Space City Split & The Chandler Simpson Option (RTR Ep. 223)

The Rays have continued their hot streak as of lately, having won nine of their last 13 games and now sitting above the .500 mark as they return back home to Tampa after a four-game road trip in Houston.

Tampa Bay split their series in Houston...and also sent rookie OF Chandler Simpson down to Triple-A Durham. We talk about that and more on this latest episode of the podcast.

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

A big shout out to our partners, SeatGeek, In The Clutch and JKS Prints! Use code RAYSTHEROOF for $20 off your first SeatGeek purchase, 10% off anytime with In The Clutch & $5 off at JKSprints.com!

As always, Rays Up!

Episode Transcript

(00:12):
It's time to raise the roof for our latest regular season
episode. Welcome back everyone to this
latest episode of the podcast. I am your host Alex Murphy with
me, my Co host Evan Lynch. Evan, it's been a bit since
you've been on, but how you doing man?
It has been, but I've been good.Cam and Arrow, man, I cannot
wait to talk about him. And this is the steam in

(00:33):
general. But yeah, I've been good getting
ready for the the dog days of summer, NHS, Seneca Finals, NBA
Finals, all that good stuff. There's plenty of stuff to talk
about with this team, plenty of good to talk about.
I would say like originally, I think that it's the score and
the the run dispersion that can change some people's opinions

(00:55):
about how they felt about last week and against the Astros.
But overall, you take 2O four against the team that's a
perennial playoff contender on the road.
You win the season series, whichis even bigger because they just
took two out of three against Houston in Tampa.
So starting with that, Evan, what, what were your thoughts
about that series? Because again, they outscore
them 30 to 9, but 29 of those runs came in two games, and then

(01:19):
they only scored one run, the other two.
Yeah. I mean, yeah, I think what you
just said, I think this is the first time we've won the season
series against the Astros since 2020.
So it it's been a considerate amount of time since we've done
that, a considerable amount of time since we've done that.
But yeah, I'd say Thursday heading into it, heading into

(01:40):
that series, I was like, I'd definitely be happy with the
split following it. Yeah, I wouldn't say I'm not
happy, but it does. It is frustrating just the way
we lost those two games. Friday, obviously we were up for
basically the entire game. I think they stay tied it up in
the 8th inning and then obviously walked it off on a
home run with two outs in the ninth.

(02:01):
Cash had some questionable decisions about the bullpen
management in that game, but we can talk about that in a little
bit. And then Sunday, yeah, just, I
mean, I think how many 1 nothinglosses have we had this year,
Like 3 I think. I don't know, but they had, I
mean that's two, one run losses in the series specifically.

(02:22):
And we and we scored a combined one run in those two games.
It's I mean, just very frustrating.
And I mean, I will say we played, we went up against two
extremely, extremely talented pitchers.
I mean, Hunter Brown is, I'm notsure if he's decided young front
runner, but he's certainly a contender for this year than
Framber's a perennial. I mean, he's always going to be

(02:44):
there, especially and and he's alefty, so we'll always struggle
against lefties. But yeah, I mean, two
frustrating losses. It stinks considering the run
differential between the four games and we only went two and
two. But yeah, we can talk about it a
little bit more, but. Yeah, I mean, the good thing is,
is that they won two games. They split the series.

(03:06):
I'm personally more annoyed by the Fromber game than I am by
the Hunter Brown game because Hunter Brown has just turned
into a really good pitcher and like he had a no hitter going.
The race seemed to be flirting with no hitters recently, which
isn't really the most ideal thing in the world, but what are
you going to do about it? Like one of those games was kind
of bound to happen. I was more pissed off with the
Fromber game, and not because ofhow good he is, because he's

(03:29):
clearly a very good pitcher, butthe fact that if you look at the
course of his start, he only threw 9.2 pitches per inning.
Like the Rays couldn't find any way to try to work the count
unless he was just peppering thestrike zone way more than I'm
remembering and was just forcingthe race to try to make contact
in any sort of a way that's kindof inexcusable to have that sort

(03:53):
of lack of success of being ableto, you know, work any sort of
account. I'm going to go back and look at
that just to see I. Think, I think heading into the
8th inning, if I remember correctly, I think he had only
thrown double digit pitches onceand it was and the only double
digits was 11. So like still not a whole lot.
Obviously our only run was a lead off home run.

(04:15):
I was that on the first pitch. It was early on because Yandi
was the one that hit it. Or no, it was Cabbiera.
Oh, it was Cabbie. Yeah.
No, I was the. Set It was the second pitch of
the game, so. Yeah, I'm trying to go back and
look to see that specific outingso I can see and let me go back
to 636. No, not 6-1.

(04:38):
What was that? It was Friday.
It was Friday, it won't let me go back into May.
Baseball savant you meanie? And it was frustrating to like
in the top of the ninth in that game.
We had runners on 1st and 2nd with I believe it was one out.
Yeah, one out there. We go and and try to do the
double steal, which I like. We weren't really doing anything
on offense and walls probably could have been safe.

(05:02):
It was it was so close. It was one of those you're going
to kind of go with whatever was called on the field.
Unfortunately he was out on the field so you couldn't really
overturn it. And then Yandi grounded out the
next step at so it was just kindof we just it was unfortunate.
Clevenger. It was frustrating with him too,
because he looks so good againstthe against Altuve and we'll
Walker to start off the 9th and then first pitch opposite field

(05:26):
home run to walk it off. So just, you know, frustrating
game overall. I, I, I honestly might disagree
with you though. Friday or Sunday, I think maybe
it was just a little bit more. I thought it was maybe more
frustrating just considering we had so many chances to tie it
up. We had so many chances to get
that run across. I mean, I think in the.
That's just race baseball right now that that's kind of what I

(05:47):
feel like. That's also fair.
Like maybe we should just be a little bit used to that.
And and I mean, coming off of course, like it just seems like
we always do that too. Like whenever we have outbursts
offensively, we come back with asuper lackluster performance the
day after. So something about keeping that
up. We've got to be more consistent,

(06:08):
for sure. No, I fully agree.
I actually I was able to pull upthe thing on Savant.
I'm just trying to figure out the strike percentage which has
been difficult for me to figure out how the hell I can get a
strike. Time while while you're figuring
that out, I can I do want to talk about I mean, there's two
games we've talked a lot of negative, but Peppio and Taj
looked incredible. Peppio probably his best start

(06:30):
of the season. He let's I'll pull up the stats.
He went 6 2/3, two hits, zero earned runs, one walk and four
strikeouts, 93 pitches. So, I mean, really good
performance once again, wasn't sure what Cash was doing in that
game, handling the bullpen, putting Kevin Kelly, who he he
didn't look bad, but I'm not sure that that's the right place

(06:53):
to put him in considering I'm pretty sure bullpen was pretty,
pretty rested for that game. I mean, we won the night before,
13 to three. I mean, yeah, Rodriguez and
Clevenger and Fairbanks didn't pitch the night before.
I feel like we could have thrownany of those three guys in there
in that spot instead of Kelly. Kelly gives up the run obviously
tight then Clevenger lose it. But Peppio really, really good

(07:16):
start and then on Sunday, once again, Taj looked incredible.
Obviously he gave up a first inning run, but it wasn't earned
that. I mean that's an even more
frustrating way to lose is the only run of the game scored is
not an earned run, which is annoying.
But Taj went 77 innings flat, three hits, one run, like I

(07:36):
said, 0 earned runs, two walks and 10 strikeouts.
So really good job by him. And I mean, all things
considered, really good first inning.
Like he's had extreme first inning issues and the only run
was a ball that Caminer should have had in at third base so.
Yeah, I, I'm not going to figurethis out, but it's like he

(07:58):
peppered the strike zone and he got them to swing at pitches
that were out of the zone at times.
So definitely it was like it wasa good performance from him.
I mean, when you're a lefty and you have good breaking stuff and
out pitches, then you know, thatjust makes you a significantly
better player and pitcher overall.
But like, I'm looking here, I'm just looking at it.

