2025 Season Preview Podcast w/ Marc Topkin (RTR Ep. 213)

The 2025 season is just days away, so we had to deliver perhaps our biggest season preview podcast to date! Marc Topkin, Rays beat writer for the Tampa Bay Times, joined us for the first time to give his thoughts on the team and what to expect in Tampa over the next several months!

Thanks so much for listening! You can follow RTR on social media @RaysTheRoofTB and be sure subscribe to the podcast!

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As always, Rays Up!

Episode Transcript

(00:12):
Welcome one and all to our 2025 Season Preview podcast for Raise
the Roof. It is happy, happy times,
hopefully for the Rays moving forward this year.
Plenty of excitement to be had. I'm your host, Alex Murphy with
me. The boys are here, Evan Lynch
and Evan Gibson. How are we doing, Gibby?
I know you're wearing a bolt hat.
I'm pretty sure someone just played their 500th game.

(00:34):
I don't know who, but you you seem to be in a chipper mood.
Oh yeah, Heavy based sports is in a great spot.
You know, I'm gonna be soon. The season's gonna kick off in
the Rays. I'm gonna be 10 minutes from the
Rays stadium. So I, I am selfishly, I am very
happy right now, Alex. So it feels great.
Evan, you're wearing your, your,your Deborah Rays.

(00:57):
Shirt it's it's opening day week.
How can you not be happy? Yeah, I wish.
I wish our opening day was in fewer than than 48 hours, but I
guess we'll have to do Friday anyways.
But I mean, yeah, like I said, how can you not be happy?
Yeah, that's that's a good point.
Like I said, we have plenty to talk about on this podcast and
we deal with a very, very special guest.
First time having him on. Thank goodness, because I know

(01:19):
that we've been trying to get this done for a little bit now.
You guys, I mean, if you guys don't know who he is and you
guys are definitely living undera rock.
First off, Drake grad, Congrats to the Bulldogs for making the
second round of the tournament. I know me and Evan are both
Maryland grad, so we understand,you know what it's like to to
get some wins in March. But yeah, if you again beat

(01:42):
Rider for the Tampa Bay Rays forthe Tampa Bay Times, Mark
Topkin. Mark, thank you so much for
coming on. We really appreciate it.
How you doing? I'm doing good, doing good luck.
I talked to Ryan Bass. He said good things about
yourself. You're good with Ryan, you're
good with me. So.
Thank you, Ryan. I would hope so.
I know. Ryan Ryan's the plug for real.
I was. Just I got a little bit of beef
with Evan just because Evan's a USF guy and Ryan wins the UTF,

(02:05):
but other than that, nothing, nothing gone wrong.
Gotcha. Gotcha.
Yeah, no. Happy to be on and talk some
ball with you guys. Yeah, of course.
Well, I guess the first. So the opening day is coming up
on Friday. The Rays are the only team to be
playing opening day on Friday due to all the stuff going on
renovations with the Trop. How is that?
Because I know you wrote a storyabout the kind of the rapid

(02:28):
transformation of what's going to happen over the, you know,
next couple days and what's already been going on.
How has that been going so far from what you understand?
And what are kind of the biggestthings that fans are going to
see in terms of a new Steinbrenner field for this
year? Yeah, I mean, I saw some
pictures today from SteinbrennerField.
They started, they literally hadcrews waiting for Sunday's game

(02:48):
to end. They were allowed to get on the
field Sunday afternoon and then inside the clubhouse and the
clubhouse crew had like 7 trucksand stuff coming over between
from Port Charlotte and from storage and.
But I think what fans are gonna notice the most is is the
signage. And like, I think there's a lot
of things iconic about that stadium.
Obviously, the statue of George Steinbrenner, which is in the
contract the Rays cannot touch in any way.

(03:09):
Just as a quick aside there. But yeah, there's the letters
that go over the first and thirdbase stands that spell out
Yankees. Those kind of square block
letters. Those are all good.
Now, that's going to spell out Rays with a burst logo on it,
have an ad or two on it. But you know, they're going to
basically turn as much of Steinbrenner Field into the Rays
Stadium as they can. They're going to be their
sponsors, their logo, their brands, their colors.

(03:33):
There's a lot of welcome to Steinbrenner Field.
Some of them say home of the 2025 Rays, home of the Rays for
2025. And they're going to try and
make it look, yeah, it's not going to look, it's not going to
be the same. There's not roof, kind of big
obvious difference there. They're going to do some things
to take advantage of that. They're going to do fireworks.
I understand for like some in game and post game stuff, which
you couldn't do with the Trop. You had kind of the big
fireworks. But essentially it's going to be

(03:53):
as branded Rays. I think there were 3000 pieces
of signage and posters and you know, I logos things like that,
that we're going to go up and beput in place over these couple
days. That's cool.
I'm I'm glad that they're doing as much as they can now.
The couple things I was curious about.
So the Yankees logo atop the Steinbrenner Field sign, are

(04:15):
they? Touched.
It's already changed. Oh, they already changed it.
I, I, I drove past it today. I was about to say that that one
is already changed over. The one facing the road.
Yeah, the one that's on top of the scoreboard that tells part.
Right. My understanding was the three
things they weren't allowed to change where the Stein couldn't
touch the Steinbrenner statue, the Hall of Fame garden out

(04:36):
front and where it said George MSteinbrenner field on the top of
the scoreboard. But I think the logos there can
change. I think the other thing they're
not going to change and they they thought about it, but it
was just not effective was at the end of each row of seating
in the iron work of the base of the seating is a Yankees logo.
But they couldn't, it was like it wouldn't a sticker to work
and they weren't going to, you know, obviously redo the metal

(04:58):
work or anything because essentially this is like
borrowing like your your family's house.
Like they have to return it in the condition they got it.
Everything they did over these, you know, four days or they're
kind of in the middle of it now as we're recording this,
everything they did, they have to basically undo at the end of
the season and give it back in the condition which they got it.
So I would assume someone's keeping a really good log of

(05:21):
everything that they did and every, you know, screw and sign
and tape that they change the color for things like that.
But like, I've been in that clubhouse.
The Yankees did a tour before spring training started and it's
a lavish facility. It is, you know, not I mean, I'm
not even going to say it's nicerthan the Trop.
It's nicer than most Major League clubhouses that, you
know, I've had the privilege of going to as part of my job.
And that includes most of them. It's just spectacular.

(05:43):
So that part of it the Rays willdefinitely enjoy, obviously
under the, you know, circumstances that led them
there, but they're going to enjoy being in that facility.
Yeah, no, for sure. I'm, I'm very curious to see
what happens with that giant Yankees logo.
I think that's on where the teamstore is.
I'm curious what they're going to do with that, if anything.
That'll also be a Ray's logo. That's cool.

(06:03):
OK, I love that. That's going to be a ray.
I'm wondering if they'll will they even keep any Yankee
merchandise there at all, Figuring you might be able to
sell some to some Yankee fans. But it will be a raised team
store. Same thing with the store out on
the right field corner and there's a couple of kiosks
that'll all be rebranded and raised merchandise.
Yeah, yeah, we got the, I guess the Mobile Bay Republic going on

(06:24):
there, which would be very cool.So going on to the oh wait,
Evan, my bad. I was going to.
Say those sound like pretty fairconditions.
I did want to ask you a background story about the
stadium. I'm not going into the Trop or
anything like that, but I was wondering could you give us a
little insight on like what kindof the decision when it like was
there really discussions on whatsite they would use or was it

(06:45):
always kind of going to be the Steinbrenner field?
I think there were some general level discussions.
Well, first they started with a list of over 50 sites when they
first realized they got to find a place to play.
And that's where, you know, Omaha came into play.
Montreal until they found out the roof was being repaired.
Durham. And then Durham said no thanks.
I mean, there were a lot of things floated that, you know,
had some legitimacy, at least interms of, you know, you get out

(07:07):
that legal pad, right? And you're like, let's come up
with some ideas. And then they were told by a
couple of people they had over 50 possibilities written down.
So I think once it became clear that, you know, they wanted to
stay here, the players wanted tostay here.
You know, the people who work for the team wanted to stay
here. MLB wanted them to stay here.
That pretty quickly narrowed it down.
I mean, Dunedin is just as too small of a facility.

