April 3, 2025 • 49 mins
The 2025 Tampa Bay Rays season has officially begun at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa and through the first week, the Rays are looking sharp. We talked with Rays Radio broadcaster Neil Solondz about his thoughts on the team so far and what it's been like calling home games outdoors in Tampa Bay.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:12):
For the first time for the 2025 regular season, it's time to
raise the roof for this latest regular season podcast.
Welcome back everyone. I'm host Alex Murphy with me as
always my Co host Gibby. How we doing, we're doing.
Pretty good. I mean, two successful series so
far. So I mean, what?
What's not to like? That is true.
Honestly. That is true.
(00:33):
We have one of our Razor roof team members.
Max is here with us. He hasn't been with us a little
bit, Max, It's been a bit. But how you doing man?
Doing pretty great. It's been, it's been really
wonderful, Great, great start ofthe season.
It has, it has for sure. And we do have a special guest.
What would juice in just a second?
But if you guys didn't know, theRays just finished up their
second series of the year. They're four and two right now.
(00:54):
I think that they're 1/2 game out of the American League East
or whatever it is. It's it's six games of the year,
so who really cares? But they're playing well.
Two straight series wins. They played the Rockies and
Pirates and look very solid and who better to talk about that
with than one of the voices of the Rays on the radio who we've
had on multiple times before? Neil Solons.
(01:17):
Neil, it's so great to have you back.
We sincerely appreciate the time, how you doing and happy
start of the year. No problem.
I appreciate you guys having me on.
Again, thank you. Yeah.
Thanks for coming on, man. It's awesome.
Yeah. So I guess the first thing, how
has it been like it's Steinbert or what's everything been like
over these first two series of the season?
Well, first, I mean, you know, kudos to everyone involved.
(01:40):
You know, a thank you to the Yankees because they've given
us, you know, a tremendous opportunity to stay in Tampa Bay
and and play at their facility. It's been great, I know, for our
players in terms of the clubhouse and the amenities, but
also kudos to our staff for, youknow, doing what they did in a
96 hour period and all the hoursthey're putting in before,
(02:02):
during and after games to make this place as fan friendly as
possible and as Ray Ish as possible.
And and they really did an incredible job of of making it
feel like home in a very short period of time.
And I think, you know, my guess is especially playing 19 of the
1st 22 games at home, it will probably feel even more like
(02:23):
home when we come back for that second lengthy homestand of 13
games and four opponents. Yeah, I was just talking about
it with Gibby. And Gibby, you've had a chance
to, to to experience life at Steinbrenner for a little bit.
And both you can answer this. But I've heard the atmosphere
described as one that's similar to like a college baseball
(02:44):
atmosphere. And having experienced college
baseball myself down in down in Mississippi in the SEC, those
crowds are crazy. And it seems like that I, I
don't know so if it's exactly like that, but it seems like
the, the smaller, you know, capacity has really made for
some cool atmospheres early on. I will say it's, it's been
great. I think people are embracing the
(03:05):
outdoors and embracing, you know, the uniqueness of this
season. You know, it's hard for me to
compare it to, to the SEC just because, you know, I haven't
lived that, you know, my experiences in life have been
very, very different. But I would say that it's just
been a good atmosphere and, you know, I think the fact that
(03:25):
you've had the crowd organicallystart chance and and be engaged
in the game for the most part has been really, really
exciting. And I think it's only, you know,
as as folks get continue to get comfortable and get to know the
this group. And I think it's a really good
group to be around. You know, I'm hoping this is a
very fun, exciting season. And, you know, thank goodness
(03:46):
we're off to a solid start. Yeah, Gabby, how's it been like
at at Steinbender from your experiences?
Yeah, I mean, I don't, I'm with Neil where I don't see the
college baseball thing as much because I haven't gotten to like
experience like a big college baseball setting.
I've been to pretty small college games.
But yeah, I mean, it's it's a huge, it's a very, I mean, it's
(04:07):
very small and dare I say John Fisher intimate ballpark.
So it it it feels it feels great.
And I mean, there it's not, it'slike not overcrowded.
I feel like there's enough spacefor everyone there.
They didn't like try to pack more people in or anything.
So I feel like it's just, it feels great.
(04:29):
Like everyone's kind of more into the game.
I feel like when you have all those empty seats in the Trop
that were there before, it's like, you know, it it, it brings
down the the temperature in likea weekday game.
But having a full stadium, I mean, there's, there's
definitely benefits to that. But yeah, I mean, there are
certain things I definitely missed about the Trop.
(04:50):
I mean, I went today and it was really hot outside and I, I, I
was starting to suffer in like the 7th inning, but I, I made it
through, so it wasn't too bad. But the night game, I went to
the night game too. Very breezy, very nice.
I mean, probably the best thing you could do at 7:00 in Tampa.
Yeah, that's that's that's for sure.
(05:11):
And then I like the and you guyscan comment on, but I like the
kind of like the small touches that they've done with like the
fireworks after the home runs and after the you can see you
can't do that at the Trop or else you might get some sort of,
you know, a fire hazard might start in some way, shape or
form. But I I like the small touches.
It feels like. And again, it the fact that
(05:31):
there's two Major League teams playing at 2 minor league
ballparks this year. I feel like there's a direct
comparison there. And I know that the A's really
couldn't do much with everythingin Sacramento.
Do the fact that that the Rivercats were playing there,
but the fact that the Rays were able to do as much as they did
to Steinbrenner to make it feel as much Neil, as you said, as
Ray's ish as possible possible. Definitely.
(05:51):
I just it just seems great so far Like and I guess maybe
that's, you know, rose colored glasses because the team's
playing so well, but I don't know.
I'm liking the vibe. Well, you know, kudos to Warren
Hypes and the entire creative team.
Yeah, you know, I think they've done an awesome job in every
aspect for making, you know, theoutside, the inside, you know,
every aspect of the ballpark really feel at home.
(06:12):
And and, you know, most of your listeners may or may not know
about, you know, some of the touches on the inside.
You know, for instance, like even in the visitors clubhouse,
there's there's a picture of, ofthe Trop after the damage that
had been done. And and it's the first thing
that the visiting players see when they come in.
And I think it's a great reminder.
And it was Tank who who, you know, hosting the visiting
(06:35):
clubhouse who came up with that sort of idea that, you know,
it's important for people to know.
OK, This is why we're here. You know, it wasn't, it was
because of, of, you know, the Hurricanes that had.
And, you know, I think I, I constantly, I, I don't talk
about it on the air, but you're constantly thinking of, there
are a lot of people that still aren't even in their homes from
(06:58):
either Helene or Milton or a combination thereof.
And from a broadcast standpoint,our, our goal is to give people
hopefully an enjoyable escape for 2 1/2, three hours every
night and a team that they can continue to root for and enjoy.
And I, I know that Kevin Cash and Eric Neander and the staff
in the front office and the players are determined to make
this a really, really good season.
(07:18):
And and you know, hopefully the 1st 2 series is just the start
of things to come. For sure.
Now let's get on to what's goingon in the field over the over
the last week or so. Max, I want to get you in the
conversation because I want to get right into talking about
Jake Mangum because we had him on the podcast back in December.
That was just after he had gotten on the 40 man roster.
(07:41):
He finally got his chance. I understand it was under
probably the worst scenario possible with the Josh low going
on the IO with the right obliquestrain, but my goodness has he
taken advantage of it. I think this series he was like
8 for 12:00 or so far since he'scome up, he's like 8 for 12.
I mean he's been absolutely incredible to watch and he's I
(08:01):
mean you could just tell that heloves the game.
Max, how much have you gotten toseen see if Jake and just of
what the team has looked like over the first week of the year?
Well, this series especially, itlooks like the fans have been
waiting for Jake or as long as long as the fans been, as long
as the fans have been waiting for Jake.
Seeing him come out and play like this, I think everybody is
(08:22):
so happy for him and just watching him come up and play
like this in the circumstances, it's really nice to see.
And just the way the team has played overall for the first
week, it's been really impressive, especially the
starting pitching and especiallyJake.
Yeah, Gibby, your thoughts on onMr. Mangum?
Because I know it was funny because when we were on the
podcast, it was like half baseball and then half College
(08:44):
Football Playoff and he. Yeah, before we talked to him,
yeah. That was very funny, but I mean.
I mean, we invested early in in Jake Magnum stock, so it paid
off. So I mean, he's been great.
I mean, the team's just been on fire.
I mean to the two rookies, the M.
And M boys. The M&M boys.
(09:07):
Mangum and Meisner. That's great.
Did you come up with that one, Alex?
No. So I don't know how we came up
with it, but one of our friends,chef who's a who's helped us out
with with designs, came up with that design.
I think he came up with it on his own, but I, I feel like like
Neil, has that nickname been thrown around to a little to
some that before yesterday. I've heard some of that.
(09:27):
I've heard if there were three, Chris Adams Wallet said on the
air that with Morel in the outfield and if the three of
them were there would be like MP3.
I guess you could take your pickon on, you know, whatever,
whatever sticks. But I think the hope is, is that
all of those guys and Johnny DeLuca and Jose Caballero made a
(09:48):
nice diving catch today. I think all of those guys, I
just hope they just continue to play well as a group.
You know, eventually you're going to get Richie Palacios
back, you're going to get Josh Lowe back.
You know, it's the flow of the season.
You know, generally speaking, most Major League teams are
going to see closer to 50 players on a roster during the
course of the season than the 26you begin with.
(10:08):
So to win a lot of the games, everyone has to play a role.
And the role that Jake and and Cameron have played so far have
been fabulous. Yeah, specifically on Jake, just
knowing his and then we can get into Cam because he get the walk
off Homer on opening day. But I mean Jake specifically,
everything that he's gone through, the craziness of him
getting up to the big leagues with that Uber ride and then
(10:30):
coming down to Tampa and his family driving from Mississippi.
Like how insane has it been to watch this like three day
journey? You know, for me, it's, it's
more just the joy of, of seeing a guy perform.
You know, I, I think for, for Andy and myself, we both spent
more than a a decade at the minor league level.
(10:50):
And I think there's just an appreciation for the journey.
And you know, for a guy who really didn't get to play even
full season a ball until he was 25 and spent the better part of
three full seasons at the AAA level, you know, dominated the
the level last year because he he did win a batting title.
And you did a lot of things very, very well, You know, in
circumstances didn't have him onthe roster.
(11:11):
But the, the important thing is he came in, you know, with the
goal of getting better every single year.
And I think he has. And he came in with the right
mindset and performed well in spring training.
And now that he's gotten a chance at the big league level
and in the limited sample size, you know, he's done quite well.
So, you know, I just love, I love good stories, you know, And
there's also some kind of, you know, he's replacing Josh Lowe
(11:34):
on the roster. He came up because of Josh's
injury. Yeah.
And he played with Nate at Mississippi State and knows the
family extremely well. And was, you know, one of the
first things he said was, you know, that he feels terrible for
this situation because he's knows what a good person Josh
is. And he knows what a great family
they are, you know, and but he'salso going to do everything he
(11:55):
can to to help the team win. And that's what he's done so
far. You know, they've gone four and
two so far and three and one since he came up.
And, you know, hopefully he continues to just be a spark and
stay within himself, which I think he's he's done.
He's he's stayed, he's played his game.
He's understood who he is, you know, and hopefully it just
continues on that track. Yeah, I think I saw today sets,
(12:18):
but his family BBQ who the former guest of the pod, I think
they caught him like the Mississippi Ichiro, which like
after he had that hit against Skeens.
I'm not going to cook like that's a really tough comparison
to say, but I can, I can see it a little bit.
He's he's a different player because he is a switch hitter.
Yeah, you know, he's probably, you know, he's not going to hit
(12:38):
for a ton of power. I think you know, he's going to
he's kind of hit probably his fair share of double S and balls
to the gap and and work from line to line from both sides of
the plate. You know, I think the beauty is
he's a contact hitter who will have a good two strike approach.
I think by and large is a group.If you look at, you know,
probably what stood out that's carried over a little bit from
(12:59):
spring training is probably the overall approach that raised
hitters have had in doing their best to reduce the strikeouts,
to put the ball in play, to staywithin the strike zone, to have
competitive at bats. Even against Paul schemes, you
know, he finished with a couple of punch outs, but he had only
four strikeouts through the 1st 6 1/3 innings.
And for him 6 strikeouts and, and seven innings is not a lot.
(13:21):
And there were a lot of foul balls with two strikes.
I, you know, just overall the, the first six games I've liked
the overall, you know, competitiveness of the at bats
and hopefully it stays that way for 162 or as close to it as
possible. Max and Gibby want to get you
guys into this because I'm Firstoff, I want to talk about
opening day because my goodness,Cam, Cam Meisner, what a way to,
(13:42):
to introduce yourself to the, tothe fans out in right field.
But also, I mean, a bunch of guys have hit, you know, DeLuca
has been doing really, really well at the plate.
Lao's already got 2 homers and he seems like he's playing
really well. You have a bunch.
I mean, Meisner himself is, has been very good in terms of being
just like an offensive producer.Any guys that you've been
impressed with? Any guys that you've enjoyed?
(14:04):
And then also Opening day specifically, how is it like
watching the walk off? Yeah, I mean, Johnny DeLuca has
just been fantastic. I mean, he's fouled off like 6
pitches today and like one at bat against Paul Skeens.
I I mean, it was, it was pretty crazy.
He was just, they were just going everywhere.
So I mean, he's staying competitive and he eventually
(14:25):
got a hit out of that and then he had that triple the other
day. I mean he's just been he's he's
been way better this year. I feel like it's because he's
really healthy because last yearhe had a lot of injury problems
and that was kind of plaguing him the whole season.
But I mean he just he looks good.
And I mean this just proves, youknow, when this team is really
healthy, they can they can really play ball.
(14:48):
And I mean the defense has been really good.
There's not been sloppy defense at all.
I feel like it's been one of thecleanest home stands we've ever
had in in terms of race base. I I don't think we had error.
So I mean, yeah, it's been greatto watch.
Yeah, Max, how are you feeling about what the team is looking
like opening day? Everything in that nature.
Well, Gibby mentioned it's been cleaned.
(15:08):
It seems like the whole team hasbeen cleaned.
The starting pitching has been locked down.
You mentioned Meister a minute ago.
I think the fact that he came upand on the first pitch pulled a
walkout from run, that's just making a statement and he's been
for like perfect sense. It's been incredible.
I think a lot of people weren't expecting that from Meister, but
overall the team, it's I'd say Ithought the team was going to be
(15:28):
playing very well in the situation, but it's been
surprisingly perfect, borderline.
I mean, there's been, it's obviously not a perfect record,
but not a lot to complain about.Yeah, Neil, with that, with that
walk off on opening day specifically, how was it like
calling that in that whole experience?
You know, I got to sit back and just enjoy Andy make what I
thought was a fabulous call and and just being able to, you
(15:50):
know, chat about it with him andthe the ride of the Cameron has
been on because he put in. I mean, he was very self
deprecating when I saw him at atFanfest about starting out one
for 15 with his one hit off Mason Miller as a big leaguer.
You know, some guys would celebrate.
Hey, I got to hit off Mason Miller and he's like, I I needed
to get better. He goes.
(16:11):
It was nice, but he said it was about 15 at bats too late to get
that first hit. And and he said it with a
chuckle and and he handled it well.
But he spent the whole offseasonin Atlanta working and and
making sure he was getting better.
And I think the thing that stoodout in in that moment was that
he was ready to hit and he got to 98 on the inner 3rd.
And for a lot of young guys, or I shouldn't say young guys, but
(16:35):
young players in terms of Major League experience, probably one
of the toughest adjustments is hitting velocity because in AAA
you see velocity, but it's probably not as consistent
because you might see some guys down there who throw 9194
someone are in that range. And those are some of the guys
who end up up and down unless they have a plus plus pitch.
(16:58):
You look at the bullpen for the Rays right now and you got the
the velocity of Fairbanks in Montgomery and Biggie and
Rodriguez and Clevenger. Some almost all those guys are
like 95 to 98, if not beyond that.
And and so you're not consistently seeing starters or
relievers that are throwing withthat high end velocity.
And, you know, I think Jonathan Aranda made an adjustment last
(17:19):
year and really started to grow.You know, from what I've seen so
far this year, I think Cameron is starting to really adjust to
the velocity of Major League pitching.
And and in that moment, seeing him get to 98 in her third is
probably what stood out to me. Yeah, and I, I completely forgot
about Aranda. I think he like leads the league
in double s right now or something close to that.
I mean, absolutely incredible stuff.
(17:39):
But I want to go over the pitching because I know that Pep
today had a little bit of a shaky start, still got through
5, which I mean, if his bad start is is five innings and two
runs, that's not bad at all. But I mean, the first time
through the rotation for all those guys, one walk between the
five guys, I think it was 36 strikeouts.
(18:00):
They, other than one guy, pitched 6 innings each.
I mean, incredible stuff out of the pitching staff.
And I mean, even today, if that's a bad start for Pap,
that's damn good if the Rays aregetting that.
And he definitely looked like hewas up to it on Opening day.
But Neil wanted to get your thoughts on the rotation and how
they've looked so far. I mean, the first time through
(18:21):
they were outstanding And, and I, I tend to judge guys when
they don't have their best stuffbecause, you know, Ryan in this
start was 10 out of 23 on first pitch strikes and he still gave
you a chance to win. And to me that's as much the
measure of a starter's to when their stuff is on.
You know, I think Andy and I and, and going back to Dave, you
(18:41):
know, we would always talk aboutthere's probably 10 starts where
you feel really great. There's ten starts where you
feel OK, and there's ten starts where you're really grinding and
the measure of how you good you are if you make 30 plus starts
is that you can still get good results when you don't feel that
great or you feel just OK compared to your A A stuff.
(19:01):
And, you know, I think that thisis a group also where I think it
will feed off one another, whereevery day, if you feel like you
have a chance to win because of the starting pitching and
overall pitching that you have, you know, I think that's going
to be a lot of fun. And you're doing it right now
without Shane Mcclanahan. You know, Alex Fayeto was
expected to play a roll out of the gate and then he ran into
(19:25):
some shoulder troubles in in spring training.
And both those guys are on the mend and hopefully will play a
big role at some point. But, you know, I think the group
that's here right now is really good.
I think the guys on, you know, there's some guys who are on the
Illinois who could help. I think there's a group in
Durham that's going to help. You know, eventually you're
probably going to see a lot of pitchers come through.
The hope is it, you know, these 13 stay as healthy as possible
(19:48):
all the way across the board. If they do, it's going to be a,
a really either way, I think it's, it's a fun pitching staff.
You know, I think Kyle and and Jorge and the entire group, you
know, hopefully they're fortunate with health and, and
they can continue to have a really good year from a pitching
standpoint. Yeah, Gabby, what's it been like
watching this pitching staff? Because my I like I, I mean my
(20:10):
God. Yeah, I mean, you can't really
say that that much. I mean, the shake, I guess the
shakiest start was Taj Bradley with two earned runs on six
innings. I mean, that's not that's not
bad at all. And I think Taj has been great.
Lattell I mean, he really lockedit down.
I mean he he with a guy who doesn't have strikeout stuff.
(20:32):
I mean, he he produced and this is comes back to the defense
also being really good and just backing him up there and he's
able to just get through all that.
I mean, what was it like? We had like nine hits and there
was like A7 run. We had like almost the same
amount of hits and there was like A7 run difference.
So I mean Zach Lattell that was was honestly incredible.
(20:55):
So big props to him and Drew Rasmussen.
Oh my God, I think I I I still remember the day he went not
what was it 9 and 2/3? Yeah, I'd be.
No, it was like 8. Yeah, it was the perfect game.
The perfect game. Yeah, I mean, so I I got so I
got memories of that. So I feel like he's gonna have a
(21:15):
really good day coming up. And I just, I hope, I'm hoping
for that. I'm hoping for that.
But yeah. It's been impressive.
Max, you already mentioned the staff, but I guess who's been
the most impressive guy for you out of the five?
Well, it's been one start by Shane Boss, seeing as his injury
promise. I've been holding him back so
much in terms of being on the field, coming out and having his
stuff be as good as it is and he's what is he technically the
(21:39):
fifth pitch right now Is that, is that right?
No. I.
Mean, I don't know. I don't put numbers on guys.
Oh yeah, you can. I'm just more of like.
I mean, if you look at it, anyway you look at it, one of
these guys is really, I mean, ifyou have Shane as your number
one, you know, they were they were going to go into the season
with six starters and kind of figure it out as they went.
(22:01):
So I mean it's and it's a good thing they did and stayed with
the six starters. I think that was a really wise
move on Eric Neander's part. And they were prepared for the
possibility of, you know, someone going down and, you
know, and I hope Shane's back really, really soon because I
saw how good he was. And I know how much work he put
in. And I know what it, you know,
how, how badly he wants to help this team.
(22:23):
And he will do it. And when, when he's ready, he's
going to have a major impact on this group.
But in the meanwhile, it's, you know, it's just fortunate there
are 5 really good starters they have right now.
They can all contribute. And I, I do think that what,
what stood out for me with, withShane Boss was the fact that he
hit 100. Like we haven't seen that kind
of velocity out of them since he's come back and he's worked
(22:45):
on using his legs better and worked on his mechanics and you
know, and their hard work has paid off.
So kudos to him for everything he did.
Yeah, Max, anyone else other than Shane?
I mean I it's like you take yourpick, you have 5 really good
guys. Well, I, I mentioned the
injuries and I mean Drew Rasmussen less so, but the, the
way he looked after coming off of, you know, well, he wasn't
(23:07):
injured at the end of last season, but just how tough it's
been with Tommy John and they coming back and looking like
that, it's incredible. Yeah, Rasmussen, he's super
efficient like I mean or Rasmussen game it'll go it'll be
the quickest game in MLBI. Mean he that that game I talked
about earlier with eight and 2/3, that game was under 2 hours
(23:28):
before the pitch. So I mean, he's he's efficient.
He's always going to be that he's going to pound the strike
zone. So yeah, love a little brass.
Yeah, it's a lot of fun. So Neil, the last thing I want
to ask you, because again, I don't want to I I know you got
to prepare for going out to Arlington, but looking at this
team as it stands right now, again, small sample size with
(23:50):
everything. Obviously everything has gone
really well, but like this, thisfirst week of the year, does
that give you more confidence into what you're expecting or
maybe what you expected out of this team coming into the year?
I'm not sure, you know, I, I kind of, I, I can't say I
expected, but I thought this group would be one that would
get off to a good start. And I do think because you're
(24:11):
playing 19 of 22 games, it is probably a little more important
at home. It is a little more important
than let's say, if you were playing 11:00 and 11:00 to start
the year home and road to get off to a a good beginning of the
season. That said, you're playing some
teams that are really good. I mean, Texas is a team that I
think is favored to win the West.
The Yankees are a defending world champs.
(24:33):
The Braves were a playoff team last year despite their start to
the season. The the Red Sox were very good.
San Diego and Arizona were the same.
And those are all teams that you're facing here in April.
And the Angels have been much improved.
So I think it's going to be a good test for this group going
forward. And, you know, I'm just kind of
anxious to, to be along for the ride and just see how this
group, you know, continues to grow.
(24:55):
I, I actually think defensively they can, I know they were
relatively clean, but I think they can even play better.
And, and, you know, I think thatspeaks to how much work this
coaching staff is putting in with them day by day at
individual positions. You know, there were a lot of
good things offensively there were, you know, it also was a
strange home stand and that all we heard about the ballpark is
(25:17):
that it was going to be a home run haven.
And we saw a total of five home runs in in six games and and
between the two teams, three by the race and two by the
opponents. And they were probably about, I
don't know, at least a half a dozen balls.
They get knocked out in right field, by the way, the win was.
I don't know if it's going to bethat way going forward.
I don't know if that's an April thing, like a March April thing.
(25:40):
And then in May it all changes. Like those are the things that
we're still going to learn aboutthe ballpark because they've
never played 81 home games thereof Major League status with
Major League hitters and Major League pitchers.
And so I'm just curious to see how it evolves.
To me, it's going to be a fun storyline.
But I think more more than anything, I think this is a
group that is very, very together, has really good
(26:03):
chemistry, a good vibe about it.So I'm just looking forward to
watching this team continue to grow as the season goes on and
and hopefully we're back, you know, when when we get together
in October, we're talking about,you know, six playoff births in
in seven years and hopefully a really nice run.
Yeah, let's hope so. Let's hope so.
Well, hey, Neil, thank you so much as always for coming on.
We really appreciate. We want to give you the floor to
(26:24):
make sure that, you know, you plug everything on with Ray's
radio, everything going on in your end.
Where can people find you and where can people find the
broadcast at this year? Well, very easy.
I will tell people who come to the ballpark, if you have the
ballpark app, you can actually listen to us while being in the
ballpark live. It's it's, you know, with with a
(26:44):
lot of the other apps that's delayed.
But within the ballpark itself, when we're home, you can
actually listen to the game liveon the ballpark app.
Obviously, you know, we won't. We hope that you guys listen on
our race radio affiliates or theapp or SiriusXM, wherever you
consume your Razor radio, whether it's in Florida or
around the country. And you can follow us on social
(27:06):
media at Razor Radio, at Neil Solon's at Andy B Freed and you
know, follow Chris Adams wall too.
He does a fabulous job with our our podcast, our pre and post
game. And when he, you know, comes in
to do a play by play when Andy moves to the television side.
So we've got a great team. Chris Miller and Becca Carney do
an awesome job too. And and you know, I think with
(27:27):
with Enrique and Ricardo on the Spanish side, our Rays radio
team, English and Spanish is onereal, real close, happy family.
And, you know, I think it makes a unique season of pleasure to
do and we're looking forward to hopefully a lot more wins to
call coming up. Yeah, for sure.
And I don't know how much you tweet about Rutgers stuff on
(27:48):
your own Twitter, but you can whenever, whenever Harper and
Ace Bailey get drafted, you'll, you'll, you'll hear plenty from
Neil at that point. I'll I'll be proud.
I wish, I wish this season had gone better.
It is what it is. It's it's very hard.
Nil has changed a lot about the game and tell me yeah, it's
that's another discussion for another.
(28:10):
Day. No, we don't need to go.
Trust me, as a Maryland alum, I don't need to deal with any of
that stuff because of what happened over the last two
weeks. Yeah.
It's it's, it's very unique. I mean, I guess the good is that
you can become really good really fast in a way that you
never could before. But I did miss as a college fan,
(28:31):
I missed the Cinderella stories of the tournament, seeing 4
conferences with all the teams that were in the Sweet 16.
I hope that changes in the future.
Even though I'm an alum of a team that's in one of those four
conferences. I'm a storyteller and I love the
Jake Mangum story just as much as I love a guy who's an Uber
(28:52):
prospect who succeeds at the thehighest level.
So I think a balance of both is kind of good for, you know, what
we all look for, which is great stories all the way around.
You want different stories and, and I think that's what keeps
the game, any game that you're watching.
Really fresh. Yeah.
Well, hopefully USF can have that in the future.
I'm hoping for the best for them.
But Neil, thanks so much again for coming on.
(29:13):
We appreciate it. For everyone listening, stay
tuned. We're going to take a quick
break and we'll be right back inthis latest episode of Razor
Roof. Hi everyone, Alex here with a
quick word from our sponsor, SeaGeek.
Sea Geek is your one stop shop for tickets for everything from
live theater and concerts to sporting events like Ray's
games. Sea Geek uses a color-coded
(29:34):
scale to show you where the bestdeals are with green being good
and red being bad. If you haven't used Sea Geek
before, we have a special deal just for you.
Use code Raise the Roof, that's Ray's spelled RAYS at checkout
for $20 off your first purchase with Sea Geek.
Again, that's code Raise the roof for $20 off your first Sea
Geek purchase. Thanks so much to Sea Geek for
(29:56):
sponsoring us and let's get backto this latest episode of Raise
the Roof. Welcome back to this latest
episode of Raise the Roof. If you guys didn't see or didn't
hear, If you guys didn't hear like 30 seconds ago, we
literally just had our Siki get and that's been running for a
while now. We've had it for a couple years.
(30:17):
That link, that code is still active.
It's raised the roof in all cabs.
It'll save you $20 off your first purchase using the app,
especially now with what the ticket prices are looking like.
It's Steinbrenner. Use it because it will help you
out. It will help you save money on
your tickets and hopefully that will help you get a little bit
of a better experience at Steinbrenner for the season.
So be sure to take advantage of that.
(30:39):
Helps us out in the process as well.
If you guys didn't see also withthe raise rush tickets because
those are 20 bucks of standing room only tickets.
They also apparently have this thing and I might have talked
about it last week, but apparently they have this thing.
It's like the Budweiser first base deck type thing.
It's basically it's it's 50 bucks from what I've seen.
(31:00):
It's available on the same site is where the Rays rush tickets
are. It is again $50.00 and it's an
all inclusive buffet with drinksincluded and alcohol.
Alcohol is included in that. Again, it's standing room
tickets, but you can find seats.There are plenty of seats in the
outfield if you were to get normal standing room only
tickets. But if they're valuing a
(31:22):
standing room, an SRO ticket at 20 bucks and you only need to
find $30.00 of value at a stadium in a buffet, you'll find
that. Especially with the fact that
alcohol is included, I think that personally speaking, and
you guys can comment on it, I think that is the best deal
value wise in baseball. I mean, it's a pretty good, I
(31:43):
mean like what you're saying it's a small venue and then you
get in a lot of stuff at the, I mean, we're talking the inflated
price here. You're probably, if we're
talking about the actual price, you're not making up that money,
but we're talking strictly the inflated price in a ballpark
you're paying usually, I mean anywhere in MLB, you're probably
(32:05):
paying 15 bucks at least that's at least.
So just two of those. You're already kind of in the
green with the standing room tickets.
So I mean, it's it's really not that bad.
I saw a lot of people complaining about it saying it
was not good, but it's it's pretty good.
It's pretty good. Here's the thing, if you're,
(32:25):
let's say you do eat some food, if you have a designated driver,
depending on your tolerance, youcan make that make up that
money. Oh yeah, you can make that up
that money for sure. Yeah, yeah, it's great.
Yeah. I, I think, I think it's great,
Alex. Yeah, it's, it's wonderful.
And Alex, I think we I don't remember, I think we discussed
it even before because it wasn'treally known that alcohol was
(32:48):
included. And so we I think you posted the
menu, but even even before like it was still a pretty good deal
and it. Yeah, even for drinks.
I mean, you got drinks included.And I think they said it was
popcorn, hot dogs, nachos. I think brats were included,
pretzels. And then they had like a
rotating menu of like Cuban sliders and empanadas.
(33:09):
Yeah, that's insane. Well.
Yeah, that's so worth it. Yeah, that's incredible.
I think about the food, we, if Ican, we will try to do that at a
game this year and we will and we will give a comprehensive
review on it. It will happen later in the
season, but I'm very excited forthat only because again, the the
the deal seems great. I've already talked with people
(33:29):
who who have done it and it seems like they've really
enjoyed themselves and have gotten plenty of value out of
it. So definitely a great thing and
take advantage of that. If you guys don't, there's not
that many tickets available. But for the price, knowing it's
a pretty exclusive section, I think it's one of the best
deals, if not the best deal in baseball.
So even with all the inflated prices and craziness, the race
(33:53):
have still found ways to give you value, which kudos to kudos
to them for doing that because Iknow it's not that many tickets,
but the fact that tickets are available in that.
And I know that on secondary markets, the prices are
definitely not as you know, not as much as they are on the Rays
(34:13):
website. I think that there's some
there's some hidden gems in there and there's not a bad seat
in the house. So I know that a lot of these
tickets can price people out. But if you can get lucky, there
are some really, really solid options that you can find.
You just need to dig a little bit more than just going on the
surface. Going into this weekend, the
Rays are playing their first andprobably only Rd. series in
(34:38):
April. I don't know cuz what is it 19?
The 1st 22 games are at home. So yeah, a lot of games are
going to be played at home, but the first Rd. series of the
year, first Rd. series for what will be a while cuz they're
going to be playing thirteen strike games at home is against
the Texas Rangers. The Rays have, I don't know how
(34:58):
to put this lightly, not had their fair share of success at
Globe Life Field since it's opened.
I understand that does include the World Series, but in terms
of just regular season stuff specifically, not really
amazing, not really horrible, just kind of in the middle.
So as Neil was talking about, the Rangers are definitely a
(35:18):
team that will be challenging for the AL West.
I mean, the Astros really aren'tgreat.
The Angels are the Angels. The A's are playing in
Sacramento. So that's just the the Mariners
look horrible right now and. The Mariners don't know how to
hit a baseball. Nope.
So observe like. Don't mention Randy.
(35:41):
I won't. He's he's the only, he's the
only. He's The only exception.
He's he's the only person that gets.
The pass. So with that in mind, they're
probably the best of, I don't want to say the best of the
worst, but the best of like, yeah, keys to the series.
Knowing that, again, the Rangershave a really solid team.
They have some solid pitching. The hitting is definitely there.
(36:06):
Max, starting with you, what areyour keys to the series?
What do what do the Rays need todo to to get another series win
on the board? Short answer is offense needs to
step it up. You're going to global life
field which I believe huge outfield.
If I'm not mistaken, you're first time not in minor league
stadium this year. Now I I'm looking at the
(36:26):
probable pitchers. First game's Tyler Molly, Third
game is Kumar Rocker, but that should be interesting.
But the second game it's Jacob degrom so and he looks like it.
He did like six years ago. So I don't think much more needs
to be said about that. The office needs to step up.
Yeah, going off of Gibby, beforeI get to going off of what Max
(36:48):
just said with the pitching probables, Friday is Zach Latell
against Tyler Molly, Saturday isTaj Bradley against Jacob
degrom, and Sunday is Drew Rasmussen against Kumar Rocker.
OK, Gibby, how are you feeling about this series?
Any other points that you wantedto add on after what Max said?
I mean, I like the pitching matchups.
(37:10):
Obviously Zach Latell, I think he's going to kill it.
I think Taj Bradley, he's going to kill it too.
And obviously through Rasmussen,I can't talk about him highly
enough. He's going to be great.
So yeah, pitching, I think we'repretty set.
It's just like what Max said. I mean, the hitting just has to
be there and it has to continue.This is going to be like what
(37:35):
Max said. It's a bigger outfield.
Maybe this is a chance for YandiDiaz to break out of the minor.
I think he's tired of minor league parks.
You know, I feel like he thinks things are a little bit small
and everyone can kind of track the ball at Steinbrenner, so
maybe he's kind of excited to get out of that.
And so it's going to be cool to see.
(37:57):
I hope everything goes well there.
And then. Oh my God, I feel like we got to
talk about it. We got to talk about, Oh my God.
I'm just blanking on his name. Curtis Mead.
Oh. Yeah.
He's been. He has not.
We need a hit from Curtis. We need to tell him that it's
(38:17):
spring training again. Yeah.
So basically you, you should never put, I mean, we said this
on the last episode. We shouldn't put too much into
spring training numbers. I mean, for some guys, it has
translated well, but for other guys, not so much.
It's not really a a tell. It's not a good tell.
So this is just kind of further proof of that.
(38:40):
But I feel like Curtis can't still turn it around, feel like
he's been a little unlucky and alittle bit, yeah, disorientated
at the plate or something. Something's off there.
So it'll be cool to see him get a hit in this series so.
Right. 100% agree definitely, and I'm very curious to see what
(39:01):
happens with Junior because I know he hasn't gotten off to a
great start. He's looked pretty good at third
base. I know he's had a little bit of
a flub in game one but overall at third base he's looked very
solid which is a good sign. But the offense, I mean,
especially against Schemes, he went after two first pitch
strikes, which again looked good, but at the same time he
(39:21):
hit 2 pop ups. And maybe it's because it's
Schemes, I don't know what it is, but I wasn't necessarily
thrilled with the plate discipline there.
But again, it's the first six games of the year.
I'm going to wait to see what hedoes.
Definitely still seems like, youknow, a guy that should be able
to break out this season in his first full season in the bigs.
So Max at this point. I was going to say, don't take
(39:43):
too much out of the first week of the season.
I was about to say, Rafael Devers hasn't gotten hit yet,
but literally, he just got his first hit.
Yeah, like a few minutes ago. Good job, Rafi.
Way way to get out of. Slum I mean, I feel like
Junior's not had the worst season at all.
So I mean, yeah, he's it sounds a bit too bad.
He's he's not too bad. His his defense has been pretty
(40:06):
surprisingly good. I think it's good we haven't
been to power. Like, yeah, we have like the
power. Isn't there?
Yeah. You're right.
You're right, honestly. But like, again, I mean, it's
still not horrible. But you know, as Max was saying,
take this week, this first week of the year with a grain of
salt. Except for Jake Mangum, because
he is the reason he is the season and I love.
(40:27):
This Eminem, he's so goat. I'm so like, I just think it's
so funny that like basically ever since we started tweeting
out about him and all that stuff, like the entire
Mississippi State community has like it's like a giant wave of
just Mississippi State people because they've been waiting.
Like talk about us waiting. They've been waiting since he,
(40:48):
since he left college and it's been like 7 years that they've
been waiting for this dude to make the big leagues.
So I mean, God, that's crazy. His buddy Gardner Minshew coming
out, Yeah. Gardner Minshew Mania was there.
That was so weird. I saw you tweet about that.
I was like, wait, what? Yeah, yeah, they're friends.
(41:08):
I mean, they both grew up in thesame place, Rankin County
Flowood, Ms. Pretty cool. They have a, they have a canes
in Flowood, Ms. that I went to that's right near the Jackson
International Airport that I've flown out of multiple times.
And I've been to that canes before.
So shout out the canes in Flowood Ms. This is pretty solid
(41:30):
going into our pick up players for this week, either this
weekend series or moving forward.
Gibby going to start with you onthis one.
Who are you? Pick up players.
You know who I'm going to pick, Alex?
Who don't? Taylor Walls, baby.
It's it's Taylor Walls season. Listen, listen.
(41:51):
Two hits, two hits so far. We need more out of him.
But he's been great on defense. I mean, he's just, I hate the
people who talk like this dude. I've tweeted at them before how
much I hate them. But I mean, he's kinda on one
right now. Defensively, he's been really
good. He's been stuff that people
(42:13):
would normally just give up on. He's been able to turn around.
I thought it was a homework today.
There was the one play where he almost got it because the ball
bounced off the dude's glove andhe actually caught it.
Oh yeah, the barehanded play, right.
Yeah, the the almost barehanded he he's been, he's been very
solid in defense, but that makesthe offense so much more
(42:34):
frustrating because it's like this guy can ball, but in only
certain aspects. So so yeah, that's my pick a
player offensive please there the walls and he get him and on
the one clutch situation where he comes up with the ribby.
And on the mound? And then on the mound we got we
(42:55):
got to start off with Lattell. I mean, he's gonna start off the
series. So I'm hoping he the defense
once again comes through for himand he's able to get out of
those when there are base runners on.
I hope he's able to get out of that.
So Zach Lattell. All right, Max your turn.
I'm not going as bold as Gibby, I'm picking Brendan.
(43:17):
Well, you're getting three straight righty starters.
So here. We go get ready.
Yeah. Oh, oh, get on.
Fine, it's fine all. Right, keep going on the on the
mound. I'll go Rasmussen.
You're getting Rasmussen in the getaway game after two really
high level pitchers. So good luck Axis.
(43:39):
I am still going to go with B Lau because even though Max
stole him, I'm still going with him.
I will also as a complimentary pick, I will depend.
I will go with Danny Jansen because I don't know if he has a
hit this year. I don't think he does.
And if he's. Got one on base?
Hang on. Yeah, so I'm hoping for a good a
(43:59):
good offensive series out of himbecause he needs it to raise
sign him because of his offense,because of what he's shown
before. So hoping a lot of success
there. The be a lot thing you guys
already know. That's just a that's just a
running gag. But I also love that man so
much. And then on the pitching side, I
(44:20):
really liked what I saw to MasonAngler in that in his first
outing. So I'm going to go with him.
I'm going to give him some kudos.
He looked very solid. I like what the Rays have shown
in the bullpen. A lot of guys like Monty looks
untouchable. Oh my God.
Oh yeah, Oh my God. He had one O 2.
Bro he looks he's insane casualty.
One O 2. He looks, I love him, but yeah,
(44:43):
no, I'm going to go with Mason. Hopefully he can continue that.
I don't know how long he's goingto stay up with the big league
club, but I'll take any success that I can out of our guys, out
of the pen. Any other baseball news?
I know a bunch of guys got extended today.
Jackson Merrill got extended, Campbell got extended with the
Sox, Cattell Marte got extended.Maybe that's a sign that they
(45:05):
should extend Brandon Lau again,'cause they already extended
him. But again, please, a lot of
extensions there, a lot of moneybeing thrown around.
Did you guys I was at, I was at opening day for Phillies gnats.
If covering it is my first time covering an opening day.
Oh my God. It felt like there's a different
(45:27):
feeling when the baseball seasonstarts.
You guys know this as much as me, but there's a different
feeling when the baseball seasonstarts and it is such a
beautiful feeling and I'm so happy that baseball's back.
Oh my God. We can talk about pointless
games in April and like no one cares, but it just feels right.
It, it, it feels great. It feels great.
I mean, and, and that's probablyjust because, you know, we had
(45:49):
this really good start. I've been to a lot of the games.
I'm in Tampa. This is the first time I've been
able to, you know, go to a baseball game MLB wise in my
city. So that's really cool.
So obviously I'm feeling it fromthat.
But I feel like there's a lot ofexcitement around the league.
Maybe not for certain teams, obviously won't mention those
(46:12):
A's, It's the A's. I thought you were going to say
the Braves. I mean, the Braves have just
been bad. Yeah, on the base for Yikes.
But yeah, I mean, not not that much for, oh, I mean, we have
Raymond James news. Oh yeah, with.
Raymond. James Group, they're going to
they're going to roof Ray J Get ready for roof to Ray J.
(46:36):
Oh God. Raise the ray.
J Raise. Ray J.
That that what's the kind of AI don't want to say a wrench in
any chance that they'll move to Tampa.
But after what one of the Glazers said, I was like, Oh my
God, here we go. Yeah, it's it's.
We all know renovations were coming.
It's not. Looking good for that, but hey.
(46:58):
I thought, I thought they were going to beg for a new stadium
for renovations. So I guess, I guess this is, I
don't want to say a pleasant surprise, but I was a bit
surprised. We all knew renovations were
coming though. Hey, hey, we we support keeping
Ray J around. I'll ever want to.
I feel like everyone knows. It's like it's modern enough,
dude. It's like we just need a little
shade. That's about it.
(47:19):
I feel like that's how most people feel, but spending, we
won't get into that. Yeah, we don't need that, Max.
Final thoughts before we conclude the pod.
Texas. Good luck.
I just realized what's that We're gonna win because Drake
wore the tetas hat. He wore no.
(47:40):
He wore, he got, he got one of the tetas hats.
Oh no. Oh OK, the Drake curse is real.
Thank you, Drake. Drake.
Those are my final thoughts. Good luck.
Thank you, Drake. Well, with that being said, it's
going to conclude things on thislatest episode of Raise the
Roof. Thank you guys, as always for
(48:00):
your support, especially over these last couple weeks.
I mean, sincerely, from the bottom of our hearts, we cannot
thank you guys enough. We're going to have more
giveaways coming across the board.
So if you guys want to follow that or if you guys want to see
what's going on with that and make sure you're in the know,
follow us on social media. We're at Raise the Roof TV on
(48:20):
Twitter slash X Instagram Blue Sky.
We have our YouTube channel, Raise the Roof, of which we're
going to be posting game highlights.
We're going to be posting podcast highlights in person,
stuff from Gibby or anyone else that's at games, hopefully
coming up. Plenty more things going there
for the podcast. Continue to support us as you
guys have been. Be sure to like, be sure to
(48:40):
subscribe, be sure to leave us areview, hopefully a five star
review. We are everywhere.
Spotify, Apple podcast, iHeartRadio.
You can follow us on any of those.
Just look up Raise the Roof and be sure to share this with your
family, your friends, anyone whoknows a race fan or a baseball
fan that wants to add a podcast in their podcast feed.
We would love to be part of it. So with that being said, thanks
so much for listening and as always, raise up.
(49:02):
Raise up, baby, raise up.
For the first time for the 2025 regular season, it's time to
raise the roof for this latest regular season podcast.
Welcome back everyone. I'm host Alex Murphy with me as
always my Co host Gibby. How we doing, we're doing.
Pretty good. I mean, two successful series so
far. So I mean, what?
What's not to like? That is true.
Honestly. That is true.
(00:33):
We have one of our Razor roof team members.
Max is here with us. He hasn't been with us a little
bit, Max, It's been a bit. But how you doing man?
Doing pretty great. It's been, it's been really
wonderful, Great, great start ofthe season.
It has, it has for sure. And we do have a special guest.
What would juice in just a second?
But if you guys didn't know, theRays just finished up their
second series of the year. They're four and two right now.
(00:54):
I think that they're 1/2 game out of the American League East
or whatever it is. It's it's six games of the year,
so who really cares? But they're playing well.
Two straight series wins. They played the Rockies and
Pirates and look very solid and who better to talk about that
with than one of the voices of the Rays on the radio who we've
had on multiple times before? Neil Solons.
(01:17):
Neil, it's so great to have you back.
We sincerely appreciate the time, how you doing and happy
start of the year. No problem.
I appreciate you guys having me on.
Again, thank you. Yeah.
Thanks for coming on, man. It's awesome.
Yeah. So I guess the first thing, how
has it been like it's Steinbert or what's everything been like
over these first two series of the season?
Well, first, I mean, you know, kudos to everyone involved.
(01:40):
You know, a thank you to the Yankees because they've given
us, you know, a tremendous opportunity to stay in Tampa Bay
and and play at their facility. It's been great, I know, for our
players in terms of the clubhouse and the amenities, but
also kudos to our staff for, youknow, doing what they did in a
96 hour period and all the hoursthey're putting in before,
(02:02):
during and after games to make this place as fan friendly as
possible and as Ray Ish as possible.
And and they really did an incredible job of of making it
feel like home in a very short period of time.
And I think, you know, my guess is especially playing 19 of the
1st 22 games at home, it will probably feel even more like
(02:23):
home when we come back for that second lengthy homestand of 13
games and four opponents. Yeah, I was just talking about
it with Gibby. And Gibby, you've had a chance
to, to to experience life at Steinbrenner for a little bit.
And both you can answer this. But I've heard the atmosphere
described as one that's similar to like a college baseball
(02:44):
atmosphere. And having experienced college
baseball myself down in down in Mississippi in the SEC, those
crowds are crazy. And it seems like that I, I
don't know so if it's exactly like that, but it seems like
the, the smaller, you know, capacity has really made for
some cool atmospheres early on. I will say it's, it's been
great. I think people are embracing the
(03:05):
outdoors and embracing, you know, the uniqueness of this
season. You know, it's hard for me to
compare it to, to the SEC just because, you know, I haven't
lived that, you know, my experiences in life have been
very, very different. But I would say that it's just
been a good atmosphere and, you know, I think the fact that
(03:25):
you've had the crowd organicallystart chance and and be engaged
in the game for the most part has been really, really
exciting. And I think it's only, you know,
as as folks get continue to get comfortable and get to know the
this group. And I think it's a really good
group to be around. You know, I'm hoping this is a
very fun, exciting season. And, you know, thank goodness
(03:46):
we're off to a solid start. Yeah, Gabby, how's it been like
at at Steinbender from your experiences?
Yeah, I mean, I don't, I'm with Neil where I don't see the
college baseball thing as much because I haven't gotten to like
experience like a big college baseball setting.
I've been to pretty small college games.
But yeah, I mean, it's it's a huge, it's a very, I mean, it's
(04:07):
very small and dare I say John Fisher intimate ballpark.
So it it it feels it feels great.
And I mean, there it's not, it'slike not overcrowded.
I feel like there's enough spacefor everyone there.
They didn't like try to pack more people in or anything.
So I feel like it's just, it feels great.
(04:29):
Like everyone's kind of more into the game.
I feel like when you have all those empty seats in the Trop
that were there before, it's like, you know, it it, it brings
down the the temperature in likea weekday game.
But having a full stadium, I mean, there's, there's
definitely benefits to that. But yeah, I mean, there are
certain things I definitely missed about the Trop.
(04:50):
I mean, I went today and it was really hot outside and I, I, I
was starting to suffer in like the 7th inning, but I, I made it
through, so it wasn't too bad. But the night game, I went to
the night game too. Very breezy, very nice.
I mean, probably the best thing you could do at 7:00 in Tampa.
Yeah, that's that's that's for sure.
(05:11):
And then I like the and you guyscan comment on, but I like the
kind of like the small touches that they've done with like the
fireworks after the home runs and after the you can see you
can't do that at the Trop or else you might get some sort of,
you know, a fire hazard might start in some way, shape or
form. But I I like the small touches.
It feels like. And again, it the fact that
(05:31):
there's two Major League teams playing at 2 minor league
ballparks this year. I feel like there's a direct
comparison there. And I know that the A's really
couldn't do much with everythingin Sacramento.
Do the fact that that the Rivercats were playing there,
but the fact that the Rays were able to do as much as they did
to Steinbrenner to make it feel as much Neil, as you said, as
Ray's ish as possible possible. Definitely.
(05:51):
I just it just seems great so far Like and I guess maybe
that's, you know, rose colored glasses because the team's
playing so well, but I don't know.
I'm liking the vibe. Well, you know, kudos to Warren
Hypes and the entire creative team.
Yeah, you know, I think they've done an awesome job in every
aspect for making, you know, theoutside, the inside, you know,
every aspect of the ballpark really feel at home.
(06:12):
And and, you know, most of your listeners may or may not know
about, you know, some of the touches on the inside.
You know, for instance, like even in the visitors clubhouse,
there's there's a picture of, ofthe Trop after the damage that
had been done. And and it's the first thing
that the visiting players see when they come in.
And I think it's a great reminder.
And it was Tank who who, you know, hosting the visiting
(06:35):
clubhouse who came up with that sort of idea that, you know,
it's important for people to know.
OK, This is why we're here. You know, it wasn't, it was
because of, of, you know, the Hurricanes that had.
And, you know, I think I, I constantly, I, I don't talk
about it on the air, but you're constantly thinking of, there
are a lot of people that still aren't even in their homes from
(06:58):
either Helene or Milton or a combination thereof.
And from a broadcast standpoint,our, our goal is to give people
hopefully an enjoyable escape for 2 1/2, three hours every
night and a team that they can continue to root for and enjoy.
And I, I know that Kevin Cash and Eric Neander and the staff
in the front office and the players are determined to make
this a really, really good season.
(07:18):
And and you know, hopefully the 1st 2 series is just the start
of things to come. For sure.
Now let's get on to what's goingon in the field over the over
the last week or so. Max, I want to get you in the
conversation because I want to get right into talking about
Jake Mangum because we had him on the podcast back in December.
That was just after he had gotten on the 40 man roster.
(07:41):
He finally got his chance. I understand it was under
probably the worst scenario possible with the Josh low going
on the IO with the right obliquestrain, but my goodness has he
taken advantage of it. I think this series he was like
8 for 12:00 or so far since he'scome up, he's like 8 for 12.
I mean he's been absolutely incredible to watch and he's I
(08:01):
mean you could just tell that heloves the game.
Max, how much have you gotten toseen see if Jake and just of
what the team has looked like over the first week of the year?
Well, this series especially, itlooks like the fans have been
waiting for Jake or as long as long as the fans been, as long
as the fans have been waiting for Jake.
Seeing him come out and play like this, I think everybody is
(08:22):
so happy for him and just watching him come up and play
like this in the circumstances, it's really nice to see.
And just the way the team has played overall for the first
week, it's been really impressive, especially the
starting pitching and especiallyJake.
Yeah, Gibby, your thoughts on onMr. Mangum?
Because I know it was funny because when we were on the
podcast, it was like half baseball and then half College
(08:44):
Football Playoff and he. Yeah, before we talked to him,
yeah. That was very funny, but I mean.
I mean, we invested early in in Jake Magnum stock, so it paid
off. So I mean, he's been great.
I mean, the team's just been on fire.
I mean to the two rookies, the M.
And M boys. The M&M boys.
(09:07):
Mangum and Meisner. That's great.
Did you come up with that one, Alex?
No. So I don't know how we came up
with it, but one of our friends,chef who's a who's helped us out
with with designs, came up with that design.
I think he came up with it on his own, but I, I feel like like
Neil, has that nickname been thrown around to a little to
some that before yesterday. I've heard some of that.
(09:27):
I've heard if there were three, Chris Adams Wallet said on the
air that with Morel in the outfield and if the three of
them were there would be like MP3.
I guess you could take your pickon on, you know, whatever,
whatever sticks. But I think the hope is, is that
all of those guys and Johnny DeLuca and Jose Caballero made a
(09:48):
nice diving catch today. I think all of those guys, I
just hope they just continue to play well as a group.
You know, eventually you're going to get Richie Palacios
back, you're going to get Josh Lowe back.
You know, it's the flow of the season.
You know, generally speaking, most Major League teams are
going to see closer to 50 players on a roster during the
course of the season than the 26you begin with.
(10:08):
So to win a lot of the games, everyone has to play a role.
And the role that Jake and and Cameron have played so far have
been fabulous. Yeah, specifically on Jake, just
knowing his and then we can get into Cam because he get the walk
off Homer on opening day. But I mean Jake specifically,
everything that he's gone through, the craziness of him
getting up to the big leagues with that Uber ride and then
(10:30):
coming down to Tampa and his family driving from Mississippi.
Like how insane has it been to watch this like three day
journey? You know, for me, it's, it's
more just the joy of, of seeing a guy perform.
You know, I, I think for, for Andy and myself, we both spent
more than a a decade at the minor league level.
(10:50):
And I think there's just an appreciation for the journey.
And you know, for a guy who really didn't get to play even
full season a ball until he was 25 and spent the better part of
three full seasons at the AAA level, you know, dominated the
the level last year because he he did win a batting title.
And you did a lot of things very, very well, You know, in
circumstances didn't have him onthe roster.
(11:11):
But the, the important thing is he came in, you know, with the
goal of getting better every single year.
And I think he has. And he came in with the right
mindset and performed well in spring training.
And now that he's gotten a chance at the big league level
and in the limited sample size, you know, he's done quite well.
So, you know, I just love, I love good stories, you know, And
there's also some kind of, you know, he's replacing Josh Lowe
(11:34):
on the roster. He came up because of Josh's
injury. Yeah.
And he played with Nate at Mississippi State and knows the
family extremely well. And was, you know, one of the
first things he said was, you know, that he feels terrible for
this situation because he's knows what a good person Josh
is. And he knows what a great family
they are, you know, and but he'salso going to do everything he
(11:55):
can to to help the team win. And that's what he's done so
far. You know, they've gone four and
two so far and three and one since he came up.
And, you know, hopefully he continues to just be a spark and
stay within himself, which I think he's he's done.
He's he's stayed, he's played his game.
He's understood who he is, you know, and hopefully it just
continues on that track. Yeah, I think I saw today sets,
(12:18):
but his family BBQ who the former guest of the pod, I think
they caught him like the Mississippi Ichiro, which like
after he had that hit against Skeens.
I'm not going to cook like that's a really tough comparison
to say, but I can, I can see it a little bit.
He's he's a different player because he is a switch hitter.
Yeah, you know, he's probably, you know, he's not going to hit
(12:38):
for a ton of power. I think you know, he's going to
he's kind of hit probably his fair share of double S and balls
to the gap and and work from line to line from both sides of
the plate. You know, I think the beauty is
he's a contact hitter who will have a good two strike approach.
I think by and large is a group.If you look at, you know,
probably what stood out that's carried over a little bit from
(12:59):
spring training is probably the overall approach that raised
hitters have had in doing their best to reduce the strikeouts,
to put the ball in play, to staywithin the strike zone, to have
competitive at bats. Even against Paul schemes, you
know, he finished with a couple of punch outs, but he had only
four strikeouts through the 1st 6 1/3 innings.
And for him 6 strikeouts and, and seven innings is not a lot.
(13:21):
And there were a lot of foul balls with two strikes.
I, you know, just overall the, the first six games I've liked
the overall, you know, competitiveness of the at bats
and hopefully it stays that way for 162 or as close to it as
possible. Max and Gibby want to get you
guys into this because I'm Firstoff, I want to talk about
opening day because my goodness,Cam, Cam Meisner, what a way to,
(13:42):
to introduce yourself to the, tothe fans out in right field.
But also, I mean, a bunch of guys have hit, you know, DeLuca
has been doing really, really well at the plate.
Lao's already got 2 homers and he seems like he's playing
really well. You have a bunch.
I mean, Meisner himself is, has been very good in terms of being
just like an offensive producer.Any guys that you've been
impressed with? Any guys that you've enjoyed?
(14:04):
And then also Opening day specifically, how is it like
watching the walk off? Yeah, I mean, Johnny DeLuca has
just been fantastic. I mean, he's fouled off like 6
pitches today and like one at bat against Paul Skeens.
I I mean, it was, it was pretty crazy.
He was just, they were just going everywhere.
So I mean, he's staying competitive and he eventually
(14:25):
got a hit out of that and then he had that triple the other
day. I mean he's just been he's he's
been way better this year. I feel like it's because he's
really healthy because last yearhe had a lot of injury problems
and that was kind of plaguing him the whole season.
But I mean he just he looks good.
And I mean this just proves, youknow, when this team is really
healthy, they can they can really play ball.
(14:48):
And I mean the defense has been really good.
There's not been sloppy defense at all.
I feel like it's been one of thecleanest home stands we've ever
had in in terms of race base. I I don't think we had error.
So I mean, yeah, it's been greatto watch.
Yeah, Max, how are you feeling about what the team is looking
like opening day? Everything in that nature.
Well, Gibby mentioned it's been cleaned.
(15:08):
It seems like the whole team hasbeen cleaned.
The starting pitching has been locked down.
You mentioned Meister a minute ago.
I think the fact that he came upand on the first pitch pulled a
walkout from run, that's just making a statement and he's been
for like perfect sense. It's been incredible.
I think a lot of people weren't expecting that from Meister, but
overall the team, it's I'd say Ithought the team was going to be
(15:28):
playing very well in the situation, but it's been
surprisingly perfect, borderline.
I mean, there's been, it's obviously not a perfect record,
but not a lot to complain about.Yeah, Neil, with that, with that
walk off on opening day specifically, how was it like
calling that in that whole experience?
You know, I got to sit back and just enjoy Andy make what I
thought was a fabulous call and and just being able to, you
(15:50):
know, chat about it with him andthe the ride of the Cameron has
been on because he put in. I mean, he was very self
deprecating when I saw him at atFanfest about starting out one
for 15 with his one hit off Mason Miller as a big leaguer.
You know, some guys would celebrate.
Hey, I got to hit off Mason Miller and he's like, I I needed
to get better. He goes.
(16:11):
It was nice, but he said it was about 15 at bats too late to get
that first hit. And and he said it with a
chuckle and and he handled it well.
But he spent the whole offseasonin Atlanta working and and
making sure he was getting better.
And I think the thing that stoodout in in that moment was that
he was ready to hit and he got to 98 on the inner 3rd.
And for a lot of young guys, or I shouldn't say young guys, but
(16:35):
young players in terms of Major League experience, probably one
of the toughest adjustments is hitting velocity because in AAA
you see velocity, but it's probably not as consistent
because you might see some guys down there who throw 9194
someone are in that range. And those are some of the guys
who end up up and down unless they have a plus plus pitch.
(16:58):
You look at the bullpen for the Rays right now and you got the
the velocity of Fairbanks in Montgomery and Biggie and
Rodriguez and Clevenger. Some almost all those guys are
like 95 to 98, if not beyond that.
And and so you're not consistently seeing starters or
relievers that are throwing withthat high end velocity.
And, you know, I think Jonathan Aranda made an adjustment last
(17:19):
year and really started to grow.You know, from what I've seen so
far this year, I think Cameron is starting to really adjust to
the velocity of Major League pitching.
And and in that moment, seeing him get to 98 in her third is
probably what stood out to me. Yeah, and I, I completely forgot
about Aranda. I think he like leads the league
in double s right now or something close to that.
I mean, absolutely incredible stuff.
(17:39):
But I want to go over the pitching because I know that Pep
today had a little bit of a shaky start, still got through
5, which I mean, if his bad start is is five innings and two
runs, that's not bad at all. But I mean, the first time
through the rotation for all those guys, one walk between the
five guys, I think it was 36 strikeouts.
(18:00):
They, other than one guy, pitched 6 innings each.
I mean, incredible stuff out of the pitching staff.
And I mean, even today, if that's a bad start for Pap,
that's damn good if the Rays aregetting that.
And he definitely looked like hewas up to it on Opening day.
But Neil wanted to get your thoughts on the rotation and how
they've looked so far. I mean, the first time through
(18:21):
they were outstanding And, and I, I tend to judge guys when
they don't have their best stuffbecause, you know, Ryan in this
start was 10 out of 23 on first pitch strikes and he still gave
you a chance to win. And to me that's as much the
measure of a starter's to when their stuff is on.
You know, I think Andy and I and, and going back to Dave, you
(18:41):
know, we would always talk aboutthere's probably 10 starts where
you feel really great. There's ten starts where you
feel OK, and there's ten starts where you're really grinding and
the measure of how you good you are if you make 30 plus starts
is that you can still get good results when you don't feel that
great or you feel just OK compared to your A A stuff.
(19:01):
And, you know, I think that thisis a group also where I think it
will feed off one another, whereevery day, if you feel like you
have a chance to win because of the starting pitching and
overall pitching that you have, you know, I think that's going
to be a lot of fun. And you're doing it right now
without Shane Mcclanahan. You know, Alex Fayeto was
expected to play a roll out of the gate and then he ran into
(19:25):
some shoulder troubles in in spring training.
And both those guys are on the mend and hopefully will play a
big role at some point. But, you know, I think the group
that's here right now is really good.
I think the guys on, you know, there's some guys who are on the
Illinois who could help. I think there's a group in
Durham that's going to help. You know, eventually you're
probably going to see a lot of pitchers come through.
The hope is it, you know, these 13 stay as healthy as possible
(19:48):
all the way across the board. If they do, it's going to be a,
a really either way, I think it's, it's a fun pitching staff.
You know, I think Kyle and and Jorge and the entire group, you
know, hopefully they're fortunate with health and, and
they can continue to have a really good year from a pitching
standpoint. Yeah, Gabby, what's it been like
watching this pitching staff? Because my I like I, I mean my
(20:10):
God. Yeah, I mean, you can't really
say that that much. I mean, the shake, I guess the
shakiest start was Taj Bradley with two earned runs on six
innings. I mean, that's not that's not
bad at all. And I think Taj has been great.
Lattell I mean, he really lockedit down.
I mean he he with a guy who doesn't have strikeout stuff.
(20:32):
I mean, he he produced and this is comes back to the defense
also being really good and just backing him up there and he's
able to just get through all that.
I mean, what was it like? We had like nine hits and there
was like A7 run. We had like almost the same
amount of hits and there was like A7 run difference.
So I mean Zach Lattell that was was honestly incredible.
(20:55):
So big props to him and Drew Rasmussen.
Oh my God, I think I I I still remember the day he went not
what was it 9 and 2/3? Yeah, I'd be.
No, it was like 8. Yeah, it was the perfect game.
The perfect game. Yeah, I mean, so I I got so I
got memories of that. So I feel like he's gonna have a
(21:15):
really good day coming up. And I just, I hope, I'm hoping
for that. I'm hoping for that.
But yeah. It's been impressive.
Max, you already mentioned the staff, but I guess who's been
the most impressive guy for you out of the five?
Well, it's been one start by Shane Boss, seeing as his injury
promise. I've been holding him back so
much in terms of being on the field, coming out and having his
stuff be as good as it is and he's what is he technically the
(21:39):
fifth pitch right now Is that, is that right?
No. I.
Mean, I don't know. I don't put numbers on guys.
Oh yeah, you can. I'm just more of like.
I mean, if you look at it, anyway you look at it, one of
these guys is really, I mean, ifyou have Shane as your number
one, you know, they were they were going to go into the season
with six starters and kind of figure it out as they went.
(22:01):
So I mean it's and it's a good thing they did and stayed with
the six starters. I think that was a really wise
move on Eric Neander's part. And they were prepared for the
possibility of, you know, someone going down and, you
know, and I hope Shane's back really, really soon because I
saw how good he was. And I know how much work he put
in. And I know what it, you know,
how, how badly he wants to help this team.
(22:23):
And he will do it. And when, when he's ready, he's
going to have a major impact on this group.
But in the meanwhile, it's, you know, it's just fortunate there
are 5 really good starters they have right now.
They can all contribute. And I, I do think that what,
what stood out for me with, withShane Boss was the fact that he
hit 100. Like we haven't seen that kind
of velocity out of them since he's come back and he's worked
(22:45):
on using his legs better and worked on his mechanics and you
know, and their hard work has paid off.
So kudos to him for everything he did.
Yeah, Max, anyone else other than Shane?
I mean I it's like you take yourpick, you have 5 really good
guys. Well, I, I mentioned the
injuries and I mean Drew Rasmussen less so, but the, the
way he looked after coming off of, you know, well, he wasn't
(23:07):
injured at the end of last season, but just how tough it's
been with Tommy John and they coming back and looking like
that, it's incredible. Yeah, Rasmussen, he's super
efficient like I mean or Rasmussen game it'll go it'll be
the quickest game in MLBI. Mean he that that game I talked
about earlier with eight and 2/3, that game was under 2 hours
(23:28):
before the pitch. So I mean, he's he's efficient.
He's always going to be that he's going to pound the strike
zone. So yeah, love a little brass.
Yeah, it's a lot of fun. So Neil, the last thing I want
to ask you, because again, I don't want to I I know you got
to prepare for going out to Arlington, but looking at this
team as it stands right now, again, small sample size with
(23:50):
everything. Obviously everything has gone
really well, but like this, thisfirst week of the year, does
that give you more confidence into what you're expecting or
maybe what you expected out of this team coming into the year?
I'm not sure, you know, I, I kind of, I, I can't say I
expected, but I thought this group would be one that would
get off to a good start. And I do think because you're
(24:11):
playing 19 of 22 games, it is probably a little more important
at home. It is a little more important
than let's say, if you were playing 11:00 and 11:00 to start
the year home and road to get off to a a good beginning of the
season. That said, you're playing some
teams that are really good. I mean, Texas is a team that I
think is favored to win the West.
The Yankees are a defending world champs.
(24:33):
The Braves were a playoff team last year despite their start to
the season. The the Red Sox were very good.
San Diego and Arizona were the same.
And those are all teams that you're facing here in April.
And the Angels have been much improved.
So I think it's going to be a good test for this group going
forward. And, you know, I'm just kind of
anxious to, to be along for the ride and just see how this
group, you know, continues to grow.
(24:55):
I, I actually think defensively they can, I know they were
relatively clean, but I think they can even play better.
And, and, you know, I think thatspeaks to how much work this
coaching staff is putting in with them day by day at
individual positions. You know, there were a lot of
good things offensively there were, you know, it also was a
strange home stand and that all we heard about the ballpark is
(25:17):
that it was going to be a home run haven.
And we saw a total of five home runs in in six games and and
between the two teams, three by the race and two by the
opponents. And they were probably about, I
don't know, at least a half a dozen balls.
They get knocked out in right field, by the way, the win was.
I don't know if it's going to bethat way going forward.
I don't know if that's an April thing, like a March April thing.
(25:40):
And then in May it all changes. Like those are the things that
we're still going to learn aboutthe ballpark because they've
never played 81 home games thereof Major League status with
Major League hitters and Major League pitchers.
And so I'm just curious to see how it evolves.
To me, it's going to be a fun storyline.
But I think more more than anything, I think this is a
group that is very, very together, has really good
(26:03):
chemistry, a good vibe about it.So I'm just looking forward to
watching this team continue to grow as the season goes on and
and hopefully we're back, you know, when when we get together
in October, we're talking about,you know, six playoff births in
in seven years and hopefully a really nice run.
Yeah, let's hope so. Let's hope so.
Well, hey, Neil, thank you so much as always for coming on.
We really appreciate. We want to give you the floor to
(26:24):
make sure that, you know, you plug everything on with Ray's
radio, everything going on in your end.
Where can people find you and where can people find the
broadcast at this year? Well, very easy.
I will tell people who come to the ballpark, if you have the
ballpark app, you can actually listen to us while being in the
ballpark live. It's it's, you know, with with a
(26:44):
lot of the other apps that's delayed.
But within the ballpark itself, when we're home, you can
actually listen to the game liveon the ballpark app.
Obviously, you know, we won't. We hope that you guys listen on
our race radio affiliates or theapp or SiriusXM, wherever you
consume your Razor radio, whether it's in Florida or
around the country. And you can follow us on social
(27:06):
media at Razor Radio, at Neil Solon's at Andy B Freed and you
know, follow Chris Adams wall too.
He does a fabulous job with our our podcast, our pre and post
game. And when he, you know, comes in
to do a play by play when Andy moves to the television side.
So we've got a great team. Chris Miller and Becca Carney do
an awesome job too. And and you know, I think with
(27:27):
with Enrique and Ricardo on the Spanish side, our Rays radio
team, English and Spanish is onereal, real close, happy family.
And, you know, I think it makes a unique season of pleasure to
do and we're looking forward to hopefully a lot more wins to
call coming up. Yeah, for sure.
And I don't know how much you tweet about Rutgers stuff on
(27:48):
your own Twitter, but you can whenever, whenever Harper and
Ace Bailey get drafted, you'll, you'll, you'll hear plenty from
Neil at that point. I'll I'll be proud.
I wish, I wish this season had gone better.
It is what it is. It's it's very hard.
Nil has changed a lot about the game and tell me yeah, it's
that's another discussion for another.
(28:10):
Day. No, we don't need to go.
Trust me, as a Maryland alum, I don't need to deal with any of
that stuff because of what happened over the last two
weeks. Yeah.
It's it's, it's very unique. I mean, I guess the good is that
you can become really good really fast in a way that you
never could before. But I did miss as a college fan,
(28:31):
I missed the Cinderella stories of the tournament, seeing 4
conferences with all the teams that were in the Sweet 16.
I hope that changes in the future.
Even though I'm an alum of a team that's in one of those four
conferences. I'm a storyteller and I love the
Jake Mangum story just as much as I love a guy who's an Uber
(28:52):
prospect who succeeds at the thehighest level.
So I think a balance of both is kind of good for, you know, what
we all look for, which is great stories all the way around.
You want different stories and, and I think that's what keeps
the game, any game that you're watching.
Really fresh. Yeah.
Well, hopefully USF can have that in the future.
I'm hoping for the best for them.
But Neil, thanks so much again for coming on.
(29:13):
We appreciate it. For everyone listening, stay
tuned. We're going to take a quick
break and we'll be right back inthis latest episode of Razor
Roof. Hi everyone, Alex here with a
quick word from our sponsor, SeaGeek.
Sea Geek is your one stop shop for tickets for everything from
live theater and concerts to sporting events like Ray's
games. Sea Geek uses a color-coded
(29:34):
scale to show you where the bestdeals are with green being good
and red being bad. If you haven't used Sea Geek
before, we have a special deal just for you.
Use code Raise the Roof, that's Ray's spelled RAYS at checkout
for $20 off your first purchase with Sea Geek.
Again, that's code Raise the roof for $20 off your first Sea
Geek purchase. Thanks so much to Sea Geek for
(29:56):
sponsoring us and let's get backto this latest episode of Raise
the Roof. Welcome back to this latest
episode of Raise the Roof. If you guys didn't see or didn't
hear, If you guys didn't hear like 30 seconds ago, we
literally just had our Siki get and that's been running for a
while now. We've had it for a couple years.
(30:17):
That link, that code is still active.
It's raised the roof in all cabs.
It'll save you $20 off your first purchase using the app,
especially now with what the ticket prices are looking like.
It's Steinbrenner. Use it because it will help you
out. It will help you save money on
your tickets and hopefully that will help you get a little bit
of a better experience at Steinbrenner for the season.
So be sure to take advantage of that.
(30:39):
Helps us out in the process as well.
If you guys didn't see also withthe raise rush tickets because
those are 20 bucks of standing room only tickets.
They also apparently have this thing and I might have talked
about it last week, but apparently they have this thing.
It's like the Budweiser first base deck type thing.
It's basically it's it's 50 bucks from what I've seen.
(31:00):
It's available on the same site is where the Rays rush tickets
are. It is again $50.00 and it's an
all inclusive buffet with drinksincluded and alcohol.
Alcohol is included in that. Again, it's standing room
tickets, but you can find seats.There are plenty of seats in the
outfield if you were to get normal standing room only
tickets. But if they're valuing a
(31:22):
standing room, an SRO ticket at 20 bucks and you only need to
find $30.00 of value at a stadium in a buffet, you'll find
that. Especially with the fact that
alcohol is included, I think that personally speaking, and
you guys can comment on it, I think that is the best deal
value wise in baseball. I mean, it's a pretty good, I
(31:43):
mean like what you're saying it's a small venue and then you
get in a lot of stuff at the, I mean, we're talking the inflated
price here. You're probably, if we're
talking about the actual price, you're not making up that money,
but we're talking strictly the inflated price in a ballpark
you're paying usually, I mean anywhere in MLB, you're probably
(32:05):
paying 15 bucks at least that's at least.
So just two of those. You're already kind of in the
green with the standing room tickets.
So I mean, it's it's really not that bad.
I saw a lot of people complaining about it saying it
was not good, but it's it's pretty good.
It's pretty good. Here's the thing, if you're,
(32:25):
let's say you do eat some food, if you have a designated driver,
depending on your tolerance, youcan make that make up that
money. Oh yeah, you can make that up
that money for sure. Yeah, yeah, it's great.
Yeah. I, I think, I think it's great,
Alex. Yeah, it's, it's wonderful.
And Alex, I think we I don't remember, I think we discussed
it even before because it wasn'treally known that alcohol was
(32:48):
included. And so we I think you posted the
menu, but even even before like it was still a pretty good deal
and it. Yeah, even for drinks.
I mean, you got drinks included.And I think they said it was
popcorn, hot dogs, nachos. I think brats were included,
pretzels. And then they had like a
rotating menu of like Cuban sliders and empanadas.
(33:09):
Yeah, that's insane. Well.
Yeah, that's so worth it. Yeah, that's incredible.
I think about the food, we, if Ican, we will try to do that at a
game this year and we will and we will give a comprehensive
review on it. It will happen later in the
season, but I'm very excited forthat only because again, the the
the deal seems great. I've already talked with people
(33:29):
who who have done it and it seems like they've really
enjoyed themselves and have gotten plenty of value out of
it. So definitely a great thing and
take advantage of that. If you guys don't, there's not
that many tickets available. But for the price, knowing it's
a pretty exclusive section, I think it's one of the best
deals, if not the best deal in baseball.
So even with all the inflated prices and craziness, the race
(33:53):
have still found ways to give you value, which kudos to kudos
to them for doing that because Iknow it's not that many tickets,
but the fact that tickets are available in that.
And I know that on secondary markets, the prices are
definitely not as you know, not as much as they are on the Rays
(34:13):
website. I think that there's some
there's some hidden gems in there and there's not a bad seat
in the house. So I know that a lot of these
tickets can price people out. But if you can get lucky, there
are some really, really solid options that you can find.
You just need to dig a little bit more than just going on the
surface. Going into this weekend, the
Rays are playing their first andprobably only Rd. series in
(34:38):
April. I don't know cuz what is it 19?
The 1st 22 games are at home. So yeah, a lot of games are
going to be played at home, but the first Rd. series of the
year, first Rd. series for what will be a while cuz they're
going to be playing thirteen strike games at home is against
the Texas Rangers. The Rays have, I don't know how
(34:58):
to put this lightly, not had their fair share of success at
Globe Life Field since it's opened.
I understand that does include the World Series, but in terms
of just regular season stuff specifically, not really
amazing, not really horrible, just kind of in the middle.
So as Neil was talking about, the Rangers are definitely a
(35:18):
team that will be challenging for the AL West.
I mean, the Astros really aren'tgreat.
The Angels are the Angels. The A's are playing in
Sacramento. So that's just the the Mariners
look horrible right now and. The Mariners don't know how to
hit a baseball. Nope.
So observe like. Don't mention Randy.
(35:41):
I won't. He's he's the only, he's the
only. He's The only exception.
He's he's the only person that gets.
The pass. So with that in mind, they're
probably the best of, I don't want to say the best of the
worst, but the best of like, yeah, keys to the series.
Knowing that, again, the Rangershave a really solid team.
They have some solid pitching. The hitting is definitely there.
(36:06):
Max, starting with you, what areyour keys to the series?
What do what do the Rays need todo to to get another series win
on the board? Short answer is offense needs to
step it up. You're going to global life
field which I believe huge outfield.
If I'm not mistaken, you're first time not in minor league
stadium this year. Now I I'm looking at the
(36:26):
probable pitchers. First game's Tyler Molly, Third
game is Kumar Rocker, but that should be interesting.
