Tampa Bay Rays News and Links: Tampa Bay had some great 2020 Sports Moments

Tampa Bay News

ZiPS projections for the Rays are now available! For newbies, ZiPS is the projection system created by Dan Szymborski and published on FanGraphs. His write-up of the roster is always interesting, and it’s fun to see who he projects to have a good year. ZiPS doesn’t, shockingly, think Randy Arozarena will be the next Ted Williams, although Randy is projected to have a strong season. We will all be very happy if Brandon Lowe and Austin Meadows end up close to these numbers. Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow, not surprisingly, top the list of pitchers.

The Rays signed Michael Wacha, RHP, to a one-year, $3 million contract. Wacha had some very strong years with the Cardinals. I would urge you not to look at his stats from the past two years, however.

Wacha is pleased to be coming to Tampa Bay, per Marc Topkin ($)

Craig Edwards discusses the Wacha signing (and Zunino’s) as having modest upside, and notes that Wacha had the misfortune last year of being a fly ball pitcher on a team with terrible outfield defense. The Rays, in contrast, have one of the league’s best outfields, which could lead to better results for the pitcher.

Sports Illustrated has some “best moments” awards for 2020, and Tampa Bay Teams are well represented.

Rays fans will never tire of relieving this Game 4 World Series sequence:

But the Lightning had their recognition, too. Reading well after the fact that Stamkos was playing with a very serious core injury gives this some Kirk Gibson vibes:

A moment of silence, please, for this anniversary:

Around Baseball

Teams have seemed reluctant to spend, and that acts as an informal salary cap, say Buster Olney.

These MLB posts are a reminder that baseball has become an increasingly international sport. Also a good way to test your knowledge of national flags!

You might think ESPN would want to feature the 2020 AL pennant winners in their Sunday night coverage, but you’d be wrong. Here’s the schedule for the first half of the season. Once again the Rays will get limited national coverage, and then when (knock on wood) the team makes it to the postseason the main narrative about the team from the national media will be “who are these guys? I haven’t heard of them!”