The GBT - The Good, The Bad and The Telling sandwich, where The Bad is nice and lean and the The Telling is ripe.
RAYS 8, Mets 4 (boxscore)
THE GOOD: The Rays wore light blue socks in honor of Grant Balfour’s father who recently passed away. The elder Balfour was a long-time GM of the Sydney Blue Sox and was considered an instrumental figure in the rise of baseball in Australia. More photos below…Nathan Karns made a strong case for the 5th spot in the rotation, pitching 4 perfect innings this weekend. With Alex Colome now out with pneumonia, Karns would have to be seen as a lock to make the opening day roster unless something unexpected happens.
THE BAD: Alex Colome just can’t catch a break. After missing the start of camp with visa issues, The Horse is now out with pneumonia. He was a long shot to be ready for opening day as it was. Now it is probably impossible…Nick Franklin is now up to 7 hits on the spring. But he is still at 8 strikeouts and no walks. He and Tim Beckham have combined for a 15-to-0 strikeout to walk ratio this spring.
THE TELLING: Today is a scheduled off-day…Drew Smyly is expected to miss his first start of the season but could be ready for the second time through the rotation. The Rays won’t need a 5th starter the first time through so there may not be a need to replace him with a starting pitcher…Steven Souza played first, which could give the Rays a right-handed option at the position…The latest round of cuts included pitchers Grayson Garvin, Jose Dominguez, Dylan Floro, Robert Zarate, infielders Ryan Brett, Hak-Ju Lee, and catcher Luke Maile.
THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…
- Kevin Cash is indeed making $1 million per year in his 5-year contract with the Rays. That was right in the range we expected when I wrote last week about what a great deal the contract is. [TampaBay.com]
- Matt Silverman could add a starting pitcher or two, but that may be more to add depth at triple-A and may not affect the big league roster. [Roger Mooney]
- John Jaso is not sure if he can catch if the Rays were to need an emergency catcher. Jaso is recovering from concussions he first suffered in 2013. [TampaBay.com]
- Ken Rosenthal predicts Rays will win 75 games. [JABO]
- Catcher Justin O’Conner tops MLB.com’s list of top Rays prospects. The next four are all players who have been added to the organization in the last year. [MLB.com]
- A preview of the Rays by CBSSports.com. [CBSSports.com]
More photos from today’s @SydneyBlueSox tribute to the late David Balfour: pic.twitter.com/qstaOcLlAq
— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) March 15, 2015
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3 Comments
Rosenthal is a doofus
Those socks should be permanent
As far as our Starting Rotation goes, our pitchers are so young with so few innings in 2014 under their belt as a baseline, even if Karns stays healthy, Colome recovers quickly and nobody else gets injured (unlikely) it will be all hands on deck to cover the SP innings until Moore gets back.
Colome will remain a SP until roster expansion even under the best case scenario. Thats what the DL is for and the Rays are very creative at exploiting it.
March is about staying healthy and finding a rhythm by April