April 24, 2025 • 36 mins
There's no other way to put it: the Tampa Bay Rays don't have an identity right now and it's contributed to a lack of performances in recent weeks, now 10-14 overall as injuries, especially in the outfield, have piled up.
While reinforcements might be on the way soon, this current team needs to find themselves to re-establish a foundation for future success in 2025.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:03):
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And let's get back to this latest episode of Raise the
Roof. It's time to Raise the Roof for
(00:58):
our latest regular season episode.
Welcome back, everyone, to the podcast.
I'm your host Alex Murphy with me, my Co host Gibby, how are
you doing? I know the Rays haven't
necessarily brought us a lot of happiness recently, but overall
how we doing? You know, the Rays aren't
bringing me much happiness. Obviously I had a little voice
(01:18):
crack right there. That was a little, that was a
little weird. So the Rays, they're not
bringing me much joy recently. I mean, I like Chandler Simpson
coming up and I like our rookiesSome, some of that is really
good. But other stuff on the Rays, not
so much, you know, But then, youknow, the lightning kind of
broke my heart 2 days ago. They play again tonight.
(01:41):
Hopefully they don't lose like that again, although we are kind
of limping through the playoffs at this moment.
And then my Orlando Magic aren'tdoing too hot either.
You got a lot of bad goings. On at least at least the box to
be expected. So you want to see the bucks?
(02:02):
Add someone to the to to the regime.
Yeah, and I've heard that they're probably going to trade
down in the draft, which is, which is probably the smart move
when you, you know, you have a pretty competent team.
So we'll see. We'll see what they do there.
I'm actually going to the draft party.
(02:23):
Oh nice. At Raymond James.
Are they, do they have any like free giveaways and stuff like
that? Anything that they're.
Doing I have no idea, but I knowthey have all the players.
They have a player from every draft class.
Oh, that's sick. Yeah, because it's the 50th
season of Bucks football. Yes.
So that's that's kind of awesome.
(02:45):
That's. Really cool.
I love that. I think that's a great idea.
Yeah. So I'm going to go to that today
later today, whoever they pick, it's probably going to be a God
because I mean they've just beenreally good at the first round
picks, picking like all time defensive guys, and I mean like
(03:05):
Tristan worse, like on the offensive line and then like
Evita Vaya draft like in 2020 was probably one of the best
draft picks of all time. So I mean the bucks always they
always go all out with the draftpicks.
So I'm excited to see them at. So that's what's going on, Alex,
in terms of other things happening.
Well, I know I'm just looking atthe Locked on Bucks, their mock
(03:29):
drafts and all that stuff. I do see Evan Klosky, former
guest of the podcast, and hopefully we'll get him on
moving forward, has someone thatI'm very familiar with who is
someone that he thinks that the Bucks are going to draft.
I would assume that this is like.
This 5th. Round or so, but Ty Felton,
(03:50):
who's out of Maryland. So that means that they would
have both Rakeem Jarrett and Ty Felton in the same wide receiver
core. So they're trying to add up with
the Maryland guys. Yeah, I mean, Big 10 is where
it's at. I mean, a lot of a lot of bucks.
Legends are big. Are big.
Some people are saying Maryland's wide receiver you,
and to those people, you're 100%wrong.
(04:11):
Yeah. I don't know where that I mean,
Yeah, I don't even know where that distinction comes from.
They got they got a couple of guys, but not nearly enough.
So from the excitement of the Bucks hopefully drafting some
cool guys for the next generation or next iteration of
the franchise to a team that continues to frustrate us, the
(04:34):
Rays have had two very interesting cool wins this last
week and then a bunch of losing.Yeah.
It's not going well basically toto put things lightly.
They won 16 to one against the Red Sox, then lost the rest of
(04:55):
that series. They lost three to four to the
Yankees outside of a 9th inning rally where they scored four off
Devin Williams, ended up tying the game at at 88 and then
Jonathan Aranda hit what I believe is his first career walk
off Homer in the 10th inning. Yes, I believe that, yes.
And then they lost first game ofthe series against down backs.
(05:18):
And then last night, of which I definitely fell asleep during
part of that game because I didn't even know that they
scored two runs in the top of the 11th inning.
Like at some point I was just like, I just kind of gave up
because I was like, I need to sleep.
The Rays ended up beating the Diamondbacks at 11 inning 76.
Nearly blew that game too, by the way.
So yeah, 3 very interesting, intriguing wins in different
(05:44):
ways, whether it be comebacks, whether it be walk off wins,
whether it be blowouts and then a bunch of losing in the middle.
So very inconsistent the race have been, especially at home
where again, we we mentioned it,not just us, but the guests that
we had on before the season started mentioned the importance
of getting off to a hot start athome.
