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Tank: O'Conner & Souza injured

0 days since last workplace injury

Jonathan Dyer-USA TODAY Sports

This Date in Team History!

A very popular day for former Rays to be born as John Halama (1972), Russ Johnson (1973), Kelly Johnson (1982), Casey Kotchman (1983), and Daniel Nava (1983) all have birthdays today.

Not going to delve into all of their career, just stating that Halama served as a mediocre starter/reliever for Tampa Bay in 2004. Russ Johnson was with the team for parts of three seasons and even managed a .380 OBP in 85 games in 2001. Kelly Johnson served as a valuable backup infielder during the 2013 season and provided some pop off the bench. Kotchman can be considered the savior of the team's miraculous 2011 season, leading the Rays in hits and average. Nava spent the last two months of the 2015 season with Tampa and struggled in a part-time role.

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Trivia Time!

The answer to yesterday's question was Logan Morrison, answered by jtmorgan

Wrong answers included Wil Myers, Delmon Young, Evan Longoria, B.J. Upton, Manny Ramirez, Rocco Baldelli, Jose Molina, Hideki Matsui, and Ben Grieve.

Going to try out something new. If you all don't like it, just let me know and it;ll go away.

Guess this player based off a single-season stat line that occurred while only with the Rays.

AVG OBP SLG HR K% BB% wRC+ fWAR Games
.275 .330 .498 24 20.0% 6.6% 111 1.3 122

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There are 41 days until Opening Day!

That's the same number of runs scored by one of the five players mentioned above, Kelly Johnson.

Two of those runs came during this two home run effort against the Marlins.

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Rays Spring Training Coverage

- Jaime Schultz is one of the best under-the-radar prospects in baseball, whether he's a starter or a reliever. He'll likely begin the season with Durham, but is among the non-roster invitees in the Rays camp.

- It was revealed during the Rays press conference on Thursday that top catching prospect, Justin O'Conner, was dealing with an injury. We learned how severe that was as he'll miss all of spring training with a herniated disk.

- Steven Souza also was bitten by the injury bug, tweaking his back during some batting practice, although a lot less severe.

- Top pitching prospects, Jacob Faria an Blake Snell, learned the hard way that you don't be 'late' to a team meeting.

- One of the several new Rays acquisitions, Hank Conger mashing in BP

Links!

- Chris Archer, who himself was adopted, was the driving force behind a teenager being adopted.

Robert Emrich of MiLB.com did a Q&A with Rays slugging prospect, Richie Shaffer.

Beyond the Box Score looks at players who teams may look to sign to extension before they reach their arbitration eligible years with Kevin Kiermaier topping the list.

- The Texas Rangers signed veteran pitcher, Jeremy Guthrieto a minor league deal.

For some reason, this is still a thing that major league teams do, the Marlins have adopted a no facial hair policy. Probably because they don't 'really want a bunch of 70's style Rod Beck-type goofballs running around out on the field'.