December 16th in Rays History, Plus Tank!

Welcome to the Rays Tank!

Where MOM is traded for a reliever and catchers lead off!

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In 2014, the Rays traded Matt Joyce who had spent the past six seasons with the Rays and even had an all-star campaign in 2011 to the Los Angeles Angels for relief pitcher, Kevin Jepsen. During Joyce's time with Tampa Bay, he served as the left handed side of a platoon in right field, while displaying some excellent numbers during the month of May.

The Rays are the clear winners of this trade as Matt Joyce posted negative WAR for the Angels then became a free agent following the year. Meanwhile, Jepsen was a workhorse in the backend of the Rays bullpen, however he had some memorable poor performances and was somewhat responsible for the Rays downfall. At the trade deadline, Jepsen was dealt to the Twins for two decent pitching prospects, meaning the Rays are still profiting off the trade, meanwhile Joyce is moving on to a new organization.

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Trivia TIme!

The answer to yesterday's question was coincidentally, Matt Joyce, answered first by Ian Malinowski

Today's prospect:

"He has supreme catch-and-throw skills, throwing out 43 percent of minor league basestealers in 2002. He projects to hit 15-25 homers annually in the majors, and was leading the Double-A in RBIs when he was promoted."

Hint: wasn't in Rays system at time of report

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There are 109 days until Opening Day!

That's the same number of games that John Jaso played in during the 2010 season.

Here's a clip from one the game in which he led it off with a homer

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Links!

- Details on Jonathan Papelbon's no-trade list were reported, and the Rays are not on it. Which means he could be traded to the Rays without his approval.

- Nationals injured relief pitcher Aaron Barrett recently opened up about his usage (or over usage) and how he thinks that might have lead to his elbow injury. Pitcher management is an interesting topic, especially so for the Nats and new manager Dusty "pitch em until their arm falls off" Baker.

- Former Colorodo Rockies pitcher Jeff Francis announced his retirement, and Paul Swydan of Fangraphs takes a look back at Francis' 2007 NL playoff run season.

- Phil Rogers of MLB.com argues his case on how to fix the Save stat (big key being switching to Win Probability Added).

- Cool infographic from Yahoo!Sports about the various ways and means that Cuban baseball players defected to the US.

- Logan Morison is already showing he can bring the Brawlfence, even if it's just in a charity whiffleball game and it is against Sam Fuld. Do save a little for the Sox, LoMo.

- Random Ray of the Day!

- Please sign our petition to help bring back the team's original uniforms for a game in 2016.

- Need a baseball fix Enjoy game 163 from 2013