(07:27):
And the egress and access, if not really viable, Outland
Stadium is, you know, still in the 70s and 80s from when that
was a viable stadium. So you quickly kind of narrowed
it down. I think the Clearwater or Tampa,
if you wanted to be in the area,you know, the college field just
don't have the equipment. Think of all the things that go
in, you know, the track man and all those kind of things that
they would have to add to a college facility that aren't

(07:48):
there yet. So it quickly came down to
Clearwater in Tampa. And I think from the Rays, what
they've said was it was pretty clear to them knowing especially
that the Yankees just completed this massive 2 year innovation
to make it such a great facility.
And then Major League Baseball got involved and, you know, I
think the race called the Yankees and Major League
Baseball got involved and they worked out, you know, the terms

(08:08):
and the price. And so I, I think it was pretty
clear that that's where they were going to end up.
I understand that the angst fromthe politicians and the Pinellas
side, but I think from a baseball standpoint this made
most sense from the facility. Yeah, yeah, it's.
Pretty it's pretty impractical to move them out of this.
Like what are the what are the players families?
Do? You can't really expect them to
move to a whole different area of the country for all right,

(08:31):
every team. But you know.
If the team is going to return here and play in a, you know,
refurbished Tropicana Field as soon as next year, do you really
want to cut that fandom off for a year and have the team go play
in, you know, wherever Nashville, NC, Omaha, wherever
it may be? Oakland was brought up by
people, you know, that's got thefacility.
Well, yeah, but that's why they don't have their own team
because of the facility. So I, I think it made the most

(08:54):
sense. But I said I understand why some
people are upset. Too.
Yeah, Durham would have been awesome.
That's me being selfish. Hey, the Bulls have bigger
things. What's going on?
They got to go win AAA championships.
I don't blame them, that's fair.Most dominant professional
franchise this century. That is true.
That is true. Well, going on to the players,
the roster, I guess the biggest thing on everyone's mind right

(09:14):
now is Shane, because of the injury that he sustained.
It's obviously not as bad as it could have been.
Thank goodness. I'm sure for a lot of race fans,
us included, So starting off with Shane, what's the expected
timetable that you know, in terms of how things are going to
kind of go with what happened? Again, they they they avoided

(09:36):
the worst case scenario, which is the best thing.
Right. I mean, I'm, I'm going kind of
off by what John Romano wrote inthe Times.
I've been on my own little IL issue here with a so I haven't,
I don't have any great first hand information for you guys,
but I think the perception was he avoided what looked like it
could have been much worse. At the moment it happened a
couple weeks of of shutdown and then start throwing again.

(09:57):
But you know, you, you just haveto realize how these guys work
and there's such a a science to getting a starting pitcher built
up to be ready to go at the start of the season.
Kyle Snyder spends hours mappingthis stuff out for these guys.
So if Shane's down for a couple weeks or you know, 2-3 weeks and
then he's got to start and just start playing catch and then you
go to a longer catch, then you go to and then you go to

(10:18):
bullpens, then you got to go face hitters, then you probably
got to go pitch in a minor league game or two.
So it seems like the best case scenario is what, a month or so,
maybe sometime in May you get them back and whether that's
early May or late May. But I think given again, how it
looked at the moment, I was watching on TV at home, I mean,
it looked really bad at the moment.
So I think if you got them back in May, I think most race fans

(10:40):
will be pretty happy with that. Yeah, for sure.
Now the rest of the rotation, weknow that Ryan Pepeo is taking
over his spot as the opening daystarter.
And now I don't know what sort of discussions were had in terms
of who was going to be the odd man out, but we have a full 5
coming in. What are your thoughts about the
rotation and about Pepe in the opening day starter?

(11:01):
Pretty smart with by Eric NAND or not to trade somebody right
when you hear we all were. Off.
Got the spring training. What are you going to do with
these guys? Who's the odd man out?
Who's going to get traded? Where's he going to go?
The Mets were looking for pitching.
Why were there Mets scouts at Port Charlotte one day?
I mean, there were so many conclusions to jump to, but you
know, the race thought before they kept telling, pointing out,
you know, 2023 when they had thegreatest rotation in the history

(11:22):
of rotations and those guys never pitched one turn together.
Glasgow got hurt in spring training, Spring said surgery,
Rasmussen had surgery. It just all unraveled.
So first thing I'll say is, you know, they made a smart move by
hanging out on what they have. They've got some depth of AAA
they like as well. If they do need more look, it's
not going to be as dynamic without Shane, right?
Shane was that cut above guy. I think he was.

(11:43):
I don't know that he was in the true ace category.
I know that's a great subject for, you know, especially
sabermetrically and you know, people who want to really draw a
tough line on what is an ace. But I think Shane was at least
in the conversation and and you don't have that guy amongst the
other ones. Taj Bradley could be that guy
and maybe over a full season he shows you ready to be that guy,
but I think you still have a rotation of five pretty good to

(12:04):
very good guys. Bradley could certainly be the
star of this if he can go wire to wire, go 3032 starts and be
that guy. Not necessarily as great as he
was during that nine start stretch last year, but close to
that. Maintain that consistency,
maintain health. Pepio was kind of sneaky good.
I mean, I the story in Wednesday's Times about him and
talked to David Cone a little bit about him and he was had

(12:25):
some pretty good things to say that Ryan Pepio is a guy who
doesn't get enough credit for what he's done.
And when he goes, you know, a full 3032 starts, he's going to
start getting that credit. Shane Boz has always had great
stuff. Rasmussen, a lot of people say
he's the best pitcher on the team in a way as far as being an
overall pitcher, if he can stay healthy to move back to
starting. You do wonder, but they put a
lot of thought, a lot of time, alot of research into that of him

(12:46):
thinking that was the safer pathfor him to go, having had the
three elbow surgeries. And all Zach Patel does is throw
a million strikes every game, right?
And get a lot of soft contact. So I still think it's pretty
good. I mean, you don't have that guy.
And we were trying to figure outlooking at the schedule, was it
going to be Skeens versus Mcclanahan when the Pirates come
in next week? It it turned out it wouldn't
have been They're playing four in Miami.

(13:06):
But like, you know, that kind ofthing that electrifies you.
I don't know that any of the other five guys maybe give you
that feeling that Shane does, but I do think they've got 5,
like I said, pretty good to verygood starting pitchers.
Yeah, I want to open it up. Gibby, Evan, I want to open up
to you guys. Yeah, for anything before I ask
anything else. Yeah.
Which of our starting pitchers, I mean you, you do put them in

(13:29):
the good, the very good category.
Do you feel like any of them cantake really take that next step
this year? And who do you think is probably
the most likely to like really take that next step maybe to get
towards that Shane Mcclanahan level name?
I think Tosh has the stuff to doit.
I really do. And like I said, if he can
maintain the consistency, he's not gonna be as good as he was

(13:50):
was at 8:00 and 1:00 and A1, something over that nine starts.
But yeah, he can maintain close to that level, stay healthy,
figure out how you stay in gameswhen you don't have your great
stuff. He can be really, really good.
And like I said, I think Peppio doesn't get enough credit for
what he's done for a guy who has, you know, he made 26 starts
last year. He had the two IL stints, both
freak things, the the ball off his shin and the spider bite.

