It’s been a long time since we’ve had baseball, and after one week it’s been a couple days since we’ve felt good about baseball. A four-game losing streak will do that to you when you’ve only played six games!

Yes we are all very obsessed right now with a very small sample size of play. But if that’s where we want to be, let’s be there.

In the small sample size theater, there are some strong performances worth highlighting for current and former Tampa Bay Rays, so let’s get into it.

Strong Rays Performances

• Tyler Glasnow leads MLB pitchers in WAR at FanGraphs thanks to his 0.75 ERA over two starts (12.0 IP), and his average fastball velocity of 98.0 mph is the highest in the American League.
• Jeffrey Springs and Cody Reed have not allowed any earned runs on the season thus far, with Springs doing so over three appearances (although he has one unearned run allowed, h/t mp2891).
• Diego Castillo leads the American League with two saves on the season, despite his one blown save against Boston.
• Brandon Lowe and his 27.3% walk rate is top-ten in baseball.

Strong Former Rays Performances

• Ryne Stanek - The former Rays opener and first round draft pick signed with Houston this offseason and in three games (3.2 IP) has a 0.00 ERA and has transformed into a splitters guy, using the pitch nearly half of the time, and has added horizontal movement on his fastball by two inches, witch the pitches mirroring each other in spin — as observed by Paul Sporer at FanGraphs. Fun!

• Wil Myers and Evan Longoria have something in common right now: a .318 batting average, a wRC+ north of 200, five RBI, and 0.5 WAR in one week of play. Myers has done it by taking 6 walks in 28 plate appearances, while Longoria has three homers and solid defense thus far.
• Nate Lowe leads all of baseball with 14 RBI for the Texas Rangers, having been shipped out by the Rays in return for some solid prospects this offseason. There are very few players who have done more for their team in the first week than him, and the players seem to love having him in the clubhouse.
• I mentioned Castillo’s save total above. Others with as many saves are Jake McGee (Giants) and Alex Colome (Twins). Meanwhile, Jose Alvarado has one save for the Phillies and is throwing triple-digits again.