Tampa Bay News and Links: Tsutsugoing, gone!

The Rays took on the Red Sox (well, half of the Red Sox) at Charlotte Sports Park yesterday. The final score? 2-2. I think ties are one of my favorite things about Spring Training.

Highlights:

• Yonny Chirinos gave up a run, but looked good striking out the side in the first inning:

• Aaron Loup, DJ Snelten, Nick Anderson and Oliver Drake also looked sharp
• Yoshi Tsutsugo hit a home run!

Today will feature a trip to Sarasota to face the Orioles (also a split squad for them). Looks like it will be the first Charlie Morton sighting of 2020. Chaz Roe, Jalen Beeks, Trevor Richards and Pete Fairbanks are all scheduled to pitch subsequent innings.

More Rays stuff:

From Prospects Live, more Rays prospect evaluations.

Banda. Anthony Banda. Wouldn’t it be great if the hard throwing lefty could be an impact pitcher this year? I’ve always been pulling for him, but his willingness to speak openly in this interview about mental struggles that are part of the recovery process makes me root even harder for his success. ($)

Unheralded soft-tossing Trevor Richards is all about the changeup. ($)

If you were concerned about Austin Meadows having been scratched from the lineup, here’s the reason. Let’s hope everyone is safe and property loss is minimal:

Daniel Robertson brings the intensity, Charlie Morton the deep thoughts. Here’s a fun look at the Rays clubhouse atmosphere.

Rays are indeed represented in the Hall of Fame.

We are big fans of MLB.com Rays beat writer Juan Toribio, but we have to call him out for a big miss here. Each MLB beat writer was asked to provide one cult hero for the franchise. I scrolled down the article looking for what I assumed would be Juan’s column on Dan Johnson. I mean, this is a man who has his own seat down the right field line! Instead, we get Rolando Arrojo, who has an interesting life story and who was credited with the franchise’s first win, but cult hero?

We reported earlier that the Rays created a new Ballpark Pass — $36 a month for standing room access to any game. Apparently they are popular, because they have sold out. They may open up more passes, and are taking names for a waiting list.

Old friend alert: Brock Burke was a once promising starting pitcher in the Rays system who has missed time with injuries. The Rays traded him last year for Emilio Pagan (and at least a few here thought it was too high a price to pay for the erratic reliever). Burke finally made it to the majors, with a few starts at the end of 2019, but things aren’t looking good for him this season.

Around the League

Let’s do a Gendankenexperiment. A very deep dive into leverage calculations from Ben Clemens.

At The Ringer, Brian Phillips argues that the Astros cheating was bad but also sort of expected because competitive sports are constructed in a way likely to produce these kinds of outcomes.