(14:13):
But yeah, you do what he did at low 3 ERA.
He would have probably had twelve wins or something if he
hadn't gotten hurt. I mean, that's pretty good for a
guy who was in his first full year in the majors.
And you know, so he really stillhasn't had that first full
season too. So I think those two guys have a
chance to be, like I said, maybethey have the dynamic stuff that
Shane has. They have a chance to get to
that very good category for sure.

(14:35):
Gotcha. I had a quick question about
just the farm system. What player who's expected to
start in the farm system do you expect to have the most
influence on the Major League squad this year?
Probably go away from pitching. I'd probably say Chandler
Simpson. I I think if Chandler Simpson
goes down to AAA and can do whathe's done at every other level

(14:56):
in the minor league since the Rays drafted him, I think we'll
see him at some point this summer.
And then look, maybe Johnny and Lucas hitting 320 and he's got
15 homers in the first half of the season and we don't see
Chandler Simpson even if he's doing well.
But what Chandler Simpson can bring, just seeing him in spring
training, it was just you, you know, you talk about it, you
read about it, you talk to him, you write about him, you watch

(15:16):
video and then you actually see it live.
You're like, wow, this guy is unbelievable how much he can
change the game and how different he is.
So I think he's a guy that coulddefinitely have a big impact on
the team, even if he doesn't come up for the first couple
months. Yeah, yeah, I'm, I still need to
see him in person. I I feel like I'm missing out.
Is that do you live in Durham? Is that why you have the Durham

(15:36):
hat? No, I just wanted to try to get
all the affiliates, but I'm planning on going to Durham at
some point this year. Yeah, or they'll play in
Jacksonville this year. I mean, he's, he was really fun
to watch this spring. Yeah, no, I can't imagine on the
position player side of things, it looks like the roster seems
like it's almost set, especiallyafter the moves of, you know,

(15:57):
Eloy being sent down to Durham, Mangum being sent down to
Durham, who I know that we were kind of pulling for him to make
that roster, but he's still in a40 man.
So we still got a, you know, decent shot of of getting caught
up at some point, especially with the lack of outfield depth.
But like what? How are you feeling about the
position player? Just the the make up of the
roster on the position player side.
I mean, it's relatively the sameif you think about it, right,

(16:19):
how they finished last year. I mean, you knew Kevin Arrow was
going to get the chance to play third.
Walls is going to be a chart till Hassan Kim is ready, which
is a separate conversation, you know, to have in mid, mid to
late May. Brandon Low is second.
Yandi at first, it sounds like they're going to play a little
bit more of a Ronda and Mead at 1st and Yandi at DH.
We'll see how that goes. If Yandi gets off to a slow

(16:39):
start at DH, he's not a huge fanof DH and I could see that kind
of shifting back too. The outfields.
I think a little bit of a concern.
There's not a lot of experience.It's not a lot of depth.
You know, Morrell did not show much, as you guys know,
offensively last year. They thought put him in one
position, don't move him around.Maybe that gets his hitting
stroke back. DeLuca good defense needs to be
more consistent. He hit good the last six weeks

(17:00):
or so last year. Josh Lowe's the biggest key on
the team. He is, I think I did AI did a
list in Sunday's Tampa Bay Timesand players most key to their
success this year. He was my number one.
He has the biggest impact if he's the 2023 Josh Lowe of the
800 plus OPS. He is a dynamic, All Star
quality, middle of the order, like lead your team guy.
If he's Josh Lowe of last year and injuries were part of that,

(17:23):
then he's just a good player. But you need him to be a really,
really good player. He can do that and then go back
to catching Danny Jansen's a little banged up.
They think he's going to be OK. I think we'll know more.
You know Wednesday, Thursday, what his status is, but
impressive in spring training, the work he put in with the
pitchers as well as what he's done at the plate.
Yeah. I had a quick, quick follow up
on what you just said about Morel.

(17:43):
Like about like having kind of moving him around and that
affecting hitting. I've never really had heard that
perspective before. Does that happen often when you
move around to play or that affects them at the plate?
Only when it doesn't go well, then it becomes like, some guys
love it, right? And then Richie Palacios and
Jose Caballero look like they'regoing to be those guys.
This year, Ben Zovers made himself millions and millions of

(18:04):
dollars by being able to do thatwhen he was here.
But when it doesn't work, when aplayer's moved around and he's
not hitting, then it becomes an issue.
And I think it's a personality thing.
It just depends on the guy and, and his attitude.
Some guys think they, you know, should be this, they should be
that, they should be a regular at whatever position.
So, I mean, no one said Morell was complaining, but I think
they thought, look, he got traded.

(18:24):
He got moved from, you know, position at third base with the
Cubs to 2nd and outfield with the Rays.
He wasn't hitting. So let's I think their attitude
is let's stick him in one spot. He doesn't have to worry about
where he's playing. He knows he's going to be in
left field every day and hopefully he'll focus on his
hitting and get that better. And that's what they're banking
on. Yeah, Yeah, It makes a lot of
sense. What's the So Curtis made the

(18:45):
team, you know, with with with with the spring that he had.
He more than earned it. You mentioned him DH ING as I'm
sure is one of the things that he's going to be or one of one
of the places that he'll be on this team.
But do they have a plan or do you have an understanding of
what kind of plan that they havefor him this year?

(19:06):
Yeah, he said he's going to most, what he was told is he'll
play mostly first base when he plays in the field, he'll be
able to fill in at second. But, you know, if you have
Palacios and or Caballero available, you know, when's
Curtis Mead going to be your choice over those two guys at
second base, right. I think they're both better
defensive second baseman. He can play third and that's a
little bit more of an opportunity there.

(19:26):
When, when and if Caballero needs a Camanero needs the day
off because yeah, you don't really.
They have as much their Caballero can play third.
Palacios not so much. So you got some, you see some
lanes there to get Curtis Mead Summit bad.
So that's going to be the challenge.
The guy has such a great spring when he's playing almost every
day and now you put him in a reserve role and he's going to

(19:46):
play a couple times a week and probably again, some of the
tougher pitchers. It's sometimes tough for a young
guy to be able to maintain that success.
So that'll be one of the more interesting points to look at
the first couple weeks. What's Curtis me doing in those
situations? Yeah.
But does this, I mean, where's his confidence at right now
compared to because you've, you know, seen him throughout his
entire career with the Rays? Like, does this confidence seem

(20:07):
like it's at a different level now than it's been in recent
years? His confidence is high, but he's
also a pretty realistic guy. I mean, I would say he's been
one of the guys that's been moregrounded.
Like when he sucks, he knows he sucks.
When he's doing good, he knows he's doing good.
He knows neither one's going to laugh.
Pretty good perspective for a guy you know, who didn't grow up
in your typical baseball environment by coming from
Australia, but he seems to have a pretty good handle on it.

(20:29):
He knew he needed to change something.
He knew that that was not his best Curtis Mead last year and
he thought putting the weight back on, he took it off.
He wanted to be more mobile. They wanted him to play second
base. He thought he could maybe be the
backup to the backup shortstop, you know, and, and that didn't
work for him. He wasn't hitting.
He lost his power. He lost his confidence at the
plate. So he's put the weight back on.

(20:49):
I still can move around enough to play defense.
But that's what, you know, the bats going to drive Curtis Mead
and that's what he's trying to do.
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.I guess my last thing and then
you guys, if you have anything else, the outlook of this
season, because it seems like it's kind of all over the place.
I know what is it? Vegas has them at 80 1/2 wins
and that's definitely I, I feel like very much depending on

(21:10):
whether Shane's healthy and whether he's not healthy.
But I guess from your outlook ofthis team, where do you see
things playing out? Best case scenario, worst case
scenario, in the middle, whatever.
Yeah. I mean, I know Opening days is a
couple days away and usually I'mkind of like more locked in on
this. But it still feel like there's a
wide variance this season that if things go bad, they could go

(21:32):
bad and they could be in the high 70s or or back at that 80
win mark or something. And I think you could see them
trade some more guys. Yeah, not as much of A house
cleaning as last year, but tradesome more guys and kind of
continue this this collection ofmassively impressive talent that
they've done. Seeing some of those guys there
in the spring and that they didn't call it the Futures Game,
the Spring Breakout game and Bowermeister and then some of

(21:55):
those guys that they got in those trades and I know they
love the outfielder Alex Smith that they got, Aiden Smith that
they got. There's so many of those guys
that they got. So I could see some of that.
But I could also see this team kind of galvanizing around the
circumstances. The fact that everyone thinks,
oh, they're playing a minor league park, they're going to be
terrible in the Heat's going to kill them.
You know, all these things that are going to go wrong.

