When we first caught wind that the Rays might be signing Orioles utility man Steve Pearce, my first reaction was a sigh of relief. Others on the masthead felt the same way. For some reason, the very name strikes fear -- nay, respect -- in the heart of a Rays fan.
Steve Pearce is a Rays killer; or he was, at least in his time with Baltimore. This begged a question: "who has had the most success against the Rays over the last three years?"
Time for some Play Index.
Using Baseball Reference's Play Index, I went into the Batting Split finder and set "Opponent = Tampa Bay Rays" as my split. I narrowed the year search to 2013-2015, and then exported the data to filter for plate appearances (min = 50), and convert walks and strikeouts into percentages.
Here are the results for anyone with an OPS over .800, see if any surprise you:
No. | Player | PA | OPS | R | HR | RBI | SB | CS | BB% | K% | BA | OBP | SLG | BAbip |
1 | Albert Pujols | 58 | 1.161 | 12 | 7 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 3% | 5% | .345 | .379 | .782 | .267 |
2 | Jose Abreu | 56 | 1.134 | 9 | 5 | 18 | 0 | 0 | 13% | 13% | .354 | .446 | .688 | .333 |
3 | Eduardo Escobar | 50 | 1.128 | 7 | 3 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 2% | 18% | .417 | .420 | .708 | .459 |
4 | Miguel Cabrera | 70 | 1.086 | 16 | 3 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 20% | 11% | .364 | .486 | .600 | .378 |
5 | Mike Trout | 90 | 1.081 | 14 | 6 | 16 | 5 | 1 | 18% | 31% | .333 | .456 | .625 | .462 |
6 | Lorenzo Cain | 67 | 1.049 | 16 | 2 | 10 | 8 | 0 | 12% | 16% | .379 | .463 | .586 | .444 |
7 | Kendrys Morales | 68 | 1.027 | 6 | 3 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 13% | 13% | .362 | .441 | .586 | .383 |
8 | Alex Gordon | 67 | 1.014 | 11 | 2 | 18 | 0 | 1 | 4% | 18% | .400 | .448 | .567 | .468 |
9 | Adam Lind | 112 | 1.012 | 14 | 8 | 20 | 0 | 0 | 13% | 20% | .305 | .402 | .611 | .318 |
10 | Mookie Betts | 105 | 1.000 | 19 | 5 | 13 | 5 | 0 | 10% | 7% | .344 | .419 | .581 | .333 |
11 | Martin Prado | 54 | .997 | 8 | 3 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 6% | 7% | .353 | .389 | .608 | .341 |
12 | Steve Pearce | 137 | .990 | 22 | 10 | 19 | 1 | 0 | 12% | 18% | .276 | .387 | .603 | .272 |
13 | Avisail Garcia | 52 | .974 | 7 | 4 | 11 | 0 | 1 | 10% | 23% | .304 | .365 | .609 | .323 |
14 | Chris Davis | 225 | .953 | 26 | 16 | 42 | 3 | 1 | 16% | 28% | .238 | .384 | .569 | .262 |
15 | Jason Kipnis | 51 | .953 | 9 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 6% | 16% | .375 | .412 | .542 | .436 |
16 | Alex Rodriguez | 96 | .950 | 16 | 8 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 16% | 27% | .250 | .375 | .575 | .261 |
17 | Coco Crisp | 53 | .940 | 6 | 3 | 8 | 4 | 0 | 9% | 15% | .313 | .377 | .563 | .324 |
18 | Marcell Ozuna | 51 | .922 | 10 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 8% | 31% | .362 | .412 | .511 | .533 |
19 | Omar Infante | 66 | .899 | 6 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 8% | 17% | .373 | .424 | .475 | .438 |
20 | Jose Bautista | 224 | .887 | 31 | 14 | 34 | 2 | 1 | 16% | 15% | .246 | .384 | .503 | .224 |
21 | Joe Mauer | 60 | .887 | 6 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 17% | 15% | .360 | .467 | .420 | .439 |
22 | Salvador Perez | 79 | .874 | 11 | 4 | 18 | 0 | 0 | 6% | 11% | .329 | .367 | .507 | .328 |
23 | Victor Martinez | 59 | .854 | 6 | 3 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 10% | 14% | .288 | .373 | .481 | .293 |
24 | Chris Colabello | 52 | .850 | 8 | 5 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 2% | 25% | .240 | .250 | .600 | .212 |
25 | Brian McCann | 127 | .848 | 19 | 8 | 23 | 0 | 0 | 9% | 13% | .250 | .339 | .509 | .227 |
26 | Matt Wieters | 116 | .844 | 17 | 5 | 18 | 0 | 0 | 9% | 22% | .282 | .339 | .505 | .320 |
27 | Jarrod Saltalamacchia | 60 | .824 | 7 | 3 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 13% | 35% | .235 | .333 | .490 | .321 |
28 | Alejandro De Aza | 79 | .816 | 12 | 4 | 9 | 2 | 2 | 5% | 32% | .284 | .329 | .486 | .378 |
Eduardo Rodriguez!? With plenty of AL East players and a lot of Royals!
Really though, this is about Steve Pearce. That aforementioned respect appears justified.
For good measure, here are some standouts among players between 20-50 PA against the Rays since 2013:
Player | PA | OPS |
Mark Canha | 21 | 1.524 |
Gregory Bird | 23 | 1.330 |
Jeff Francoeur | 26 | 1.311 |
Travis Shaw | 41 | 1.288 |
Elliot Johnson | 24 | 1.284 |
Delino DeShields | 21 | 1.234 |
Devon Travis | 36 | .990 |
Christian Vazquez | 32 | .987 |
Mitch Moreland | 47 | .982 |
Ben Revere | 37 | .975 |
Greg Bird, Mookie Betts, and Devon Travis might turn into problems...