Tampa Bay Rays news and links: Derek Norris under investigation after domestic abuse claim

There were two big stories from yesterday. The first is that Major League Baseball is investigating a domestic abuse claim against Derek Norris by his ex-fiancee, Kristen Eck. Marc Topkin reports.

You can read Eck’s own account here.

Norris released this statement, quoted from the Times:

"First, I want to be absolutely clear that abuse of any form, is completely unacceptable. Allegations regarding this issue are a very serious matter and should not be taken lightly under any circumstances. That being said, in this circumstance, the comments made by my ex-fiancee could not be further from the truth. I have NEVER been physically or emotionally abusive towards her, or anyone else in my life.

"I plan to go above and beyond to assist MLB with their investigation into this matter."

Kevin Cash stated that the Rays will wait for the conclusion of the MLB investigation before taking any action. The team issued this statement:

The Rays wholly support MLB's Domestic Violence policy. We take these allegations very seriously and will fully cooperate with the Commissioner's Office on this matter.

Jacob Faria

The other, happier story was of course that Jacob Faria came up and won his first major league start. Here he is with Rays Radio after the game:

There’s much more audio from inside the clubhouse on Rays Radio as well. He talks about his mix during the game:

It was really the mix . . . it was the fastball/cutter. . . I threw a couple changeups to guys in situations, but other than that it was really the fastball/cutter mix that was really working.

I’m pretty sure that the thing he’s calling a cutter is what MLBAM calls a slider, and that he threw 18 of last night.

Links

• Mitch Lukevics, the Rays Minor League Director, gave an interview in the broadcast booth in Durham. Steve Kinsella wrote a good report on what he said, with information on Brent Honeywell, Blake Snell, and Chih-Wei Hu.
• Tony Blengino looked at AL contact outcomes and wrote that the Rays have two of the players most-poised for negative regression in Corey Dickerson and Steven Souza Jr.
• Brad Miller will go back to the DL, and Michael Martinez will remain with the team.
• Former Ray Sean Rodriguez, who was injured in a car accident, is progressing well in his rehab.
• Umpires are struggling with Aaron Judge’s strikezone, because he’s really tall.