(08:18):
The Max exit Velo was 1/14, which was Cabbie's head.
Max pitch Velo was 97 on the dayhe used his.
And now I will say something very interesting, very even
dispersion, I would say of pitches.
So he used a slight, he used a sinker 37% of the time, his

(08:39):
change up 26 1/2% of the time and his curveball 36% of the
time. So it wasn't like he was
throwing, you know, he was throwing one thing more than
others. And maybe that's what kind of
messed up the Rays is that he, you know, he wasn't just relying
on the fastball. Like looking at that same game,
if you look at Papio, Papio usedhis fastball 42% of the time,

(09:04):
his slider 33rd percent of the time, his change up 16% of the
time. He has a cutter that he used 1%
of the time and a curveball 7 1/2% of the time.
So that's five different pitchesif three of them used primarily
and then two of them kind of used sparingly.
So like Fromber has done really,really well at finding ways to

(09:26):
mix his pitch selection so much so that like you don't know what
pitch is going to come because the fact that all three of them
happen as frequently as they do,which I think is a credit to
him. And the rays only hit one O 7
off of him in that game. They had they had two singles
and a Homer. And I know that there were some
hard hits from what I saw looking at the box score.

(09:49):
You can see like the amount of hard hits that they had based on
if there's like a fire that thatmeans that there was a hard hit.
If you look back at the let me look back at the scoreboard here
and look at exit below. So Yandi hit 108 Mon hour ground
out and then he hit 103 Mon hourground out.
He seems to be doing a lot of that, which is concerning.
Like if you look at there was like a, a graphic that said like

(10:13):
balls hit 100 plus or whatever it was in baseball and Yandi's
like third or second on that list.
And the majority of those have happened via ground out.
Like for whatever reason, he's continuing to hit the ball
really, really hard. But the like he's not hitting it
to the gaps like he was in 23. He's not finding ways to lift

(10:34):
the ball again, which is very concerning.
And he's chasing a lot more too,which I noticed.
Yeah, and then he hit another ball in 98.
Jake hit a ball 100 on a line out.
Meade hit a ball one O 3 on a ona double play.
Don't even get me started on thedouble plays.
I still can't believe the juniorlead leads the league in double
plays. And it's not like he leads the

(10:56):
league by like a little bit. He leads the league by a wide
margin. And that's very concerning
moving forward. And I hope that he I mean, that
might just because that might just be because of the fact that
he's a power hitter. But like even still, that's not
really a good thing that you want to have going overall.
But regardless, as you mentioned, you talked about Taj,

(11:17):
you talked about Pep. Taj had his best start of the
season by far. His ERA is below 4 now.
Really happy to see that Zach Littell through the race, first
complete game in like 4 or five seasons, he's continued to be
probably the best 5th starter inbaseball, which is not like
we're not trying to say that he's, you know, like Hunter

(11:38):
Brown level good or Tariq Skuballevel good.
Like worse. Like for what he is, he is
probably the best at what he does in baseball and even more
so. That's so much more important
for this team and it's so much more it just it it had because
of what happened with Shane at the start of the season.

(12:00):
His performances right now have so much more value than than
even we realize because of of the circumstances that came into
the year. Yeah.
I mean, yeah, I guess we could kind of move into the positives
of this week in which there are a ton of positives.
I mean, that's not good. That's, I mean, yeah, like you
said at the beginning, split in a split in a four-game series on

(12:21):
the road to Houston, Certainly not anything to shy away from.
I mean, Houston is also 21 and 11 at home.
So they're also a really, reallygood home team.
And I mean, what happened Thursday, I mean, Baz didn't
have his best stuff still. He started off so, so well, but
he kind of faltered as the startwent on.

(12:42):
Kind of one of those games wherewe were in control for the first
half of it. And then all of a sudden, you
know, Baz kind of looks a littleshaky.
He still had a decent stat line,5 2/3, seven hits, three runs, 3
earned, 3 strikeouts, zero walks, which is always good.
Gave up the two home runs and only 86 pitches.
So but once again, he kind of faltered at the end.

(13:05):
So that's kind of why Cash I think took him out a little bit
early, but heck of a way by the by the group to kind of rebound.
Josh Lowe had a great, I guess he had two walks, but he one
hit. I don't remember him having
three strikeouts, but the the top half of the lineup was
incredible that game. I mean Cameron Arrow had six
home run or six RBI's, one home run.

(13:27):
Aranda once again did did they change that to a a hit that
double in the 8th inning? Do you I?
Can go back and check what day was this of that that we're
talking about? Thursday.
It was Thursday. OK, so that was the 29th then.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, because it wasa four-game set.
So let me go back and yeah, it was the 13 they did.

(13:47):
Change they did change it to a double.
OK good because I remember when it was live or like right after
it happened they called it an error which.
Yeah, Rondo went 2 for three so and then looking at Exitville.
I just want to confirm this for myself.
Can we do Rays? Where the hell is this?
Oh yeah, double 96.8 off the bat. 510 expected expected

(14:11):
average on it. Here, let me No, why can't I?
You know baseball Sivan is great, but like, if you don't
know what you're doing on it, it's it could be a nightmare.
Yeah yeah. So it was labeled as a double.
The race had a lot of really, really good hits in this game
and had more were able to make. I mean, Yandi with another he
actually found a gap. He hit one one O 9 for a double.

(14:33):
Yeah, it was, It was a great game overall.
Like I said, just the resiliencykind of the the the bounce back
nature in within the game was was something notable just yeah,
considering they had scored three, three straight runs.
We were like, Oh no, are we going to blow this?
And then we kind of just blew itopen in the 7th inning and then
continued to blow it open in the8th.

