Tampa Bay Rays news and links: “Be strong, be ready to fight”

Daniel Robertson hit his first major-league home run. Times photographer Will Vragovic captured a good picture.

Tomorrow, the first 15,000 fans can get a Chris Archer “starting lineup” figurine. But even if you don’t make it to the Trop in time, you can still listen to this excellent commercial explaining what it takes to be a winner.

Interestingly, the revival of Starting Lineup Figurines seems to have started just across the bay.

Speaking of Winners, I really like listening to Erasmo Ramirez talk. Rays Radio has an interview. Dude speaks well about the mistake to Ian Kinsler, and about his transition back and forth between the bullpen and the starting rotation. And about how quiet The Trop is.

Yeah, yeah, you can hear everything.

Links:

• High-quality investigative reporting from Justin Granit.
• I also like articles that look at a bunch of data, and then conclude, “yup, nothing to see here.” That’s not actually what Henry Druschel said. He actually worked pretty hard not to say it. But as far as I’m concerned, that’s what he wrote. Nice job, Henry—doing your part to fight publication bias.
• Eno Sarris wrote a good piece with an interview from ex-Ray Matt Bush talking about the pitching coaching he’s received.
• Jose Iglesias will be placed on the 7-day disabled list with a concussion after his collision with Brad Miller, according to Anthony French of the Detroit Free Press.
• Alex Colome and Brad Boxberger are already the focus of some premature speculation about a trade to the Nationals.
• Kate Morrison wrote at Baseball Prospectus about the recent TIDES report on gender and racial diversity in baseball. The conclusion of the report is that, no, there’s really not much diversity in baseball organizations, and Morrison suggests that as far as gender diversity goes, this is both the result of the male-dominated culture inside baseball organizations and of the broader baseball community—sites like Baseball Prospectus (or this one)—and that erasing structural discrimination takes work on all levels.