(22:15):
There's a long list of reasons that the Rays shouldn't do well
this year, but there also is a history where when that's the
case, sometimes they play their best.
I think Kevin Cash has got a really good handle on this.
He's kind of telling them like, look, this is our home stadium.
This is where we're playing. Like, you know, we're not, we're
not worried about all this outside noise.
Let's go out and just win baseball games every day.
And, you know, the left-handed hitters should do pretty well.

(22:37):
That ballpark, you know, Given has the same dimensions as
Yankee Stadium. Given the fact that in theory in
the heat and the humidity, the ball should carry a little more.
You know, this could be a big home run year for Brandon Loud,
Josh Lowe, Jonathan Aranda. So that should offset some of
the offensive concerns. The pitching's pretty good.
Now, obviously if it's an offensive park for the Rays,

(22:58):
it's an offensive park for the visitors.
But I think the Rays pitching staff, that bullpen, we didn't
get a chance to talk about that.But the quality and the dynamic,
the dynamic number of armed, thedifferent things that they can
do out of that bullpen. Mason Montgomery is a beast.
He is going to be, I mean, it's hard for a reliever to win
Rookie of the Year, but Mason Montgomery is going to be a
beast. He has the potential to just be

(23:19):
a dominant, dominant reliever. So with the things they can do
with the bullpen, the arms they have, the bats they have, I
think it's definitely possible they're in this race like this
is one of the more wide open. All five teams are in at Al ES
kind of years. The Yankees have come back to
the pack a little bit and every other team you can point out
some good things and some flaws.So I mean, this could be the
kind of thing we could be doing one of these in September and

(23:40):
you guys could be asking me who they're better off playing in
the playoffs. That is true.
You guys get anything else for Mark?
I was just going to, I was goingto go in on Josh, Josh Lowe a
little bit or Josh Lowe a littlebit more.
So in terms of because you don'ttry to put too much on spring
games and like you can't really quantify it too much because you

(24:02):
know, it's it's you can't put too much into it basically.
So how does his like, how does he seem now and compared to
years past? And I mean, you already kind of
said like the offensive seasons almost predicated on him, Like
how how confident are you that he can really step it up this

(24:25):
year? I mean, I, I, you know, I'll go
by how confident he is and he seems very confident.
He seems to have a really good perspective.
Like I was hurt last year. Look at my numbers when I, the
part of the year when I was healthy, my numbers really
weren't that horrible. I couldn't, you know, I got off
to a slow start. He's pretty accountable, you
know, coming from a baseball family, obviously his brother,
it is in the big league. So I think Josh Lowe has a

(24:46):
really good perspective on what was wrong last year, a really
good perspective on what was right in 2023 isn't getting too
far ahead of himself. But I, I, I, I personally think,
and you guys can save this clip and do point, point it out how
wrong I was if it turns out thatway.
But I think Josh Lowe is primed for a really, really big year.
I would not be surprised if he if he if he did.

(25:08):
We never clipped you. Evan.
Evan, you got anything else? I I have two more questions,
pretty small ones, but the firstone is the Rays were pretty,
pretty bad with runners in scoring positions last year.
What have you noted? Like have they been doing much?
What have you noticed anything that they're doing differently
so far this spring to help kind of bump those numbers up?

(25:29):
Yeah, they did a couple drills. It, it seemed a little hokey,
but but they kind of bought intoit and it was like going back to
some of the live batting practices at the start of camp.
They kind of told the groups like you're competing with each
other and like there's every time a guy went up to the plate,
like there's a guy on 2nd, even though there really wasn't a guy
on 2nd. And if you got a hit that you
know was a legitimate hit, then the you get credit for driving

(25:52):
in the run. And there was a little bit of
competition like between the batting practice groups just to
kind of add a little jazz to something that's normally pretty
mundane. And then during the exhibition
games, there actually were certain guys.
They didn't do it all the time, but certain guys were told
regardless of what was actually happening in the game, they were
told like you're going up, there's a runner on 2nd 2 outs
right now, or there's a guy on third one out or there's first

(26:14):
and 3rd. And there was a game, I suppose,
remember Taylor Walls dropped down a bunt with two outs and
I'm like, what is he doing? Well, turned out they had told
him during the game, one of yourfirst 3 of bats, we want you to
drop a bunt as if there's a runner on 1st and 3rd.
So it just happened that that's how it's count unfolded and
that's when he did it. But so they were trying to just
put that seat in their head. It was something Kevin Cash and

(26:35):
Chad Mottola came up with talking about it during the
winter of just instead of these guys just taking kind of the
lollygag approach to spring training sometimes give them a
focal point, not every a bag. You can't grind on them too
much, but make them kind of thrive in that situation and
kind of and then reward them. They were like some of those
situations you wonder why are they all high fiving each other
in the dugout. The guy just grounded out, but

(26:55):
he grounded out because they told him he went up to the
plate, just run around 3rd. So that ground ball just scored
a run. So those are the type of things
they did. So maybe some mind games a
little bit, but just trying to increase that focus and
intensity during the spring. Yeah, hopefully, hopefully for
all of us, it works out. This is a really, really dumb
question, but we kind of talked about Drake getting a getting a
win in the NCAA tournament last week.

(27:17):
How much crap did you get give Pete Fairbanks for that?
Well, that was my biggest regretfrom being on the IL this past
week and not being around the team.
Like like I said, I just broke up my kneecap is I was so
excited to be able to go to Peteand like, you know, get into one
of those exchange with him that usually when I do it ends up on
the pre game show and everyone laughs about it because he

(27:38):
always has to have the last word.
But get into it with him a little bit and said some kind
of, you know, friendly type wager or something.
And then certainly with Drake winning, so I'm hoping to see
him this week and engage him in a little bit.
But yeah, that would have been abig victory dance for me for
sure. Oh shoot, that's too bad.
No I really my biggest. Seriously, as much as it's hurt,

(27:59):
I was more hurt that I didn't get to TSP then itself being
broke. Yeah, true.
That's great. Anyone else got anything that's?
It for me. How confident are you in Useta
and Rodriguez this year? Do you think they can repeat the
success of last year and and carry into the season?
Fair question. I mean, you said it didn't have
the greatest spring. And I know at one point Cash was

(28:20):
asked about it and he said like,oh, the bar is so high that if
he let the run in, we're going to be worried about him kind of
thing. But what he did last year was
pretty special. It's always when you come out of
nowhere, you wonder how that's going to continue.
But he seems pretty driven talking to him and he said
something about he feels like he's reached about 80% of his
his peak right now and that he wants to keep going.
That MLB Network thing where he was ranked the 6th best reliever

(28:43):
in all of baseball. He was like kind of caught him a
like, wow, OK, if I am and let'sget going here.
So I think he's still pretty focused.
Manny Rodriguez is kind of one of those quiet, understated
guys. He's got really good stuff.
But consistency is going to be the key for both those guys.
I mean, they're still relativelyyoung, relatively inexperienced
in that, you know, high leveragerelief role.
So it's just got to be consistency from those guys as

(29:05):
much as they can get. For sure.
All right, well, I know we're very excited about the bullpen.
We're very excited about this entire team.
Mark, I'm sure you're very excited.
You know, you've been covering this team since the jump.
So definitely a year, a very unique, interesting year ahead
with everything going on. But thank you so much for coming
on. We, we really can't say that

(29:26):
enough and we want to give you the floor to make sure, you
know, people can, if people don't follow Mark, which you
should. Especially I don't listen to
this. I don't.
I don't forget how you could. I don't think you're a Rays fan
if you don't follow. Yeah.
Yeah. So Mark, Mark, where can people
find you and your work and everything else you got going
on? Yeah, I mean, obviously, you
know, we we use social media andTwitter, specifically TV Times,

(29:49):
under score Rays. But you know, just to kind of
make a pitch here is I'd encourage people to get a
subscription to Tampa Bay Times.I mean, we're a subscription
website. We've got some specials on the
website. Check around there.
There's some pretty good pricing.
But yeah, we offer thorough coverage of the Rays on a daily
basis when they play, When they don't play, there's always
articles posted on our website, tampabay.com.