(14:54):
So really good game by basicallyeverybody.
I'd say the only kind of negative was Baz at the end of
his performance, but still he looks sharp at the beginning.
He needs to stop using the slider the the slider's not.
I guess the issue is, is that the slider was working really
well last season when when he was on the mound, he he looked

(15:15):
really, really sharp. This season, I mean, if you look
at his pitch selection, I'll go back to that game too.
Thank God I brought it up because then I can tell you, you
know what he was throwing and how it was working.
And he just doesn't need to use it.
Like I mean, he barely uses it. He doesn't need to use it.
And when he does, he gets destroyed.
It's like I. Think we got reward so so Baz's

(15:36):
Baz. The way that Baz uses his uses
pitch selection that game specifically 42% on the
fastball, 46 1/2 percent on the curve, 5% on the slider, and 7%
on the change up. So he has pitches.
The problem is that he uses 2 somuch that like I, I, I would

(15:56):
love to see an uptick in the change up to kind of just vary
the pitch selection. Him having 4 pitches is good.
But if you like I, I think someone said that, I mean, as of
this point, the majority of the homers that he's given up this
season have been on the slider. So whatever's going on with the
slider, however he tried to tweak it in the offseason is not
working because it's, it's finding the majority of the

(16:20):
plate. The guys are seeing it really,
really well and they're hitting it to the gaps and they're
hitting it out of the ballpark. So he either needs to find a way
to use the slider in a better situation at the plate or he
needs to use his other pitches more so that the slider is not
as important. And I just, I, I think that it's
an unhealthy dispersion of percentages of using the four

(16:42):
seam fastball on the curveball when the change up is there.
And I think the change up is good and he's only using it 7%
of the time, which isn't great. Definitely.
Yeah, and he got hard hit 10 times in that game.
It wasn't like we're talking. I mean, he threw 86 pitches in
and nearly 9% of those pitches turned into hard hits.
So like for whatever reason, he's just not, he's not the same

(17:03):
dominance of player that we saw last season, which sucks because
I I know that we want to see himperform at a much higher level
on the Mount. We're I think, I think we're
seeing glimpses of it, though, which gives me like he, he he
hasn't really put I mean, I remember, I think we.
Haven't put everything together yet.
I think it was against the Pirates earlier this season.
I think he went 7 innings, I think 10 strikeouts in zero

(17:25):
walks. So like we've seen it this
season. I know that's against the
Pirates. I think it was against the
Pirates. So like, I mean, maybe take that
with a grain of salt just considering they're they're
struggling. But I mean, once again, he he
looked good in the 1st 4 inningsof that game.
So just I mean, maybe fatigue, I'm not sure what happened, but
if he's able to just kind of continue that.

(17:45):
And then yes, Saturday was probably 1 just one of the
coolest Rays regular season games like maybe I've ever seen.
Just the way that everything kind of came together.
Kim Monero was out of this world.
Good. Two home runs, five are.
Deservingly the AL Player of theWeek, mind you.
Def Yep and along with big dumper the boy the.

(18:05):
Fact that he is that he is tied for the lead in home runs with
Otani. Also, the fact that Otani has
less than 40 RBI and he's got 23bombs is a that is a bad
reflection on the Dodgers for where?
He's how bad, how bad is the howbad is the bottom of the Dodgers
line up? He should not like in no way
shape and form should he be the lead off guy for that team.

(18:28):
If they want him to be a guy that can produce and and drive
runners in, in no way should he be the lead off man because a
guy with 23 like Raleigh's got like 45 RBI.
So I'm not saying he's much better, but a guy at Raleigh's
not supposed to be someone like Otani.
He's just having a really, really, really good start to the
season. He's shown that he's a 30 home
run hitter, but in no way shape and form should a three time MVP

(18:51):
like Otani, who just hit 54 homers last year or whatever the
hell he hit, he like 50 something.
Should he be hitting leadoff in that lineup?
When Mookie showed that he can hit leadoff, There's other guys
that you can put in front of him.
Like if you want to put Teoscar at 2:00 that that works and put
Otani at 3, like Mookie, Teoscar, Otani and Freddie or

(19:12):
something of that combination. Works.
Yeah, yeah, it should be. I think it should be Mookie TA,
Oscar Freeman and then Otani, but yeah, I don't get it.
But yeah, Caminero Co AO player of the week, which definitely
deserved Mangum definitely at the shout at him out first
career home run. Yes, my boy, I texted him that

(19:34):
and he said and he said thanks. So Jake Mangum says thanks to
the race community. He's congratulations to him and
it was pretty cool considering the his parents were in
attendance. It was it was kind of I thought
I was watching a replay when I was seeing it because it was
they showed his parents right before he hit the home run and
then he hit it and then I was like, whoa, that kind of is

(19:57):
matter. Yeah, that's that was just
really cool to see. Like his parents were had the
live reaction. It was it was just like that.
That game was just great. Just over I mean Josh Lowe,
another great game and then obviously the tell yeah, the
tell like you said, kind of justechoing all the things you
mentioned about him. He was freaking awesome.

(20:17):
It's kind of crazy. He won a complete game, giving
up ten hits, but he gets he he gets that's the.
Kind of complete game I want outof Zach Let's I don't want I
don't want this two hit shut outgarbage.
Well, he Peppers the strike zone, so he's going to get
swings early, so and keep that pitch count low and.
Pitches the contact. 117 for a complete game is not bad.
Yeah, and I mean, 6 strikeouts in one walk, that's kind of what

(20:40):
you like. That's him.
And you get a lot of soft contact and props to cash for
keeping them in. I mean, the game was over.
Like it's not like you had to kind of worry and.
And they saved the bullpen for afour-game series, which is good.
Yep, saved the bullpen. I was surprised that cash let
him in, but he should like it was the right move and thank you
for having that like allowing for us to have that cool moment.

(21:02):
And now is your raise below 4. So that's I mean, yeah, fifth
starter having the ER, a sub 4 is pretty darn good, especially
considering like he does have consider amount of pressure from
triple AI. Mean we have guys like Joe Joe
Boyle, who is freaking dominate and not maybe not dominating,
but he's shoving down in Durham.So he's one of those guys were

(21:24):
like, I mean, if Mattel was struggling, we'd be calling for
him to kind of maybe be on the way out.
So like he it's not like he's has that fit spot locked down.
Maybe he does now, but there is pressure and props to him for
kind of rising up to the occasion in this, in this, in
this game and in like this entire season, I guess.

(21:44):
For sure I want to leave talkingabout the walls ejection to the
second part of the podcast, because that was very
entertaining to watch. Before we do go to break though,
a Lou Gehrig day happened over the weekend.
So shout out Sarah Lang's still fighting the good fight with
ALS. Everyone else who's who's doing

(22:05):
with ALS, just keep fighting thegood fight.
It's it's it's important that baseball continues to, you know,
highlight this and put this in the spotlight as much as
possible. So I'm glad that they're doing
so. Also, it's pride month, so happy
pride to everyone. So we're going to take a quick
break. We're going to run our Siki Gad.
If you guys haven't used that, probably a good time to use it
if you want to go to that longo retirement ceremony that's

(22:27):
coming up. What is it on Saturday?
You'll be. Saturday.
So we'll talk. I'll be there.
Yeah. So if you guys many things for
that or any other things, it's could raise the roof at
checkout. Saves you $20 off your first
purchase on C Geek. So feel free to use that.
But yeah, we're going to run that and we'll be right back in
this latest episode of Razor Roof.

(22:48):
Hi everyone. Alex here with a quick word from
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sponsoring us. And let's get back to this
latest episode of Raise the Roof.

