah, I made that up. I'm trying to find it.

Because the one that we have are off now. I've had to peeve pretty bad this entire episode. Okay. 96. Oh, no, no, they won 96 last year. The overrunners 90 and a half. With sale being hurt, the Orioles sucking, and not fully believing the Blue Jays yet, but they'll be fun.

I think that it's going to be a two-team division. I think the race will go over 90. Yeah, I just don't get why, like, if the raise and the A's didn't have, their team names. I think both of these teams would have higher over-unders. I'm going over. This team won 96 games. And like you said, I don't think a lot of the division dynamics will change too, too much. And yeah, I mean, if Sasugo is good, if Manny Margo is good, they, you know, they lost Tommy Fam, who was a staple at the top of the lineup. But I think they got pieces to replace him. And I think the pitching staff has more potential to be better this year. So I'm over.

Easy. Pitching staff has way more potential to be over. And I injuries happen, setbacks happen, bad seasons happen. So I just don't think you can pencil it in as like those five guys are going to be studs. They have the ability to do it. I'm a little more hesitant that it's actually all going to come to fruition. Yeah. I just, in my head, I think we're going to be saying that about more pitching staffs than we currently think. Oh, I think you say that about all pitching stats. Right. Yeah.

Right, right. Yeah. All right. Cool. See you, Rays. See you later, Rays. Bye, Rays. Go Rays.

Fix your Twitter account. Ray up. Ray up. Ray Lamananjee. La Mantean. Ezekiel.