***OFFICIAL 2018 Tampa Bay Rays MLB Season Thread!***

[Swashy]

Trade rumors for Chris Archer are really ramping up. Looks like the Rays want a top catching prospect if they trade him. Guess it makes sense as the top catcher in our organization(Ronald Hernandez) is still 2-3 years away from the Majors and is only in A ball right now. Kind of hope we get a really good pitching prospect if we trade Archer though to replace him in a couple years. Might not be our priority though as 4 of our top 8 prospects are pitchers

You mean a shortstop right?

[Nano]

Probably lol.

Supposedly the team we've been having the most talks with has been the Padres. Now, Is it a coincidence that they also have the best SS prospect in all of MLB?

[Nano]

Jalen Beeks really sucks. Why did we trade Evoladi for him again?

[Bootz2004]

Jalen Beeks really sucks. Why did we trade Evoladi for him again?

6 years of cheap team control of course.

[SIBucsFan]

Tommy Pham is a very solid and versatile outfielder when he's healthy. I think the people of Tampa Bay are going to like him.

[Swashy]

Rays trade Archer to the Pirates

https://www.mlb.com/news/pirates-deal-f ... =282421090

[Rocker]

What a joke.

[Nano]

We also traded Wilson Ramos for a player to be named later.

[Buc2]

Breaking: Tampa Bay Rays to forfeit the rest of the season.

[Teitan]

That’s fine. It’s time for Archer to go. He’s more worried about looking cool and everyone liking him on social media than he is about keeping his ERA under 4.

[Kress]

The moves look pretty solid to me, at least from the perspective of a Rays fan. This is how we do..... And as far as doing what we do, these were some solid pickups. The only suck was Ramos's injury forcing us to basically beg someone to pay his salary for the rest of the season on our behalf, but that's just bad luck. Oh well. Overall I have no problem with yesterday.

[Alpha]

The moves look pretty solid to me, at least from the perspective of a Rays fan. This is how we do..... And as far as doing what we do, these were some solid pickups. The only suck was Ramos's injury forcing us to basically beg someone to pay his salary for the rest of the season on our behalf, but that's just bad luck. Oh well. Overall I have no problem with yesterday.

Agreed.

I watched the game tonight. I was off and bored.

I REALLY want to support this team. I like the youth movement. I like the talent...these guys are pretty ****ing good. Bowers, Adamas, Snell, Duffy, D-Rob...in a couple of years, when we get our pitching back (DeLeon and Honeywell, etc.), this team is gonna contend. Even in the AL East.

I just can't bring myself to spend money on Slumlord Stewie. He is the new Loria. I can't stand that cheap sumbitch.

[Bootz2004]

The moves look pretty solid to me, at least from the perspective of a Rays fan. This is how we do..... And as far as doing what we do, these were some solid pickups. The only suck was Ramos's injury forcing us to basically beg someone to pay his salary for the rest of the season on our behalf, but that's just bad luck. Oh well. Overall I have no problem with yesterday.

Agreed.

I watched the game tonight. I was off and bored.

I REALLY want to support this team. I like the youth movement. I like the talent...these guys are pretty ****ing good. Bowers, Adamas, Snell, Duffy, D-Rob...in a couple of years, when we get our pitching back (DeLeon and Honeywell, etc.), this team is gonna contend. Even in the AL East.

I just can't bring myself to spend money on Slumlord Stewie. He is the new Loria. I can't stand that cheap sumbitch.

You keep saying the same thing over and over. We get it man.

[Crocaneers]

Swept the Angles today [did this on purpose]
Winner of the last 3
6 -4 over the last 10
3 games over .500


What needs to happen to "have a team"?

[NYBF]

What needs to happen to "have a team"?

I'm no baseballogist, but you might want to get some starting pitchers

[DreadNaught]

It's the new moneyball where we just have bullpen days every game.

Keep the opponents guessing

[Kress]

The reality is that we keep pretty much all positions guessing at all times. I don't have the numbers in front of me, but I heard on the radio that already this year we have now tied our record for most pitchers used in a season. No shocker there. But we have also set a new record for most different roster players used. Even though it's not much past mid-season, with the moves following this recent trade we beat our old record.... which we set in 2017. So basically we stepped up the RPMs on the revolving door we established last year.

All of those moving parts are a big part of what makes it hard to invest. You can root for the logo all you want, but it's hard to get all into "our team" when you can't pin down who is going to be on "our team" this weekend, much less next week or next month.

I bet most relatively-solid Rays fans could, just sitting here, do an admirable job of giving you our starting lineup for the team that went to the Series. Not the batting order, obviously, Joe moved that around too much, but who was in the field and where. Minus pitcher, I can readily think of 6 out of 8, and that was 10 years ago. The other two would likely be "oh yeah!" moments once I googled. Now ask fans to tell you the same thing for tonight's home game against Chicago. Personally, I can think of 3? Maybe 4, but I'm not even sure.