(23:29):
And we're back on this latest episode of Raise the Roof and
our other Co host Gibby has arrived.
Gibby how we doing? We're doing pretty good, Alex.
Sorry for not being on par one but.
Hey, hey, hey. You're still going to get your
opportunity to talk about the Astros series because the Rays
played pretty well. Oh yeah.
I mean, I've never seen a serieswhere you've outscored your

(23:52):
opponent. What is it, like 30 to 9 and you
split the series? But I mean, good on the Rays for
those two offensive days. It was very important.
But, you know, you saw two of the kind of classic Rays games
where, you know, the pitching isdoing really well, but you know,
the the other team happens to score one run and then it's the

(24:17):
it's it's the largest mountain to climb the entire game.
So Sunday, the Astros pitch really well.
Kept this shut down 10. Friday was very similar.
It was like 21. There's some offense, but
couldn't really get the guys home.
So yeah, I mean, it was it was an impressive series,

(24:39):
especially, especially Thursday and Saturday.
I mean, just kind of just demolishing the ballpark.
And I mean, you guys have probably already talked about
him, but Junior Common Arrow hasjust been on one recently.
And you know, even Yandi Diaz has started to come back again.
Hopefully this is the real turn around and we see more
consistent product from him. But yeah, it was it was a great

(25:03):
series. I think the pitching did really
well. I mean only allowing what is
that nine run 9? Runs or four games, it's like 4.
09 runs, yeah. It's like 2.25 runs a game,
something like that. Yeah, so that's crazy from the
pitching. Gave us a chance to win
basically every game that series.
Just the offense didn't produce on some days, but you know, you

(25:26):
can't really complain too much when the other days they really
did produce very well. So overall, good series split I
think. That leaves us with the main
point of contention in the series, which happened on Sunday
and definitely took the baseballworld by storm, which was Taylor

(25:48):
Walls showing. I thought you.
Were talking about the injectionthat was like.
He's ever showed in a raised uniform.
That's not a knock to him, it's just I've never seen him this
angry before. I don't think I've ever seen any
player that angry. Before on the news, Yeah, so
like for. That matter.
For for those who. Didn't know he had that in him.
Nah man, he got that dog in him for real.
So basically what happened was he there was a low strike called

(26:10):
on him. He went, he took time, went to
go adjust his helmet and then tapped on his helmet twice.
And I think cuz other people have like looked at him or like
looked at previous at bats of him and seen what he's done when
it comes to calling time, stepping out-of-the-box, things
like that. And I think that like the
adjusting his helmet part is something that's happened.

(26:32):
But the tapping I think was maybe a little bit more
exaggerated. And he also did that while
staring in the umpire's face. And the umpire basically went
out to him, throw him out. And then Walls was like, what
the hell, You know what it what did I do?
Now, I don't know if that was. I guess the problem right now
is, is we're going off of what Walls said.

(26:55):
And we didn't hear what the umpire said.
And we don't know if what Walls did was purposeful or not, or if
it was just like routine and something that he's done
consistently. But yeah, he got really angry,
got thrown out. Cash had to come in and try to
hold him back. Josh Lowe tried to hold hold him

(27:18):
back, and then he escaped. Josh Lowe was trying to like
flight the guy WWE style and suplex him to the ground and
then he and then he got ejected like I've never seen.
Alex, it is very similar to WWE because it was like, you know,
all the security guards, they always come out to like it's

(27:38):
like a Pomo is like the. Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah. Like when like one guy gets
anxious like all of this, he's going all the stopper.
Any guards around So it it was kind of AWWBE ask yeah.
I didn't know he had that fire in him.
I mean, it's understandable why why he felt that way.

(27:59):
You know, he has a certain like limited at bats to kind of, you
know, prove himself in in this space.
So he's very urgent to, to, to still contribute to the team.
So I mean, I'm glad there's still that, that fire in him.
So it was, it was, it was, it was kind of funny.

(28:22):
It was just funny. It was sudden, it was very
sudden. And, and I, I don't know, I've
seen him because I watch a lot. I, I, I watch a lot of his at
bat. So I mean, he does do the helmet
thing a lot, but he doesn't do the tapping thing a lot.
So I don't know how to feel about it, you know?

(28:42):
Is that like a did they come outand say is that automatic
ejection if you tap the helmet? Like, like, that's what.
I've seen other guys tap the helmet before.
And right, that's, that's what I'm confused about.
I was like, does it even matter if he tap the helmet?
Because I mean, you know what? I I think I.
Think it was the way that he didit because I'm pretty sure like
he looked right at the umpire's face and went like that.

(29:03):
Because I mean, I don't think the problem is him tapping the
helmet. I think it's the umpire
automatically throwing him out when that's not necessarily
really a rule. Yeah.
I mean, it's just it's very like, I don't know, it's very, I
guess it's very prideful doing that.
It's like you can't like, I mean, it is kind of a funny
troll to tap your helmet, I willsay.
But to automatically throw them out just for that sounds kind of

(29:26):
rat like. I don't know, that just doesn't
seem justified. Doesn't.
It it's definitely not like. Like I, I, I don't.
Think it is. Yeah, I don't think what he did
was just like, I don't think what the umpire did the way that
he did. I don't think it was justified
at all unless the umpire just thought he was showing him up
and maybe it. Doesn't matter though.

(29:47):
It doesn't matter if he's showing him up though.
Like I, I, I don't think you canthrow somebody out of the game
for showing somebody up. Like I mean I well.
To an extent I I think that that's like, that's now the
thing because automatic balls and strikes are going to be
happening soon. So like, I wonder if that's like
now in the subconscious of umpires where they're like, if a

(30:07):
guy does that, that means that he didn't like the call without
saying that he didn't like the call.
So like that's instead of him, you know, the umpire, the guy
going up up to the umpire and saying that's not a strike and
then adding expletives and stuff.
This is is like the subtle visual way of saying that I
didn't like the pitch. Oh, don't get.
It's definitely a troll. Like it's it's yeah, it's a big

(30:29):
troll. Like it's definitely rude of
walls and like, but I don't think it's like ejectionable.
I don't know if that's a word, but I just, I don't know.
I can see both sides of it more now than I did.
Yeah, I can. I can't too.
I didn't know if I missed something.
I was like, I didn't know if, like, tapping the helmet was an
automatic, like a rule. Like I didn't know if it was

(30:50):
like, oh, if you tap your helmet, you're automatically
gone. I mean, I think Wallace had the
right to be very upset. Maybe not that upset, but I
think he had the right to be upset.
It was a terrible call. The UPS were bad basically all
series. I feel like both ways.
I mean, the the, the safe call at first, I think in like the
3rd or 4th inning. Do you remember that they called
him safe on the field? I don't know who it was.
Something on the Astros. The race challenged it and

(31:12):
somehow they didn't overturn it.I don't, it was pretty clear.
I thought to me they didn't overturn it.
Yeah, it's it was great. I I mean, yeah, like I said, I
don't think I've ever seen a race player that I rate before
on a baseball field. So.
Yeah, it's pretty good. Good to see.
Yeah, it's, I mean. There's a fire.
I like the passion, you know? It was unique.
It was it was very unique with with with how things happen.

(31:35):
So hey, it happened. It is what it is.
It didn't really end up affecting the game overall.
As we mentioned earlier, the theare in the first part of the
podcast, the race had chances towin that game on Sunday and just
blew the chances. I think kind of one of the one
one of the biggest ones was not trying to find a way to get that
guy home from third. It was in like the 7th or 8th

(31:56):
with with with one out. So it's just, you know, like you
got to find ways to get those guys in in those situations.
But hey, the race still took twoor four.
They split the series, we go. And I think, yeah, I think, and
then we had I think runners on 1st and 2nd and 6th with no outs
and didn't bring them around. But another thing I wanted,
well, Chandler Simpson also getting sent down.

