This Date in Team History!
In 2006, the Rays sign former Cleveland Indians uber prospect, Russell Branyan. He served pretty much one role for the Rays during his 64 games with the team and that was to hit home runs. Which he did, averaging a homer every 16 plate appearances. That wasn't enough, however, to keep him with the team as the Rays traded him towards the end of August to the Padres for future all-star Evan Meek and a PTBNL (Dale Thayer).
Branyan would then excel during the final month of the season to help lead the Padres to the post-season. After a subpar 2007, Branyan would enjoyed sustained success from 2008 to 2010, before falling off again in 2011.
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Trivia Time!
The answer to yesterday's question was Julio Lugo answered by Birckhaus
The lone wrong answer was Jason Bartlett
His performance and potential were overshadowed by an incident in April 2003. He killed an osprey by throwing a baseball and knocking it from its perch atop a light pole. He can toy with hitters when he's on. His 92-93 mph fastball and his curveball are his primary pitches, and he commands them well. He gets good run on his changeup. He also has had multiple run-ins with teammates.
Hint: he was ranked 10th in his system following the 2003 system
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There are 63 days until Opening Day!
That's the same number of games that Kelly Shoppach played in during the 2010 season.
One of the games featured Shoppach homering twice, including this grand slam to give the Rays the lead.
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Links!
- The Diamondbacks were able to find a suitor for Aaron Hill as they traded him to the Brewers in a five player deal.
- Andruw Jones decimated the National League in the late 90's through the mid-00's, and he even played a small role in Game 162. He hasn't played in a major league game since 2012, but he played 17 years in the big leagues and averaged 3.9 WAR a season over the time frame. There was also a nine year span in which he averaged 6.4 WAR per season. The potential Hall of Famer has finally decided to hang up his cleats for good.
- Showing Scott Gelman lots of love in today's tank, here's another he did looking at the best remaining free agents with several players that could be considered by the Rays.
- Whether or not the National League should adopt the DH is a hotly debated topic, after all fans would lose the joy watching pitchers swinging awkwardly. However, there are some of those pitchers who tend to mash on an occasion, with an ex-Rays pitcher included.