[Buc2]

The reality is that we keep pretty much all positions guessing at all times. I don't have the numbers in front of me, but I heard on the radio that already this year we have now tied our record for most pitchers used in a season. No shocker there. But we have also set a new record for most different roster players used. Even though it's not much past mid-season, with the moves following this recent trade we beat our old record.... which we set in 2017. So basically we stepped up the RPMs on the revolving door we established last year.

All of those moving parts are a big part of what makes it hard to invest. You can root for the logo all you want, but it's hard to get all into "our team" when you can't pin down who is going to be on "our team" this weekend, much less next week or next month.

I bet most relatively-solid Rays fans could, just sitting here, do an admirable job of giving you our starting lineup for the team that went to the Series. Not the batting order, obviously, Joe moved that around too much, but who was in the field and where. Minus pitcher, I can readily think of 6 out of 8, and that was 10 years ago. The other two would likely be "oh yeah!" moments once I googled. Now ask fans to tell you the same thing for tonight's home game against Chicago. Personally, I can think of 3? Maybe 4, but I'm not even sure.

Interesting point, Kress. I was a huge Reds fan back in the late 60s up through much of the 80s. I can still tell you the majority of their starters from their WS win vs Boston in '75 and the win over the Yankees in the '76 WS.

[Deuce]

The reality is that we keep pretty much all positions guessing at all times. I don't have the numbers in front of me, but I heard on the radio that already this year we have now tied our record for most pitchers used in a season. No shocker there. But we have also set a new record for most different roster players used. Even though it's not much past mid-season, with the moves following this recent trade we beat our old record.... which we set in 2017. So basically we stepped up the RPMs on the revolving door we established last year.

All of those moving parts are a big part of what makes it hard to invest. You can root for the logo all you want, but it's hard to get all into "our team" when you can't pin down who is going to be on "our team" this weekend, much less next week or next month.

I bet most relatively-solid Rays fans could, just sitting here, do an admirable job of giving you our starting lineup for the team that went to the Series. Not the batting order, obviously, Joe moved that around too much, but who was in the field and where. Minus pitcher, I can readily think of 6 out of 8, and that was 10 years ago. The other two would likely be "oh yeah!" moments once I googled. Now ask fans to tell you the same thing for tonight's home game against Chicago. Personally, I can think of 3? Maybe 4, but I'm not even sure.

I went to the Saturday game and was thinking this same thing. I haven't watched any games this year but man, I didn't know anyone on our team.

Two questions: What's up with Carlos Gomez? He hit a double early in the game and I think did like a bazooka-type motion toward the dugout. And then he did the "flop" thing when he got hit by a pitch later. Does he just always mess around a lot?

Also, can someone provide some insight on Mallex Smith? He's from Tallahassee and I met him in Publix a few years ago. He was playing for the Braves at the time. I told my Braves fan friend and he was pretty high on him. How is he seen among Rays fans? Sidenote: One of the weirdest conversations I've ever witnessed. He was in the store with his dad. His dad runs into an old friend. They're catching up and doing the classic "is this Mallex? Last time I saw him, he was just a kid." His dad's like "oh yeah, he's playing baseball with the Braves now." to which the other dad says "oh, ok." I feel like if I ran into a friend when I'm older and his kid is playing major league baseball, I'd be like "holy ****, are you kidding?"

[acmillis]

The reality is that we keep pretty much all positions guessing at all times. I don't have the numbers in front of me, but I heard on the radio that already this year we have now tied our record for most pitchers used in a season. No shocker there. But we have also set a new record for most different roster players used. Even though it's not much past mid-season, with the moves following this recent trade we beat our old record.... which we set in 2017. So basically we stepped up the RPMs on the revolving door we established last year.

All of those moving parts are a big part of what makes it hard to invest. You can root for the logo all you want, but it's hard to get all into "our team" when you can't pin down who is going to be on "our team" this weekend, much less next week or next month.

I bet most relatively-solid Rays fans could, just sitting here, do an admirable job of giving you our starting lineup for the team that went to the Series. Not the batting order, obviously, Joe moved that around too much, but who was in the field and where. Minus pitcher, I can readily think of 6 out of 8, and that was 10 years ago. The other two would likely be "oh yeah!" moments once I googled. Now ask fans to tell you the same thing for tonight's home game against Chicago. Personally, I can think of 3? Maybe 4, but I'm not even sure.

I went to the Saturday game and was thinking this same thing. I haven't watched any games this year but man, I didn't know anyone on our team.