(32:18):
Yes, really. Oh my God, I don't know how the
hell we forgot about that, but guys.
Didn't talk about that. I thought you did talk about.
That no, we didn't. Well, hey now, thank God we did.
We'll get into it in a little. Bit then one.
One thing I did want to bring upJake on Twitter, I think at TV
Race Central, he brought to the point where I was like, if

(32:38):
you're not going to pinch it, Morrell in for Taylor Wallace in
that spot in the 9th inning, then why is he on the team?
Like I, I and I think that's a total totally valid argument.
And that brings it's like, why is he on the team if he's not
going to pinch it against the lefty for the worst hitter on
the team? And he's a power hitter where I
mean, we needed one run. Like I thought that was a pretty

(33:00):
good point. And it doesn't make any sense.
Like if we're if we're not goingto bring Morelle in in that
situation, why is he on the team?
Definitely perplexing on the mind, I'll say that for sure.
Yeah, I. Saw that tweet too.
It's like, kind of, kind of liketells you how they feel about
morale a little bit, right? It's like if he's not useful
there then I'm not sure where he's useful.

(33:23):
And on the flip side, Chandler Simpson is useful basically
every game. So it it doesn't I don't know.
It doesn't make much sense to mewhy I I get that Simpsons
defense isn't great and I get that he has options and Morel
does doesn't but still. For those that didn't see,
Chandler Simpson was sent back or optioned back to AAA as a

(33:44):
result of Jake Mangum getting brought up to the Major League
club. And I will say to preface this,
this is nothing about Jake. This is Oh my God I can't
believe that he got from. He got sent down and Jake got
called up, no. One's arguing that, by the way.
I feel like a lot. That was never the issue.
The issue was never that. People were like, why?

(34:06):
Why are people arguing like, Jake Megum earned this?
Yeah, we're not saying that. We're not.
We're not. That's not what I'm saying.
No, it was never about Jake getting caught up in Chandler's
place. It was.
I think a lot of people were just annoyed, ourselves
included, before we kind of tooka deep breath and took a second
to think about it, that they couldn't both be on the roster,

(34:27):
that that someone else couldn't be moved.
Christopher Morale is out of options.
He can't move anywhere. Miser's been playing really,
really good in center field. He can't.
It would it would it would be stupid for him to for him to go.
The Rays need more depth in the infield.
So someone like Curtis Meters actually been playing a lot
better recently. He wouldn't go.

(34:48):
So in all reality, Chandler was the odd man out, ends up getting
sent back down to AAA. Now he's got the opportunity to
play every day in center field. And for as good as he was in the
Rays, which he was someone who was third in baseball and steals
tied with Jose Caballero, he hit285.

(35:09):
He I think was like 6th on the team and runs scored and all of
this happened in like 30 something games.
So like he was definitely a spark plug.
That is not to be debated. A lot of the things that were
kind of issues that have popped up since that point are his
routes in the outfield, just hisentire outfield, but his
defensive skill set not there. It needs to it that that needs

(35:31):
to improve pretty drastically. It's not all the way there yet.
His route running is not great. It still has a lot of things to
improve. And then the on base percentage
for someone who had like a 400 on base in the minor leagues,
only have like a 315 on base in the in the major leagues.
I know that there's the jump, but that was also, I'm sure
something of concern for the race.
But wanted to open it up to you guys as to your thoughts about

(35:52):
the whole thing. Yeah, I mean, I just, I, I just
can't argue with with what I I saw from that man.
I mean, I think he he very well played his way on this team.
I mean, we could say all these things about his his defense and
stuff, but I mean, I feel like that's just kind of nitpicking

(36:12):
as at a certain point just because, oh man, he he was such
a spark plug for this team. And if you look at his stats
from the last two weeks before he got pulled up, he was hitting
more towards or he was on base more towards like a 360.
If so, if you're not putting it all together, he's a little

(36:32):
better than even in those recentweeks before he got pulled.
So I mean, I, I see both sides of it, but I, I still very much
want him on his team. It's not about Jake Mangum,
obviously. You know, Mangum literally had
his first home run at the Rangers stadium.
So that was good cool to see hisparents were in attendance.

(36:54):
That was awesome to see. But yeah, I mean, I see the
stuff about, you know, not him having the best arm for the, for
the center field, but God, he, him getting that many steals
that, that quick and having a guy who is born on second base,

(37:16):
you know, just automatically in scoring position just right
away. You know, that that's maybe a
guy you wanted in some of those games this past weekend.
And then there's some games where you really didn't need him
and where you didn't feel like you needed him.
So I mean, it's just going to feel like that.
So I hope he comes back soon. But I, I, I am a little

(37:40):
disappointed that he got sent down.
But you know, I, I understand, you know from the way Alex
explained it why he did get sentdown.
Yeah. And yeah, I mean, I've kind of
said my piece a little bit already just with the whole, I
mean, I'm not the yeah, the question is him or Morel and

(38:03):
Morel just, I mean, I'm not surewhy he's, you know, in in the
lineup if he's not going to be pinching hit pinching for tear
the walls in that situation on Sunday.
But I get that this was a way tokind of keep everybody on the
team. However, I do think that like, I
mean, looking towards the future, I mean, we do still have

(38:25):
two outfielders on the on the ILlike Palacios and Toluca.
Like it seems like we're kind ofjust kicking the can down the
road. It's like something's going to
have to happen eventually. Like, I mean, I assume
somebody's going to get treated,somebody's going to get DFA.
And I think, and I get that, like maybe I I get that Simpson
could get could benefit from time in Durham, but I think that

(38:50):
he could also benefit from beingin the majors.
I mean that that OBPI mean, I don't think him going to Durham
is going to really help raise that OBP that you were talking
about. Alex.
Yeah, sure, his defense wasn't great, but he's still
technically more valuable to theraise than morale is just I
mean, if you're going based on war, I mean, they're both in the

(39:10):
negatives, but I think I checkedSimpson as a negative .1 war and
morale has a negative .2 war. So like I guess if you want to
it's he's technically more valuable, but.
I will say specifically about morale.
I think that we're all incredibly disappointed by what
we've seen out of him. And if something doesn't give,

(39:30):
then that I, I like the Rays would be stupid to hold on to
him because they made the moves that that they made last year.
And if he just can't produce, then that's not their fault.
That's, you know, they made the move hoping that he would return
to some sort of form, but he hasn't yet.
I mean, I, I could, this is total speculation, obviously.

(39:51):
It does seem like there's some sort of like pride that they
can't let go of in the in that move.
Like it. It seems like you're right.
If they DFA D morale, they wouldhave had to be like, hey, like
we might have lost this trade. Like we're kind of but I feel
like there's some sort of like, hey, we can't lose this trade

(40:11):
this soon. I don't know, does that, does
anybody else kind of get what I'm saying?
Well, yeah, I guess they saw something I because Christopher
Morale at the beginning of the season, for what's worth, did
show a little bit of something like the first 20 or so games
and then he's just completely fallen off since then.
So I guess that that's kind of away they're like, maybe he's

(40:33):
just in a really bad slump rightnow.
But yeah, I think you're right in a way that they are.
They do want to produce value inthat trade just because, I mean,
they traded away a guy who was, I mean, the fans kind of very
much liked him. So yeah, I mean.

