Tampa Bay Rays news and links: Don’t become a minor league broadcaster

Kevin Cash talks about the good work done by the gift-providing program at All Childrens’ Hospital.

And he has a really good hat.

Links

• The Rangers really are about to sign former-Ray Josh Hamilton to a minor league deal. They’re also working on resigning Mike Napoli.
• From a few days back, Henry Druschel wrote about the Pirates’ success, asking if other teams could replicate it. He said it was based on homegrown talent, smart free agent acquisitions, and a great pitching coach. As a fan of a team that was the Pirates before the Pirates were the Pirates, I’m going to go ahead and say no, don’t count on it over the long term.
• Neat batting mechanics breakdown of Travis d’Arnaud.
• The turnover in broadcasting jobs is slow, and that makes it a difficult career to advance in if you’re a minor league broadcaster.
• Do you know about William “Dummy” Hoy, a trailblazing deaf baseball player, who may be the reason umpires use hand signals.
• Baseball Prospectus is reheating their best work of the past year, and this article on the connection between the called strike zone and where batters swing was a good one.

Trivia

Here’s a simple question. Who has the Rays record for the lowest xFIP, with at least 30 innings pitched?

It’s obviously a reliever, so put a different way, of all the short, bright reliever careers the Rays have had, whose was best? When you’re ready to see the answer, click here.