(30:11):
John Romano is one of the best columnists in the world.
He works with me on the Rays. We'll probably have some other
guys of our staff popping in there.
But you know, we're going to, we're going to keep it churning
with all the different things going on in Ray's world.
And we know there's a lot between on the field and off the
field right now. So I appreciate you guys having
me on. And, and like I said, encourage
people subscribe to The Times and follow us along on Twitter.

(30:31):
For sure. Well, hey, Mark, thanks so much
again. We really, really appreciate it.
And for everyone listening, we're going to take a quick
break and we'll be right back inthis latest episode of Raise THE
Roof. Hi everyone.
Alex here with a quick word fromour sponsor, Seegeek.
Seegeek is your one stop shop for tickets for everything from
live theater and concerts to sporting events like Ray's

(30:53):
games. Seegeek uses a color-coded scale
to show you where the best dealsare with green being good and
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before, we have a special deal just for you.
Use code Raise the Roof. That's Ray's spelled RAYS at
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Again, that's code Raise the Roof for 20 dollars off your

(31:13):
first SeatGeek purchase. Thanks so much to SeatGeek for
sponsoring us. And let's get back to this
latest episode of Raise the Roof.
And and we're back on this latest episode of Raise the
Roof. So before we get back into
giving our thoughts about this upcoming raise season, I haven't
gotten a chance to talk about the fact that Maryland finally

(31:36):
got a freaking buzzer beater. Oh my God, Derek Queen, I love
you. He said give me that ball, give
that to me. That that was, that was quite,
just quite a game. Like, I mean, that was an
unbelievable shot by I mean. Colorado State, I mean, they're
good shit. They were hanging in as a 12

(31:57):
seed against a Big 10. I mean, they were in the were
they in the final? No, No, they lost to Michigan in
the conference finals, but. They were the two seed.
They were. The two seed.
But before I talk about Maryland, you give Colorado
State all the credit in the world.
Their coach could draw up offensive plays like nobody's
business. I mean, I have to play to that.

(32:19):
They took the lead on with I. Saw that coming from a mile away
by the way, I literally texted someone I was like, this has
happened the last four times that they've lost watch.
It's happened with less than 10 seconds left.
They're gonna take the lead and they're gonna win.
Luckily I didn't but and the. Shot the shot was gorgeous I
mean it was a picture perfect shot but very smart play by
Maryland get it to half court called use the time out.

(32:42):
They didn't throw up some bullshit at the end, which was
nice. Nice veteran move there by a
kind of a young team actually. But, and it's amazing what
happens when you give your best player and the best player on
the court the ball it was. Going to gather, it was a gather
step in two. That's all I'm saying.
There was little travel. It's like, sure, maybe there was

(33:03):
a travel, but like. They're not going to call.
It they they would never called in the moon now and and play and
players on every team get away with that.
Also the coloristic. I got with away with the most
obvious elbow I've ever seen. And yeah, there's no Jordan.
Geronimo got decked. I think, I mean, I could have
easily, I think that could have easily been a flagrant 1.
I think there could have been a flagrant too.

(33:23):
And there was no foul call. So like if you want to call, I
mean, sure it was a questionabletravel, but the Colorado State
got some calls as well, so. I'll take it, I'll take it.
Crab $5. The Sweet 16.
What a win. Florida is unbelievable, guys.
I yeah, that was that was an unbelievable shot by Queen I.
Only have one bracket now that'sin the top million brackets on

(33:44):
the. I don't know my.
Brackets are pretty much fried because I had St.
John's going far. And I had, yeah, I had so much
so. Many things.
I did. I did predict the in my main
bracket, though it did predict the McNeese State upset.
I actually predicted the. Con.
My boy. I did predict that so.
What a goat. Ghost Spartans.

(34:05):
Listen, Ghost Spartans. That's all I'll say.
Evan, I don't like that, and Evan definitely doesn't like
that. Yeah, I know.
Yeah, Michigan also had a great win this weekend.
Roddy Gale is the best player inthe tournament remaining.
Absolutely carried Michigan overA&M, who is also a really,
really good team. Yeah, it was a great weekend.

(34:25):
I can't, I'm very shocked that Michigan won that game.
But Michigan, Michigan State andthe Elite 8 would feed feed a
lot of families. I would, I would love that.
And also, wouldn't that mean that Auburn would lose?
Michigan plays Auburn. Yeah, yeah.
Michigan plays on. Yeah.
That's gonna be. So I'm not excited.
Not expecting Michigan one day, but.
I'm still wanting wait, where are they?

(34:47):
What are these? Fools.
I'm just not expecting Maryland to win.
Like I had them go to the Sweet 16 in like every one of my
brackets then I had them losing cuz I'm there's a wagon.
I still want my Michigan State Florida 2000 NCA championship
rematch in the Final Four. That would be cool.
That would be cool as a semi final game that would final

(35:08):
four. Game that would be that would be
dope. So beating Michigan on the way
there would be also cool so. It's it's hard to beat 3 times.
That's the old adage, isn't it? Yeah, beat.
A team that is true, but. It is tough.
I think we're one and one. They season swept us.
No, you guys, you guys swept theissue.
That's true. But wait, you beat us in?

(35:29):
No, wait, you didn't beat us in tournament?
Dumb. No, we lost the Wisconsin did.
Well, unfortunately, unfortunately, a team that
didn't get in the tournament, that's still near and dear to
our hearts. USF got a coach, they got
Arkansas State's head coach Brian Hodgson.
They also got our one of Arkansas State's players.
So I guess the players are goingon.

(35:52):
So shout out to the Bulls. Hopefully they can get things
going again. I know everything that happened
last year, they are horrible. So hopefully this will help him
get back on the right track. Yeah, I mean, it's awesome.
I think he's, I think he has tremendous swag.
So I, I looked at him just just from the, from the post like 2
minutes after he posted, I'm like, and then I watched one

(36:14):
video of him and I was convincedhe'd be a head coach.
So I'm all in. I love it.
Linda Hodgson. I love, sorry, a state that
sucks for you guys. You lost a player last time
though, Amir. He brought like three guys with
them and I mean, they did great stuff for a program.
A lot of guys also transferred out.
Jalen Reed, Kobe Knox transferred 2 of the big scores

(36:38):
on USF that Amir did bring here.Youngwood did, too, right?
Yeah, yeah, there wasn't enough.Yeah, so transporters getting
hit, but you know, we're in a good rebuild mode and I'm
excited to go games next year soshould be cool.
Yeah, well, from that we head tothe Rays, another Tampa Bay
staple, a team that will be playing in Tampa this year, as

(37:00):
Mark talked about. And again, thanks so much to
Mark again for coming on. We can't thank him enough.
He's awesome, fantastic, fantastic guy.
Great, great coverage. Make sure to check that out in
the Times and also on Twitter. But yeah, we have a new season
coming up on Friday. The Rays will be playing the
best team that they could have probably asked for.