(40:53):
And we got we still have Biggie,like Biggie still has insane
potential. I know.
I think isn't he, I think he's injured though right now.
But and I think that's the thingabout Morales, like I get that
he's a power hitter. I get that his average is never
going to really look great. I mean, 2O3 not great, but I get
it for a power hitter. He has three home runs.
It's like that's. It's like that's.

(41:14):
So he's been he, he, he's been incredibly frustrating and the
power is just not there. Three home runs for a 2O3 like,
and I mean his defense is a little bit above average, but
still like I don't I would what does he offer?
I I I'm not sure. No, it's not.
It's it's frustrating. I think that that's another
conversation for another day because the Rays are going to

(41:35):
have to face that at some point.Like this is not something that
will be like. The Rays are going to need to
address that issue sooner ratherthan later because Chandler is
going to be back with the Major League club soon.
It's not like. This.
You know, and he's gone forever at this point.
And the other two outfielders, like if we were totally stacked

(41:56):
at that, like if we were, if this was it, if everybody else
was, if we didn't have DeLuca Palacios in the picture, I'd get
it. I, I get it even more because
it's like, OK, fine, we'll have Chandler go down to Durham, you
know, develop skill, develop what he needs to.
But it's like this is going to have to be addressed relatively
soon. I get that DeLuca had kind of a
set back in his rehab and Palacio, so I'm not sure when

(42:18):
he's going to be back, but. I hope we get back soon.
I feel bad for Richie honestly, that he's been out for this
long. But this is a problem that's
going to have to be fixed. But this season like.
Yeah. No, no, no, no.
And I think that the race realized that, which is why
they're trying to like. And I think that I think Neander
said that when he was talking because he went on on WDAE to

(42:38):
talk with, I think it was T Crest about the situation with
Chandler. And I'm almost positive he
directly said that something's going to have to give with with
Morel at some point. Like somebody else.
I don't know if he said that directly, but like he basically
like addressed that and said something to that extent.
Yeah, because it's. Going to have to be a second guy

(42:59):
too. Like we're going to have to,
there's going to have to be two more guys that we have to
address. Yeah, because when a guy's going
down for defensive kind of things, that's like the easiest
thing to fix in baseball. You know, when you're over it,
when it's not the hitting, you know, at the at the next level,
that's the problem. That's, you know, a pretty good

(43:21):
sign. So yeah, I mean, you're right.
They're just kicking the kid down down the road basically.
Because I mean, hitting wise, he's pretty much almost Major
League ready other than not discerning more walks, I guess,
or getting on base more so. Other than that, I mean the the
dude's pretty set so. Yeah, no, he's definitely shown

(43:42):
that he's that his worth of the Major League level is there,
which is great and and I'm glad that he's.
Yeah. And so, so, so yeah, it is kind
of like kicking the cane down the road.
Yeah, and and we'll see what happens.
This again, He he'll he'll he'llbe back in the Major League
roster. It's not like this is.
Yeah, he will. Yeah.
Crazy thing, looking at next week's series the Rays have.
The Rays are back home this week.

(44:04):
They have three games against the Rangers and three games
against the Marlins. Can we please beat the Rangers,
please? The Rays can't beat the Rangers.
This is what? I said this like 2 weeks ago, I
was like oh great, we have to play the freaking Rangers dude,
we're not going to win. I mean, I don't know about that,
but yeah, the Rangers, three games against the Rangers, three
games against the Marlins. Evan is you kind of, I don't

(44:27):
know if you if we talked about it before or on the pot at all,
but all the three games over theweekend are all day games, which
is not really a great thing, especially when you're playing
the Marlins who already strugglewith attendance.
I know that that Saturday game, which is going to be long goes
retirement. That game's going to be shut up.

(44:47):
But the other two games is goingto be hard to get.
I mean, maybe not on Sunday, butdepending on when schools get
out in Florida, maybe there'll be more people on that Friday
game. But like, geez.
Yeah. And then this is also the same
time of the year where game times are going to be changed a
little bit more. So we again, we discussed that
before the pod Sunday games are now going to be 1210 starts

(45:08):
instead of 140 starts. And games during the week are
going to be 735 starts instead of what I believe before was
like 647 O 5 starts. So all those games are going to
be pushed back a little bit later to I think it's rain
related stuff, but also I'm sureit's heat related stuff.
But then again, if we're starting games an hour and a

(45:28):
half earlier during day games and starting it at 12:10 PM,
which is one of the hottest times of the day, I don't know
how much the weather situation is is locked into it.
But yeah, three straight day games over the weekend.
Crazy. Yeah, Gibby, I'm sure you're
going to love that being at the ballpark.
Yeah, there's been there's been a lot of I've been seeing a lot

(45:51):
of medical shit come out during those day games.
So every the the older crowd, you need to stay hydrated.
You know, you, you know, I know.Hey, I'm guilty of of buying a
beer as soon as I get to the ballpark too.
But yeah, I mean, I've never Alex, I've never seen people

(46:16):
willingly give up their like almost dugout level seats to go
up to the shaded sections of thestadium.
Like I, I swear to God, the shaded parts of the stadium were
like at 100% capacity. I was just in the tunnels, just
chilling. I wonder, see, I do wonder like

(46:36):
that's the other thing that I'm I'm curious about in the future
because this is now the experiment of, of we've seen
like open air baseball versus not open air baseball in
Florida. And this is like the perfect
synopsis of like why we shouldn't have it because of
where the feels like temperatures are.
I mean like even at like not even 90° it's still feels like a

(46:58):
one O 1 something which is. Yeah, exactly.
Until, until the sun goes down. It's just, it's not the
greatest, but you know, it makesdo for now.
But yeah. It is, I mean.
Hot in that stadium, it's just like Raymond James where it's
like it's just a reflector and then makes it a little bit

(47:19):
hotter. And then the seats, the seats
are boiled at at at a certain point, like from being in the
sun for so long. Well.
And well, it's just, and it's just, I mean, it's kind of weird
that we're playing them today. But like, we're not the only
team. Like the Rangers built a
entirely new stadium because of the Heat, too.
Oh yeah, I mean, that stadium was insane.

(47:39):
I literally experienced that. I, I, I experienced the last
season of the Rangers at their old ballpark and like my family,
had to leave early because of the fact that it was a fully
enclosed stadium. Even though it was indoors,
sorry, it was outdoors, it was still fully enclosed because of
those offices that were in Outfield or whatever the hell
they built. And like it was, this was at
night, it was still humid as hell.

(48:01):
It was still warm. Like we had to leave early
because of the fact that it was so.
Hot. Yeah, that's probably the one
saving grace of Steinbrenner Field is that it is very breezy
most of the time. Yeah, where you are.
I think that actually leads intosomething that a former Rays
player, former Rays prospect said because we found out some

(48:24):
very interesting information. I'll say that from 1.
Joe Ryan, former Ray's pitcher, who said, and I quote, this is,
I would assume an article from Mark Topkin, but he said, quote,
it's a joke. Said after beating the Rays last
week, complaining about, among other things, the sun being in

(48:44):
his eyes, the wind, the lack of foul territory, trampoline like
grass, the quiet atmosphere and the absence of a roof.
Quote doesn't make sense. Just just just want to let that
simmer in for a little bit for you guys.
This is a guy who didn't pitch for the Rays, was part of the
Nelson Cruz trade, which really didn't turn out great.
But what are you going to do about that?

