Tampa Bay Rays News and Links: Snell sets his sights on a big 2018

Rays Links:

• Blake Snell had another strong Spring start, this time K’ing 9 Yankees over 4 ²⁄₃ IP.
• Kevin Cash talks about the Rays late HR surged come from behind Spring victory:

• Marc Topkin has a nice piece profiling the very focused Blake Snell.
• Rays Radio has audio with Snell before his Spring Training start:

And after his start:

• Fangraphs 2018 Positional power rankings are coming out, and the Rays start off strong with a placement at #13 in the Catcher category. The Rays have had a long, rough history with fielding competent Catchers, let alone good ones, so anytime they can place better than half the league in that position it’s a good sign.
• Finally, we have a pretty interesting read also at Fangraphs on the Rays rotation plans, the future of MLB pitching, and Chris Archer’s questions on that potential future. It’s well worth your time to read the always great Travis Sawchik’s whole piece, but here’s a quote to get you clicking:

Archer has shared his questions with the front office, which he says extends to him an open line of communication.

“Our front office is open. They talk to me about a lot of different scenarios: ‘How do you feel about this, what do you think about this?… Do you think you could bounce back if you pitch like this?’” Archer said. “I do like that they are asking someone actually doing it as opposed to drawing their own conclusions.”

Other Links:

• Uber prospect Ronald Acuna was reassigned by the Braves, and will start the year in the minors.
• The bar is already set high for baseball tweet savagery: