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Thus Date in Team History!
In 2005 and 2006, the Rays decided to bring back Travis Lee for his second and third go around with Tampa Bay respectively. The two years were pretty much polar opposites as in 2005, Lee put up a respectable year, Everything nosedived in 2006, though, as Lee would put up one of the worst offensive seasons in franchise history, effectively ending his major league career.
| TEAR | AVG | OBP | SLG | HR | K% | BB% | wRC+ | WAR | PA | Games |
| 2005 | .272 | .331 | .426 | 12 | 15.0% | 7.9% | 101 | 1.0 | 441 | 129 |
| 2006 | .224 | .312 | .364 | 11 | 18.8% | 10.8% | 78 | -0.4 | 388 | 114 |
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Trivia Time! (Ian)
Travis Lee was not a thing that went thump, but now let's look at some things that do. Time to have some fun with Hittracker (now called ESPN's Home Run Tracker).
According to Hittracker, this was the hardest-hit home run of 2015 hit by the Rays.
It fell one foot short of being the farthest, home run, however. And incidentally, the farthest home run (also the third-hardest hit) and the second-hardest hit home run both came in the same game. Which pair of Rays players hit those two home runs?
I'm going to give you the links to the video, so post your answer in the comments and then come back to see if you were right.
Farthest home run, third-hardest hit.
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There are 52 days until Opening Day!
That's the same number of hits recorded by Matt Joyce during the 2010 season
One of those hits was a pinch-hit grand slam against the Twins, coincidentally his first Rays home run as well.
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Links! (Ian)
- Mark Topkin wrote about what the Rays players are saying about Dickerson and the other offseason moves. The best quote is from Matt Moore: "It seems like there's definitely some thump they brought through the door."
- If you're interested in analyzing baseball stats, read this. It's Bill Petti talking about R and sharing some of his packages. Petti is one of the smarter and gooder guys in this "industry."
- Beyond the Box Score has a preview of the World Baseball Classic qualifying rounds. I'll be at the Brooklyn qualifier, watching Israel, Brazil, Pakistan, and Great Britain. If anyone else is around, we should have a meatup.
- Matthew Trueblood at BP wrote about "Three Evolving Hitters." One of them is Wil Myers.