(06:06):
And the Rays have not done that at all.
I believe they went five and eight in this last home stand.
This was a 13 game home stand, the first time that they've had
one since like 2003. So it's so it's been a while.
And I mean, they played like the2003 team.
Like if you go five and eight, it's not really great.
(06:27):
Yeah, yeah. It didn't look too pretty, Alex.
And yeah, I mean, there's just, I mean, you run to the Red Sox.
The Red Sox series gets off to agreat start.
And I think you tweeted this, Alex.
It's like we hit our quota for the runs for the week that day,
you know, and then after that, we lose 7 forward that was
(06:51):
tight. But we just, we were just kind
of swearing some garbage runs inthe end.
So it wasn't really that competitive of a game.
And then a bunch of, and then 210 games between the Red Sox
one and the Yankees one after the first day.
And then obviously Saturday's game, which went pretty well for
us. So yeah, there's this been it's
(07:13):
it's it's been some tough seriesback-to-back division opponents.
And then we've run into the Diamondbacks, who are arguably
in the best division in baseballright now, which is the, I don't
think it's an. Arguably, they are.
They, I mean, they obviously they are.
I mean, they're their winning records are like dominating
other than like the Mets and theCubs and in the East and the
(07:36):
Central. I mean, they're they're yeah,
they're clearly the best division.
So running the Diamondbacks there last night was a great
game. So I mean, you you're happy to
see that. And who do you see getting this
production? I mean, who's really getting
these wins? I mean, we got Brandon Lowe in
(07:58):
another slump right now. I hate to say it.
I hate to say it, but. No, no, it's accurate.
I mean, he started out the season well and like it wasn't
even like he was amazing at start of the season.
He was just like he had some success and now he's just kind
of falling off a Cliff. Like he it it like it sucks
because he just tends to do this.
He like he is arguably the streakiest player on the team
(08:23):
when it comes to when he's hot, he's one of the best players in
baseball. When he's cold, he's Taylor
Walz, Alex Jackson, Danny Jansento start the season Like that
sort of bit level of bad. Yeah, I mean, it's just all it's
basically all the new additions who are doing anything yesterday
if you don't have Danny Jansen, if you don't have Cameron
(08:46):
Meisner, if you don't have Chandler Simpson, if you don't
have Christopher Morrell, which was a a late addition of last
season, but we didn't really gethis like full scope of towards
the last season. But if you don't have any of
those guys, if you don't have basically if you don't have
those rookies in there, we don'twin that game.
And how are the rookies, the onethat are supposed when these
(09:10):
veterans are supposed to be the guys that are carrying the team?
How is it? How how have we let the rookies
just completely take this over? I mean, Meisner is the best
rookie. I mean, at least hitter wise.
I'm not sure about other like pitchers or anything, but I mean
hitting wise, he's he's the bestrookie right now.
(09:33):
He's already got like almost onefull WAR this season.
So I mean that's insane first ofall.
And then Jake Mangum is still doing great, but he got injured
last night. So there's that.
And now we have, we keep flip flopping on how much outfield
depth we have. It's like we almost had too much
(09:55):
and then we didn't have any and now we have some more and now we
have less. It's just the Rays are a mess.
It's a mess. Yeah, I don't.
Even know where to go. Well, if you look at the going
to the outfield specifically because again, something that we
addressed before the season was the lack of outfield depth on
the opening day roster. Guys like Cameron Meisner have
(10:18):
definitely made that less of an of an issue.
And then guys like Jake Mangum and Christopher Morales had a
pretty decent start of the year,not amazing, but decent.
So that's kind of patched it up.But with Mangum getting hurt
yesterday, for those who didn't see he pulled up after running a
ball out to first base, I believe it was his left left.
(10:43):
They say it was like a left groin injury that happened.
It seems like from what Ryan Bass just said here, 'cause I
pulled that up earlier today andhe mentioned something about
Jake here. Jake will get imaging tomorrow
to learn the severity of his left brain injury.
He's doesn't feel too concerned but but said whatever I'm tasked
(11:09):
with, we're going to attack it head on full speed and we'll be
better because of it. But yeah, so.
He's always full speed dude. Yeah, we don't know what's going
to happen with him, but again, one of the best rookies in
baseball has definitely started out his MLB career on a high.
It has been absolutely fantasticacross the board.
(11:30):
Great defensive player. He was leading the American
League in stolen bases, which isinsane, and was hitting close to
350 while at the plate. So, and again, that that
includes the fact that there's not really a lot of power that's
associated with it. But he's been able to be
productive both at the plate andon the bases and in the field.