Two questions: What's up with Carlos Gomez? He hit a double early in the game and I think did like a bazooka-type motion toward the dugout. And then he did the "flop" thing when he got hit by a pitch later. Does he just always mess around a lot?

Also, can someone provide some insight on Mallex Smith? He's from Tallahassee and I met him in Publix a few years ago. He was playing for the Braves at the time. I told my Braves fan friend and he was pretty high on him. How is he seen among Rays fans? Sidenote: One of the weirdest conversations I've ever witnessed. He was in the store with his dad. His dad runs into an old friend. They're catching up and doing the classic "is this Mallex? Last time I saw him, he was just a kid." His dad's like "oh yeah, he's playing baseball with the Braves now." to which the other dad says "oh, ok." I feel like if I ran into a friend when I'm older and his kid is playing major league baseball, I'd be like "holy ****, are you kidding?"

He is a complete turd of a human being!!!

[Kress]

Also, can someone provide some insight on Mallex Smith?

I like him quite a bit. He should be leading off full time, if you ask me. He has speed up the wazoo, and unlike KK actually puts the ball in play. He doesn't have a lot of power, but has kept his average right around .300 all year and does the whole turn a gap single into a double thing quite regularly. I'm not looking at the numbers, but I don't recall a whole lot of strikeouts. Not enough to stand out, I guess. I have no clue about his arm, so I'm guessing average? I don't know. Again, it hasn't stood out one way or another. Personality wise he seems well liked by the other guys and always looks like he's having fun out there.

[Alpha]

Also, can someone provide some insight on Mallex Smith?

I like him quite a bit. He should be leading off full time, if you ask me. He has speed up the wazoo, and unlike KK actually puts the ball in play. He doesn't have a lot of power, but has kept his average right around .300 all year and does the whole turn a gap single into a double thing quite regularly. I'm not looking at the numbers, but I don't recall a whole lot of strikeouts. Not enough to stand out, I guess. I have no clue about his arm, so I'm guessing average? I don't know. Again, it hasn't stood out one way or another. Personality wise he seems well liked by the other guys and always looks like he's having fun out there.

Is it KK's salary? Because I don't get it.

You, me and my 10 year old nephew know that KK shouldn't be in the lead-off spot.

Yet, Cash keeps slotting him there.

And I'm not bashing Cash...I think he's the right guy for this team...but FML, it's pretty ****ing obvious that Mallex is that guy and KK isn't. Mallex can't play defense worth a **** but this is about getting on base!

WTF is taking this so ****ing long!?

****!

[Alpha]

[quote="Deuce"]
Also, can someone provide some insight on Mallex Smith?

Great offense.

Sucks balls defensively.

That enough for ya?

[Alpha]

I'm no baseballogist, but you might want to get some starting pitchers

I'd say the same for the team with a Billion dollar budget...All-Star pitchers...and 20 ****ing games under .500.

While this team is 1 game OVER .500...and 4/5th's of our starting staff is on the DL and/or recovering from Tommy John surgery.

Met fan needs to keep his face-hole quiet this year.

[Mountaineer Buc]

Is it wrong that I miss the steroid era? Say what you want about the purity of the game, but McGuire, Sosa, Bonds, et al, were damned fun to watch.

[Kress]

Is it wrong that I miss the steroid era? Say what you want about the purity of the game, but McGuire, Sosa, Bonds, et al, were damned fun to watch.

Not at all. That '98 McGuire/Sosa chase was the most interested I've ever been in baseball in my life, and that includes when I was a kid. It really was captivating.

I never really got into Bonds, though. I'm not sure what it is, but him hitting homers was kind of ho-hum to me. Maybe because it lacked the drama of a chase or rivalry?

[Mountaineer Buc]

Is it wrong that I miss the steroid era? Say what you want about the purity of the game, but McGuire, Sosa, Bonds, et al, were damned fun to watch.

Not at all. That '98 McGuire/Sosa chase was the most interested I've ever been in baseball in my life, and that includes when I was a kid. It really was captivating.

I never really got into Bonds, though. I'm not sure what it is, but him hitting homers was kind of ho-hum to me. Maybe because it lacked the drama of a chase or rivalry?

I always got a kick out of Juan Gonzales. Google image search isn't giving me any real good examples of how jacked he got in the late 90's but he got huge and was a pretty good HR hitter as I recall.

[Kress]

I tried it, too, and for some reason it kept pulling up Sammy.






I guess Sosa/Gonzalez = same/same?

[Buc2]

I tried it, too, and for some reason it kept pulling up Sammy.






I guess Sosa/Gonzalez = same/same?

That's what Trump said.

[Mountaineer Buc]

Back when Sammy Sosa was black.