(37:21):
That's right, the Colorado Rockies.
Because what says exciting baseball more like the Colorado
Rockies in 2025? Let me tell you.
And just because you said that, we're going to get swept.
You know, you say that, but I feel like the most interesting.
Game might hit like 7 homers if he's not on the IL.
But but I feel like the most interesting games are the ones

(37:43):
that we play against the Rockiesfor some reason, I don't know
why. Last year's series was like.
Last year's like we came back like six runs in them on one
inning. That was one of the last one
last year's games. So didn't even I feel like I
feel like some bullshit games happened the.
News that came on a Walker? No, I think or something,
something. We lost the 1st I.

(38:04):
Remember that? Yeah.
Yeah, that series cuz it was. Wow, that sounds horrible.
It was the most memeable series of all time, so I feel like
stuff always happens when we play the Rockies.
Dude, I don't know. I mean, it's definitely a boring
matchup on paper, but there's something in the air when those
boys come to town or when we go to their town.
Especially when they're not in the air of of Coors Field, which

(38:26):
is, yeah, exactly apparently. I mean, it's not it's not
apparently it is. Hell for for pitchers to try to
deal with. Just one one hell to another
Steinbrenner field cuz that ballwill carry with that heat and it
is small. That ball is going to carry like
absolute Oh my God, gangbusters.That's going to be that's going

(38:46):
to be wild to watch. But yeah, so let's talk.
Let's give our thoughts on this team.
We, you know, we heard what Marksaid definitely, you know,
plenty of excitement to be had, but also a lot of variance is a
really good way of describing the team.
I am curious to know because we again, we don't really have an

(39:07):
idea of the entire roster, but we have a general understanding
of it. Even with the the Shane news,
which is I believe didn't hunterbiggie get he got called back up
after he got after he got sent down to Durham.
No. Am I going I.
Believe. Did he really?
Oh, I didn't. I must have missed that totally.

(39:27):
I usually get the transactions on my phone.
I yeah, yeah. No, he's making the opening Day
roster because of what happened with with Shane.
So he's going to make the opening day roster, which I I
and the opening day roster, especially in the bullpen side
is pretty much figured out. We have we have Clevenger.
I think Kevin Kelly's going to make it.
Pete Useda man Rod Biggie. Who else am I missing?

(39:51):
I mean, those are like the big Rosetta.
No, I already. Oh, you did.
Yeah, I'm going back to Evan's Evan.
Evan Klosky's put out different.I guess his thoughts about what
the open, OK, here's here's his thoughts about the roster.
Oh, Mike Vasil and Mason Angler were the other guys that he was
looking at in the bullpen, kind of in the back end of the

(40:13):
bullpen. But in terms like the main guys,
it's oh, Fairbanks who say to Monty Clevenger, Kelly Manrod
and then Biggie. Kelly Kelly struck out the side
the other day. Kelly's a dog.
He's a dog. Underrated.
Yeah, I, I feel like we've thrashed him in the past because
he has had bad, he has had bad moments, but he's bad, mostly

(40:36):
good moments. So, you know, I, I like Kelly.
He's also. Still young, isn't he?
He's. Relatively young.
I think he's on. He's on the young side of 30.
Yeah. Let me check this.
He's 27. Yeah, yeah, no.
So he's on the young side of third.
This is third year in the majors, so yeah, he's he's still
pretty young. Yeah, I mean, there's definitely
a lot of great stuff from him. And then on the position players

(40:59):
side, and you guys know what therotation goes like.
We got Drew, Taj, Pep, Lattelle,Baz and Shane will come back at
some point. And then on the other side of
it, position players, Roark Jansen are going to be the
catchers depending on what happens with Jansen.
He sees he's still the me catcher on this team, Cabbie,

(41:20):
Aranda, Caminero Diaz, Bilal Meade, Morrell Palacios, Johnny,
who's going to start in center field.
Very interesting to see what happens there considering that
he's not really had a great spring, but hopefully he can
kind of get things going. Josh and then my favorite player
in the world, Taylor Walls, and he's always been my favorite
player, did do not. I'm gonna make a prediction,

(41:43):
Alex. You're not gonna like it.
I'm scared. You're not gonna.
I feel like Taylor Walls might have a good first month.
I think that's all we need. Yeah, but like I'm telling you,
like before, before Hassan Kim comes back, he's gonna do pretty
good. I feel like.
I feel like he's just gonna. He's gonna spite us.

(42:04):
He's been listening US and he's gonna spite us in this moment
and he's gonna have a breakout start to like he did in 2023.
Or. 22323 if that's what it, that's correct.
Then I'll take it because, and Ithink we said it as a joke, but
maybe he'll have a good first six weeks.

(42:25):
I mean, it'll be great trade bait.
But that's what I'm saying. He's not a bad like in all
reality with balls because we know what's going to happen
there. And I'm very curious to see what
happens with Cabbie because I would assume that Cabbie's going
to be like a platoon shortstop outfield guy, which I don't want
him in in the outfield at all because he's looked horrible out
there this spring. I'm very curious to see how that

(42:46):
works knowing that Kim is going to come up, because I would
assume that Cabbie's basically going to move to the outfield
and then they'll keep walls of the backup.
Or I I would think maybe that they're just playing it like
whoever is worse in the next month maybe gets DFA Ed.
I don't know about that. No, no, I mean are.
You thinking walls if it's? Liable to be DFA Ed, Same thing,

(43:09):
same thing. I mean, we're, we're, we're
talking about a guy who was a gold, gold finalist and a guy
who led the American League in stolen bases last year.
They're not just going to DFA them.
They're going to try to get value out of them in a trade.
Yeah, I guess we could trade himafter we DFL him too, but that's
true. That's what I would assume.
But yeah, I mean, that's like with the news about Eloy, which
it seems he's very happy with, with being in the organization.

(43:32):
And I'm a big fan of that. And hopefully because he's
still, he's like 28, so like he's still got time to get
things going again and, and hopefully he'll be able to do
that in Durham. And I think Durham's a really
good place to do that. And then after the news with
Mangum, which I know I'm really bummed out about because God,
what does this man need to do tomake a Major League roster other
than just get a little bit more pop?

(43:53):
Because he showed pop in spring training.
He hit like 400 and he had like,I don't even know what his OPS
was, but it was like 12-13 hundred.
Like I just feel bad for the guynow because I'm like, what more
does he need to do to make a Major League roster?
He can field, he can hit, he's shown power, he's fast.
Like I don't know anymore. I get I totally agree and it's

(44:15):
not like it's not like he's I don't want to say he's old, but
it's not like he's in his early 20s either like he's mature.
He's that he's there age wise too.
And I I agree with everything you just said.
I feel really bad for him. It he will make it, he will make
it to the IT will happen. Make his.
Major League debut this year. If I could bet on it, and I know

(44:36):
the odds would be horrible, but I'd still bet on it because it
will happen. Actually, Well, if I bet on it,
probably won't happen. So I'm glad I can't do that.
But you know what I mean by yeah, yeah, he'll make it.
He'll make it. And but I do feel bad that he's
not in the opening door on the opening day roster.
When does that officially come out, by the way?
I would. Assume before, probably like

(44:57):
Thursday, yeah. And and why what is it because
of the weather? Like why did the day that?
Why did they give? You so so the reason why is
because as as Mark was talking about they like they immediately
got started on the on the on therenovations Steinbrenner like
Sunday after the game. I don't remember because the

(45:19):
Yankees had spring training throughout the entire thing and
they weren't just not going to play there.
So the only reason why they moved it back is to give them a
little bit more time to get everything right for for opening
day because again, I mean this is a massive operation that
you're taking on to try to get this thing as as rays ready as
possible for opening day. So I mean you are going to use

(45:40):
every hour that you possibly can, every minute that you
possibly can to do it. So that's the reason why it's
got it got moved back and I completely understand that now
knowing that it's basically because of the fact that they
just need more time. Thank you, I totally forgot
about that story but I'm remembering it now.
Thank you for that. Yeah, no, it's, it's, I mean,
there's going to be a lot of chaos going on with

(46:01):
Steinbrenner. Gibby, have you gotten a chance
to see any of Steinbrenner and Dry?
I mean, you meant to. Dry, yeah, I drove past it and I
have seen obviously there's somephotos of just some certain
other stuff that people have been in the state and they've
been able to see it. There is a lot of posters and
there's a lot of and they cover up a lot of stuff.