(11:51):
So he's pretty much done everything.
So now you have him injured potentially for an extended
period of time. Richie Palacios is injured.
Josh Lowe is injured. And.
Who? Oh yeah, Johnny was injured.
That's 4 outfielders. Three of those guys, four of the
(12:14):
like, all four of those guys arepotential starting, if not
starting outfielders. So all of that you're missing
right now. And the outfield outside of
Christopher Morrell is just a bunch of rookies.
It's Meisner and Chandler Simpson, who we didn't get a
chance to talk about because he had gotten called up since our
last podcast. But now Chandler Simpson is
(12:36):
going to be in the mix. It looks like he's going to be
here for longer than I think anyof us expected because I don't
know if any of us expected him to start the season out or at
least get to the majors by this point, meaning late April of 25.
And also just coming in and understanding it right away like
it's, it's insane. Yeah, he's been absolutely
(12:59):
fantastic. But again, yeah.
Exactly. Yeah, because the race, I mean,
the Rays don't have the depth and I'm curious to see what they
do moving forward if Mangum endsup being because Mangum's going
to be on the, unless it's some sort of day-to-day thing,
Mangum's going to be on the IL at least for 15 days, which
(13:21):
means the Rays are going to be down to, I guess that would be 4
Outfitters if you put a Caballero out there.
Yeah, but the potential of another guy needed in the
outfield, I mean, it's it's veryconcerning, at least in the
short term, they've been able tohave production from the
(13:42):
outfield and we do expect to seelike Mangum's.
It doesn't seem like, I guess Mangum said he wasn't concerned,
but it doesn't seem like that injury is going to be a long
term injury. Hopefully it looks like Deluca's
going to be coming back soon potentially.
Josh could be coming back soon. Richie is going to be out the
longest out of all of them as ofright now, which sucks because I
(14:04):
really wanted to see how Richie did in his second season with
the Rays. But again.
He was doing so that one game, he came back, he was doing so
good. I know I'm really disappointed
about it because I, I, I really like the guy and I think that
he's, I think that he's a great boost for this team and a great
spark plug. But hopefully they'll get some
(14:24):
reinforcements back. And then you'll have to start
doing the same sort of roster reconstruction that we were
discussing previously of like, hey, this guy's doing really
well. This guy's doing really well,
really well. This guy's earned a spot on the
roster Who's not going to be on the roster.
And it's just frustrating because like we're still seeing
like I want Curtis Mead to do sowell right now.
(14:45):
And Curtis Mead has not shown that he can.
He is a Major League player. Like, I think at times he showed
that over his first, you know, one or two cups of coffee in the
majors. But he's not showing that now
after what he did in the spring training.
I understand that he earned his spot after what he did in spring
training, but definitely has notshown that he deserves to be on
(15:08):
the roster. And then, yeah, I don't want to
keep beating a dead horse, but Taylor Walls continuing to get
at bats on this team and not showing productivity as well as
having blunders in the infield. Now, again, I know infielders
will have, you know, blunders and errors here and there, but
(15:30):
to be that unproductive in the field, you need to be so much
better defensively. Much as if we were talking about
what happened with Alex Jackson last year, which is everyone
mentioned, the defense, the defense, the defense, Well, when
you're hitting 120, the defense has to be so much better than
the offense for you to say, oh, hey, we can live with this.
(15:50):
And right now or at that, at that point, the Rays could not
live with what Alex Jackson was doing.
And at this point, the Rays cannot live with what Taylor
Walls is doing at shortstop. So you have two position or you
have two players that have been very unproductive.
Not to mention the fact that Danny Jansen has had struggles
to begin the season out, Ben Borgvat has not looked good to
(16:12):
start the season out and other guys like Yandi's in a slump to
start the season out. Brandon got back into a slump.
Junior hasn't been the guy that we expected out of the gates.
Like there's a lot of, you know,Gibby, as you mentioned, the
rookies, the rookies are the ones who are carrying this team
right now. Yeah, I mean, as you say, Alex,
there's a lot of duds on this roster and you can't have the
(16:36):
dud of all duds when I mean, there's already like 2 automatic
outs in a three in, in a three batter span, you know?
So like we can't, we we just can't, we can't have that.
So yeah, I mean, Hassan Kim cannot come soon enough.
Yeah, Oh my God, we need Hassan Kim to get back so.
(16:57):
And listen, I every time I'm at the ballpark and I'm watching
Taylor Wallace play and do some deep, incredible defensive play,
I like him for that, you know, and it feels good.
And he's done that for many years on this team.
But it's just, you know, the experiment's over.
