The Rays Tank: Off day odds and ends

With an off day Monday, and a lack of Rays-related news, it was an uneventful start to the week for Tampa Bay fans. (Unless you watch Game of Thrones; in that case...)

Currently 4-1 on this road trip, the team opens a three-game series against the Tigers tonight, with Matt Moore facing Anibal Sanchez. After this trip they'll begin a ten-game homestand, welcoming the Orioles, Red Sox and Royals to the Trop.

Wil Myers watch:

Myers was named the International League Batter of the Week for 5/27-6/2, hitting .423 over that period and leading the IL with four home runs, 15 RBIs and a 1.038 slugging percentage. He's the fourth Bulls player to win a weekly IL award this season, with the previous three being Vincent Belnome, Jake Odorizzi and Alex Colome. Durham leads all clubs with the most recipients of the award.

Welcome to the bigs, Yasiel Puig:

Highly touted Dodgers prospect Yasiel Puig made his Major League debut Monday night, becoming the first Dodgers player with a multi-hit game in his MLB debut since Russell Martin on May 5^th, 2006 when he went two-for-four. Puig also went two-for-four, and made a spectacular throw for a game-ending double play. As Vin Scully put it, "He's got some tools."

Players of the month for May:

AL - Miguel Cabrera: hit .379 (44-for-116) with nine doubles, 12 home runs, 33 RBIs, 23 runs scored, 15 walks; in 28 games. With those numbers, he's the first player to enter June batting at least .340 with 15 home runs and 60 RBIs. He's pretty good.

NL - Domonic Brown: hit .303 (33-for-109) with 12 home runs, 25 RBIs, slugging .699. He also did something bizarre, that had never been done before in the history of Major League baseball: he hit at least 12 home runs in a calendar month, and never drew a single walk. Both the SweetSpot and Grantland took a look at Brown's success this season; much due to the fact that he changed his approach, improving his results and producing a power hitter.

Weird stat of the week:

Shin-Soo Choo has been hit by a pitch 17 times in 264 plate appearances this season. Before this year, he had never been hit more than 17 times in a season and averaged 12 hit by pitches per 150 games for his career. Per HardballTalk, "Choo has been hit more times than the combined totals of 13 teams, and the same number of times as three other teams." If he continues at this HBP rate, he is on pace to be hit a whopping 48 times, the third-most in MLB history behind Hughie Jennings (51 in 1896) and Ron Hunt (50 in 1971).

Links:

- "Just shut the [expletive] up and pitch." - Kirk Gibson

- Billy Hamilton, still fast.

- If your heart doesn't break a little for Ramon Ortiz, I'm not sure you have a soul.