Tampa Bay Rays news and links: Jake Odorizzi and the platoon advantage

Links

• A great article in The Hardball Times about Willard Brown, the first black man to hit a home run in the American League, and his struggles through part of one season with St. Louis.
• Jason Collette wrote about Jake Odorizzi’s process. It’s an interesting observation that Odor, despite having the platoon advantage, has struggled with righties, partly because he lacks a putaway breaking ball to help him take advantage of the righty-righty matchup.
• Bill Chastain wrote about Alex Colome’s development of his plus cutter, which is a putaway pitch.
• Toney Blengino looked at which starters had the best changeup in the American League in 2016. Ex-Ray David Price grades out at the top. Chris Archer sits in the middle of the pack.
• Speaking of changeups, yesterday, Eno Sarris and I wrote the same article about how Alex Cobb’s split-change is not the same pitch it was pre-surgery. Mine has scatter plots and jokes. His has pictures, a discussion of mechanics, and videos. You may as well read both.
• Mark Topkin wrote about how Mallex Smith will be sent to the minors when Colby Rasmus returns.
• Surprising no one, Forbes says that yes, the Rays value continues to rise, by a lot.
• There was a cat in Miami.
• MLBTR did a retrospective on Texas’s Elvis Andrus contract extension. It doesn’t seem like Texas will get great value from Andrus. Early contract extensions are a tactic the Rays have used as well.