(49:06):
And he's now complaining about the fact that the Rays don't
play in a roof or in a Dome stadium currently because of
events that were out of their control.
Yeah. I mean, I is he like confusing
us with the A's or something? Like it's.
Not like, you know, Yeah, they didn't.
Willingly. We we, we didn't choose this.

(49:27):
And the some of the some of the issues he kind of like brings to
light, pun not intended, but thesun being in his eyes that
happens anytime you're outside. I'm not sure that's stadium.
Specific, yeah, I mean. Also, the wind happens all the
time too when you're outside. Sure, maybe it can't be more
than others. The lack of foul territory.

(49:48):
Has he ever played at Fenway? Because Fenway also is like 0
foul territory and also he doesn't have to like worry about
that. It's not like he's playing.
I mean I guess it might help hisstats I guess.
But he's mad because he got he got two of the ground rule,
though. He's mad because he got two of
those ground rule double s that bounce into the bullpen.

(50:12):
If he won a game, Oh no, the. Heart exactly like why are you
complaining? And he acts up his.
Stats in that game, by the way, just so that we can we can
quantify how angry this man's was.
I think this just means that JoeRyan is a Tropicana Truth.

(50:33):
So I mean. He's big in the Tropicana Field.
OK. OK.
Hold on here. In that game, he went six
innings, allowed five hits, one run, one walk, 5 strikeouts and.
Doesn't seem like the stadium affected his performance much.
No, and it was only on 85 pitches, which was five pitch 4

(50:54):
pitches better than last the theprevious game, which he needed
89 pitches to get through 5 innings.
So I'm pretty sure 65 pitches was well, he had 76 against the
Giants, but like one of his moreefficient starts of the season.
So yeah, I don't really know whyhe's complaining about that.
Like it's, it's weird now because and maybe the socks, I

(51:19):
think maybe it's more of a fan type thing because obviously the
fans have had, you know, those who go to games have their own
specific thoughts when it comes to, you know, what the what the
trop is like and that kind of stuff.
But clearly players have a specific thought about it.
Or one player. Yeah.

(51:41):
I mean, yeah, I, I just, I don't.
He actually had like a very efficient start too.
I don't know. I mean, I guess it's better that
he said that in a good start andnot not losing, because if he
like got shelled, it would have just come off as like sort
loser. Like it's like no.
But this comes off, yeah, I guess interesting.
Like why would you complain? After, I guess it's even.

(52:02):
I guess it's even more justifiedin a way.
And it's just the reason to, I just don't get the reasons.
The reasons it's like half of those are not because you were
playing baseball. That's really just because.
I mean, I mean the trampoline like.
Grass is not loud enough. Right, the the the atmosphere
and the grass I guess is very baseball specific.
Atmosphere. Small ass stadium.

(52:24):
Whoops. And yeah, and I agree.
I, I agree with what you guys let off this with.
It's like, it's not like we chose this.
We didn't. I mean, we're playing the cards
that we were dealt basically, so.
Yeah, it's not really the most ideal of scenarios by any means,
but it's just kind of a it's a weird situation that the team is
in and they haven't really figured out a way to like it's,

(52:49):
it's not like they had a lot of options with this and they
weren't going to get any Major League ready stadiums because
those stadiums were already being used by Major League
teams. So it was basically one of like
two different scenarios when it came to trying to figure out
this and it just didn't work out.
So it is what? It is and and guess what, if
unless we meet in the play offs,that's his only ever start that
he'll ever have to perform there.

(53:12):
Like, I mean, it's one year, we're not in the same division.
So I mean, that should be it. Unless once again, unless we
meet in October, but. Yeah, OK.
Going into the series against the Rangers and the Marlins, we
can look at the Evan, Evan if you want to pull up the matchups
and then we can kind of get started about talking.
Definitely a lot of interesting things when it comes to this

(53:34):
these two series. Marlins are going in a
completely different direction and where the the where the
Rangers are. The Rangers, I mean, are not
really that great themselves. The Rangers are 29 and 31.
So I'm not saying like they're incredible, but the Rays have
played a lot better at home recently.
The Rays took seven of nine whenthey were at home before they

(53:55):
went to Houston. So really, really important
series. They had to kind of get things
going in the right direction. But how did the Ray?
And also worth noting, the Rangers are 9 and 18 on the road
versus 20 and 13 at home. So definitely something of no
forward there. That makes me feel better about
struggling at global. I just so I had the pitch match

(54:15):
ups. We're recording this on Tuesday.
So tonight through Thursday, allnight games, which contrary to
our so I guess all night games before all day games this
weekend. But it's time to melee versus
Rasmussen tonight. I'm not sure how many innings he
has. I mean, I, I guess he has 66

(54:36):
innings this year, 12 games started.
He has a 1.64 ERA, which is likeincredible.
And then on Wednesday, it's Kumar Rocker versus Shane Baz.
And then on Thursday it is Jack Leiter versus Ryan Pepeo once
again. I'll go to Graham.
At 7:35. Yep.
Noda, Graham. And then going into the Moreland
series. This weekend, kind of weird

(54:57):
times. 110 on Friday, Edward Cabrera versus Zach Littell, and
then Saturday, 4:00, Ryan Weathers versus Taj Bradley.
And then it should be Yeah, on Sunday, 12/10 Max Meyer VS Drew
Rasmussen. OK, so pretty good matchups
overall. So keys to these two series.
Again, the Rays have had their struggles against the Rangers,

(55:18):
specifically in Arlington. The Rays had their struggles
against the Marlins this year, which is the first time in a
while that that happened. But Gaby, starting with you,
what are the Rays need to do in order to have a positive
homestead here over this week? So since we're facing Tyler
Maylen and he's having kind of insane here, obviously just
getting him in any way to the bullpen because the bullpen

(55:41):
isn't as good for the Rangers. So just getting the starters out
early would be very important. They kind of live and die by
their starters, so that's very important.
We also got to keep our hitting together.
Can't have the games like we didtwice, but we're just not

(56:05):
getting any runners homes got a hit when the runners are in
score position. Still more bases too, although
we have been stealing at an absorber rate.
Still need more of those and just producing runs and whatever
way possible, you know, kind of been more in the small ball

(56:27):
recently for the Rays other thanJunior Cominero kind of
exploding with home runs recently.
So just keeping that kind of momentum going and just
whatever, whatever we're going to get in the good, deep, good
defense especially is how we win.