(46:25):
I mean, it looks like the Ray Stadium other than what Mark
said about the things on the seats and you have to be really
up close to the seats to see those emblems anyway.
Other than that, I mean, they'vecovered up basically or are
gonna cover up basically everything Yankees related.
And that's that's pretty good. I mean, obviously there's some

(46:46):
like there's like a Hall of Famebuilding where the Yankees have
like a bunch of memorabilia. They have like a Mariano Rivera
jersey in there. I doubt they will move any of
that stuff. If anything, they might put up a
wall on there or that might justbe a maybe a staff only room for
this season. Not sure.
But yeah, it's it's, it's prettycool what they've been able to

(47:07):
do. I mean, it, the color scheme, it
works out because, you know, it's a dark blue.
It's not like the Black Yankees.It's it's like a dark blue color
scheme throughout. And some of it has like light
blue highlights. So it kind of already looks like
it was it was ready for to be a Ray Stadium at some point.

(47:28):
So. And.
And there, and there's a lot of murals that were on the, on the
entrances to the, I've seen thisonline.
There was some murals that were there on the stairs before and a
lot of those have been painted over.
So or I'm not sure if they're painted over, it might just be a
sticker that's over it. So maybe not paint.

(47:50):
I wouldn't wanna say paint, but but it looks pretty cool.
I mean, they you can't really tell it's it was the Yankee
Stadium other than when you see George out front and all the the
Yankees garden other. Than that you're saying that
Thurman Monson didn't play for the Rays when they didn't exist
back in the 70s? How dare you?
Yeah, we have. No, dude, we did exist in the

(48:11):
70s. Dude, we have the the logo.
Oh yeah. Not about the fall backs.
My fault? Yeah.
What are you talking about? The two different years of fall
backs, they didn't go. They didn't just go hard one
time, they went hard. Twice.
Completely unnecessary. But yeah, it looks cool.
Yeah. I mean, I'm excited.
I'm excited. I think I'm going down for the

(48:32):
Marlins series on the the June 6th to the 8th.
So I'm excited to see it in person then I don't know if.
Partial rain might might impact that.
I will. Probably have plans.
I'm going to have plans to go down at some point.
I, I think it was in June was when I was planning on trying to
go down just because early on it's probably going to be
tougher. Once the summer comes a lot more

(48:54):
things open up. But not trying to go in like
July or August to the 8th. No, I don't think it's there is
because that's just too early. Gotcha.
I oh, shoot, what was I going tosay?
Nevermind, Continue. I I'll think of it.
Yeah, I mean, the roster looks fine.
It's it's not anything too crazy.
I'm excited to see what what what Richie does, though.

(49:15):
I think that Richie again, it's going to be a similar situation
to what he had last year. I really that morale turns
things around because God, he sucked ass last year.
And like, I'm not trying to be mean.
It's just he was not a good player to watch.
Johnny looked looked really goodtowards the end of the year.
Aranda looked really good in September and I was very

(49:36):
encouraged and very excited about that and I feel like we've
been waiting for so God damn long for him and I'm really
hoping that he has a big year this year.
I'm excited to see what lattell because I feel like of anyone
though, I think that drew would be more of the odd man out
because of the fact that his armhas been operated on so many
times, but I feel like the rays would want him more in the

(49:59):
rotation than Lattell. I'm I'm very excited to see what
what Lattell can do because if anyone looked at his stats last
year, dude was solid. Like he was a very service.
I mean, if he was a #3 for some bad teams, like probably on the
Marlins, on the Pirates, on who else am I trying to think of?

(50:22):
Maybe Toronto? The Rockies, Yeah.
The Rockies and maybe I'm overshooting a little bit with
with Toronto, just like just notgood teams.
I mean the Nationals like he would probably be like a number
2 or #3 like, yeah, legitimatelyhe would be that.
And he's shown that he can. And for the Rays he's like a 5.

(50:42):
So like. And I mean, that just translates
to to all the way up and up and down.
I mean, I feel like if any team they would be so happy if they
had one of our three young starting pitchers, you know, Boz
Pepeo and and Bradley, like those are like very sought
after. Like that would be a sought
after young guy to build your team off of.

(51:03):
And a lot of I mean, almost all the bullpen would be ** guys
like what you're saying, like they'd be star guys on other
rosters, they'd be closers. Maybe they'd be really high
leverage guys on other team. And I mean, and they just, they
continue in price. So yeah, all the way up and
down. I mean, the pitching on the

(51:24):
raise is always like highly undervalued.
I mean, it's the story of their franchise existence.
But but they always they always put all their chips on pitching.
So it'll be interesting to see how how they adjust to this
smaller stadium because, I mean,we talked about the hitting, but
you know, that's gonna be for the other guys too.
So should be interesting. I did think about the thing I

(51:46):
was gonna say and I I meant to bring it up with Topkin too, but
they did announce that there's asell out for the home opener on
Friday. Yeah, yeah.
Which yes for the 19th. It took a while because kind of
start expensive. Right.
Kind of surprised it took a while and considering there's a
thousands of fewer seats than itwould be at the drop, but I

(52:07):
guess better late than never so.Yeah, I'm glad that it's sold
out again. It was it was going to come at
some point. It was more of just like, it
kind of sucks that it's taken aslong as it has because of the
fact that again, like I, I, I know before and like I said
this, I will hold my hand up because I said it's put up or
shut up time. We have a state, you know,

(52:28):
there's a stadium in Tampa. Go to games.
I didn't realize the tickets were going to be like 3X what
they were previously because like even opening day last year
and opening day last year, therewere some expensive, you know,
usually those games are going tobe the most expensive because of
the fact that it's opening day. Like I didn't expect tickets to
be that bad. And I think it was divisional

(52:49):
last year too, which also. Yeah, with the Blue Jays, which
always, yeah, I like ticket price.
Yeah. I mean, they're playing the
Rockies. They're playing a good.
Yeah, no, I I agree. I mean, tickets are there's like
they're expensive. They're like crazy expensive if
you buy them from the race. And I get, I get it a little bit
like, I mean, obviously suppliesdecrease, but and but they're

(53:11):
playing the Rockies and like, I mean, yeah, and it's Opening
Day, but, and I assume the game.'S the first game in Tampa.
Though Yeah, that's about it. History.
And the first home game outdoors, too.
Outdoor in Tampa. Like, like there's so many
things that should be going for this, but also like when you see
the tickets are like 150 bucks, you're like, Oh my God.

(53:32):
Yeah, I mean the average, the average ticket price is up there
with like the Dodgers and the Yankees for if you look at, you
know, and the. Athletic.
We're one of the athletics, we're one of the big boys, big
boys with the athletics. No.
Then shut up. The Yankees.
Big boys. Dodgers.
The trap athletics, they'll they'll go down.

(53:53):
I mean, next week we get the Pirates during the week.
I can't imagine. Oh yeah, yeah.
Expensive even this weekend. I think that there was like I
think the opening day kind of environment plus, yeah, I think
that I think you're right give you like you might have said
that a little bit sarcastically,but it is the first game in
Tampa and it's the first outdoorhome game like that is that
means something to people down in Tampa.

