Tampa Bay Rays news and links: The Rays are Road Warriors

‘It’s still April,’ they’ll say. ‘It’s still too early to tell,’ they’ll say.

That’s usually the response you get when you point out the fact that the Tampa Bay Rays have the best record in Major League Baseball.

But as other hot starters (Mariners, Padres, Tigers, Pirates) have already begun to fade, the Rays have remained constant, and don’t appear to be going anywhere any time soon.

When is it finally too late to say it’s still early? After all, in one more day:

(I only hate myself a little bit for doing that)

Rays news and links

• TWIRB Tuesday! Jalen Beeks talks about getting a World Series ring, and more

• Josh Tolentino of the Athletic ($) talks about Emilio Pagan’s increased velocity and the versatility he adds the Rays bullpen
• The Rays continue to flex their organizational depth by calling up prospect Nate Lowe, who recorded his first major league hit in last night’s game; a double into the right center field gap:

It was the hardest hit ball of the game

He chatted about the experience with Rays on-field reporter Tricia Whitaker:

• Speaking of newcomer Lowe, Marc Topkin of The Tampa Bay Times ($) theorizes about the motives behind his call up, as well as its duration

Other news and links

And old friend came up in the clutch, again:

• ESPN breaks down their biggest winners and losers for the month of April, and no surprise as the Rays come up quite a lot in the winners column
• The Power Rankings are in from MLB, ESPN and The Athletic
• Richard Justice wonders whether we’re in for a historic MVP race between Dodgers Cody Bellinger and the reigning Christian Yelich. Some have called it ‘The Yelli-Belli Show’
• Mike Soroka bunted a ball that went all the way to the wall... well kind of
• Tigers top pitching prospect Casey Mize had himself a night, throwing a no-hitter in his AA debut