(56:49):
Keep our runs low. We've been keeping the runs low
recently even in the games that we lost.
So yeah, my keys. Evan, your thoughts about these
next two series? Well, the good, the, the
positive news is that in all three of the Rangers games, all
three of the starting pitchers are righties.
So once again, that Oh yeah, the, the, the facing lefties is

(57:12):
kind of still still a major hindrance of this team.
We just can't seem to get our our righty hitters just there's
it's just we can't get going against lefties, unfortunately.
But I mean, we were saying Meili's been really good this
season. But I mean, the 1.6 where ERA is
phenomenal. But luckily on the road he has a
3.27 ARA. So a little bit of promise

(57:33):
there. Yeah, I agree.
Just make him work, Make him work, Make him work to get us
out, make him throw pitches, gethim out of the game early.
He averages 5 1/2. I mean, I guess I don't really
know what 1/2 of an inning wouldbe, but he averages 5 1/2
innings per start this season. So it's not like he gets super

(57:54):
deep in the games, but he still qualifies for wins.
So if we get him out maybe before the 5th inning, get him
out a little bit before his average, that would be nice.
And then, yeah, do kind of a keyto every game, but specifically
this game, especially considering Sunday, we didn't
score a run. We had our chances, take
advantage of the opportunities that we get and yeah, play

(58:16):
continue to play good defensive as well.
Yeah, for sure, for sure. Pick a player for this series,
Evan, starting with you. Who you going to pick?
You know what I'm going to, I'm going to go with Wallace.
I'm going to go with Wallace. I'm going to.
I don't know. I don't, I don't think the line
UPS come out yet for today. I'm not sure how many games
he'll actually play, but I don'tknow, let the let the fire kind

(58:38):
of maybe maybe he's still fired up.
I don't know, but I'm going to. I'm going to bet on that fire to
continue. Will he be suspended at all?
He might be fined. You might be fine.
Yeah, I saw that. I don't, I don't think he'd be
suspended. He's not.
He's not cool enough to be. Suspended, yeah, I guess not.
But yeah, hopefully I'm going topredict that, that that fire

(59:00):
continues both on the defensive,probably prior primarily and
offensive side. But and then pitchers, I'm going
to go with Fairbanks. I feel like Fairbanks hasn't
pitched in like 3 weeks too. I feel, I don't know if that's
like you guys too. I feel like he hasn't pitched in
forever. So hopefully he's not rusty.
Hopefully he gets out there, gets a couple saves this this

(59:22):
series and we can go on and win it.
Yeah, I'm, I'm down for all that.
I know Beale kind of had, he hadhe had a pretty good series in
Houston, nothing too crazy. But I would like to see him
continue what what he's been doing recently, especially after
he had that really, really good,you know, tear to kind of get
back to like hitting 250 OPS near near 750.

(59:45):
I think again, the more the morepower that he can show, the more
that he can drive guys in thingsof that nature.
I mean, that's only going to help the Rays out more in the
future. I'm going to go with Matt Theis
as well. Behind the plate had a really
solid start to his Ray's tenure,man, he can get on base.
And I think that's incredible for the Rays that they have

(01:00:06):
another guy who's has the ability to get on base, work
walks, you know, his his own base percentage is one of the
best among catchers in baseball and just best in baseball in
general. So that's a really solid thing
for the Rays moving forward thatthey have someone that they were
able to get pretty easily. In a trade, I mean, they only
they, they gave up, you know, not that much in order to get

(01:00:30):
him, which I think Drew Baker, who was like a 25 year old in,
in, in AA who had shown some things over time, but nothing
crazy. So like the fact that they were
able to get him for that a very solid option behind the plate I
think is great. And then on the mound, I am
going to go with, I'll go with Baz's pitching at some point,

(01:00:52):
right? Because there's six games he's
got to be pitching at some. Yeah, yeah, let's go.
Let's go with Shane. God I hope he doesn't throw
sliders over the middle of the plate and he can just don't.
Don't throw the slider. Yeah, the slider's been not his
out pitch, so the more that he can do that, the better you'd
be. All right, let's pick Yandi
Diaz, hitter. Just keeping it together, you

(01:01:12):
know, And Taj Bradley, because damn, he's got a good smile.
Todd looks. Good in the in that in that game
on Sunday, by the way, his. His curveball was gross.
Yeah, he looked fantastic. Yeah, the more of that the
better. The more of that the better,
indeed. We love Taj.

(01:01:34):
The last thing I want to talk about, I'm sure you guys have
seen it, but today, this morning, the Orlando Magic
revealed their new identity, which is basically them bringing
back the old Orlando Magic without bringing back the old
Orlando Magic. And they have new uniforms, they
have a new logo. They're bringing back the the

(01:01:54):
checkered court, whatever it might be.
So, yeah, there is, there's a lot of excitement for Magic
fans. And then, you know, you know, we
kind of oversacked with that community enough to where what's
it called to where, you know, it's.
This matters to us. Yeah, it matters enough and and

(01:02:14):
they look good. I'm not going to lie, they look.
Very. Solid the The white ones are so
sick. I like the nostalgia throwback.
You know, the full time look. I'm digging it.
I'm digging it. Yeah, it's definitely, it's a
for those that didn't see they have again, what I what I found
out with the NBA is that the when you have a certain logo

(01:02:40):
that exist and you retire that logo, you can't bring back that
logo. So you basically have to find a
way to bring back that logo in adifferent way, which is what the
Magic did. And the uniforms I think are
very solid. I Of the three, I like the white
ones the most. Yeah, the white ones are so
sick. Yeah, yeah, the white ones look

(01:03:00):
great. The Orlando one, the blue is OK.
The Magic one that's a throwbackto their old warm up jackets
back in the 90s. I like that one the second most.
The the Orlando one just looks weird.
But the Magic 1 the the white the white pinstripes is
fantastic. Yeah.
I mean, I, I like the pinstripes.

(01:03:21):
I'm going to be honest. It's good.
It's good that we're back. Yeah, the pinstripes look good.
I wonder what the rays would look like in pinstripes.
Don't we? No.
We've never had a pinstripe. Yeah, I thought for a second
maybe one of the greenbacks had pinstripes, but no.
It's an interesting like I wouldwant to see what the like how it

(01:03:41):
would look, if it would even look.
I see fans that wear a pinstriperays.
Oh, that was like the old Doubleray because there was like a
bunch of alternate like Devil Rays uniforms.
There were, yeah, yeah. So I've I've kind of seen
concepts of of that. Yeah, but I mean, these are

(01:04:01):
clean. Is that the?
Yeah, yeah, that's overwhelming.Tank I I like it.
Yeah, I like that. I like.
This way better than the currentones.
I like the, I like the the Boston Garden escort.
I like that they brought that back.
I think it looks cool. I think that all that's clean.
Yeah. Is that a general take from
everyone with a successful rebrand?

(01:04:22):
Yeah, dude, nostalgia is still here.
Here to stay. Modern classic people.
People are saying I. I love the white jerseys.
The blue jerseys are fine. They're yeah, I like them.
They're pretty. They're pretty cool.
Like I the I'm not the font is kind of weird, but I still, I
still like them. And then the the blue and black
ones, I mean, they look, they'rethey're definitely a weird

(01:04:43):
design. But if they're like an kind of
like an honour, like honouring the throwback, what you said,
the, the jump, the warm up jackets, jackets, then I like
that. I like that then.
Yeah, I will say the Orlando 1 looks looks the weirdest for
sure because the Orlando just doesn't look right across the
front. It's too small.
Paulo's going to look so sick inthe white jerseys.

(01:05:03):
Oh yeah. It's a new era.
I mean, the Rays brought the theRays literally did the same
thing. The Bucks have done the same
thing. The lightning have brought back
their their old logos in some ways.
Like this isn't a new thing thatteams are doing.
And I think the more the teams kind of accept and embrace their
old logos when they realize thatthey're really good, I think
that that's great for sports. All right, well, that's going to

(01:05:25):
conclude things since latest episode of Raise the roof.
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(01:06:06):
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