But the second game it's Jacob degrom so and he looks like it.
He did like six years ago. So I don't think much more needs
to be said about that. The office needs to step up.
Yeah, going off of Gibby, beforeI get to going off of what Max
(36:48):
just said with the pitching probables, Friday is Zach Latell
against Tyler Molly, Saturday isTaj Bradley against Jacob
degrom, and Sunday is Drew Rasmussen against Kumar Rocker.
OK, Gibby, how are you feeling about this series?
Any other points that you wantedto add on after what Max said?
I mean, I like the pitching matchups.
(37:10):
Obviously Zach Latell, I think he's going to kill it.
I think Taj Bradley, he's going to kill it too.
And obviously through Rasmussen,I can't talk about him highly
enough. He's going to be great.
So yeah, pitching, I think we'repretty set.
It's just like what Max said. I mean, the hitting just has to
be there and it has to continue.This is going to be like what
(37:35):
Max said. It's a bigger outfield.
Maybe this is a chance for YandiDiaz to break out of the minor.
I think he's tired of minor league parks.
You know, I feel like he thinks things are a little bit small
and everyone can kind of track the ball at Steinbrenner, so
maybe he's kind of excited to get out of that.
And so it's going to be cool to see.
(37:57):
I hope everything goes well there.
And then. Oh my God, I feel like we got to
talk about it. We got to talk about, Oh my God.
I'm just blanking on his name. Curtis Mead.
Oh. Yeah.
He's been. He has not.
We need a hit from Curtis. We need to tell him that it's
(38:17):
spring training again. Yeah.
So basically you, you should never put, I mean, we said this
on the last episode. We shouldn't put too much into
spring training numbers. I mean, for some guys, it has
translated well, but for other guys, not so much.
It's not really a a tell. It's not a good tell.
So this is just kind of further proof of that.
(38:40):
But I feel like Curtis can't still turn it around, feel like
he's been a little unlucky and alittle bit, yeah, disorientated
at the plate or something. Something's off there.
So it'll be cool to see him get a hit in this series so.
Right. 100% agree definitely, and I'm very curious to see what
(39:01):
happens with Junior because I know he hasn't gotten off to a
great start. He's looked pretty good at third
base. I know he's had a little bit of
a flub in game one but overall at third base he's looked very
solid which is a good sign. But the offense, I mean,
especially against Schemes, he went after two first pitch
strikes, which again looked good, but at the same time he
(39:21):
hit 2 pop ups. And maybe it's because it's
Schemes, I don't know what it is, but I wasn't necessarily
thrilled with the plate discipline there.
But again, it's the first six games of the year.
I'm going to wait to see what hedoes.
Definitely still seems like, youknow, a guy that should be able
to break out this season in his first full season in the bigs.
So Max at this point. I was going to say, don't take
(39:43):
too much out of the first week of the season.
I was about to say, Rafael Devers hasn't gotten hit yet,
but literally, he just got his first hit.
Yeah, like a few minutes ago. Good job, Rafi.
Way way to get out of. Slum I mean, I feel like
Junior's not had the worst season at all.
So I mean, yeah, he's it sounds a bit too bad.
He's he's not too bad. His his defense has been pretty
(40:06):
surprisingly good. I think it's good we haven't
been to power. Like, yeah, we have like the
power. Isn't there?
Yeah. You're right.
You're right, honestly. But like, again, I mean, it's
still not horrible. But you know, as Max was saying,
take this week, this first week of the year with a grain of
salt. Except for Jake Mangum, because
he is the reason he is the season and I love.
(40:27):
This Eminem, he's so goat. I'm so like, I just think it's
so funny that like basically ever since we started tweeting
out about him and all that stuff, like the entire
Mississippi State community has like it's like a giant wave of
just Mississippi State people because they've been waiting.
Like talk about us waiting. They've been waiting since he,
(40:48):
since he left college and it's been like 7 years that they've
been waiting for this dude to make the big leagues.
So I mean, God, that's crazy. His buddy Gardner Minshew coming
out, Yeah. Gardner Minshew Mania was there.
That was so weird. I saw you tweet about that.
I was like, wait, what? Yeah, yeah, they're friends.
(41:08):
I mean, they both grew up in thesame place, Rankin County
Flowood, Ms. Pretty cool. They have a, they have a canes
in Flowood, Ms. that I went to that's right near the Jackson
International Airport that I've flown out of multiple times.
And I've been to that canes before.
So shout out the canes in Flowood Ms. This is pretty solid
(41:30):
going into our pick up players for this week, either this
weekend series or moving forward.
Gibby going to start with you onthis one.
Who are you? Pick up players.
You know who I'm going to pick, Alex?
Who don't? Taylor Walls, baby.
It's it's Taylor Walls season. Listen, listen.
(41:51):
Two hits, two hits so far. We need more out of him.
But he's been great on defense. I mean, he's just, I hate the
people who talk like this dude. I've tweeted at them before how
much I hate them. But I mean, he's kinda on one
right now. Defensively, he's been really
good. He's been stuff that people
(42:13):
would normally just give up on. He's been able to turn around.
I thought it was a homework today.
There was the one play where he almost got it because the ball
bounced off the dude's glove andhe actually caught it.
Oh yeah, the barehanded play, right.
Yeah, the the almost barehanded he he's been, he's been very
solid in defense, but that makesthe offense so much more
(42:34):
frustrating because it's like this guy can ball, but in only
certain aspects. So so yeah, that's my pick a
player offensive please there the walls and he get him and on
the one clutch situation where he comes up with the ribby.
And on the mound? And then on the mound we got we
(42:55):
got to start off with Lattell. I mean, he's gonna start off the
series. So I'm hoping he the defense
once again comes through for himand he's able to get out of
those when there are base runners on.
I hope he's able to get out of that.
So Zach Lattell. All right, Max your turn.
I'm not going as bold as Gibby, I'm picking Brendan.
(43:17):
Well, you're getting three straight righty starters.
So here. We go get ready.
Yeah. Oh, oh, get on.
Fine, it's fine all. Right, keep going on the on the
mound. I'll go Rasmussen.
You're getting Rasmussen in the getaway game after two really
high level pitchers. So good luck Axis.
(43:39):
I am still going to go with B Lau because even though Max
stole him, I'm still going with him.
I will also as a complimentary pick, I will depend.
I will go with Danny Jansen because I don't know if he has a
hit this year. I don't think he does.
And if he's. Got one on base?
Hang on. Yeah, so I'm hoping for a good a
(43:59):
good offensive series out of himbecause he needs it to raise
sign him because of his offense,because of what he's shown
before. So hoping a lot of success
there. The be a lot thing you guys
already know. That's just a that's just a
running gag. But I also love that man so
much. And then on the pitching side, I
(44:20):
really liked what I saw to MasonAngler in that in his first
outing. So I'm going to go with him.
I'm going to give him some kudos.
He looked very solid. I like what the Rays have shown
in the bullpen. A lot of guys like Monty looks
untouchable. Oh my God.
Oh yeah, Oh my God. He had one O 2.
Bro he looks he's insane casualty.
One O 2. He looks, I love him, but yeah,
(44:43):
no, I'm going to go with Mason. Hopefully he can continue that.
I don't know how long he's goingto stay up with the big league
club, but I'll take any success that I can out of our guys, out
of the pen. Any other baseball news?
I know a bunch of guys got extended today.
Jackson Merrill got extended, Campbell got extended with the
Sox, Cattell Marte got extended.Maybe that's a sign that they
(45:05):
should extend Brandon Lau again,'cause they already extended
him. But again, please, a lot of
extensions there, a lot of moneybeing thrown around.
Did you guys I was at, I was at opening day for Phillies gnats.
If covering it is my first time covering an opening day.
Oh my God. It felt like there's a different
(45:27):
feeling when the baseball seasonstarts.
You guys know this as much as me, but there's a different
feeling when the baseball seasonstarts and it is such a
beautiful feeling and I'm so happy that baseball's back.
Oh my God. We can talk about pointless
games in April and like no one cares, but it just feels right.
It, it, it feels great. It feels great.
I mean, and, and that's probablyjust because, you know, we had
(45:49):
this really good start. I've been to a lot of the games.
I'm in Tampa. This is the first time I've been
able to, you know, go to a baseball game MLB wise in my
city. So that's really cool.
So obviously I'm feeling it fromthat.
But I feel like there's a lot ofexcitement around the league.
Maybe not for certain teams, obviously won't mention those
(46:12):
A's, It's the A's. I thought you were going to say
the Braves. I mean, the Braves have just
been bad. Yeah, on the base for Yikes.
But yeah, I mean, not not that much for, oh, I mean, we have
Raymond James news. Oh yeah, with.
Raymond. James Group, they're going to
they're going to roof Ray J Get ready for roof to Ray J.
(46:36):
Oh God. Raise the ray.
J Raise. Ray J.
That that what's the kind of AI don't want to say a wrench in
any chance that they'll move to Tampa.
But after what one of the Glazers said, I was like, Oh my
God, here we go. Yeah, it's it's.
We all know renovations were coming.
It's not. Looking good for that, but hey.
(46:58):
I thought, I thought they were going to beg for a new stadium
for renovations. So I guess, I guess this is, I
don't want to say a pleasant surprise, but I was a bit
surprised. We all knew renovations were
coming though. Hey, hey, we we support keeping
Ray J around. I'll ever want to.
I feel like everyone knows. It's like it's modern enough,
dude. It's like we just need a little
shade. That's about it.
(47:19):
I feel like that's how most people feel, but spending, we
won't get into that. Yeah, we don't need that, Max.
Final thoughts before we conclude the pod.
Texas. Good luck.
I just realized what's that We're gonna win because Drake
wore the tetas hat. He wore no.
(47:40):
He wore, he got, he got one of the tetas hats.
Oh no. Oh OK, the Drake curse is real.
Thank you, Drake. Drake.
Those are my final thoughts. Good luck.
Thank you, Drake. Well, with that being said, it's
going to conclude things on thislatest episode of Raise the
Roof. Thank you guys, as always for
(48:00):
your support, especially over these last couple weeks.
I mean, sincerely, from the bottom of our hearts, we cannot
thank you guys enough. We're going to have more
giveaways coming across the board.
So if you guys want to follow that or if you guys want to see
what's going on with that and make sure you're in the know,
follow us on social media. We're at Raise the Roof TV on
(48:20):
Twitter slash X Instagram Blue Sky.
We have our YouTube channel, Raise the Roof, of which we're
going to be posting game highlights.
We're going to be posting podcast highlights in person,
stuff from Gibby or anyone else that's at games, hopefully
coming up. Plenty more things going there
for the podcast. Continue to support us as you
guys have been. Be sure to like, be sure to
(48:40):
subscribe, be sure to leave us areview, hopefully a five star
review. We are everywhere.
Spotify, Apple podcast, iHeartRadio.
You can follow us on any of those.
Just look up Raise the Roof and be sure to share this with your
family, your friends, anyone whoknows a race fan or a baseball
fan that wants to add a podcast in their podcast feed.
We would love to be part of it. So with that being said, thanks
so much for listening and as always, raise up.
(49:02):
Raise up, baby, raise up.
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