(54:15):
Yeah, yeah, I guess and obviously what you said the
supplies down. So I bet it it, you know, if we
took AirDrop the trop, you know,over to Tampa, you know, I feel
like it would probably be aroundthe same price, honestly.
So I don't feel like it's reallytoo affected by the first game
in Tampa thing, but it is a little bit of effect.
It's a little bit. I think I think so too.

(54:37):
Yeah. Well, the last thing, the last
thing I want to discuss with youguys before we end up closing
shop for this episode is expectations for this team,
because my expectations, I thinkthat they like realistically, I
think they could get a wild cardspot.
I think like 88 wins seems like it would make sense like that 86

(55:00):
to 90 range. I think best case scenario, they
compete for the division and I think T Crass said it like 95
wins. I think that that's a very
realistic ceiling, though. I don't think it's going to
happen because again, everythinghas to go right.
So I like personally I'm sittinglike mid to high 80s, but I want

(55:20):
to hear your guys's thoughts. I mean, whenever I make this
prediction, you know, you got tolook at your adversaries too on
the on, you know who's going to be racing against you.
So obviously the Blue Jays, I feel like you know, did a little
bit, but more of the same so they could possibly compete with

(55:40):
against wild card for us. So I feel like they're still
about the same. I feel like the Red Sox stock
has gone way up. So I'm like unbiasedly, I'm
pretty high in the Red Sox coming out in this division with
either and with the playoff spot.
But Yankees, you know, stocked down, stocked way down.

(56:00):
And then Orioles about the same,you know, like 2 pretty
disappointing playoff runs in the last two years.
I mean, you could say that aboutthe Rays last last, you know,
their last two playoff appearances and then none.
But I am pretty high on this team just because the arms
coming back, we will have Mcclanahan back.
Thank God. We're so such a competitive

(56:23):
division compared to other divisions.
Central. Damn.
So hey, they might have more wins than us this this year.
So I mean, I don't know. I mean, that's how it usually
works, actually. So actually, no.
But yeah, I mean, every team seems like they're competitive
enough. I mean, obviously everyone's
down on the Yankees, so we'll see.

(56:44):
But I mean, I'm very high on theRays, so I feel like it's above
it's at least above an 88 win season.
And I do just feel like we do get a a wild card.
I know Vegas says 80, so I'll just say above 80 as my as my
I'll, I'll take the over, right?I don't know about it, but so

(57:05):
I'll take the over on that one. I feel like we do actually snag
a wild card spot at least, and Ifeel like we are fighting for
division at some point in the year.
It might be even to the very, very end.
So I mean, we'll see. But obviously it's it's all it's
all on the offense. I mean, the pitching, it's

(57:25):
taking us far, but it can only take us so far.
You know, we're getting in this really like hitter dynamic
league where like the best teamsare the ones that can really hit
and then they pitch, you know, they pitch all right.
And that they don't they don't really pitch like either Dodgers
raise. But it's just gonna, it's just

(57:46):
gonna be pretty like, like what Mark Tompkins said with the
offense. It's gonna be all on low and
low. I feel like it's a low and low
year. I mean, it's time.
I mean, it's really the make it or break it.
And it's not it's not the best situation.
You know, the schedules working against you, at least in the

(58:07):
summer months when when baseball's like it's worse.
So there's that. But I, I'm high on this team and
I'm high. I'm high on the pitching and I'm
high on the hitting. So low and low.
That's why I'll say above 80 wins wild card at least.
Evan realistic thoughts on this team?
Yeah, I think like I think low to in mid eighty wins, but I

(58:31):
mean this year it's pretty, it just seems like it's more spread
out in terms of the talent. It doesn't seem like, I mean, I
think the highest, I think there's only like 1 team in the
AL who's Vegas wins or in the 90s.
I'm going to double check that. Would that be the Yankees?
I think so. I think there's only.
No, no, we're not confident either, because cold out.

(58:53):
According to Vegas Insider, the Yankees are 89 1/2 and they're
the highest. Yeah.
In the AL ES. In the entire well.
I'm pretty sure that number wentdown because of the fact that
cold is out for the year, so. Yeah, probably around 87, I'd
say so. I mean, I think low to mid 80s,

(59:14):
this isn't going to be, this is going to be kind of an odd year.
I think that might be good enough to make the playoffs
usually. I mean, in recent years, you
usually have to win 90 or even more than that to make the
playoffs. But I think this could be
different. This rotation is good enough to
make it to the playoffs. I think I've said that every
single podcast over the offseason, but it really depends
on how the I agree with what Topkins said.

(59:38):
I think I think low Josh Lowe isgoing to be The X Factor.
I think him and Rhonda are goingto be the two guys who, as far
as those guys go, we'll take theentire team.
I mean, Cameron Arrow, I think we have pretty high expectations
for him, but we may have to justlimit that just because it's
going to be his first full season in the majors.

(59:59):
Who knows what's going to happenwith that, But I think, I guess
the throat. Rotation guy in there.
I think, yeah, low Rhonda and I think this is a huge year for
Taj Bradley. I think if he's healthy for the
entire year and he doesn't kind of take that step forward, I
think there's something that we're like, all right, when is
he going to do that? Because this is going to it's

(01:00:19):
going to be as what, third full season the majors last year you
could see signs of it. But unfortunately that yeah, the
nine game stretch was incredible.
Be kind of reverted to the means.
So. It's this going to be a huge
season for him, see how much he can grow and kind of become that
number two guy in the rotation, I think behind Mcclanahan once
he's back and healthy. Do we wanna do cuz we haven't

(01:00:41):
done a pickup player since like September or October.
Do we wanna quickly do 1 before we sign off?
Yes, I pick. I pick Pepeo and Hitter.
I pick Josh Lowe because you're gonna pick Brandon.
Yeah, I know, Evan. I'm picking Fairbanks.

(01:01:03):
Fairbanks. I wouldn't.
He was a little down last year could I guess just compared to
what we're used to. He didn't get off to a great
start, but I'm looking, I'm looking forward to seeing how he
rebounds this year once again. I think I hate saying that
because he wasn't he wasn't horrible.
He was still one of the he was still really, really good at the
end of the season and toward themiddle of the season.

(01:01:24):
But compared to what we're used to, he wasn't the elite reliever
that we know him that. So hopefully I'm looking looking
forward to him bouncing back andlooking forward to his his
hilarious interviews. Hopefully we don't get a lot of
the the bad interviews of him saying he's been a special kind
of suck tonight. But I think that was verbatim of

(01:01:47):
what he said. But.
Yeah, it was pretty close. I do want that Drake interview
though. Topic and you better do that.
Yeah, be a leap I would. Love it.
That would be awesome. And I'm I'm going with the
Rhonda. Rhonda is going to be my guy
this year. Yeah.
I'm just, it's going to be a bigyear for him.
I think he's going to. I think he's going to have a
hell of a year. But, well, the B Lau picks are
never going to end. Baby, he's back.

(01:02:10):
He's going to hit 50 bombs this year.
He's going to win the MVP. He's playing in a Little League
ballpark. So give me all the B Lau hype.
You should have that. And my boy Kevin Kelly, let's go
like that. Let's go.
All right. You should be allowed to win
MVP. You'd win a lot of money.
Yeah, I'm gonna. Yeah.
I mean, I'm not going to bet on it, but that's my guy.

(01:02:31):
I know. I mean, $10 could be like a
million right there. That's.
True well, we'll see. Well, it's not being good that's
going to end this latest episodeRaise the roof.
Very excited for the start of the season.
We know you guys are. We are very much so plenty of
stuff coming up from us. If you guys want to follow us on
social media, Raise the Roof TB on Twitter slash X Instagram

(01:02:52):
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Stay tuned for those which are going to come out over the next
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(01:03:14):
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(01:03:34):
With that being said, thanks so much for listening.
Happy opening day and as always,raise up.
Raise up baby. We are so back.
Raise up.