It's run its course. I mean, there's only some. 400
(17:19):
Major League games. Yeah, there's only so much like
hitting coaches can do. There's only so much, there's
only so much anyone can do in this situation.
And you know, it's, it's really,it's really his time.
And yeah, we're not going to beat this dead horse, but.
(17:39):
Everyone, it just sucks because you look at the Rays shortstop
situation and how it could have been fine at this point, but
some person decided to do something really stupid, you
know, to ruin that. And then you think that like
there's all these what ifs that lead to different situations.
What if #5 didn't exist? I don't know how long Willie
(18:00):
Adamus would have stayed on thisteam because Willie Adamus could
not see at the Trop and he admitted it in a podcast and
admitted it publicly. That bro was blind as a bat when
he was trying to catch a a family ball at the Trop and
trying to see the baseball, which is astonishing that he put
up the numbers that he did at any rate with that.
So like you first wonder how long would Willie have stayed
(18:22):
after that point? Because it's not like he was
there for that long. And then Walls got caught up in
2021. So you think back to that, what
if #5 didn't exist? How long would Willie be on
there? Like then from that point, when
does Willie get traded? When do you when do you put
Walls into the equation? And it leads us to this, like
this has been something that we've been it, it, it seemed
(18:46):
like it was solved for a couple years.
Now it's not solved again. We're back to that 2021 stage
when walls had first gotten called up.
But now we're at this point because we're now waiting on
Hassan Kim to be this guy who's supposed to be, who's supposed
to be the stopgap. And you look at like the Rays
could have had Luke Riley and they could have kept Luke Riley,
(19:07):
But no, they traded for Jose Caballero because they needed
the depth at shortstop. So there's all these what if
scenarios and trades and, and things like that that have
happened that you could have gone differently if, if the
cards fall different ways. And it's just frustrating.
And I, I didn't even want to go into the catcher situation
'cause I don't think that there's anything like that.
(19:27):
The Razer just cursed the catcher position.
Like they got one really good season out of Mike Zunino.
They got 1/2 a good season out of Travis Darneau and 1/2 a good
season out of Wilson Ramos. Yeah, I mean, exactly.
So yeah, I mean, our catcher position always going to be
cursed, but yeah, our shortstop position especially cursed
(19:52):
obviously for obvious reasons, as you already stated.
So yeah, he's supposed to. It's just.
It's not work. It's the formula is not working
right now. No things and things are getting
illuminated because it's the start of the season.
So the issues that guys in this dressing, this doesn't just go
(20:13):
for shortstop. There are things outside of the
shortstop position that are being need to be addressed and,
and this goes throughout the series that we talked about.
The Rays actually had a lot of runners in scoring position
success yesterday. I think they went like 6 for 16,
which for them is really good and for any usually team is
really good. But so you had a lot of success
(20:33):
with runners in scoring positionyesterday.
And then throughout the rest of the homestand versus the Red Sox
and the Yankees, the Rays did not have runners in scoring
position success outside of like2 games.
And the Rays got stifled. I mean we were cheering on
Sunday because they changed an error to a hit because Max Freed
(20:54):
was tossing an absolute gem. Now granted Chandler Simpson
would have been safe on that play 100 of 100 times.
There was no way that that Goldie after almost not getting
him out the first time when he was much closer to the bag and
Chandler Simpson almost beat Freed to the bag in that
exchange. There was no way he was getting
(21:15):
him out a second time with him being further away from the bag
and free not getting a good jumpon it.
So like that made sense that it was overtime.
But again, we were we were celebrating that because we knew
that the rays were going to get like we knew that there was a
good chance of that the rays could get no hate.
And that doesn't really bring mea lot of trying to think the
(21:37):
right word for it, but but comfort, that doesn't really
bring me a lot of hopefulness when it comes to this team that
and these things exist early. I mean, like I'm already having
some concerns about Edwin Huseida.
Taj kind of was able to stabilize himself, but there was
still plenty of concerns there, concerns about Lattell until
(22:00):
Shane gets back. Like there's just different guys
who have kind of popped up here and there who have had issues.
And, and I'm hoping it's just anearly season thing, but again,
there's enough issues to where I'm already showing some
concern. Yeah, I mean, we talked about it
all the beginning of of the seasons, like this is your home,
(22:21):
your longest home stands are like the most important time
because, you know, you got to win these games now.
And doing that during that home stand was not too good for us.
So yeah, I mean, we just got to,we got to really turn some stuff
around. Yeah, the pitching bullpen wise,
(22:42):
yeah, some of it's just been a disaster class.
You know, it's usually just one person, but sometimes it's just
consecutively 3, you know, of our bullpen guys getting scored
on three innings in a row. Yeah.
And and that's just not good that that can't happen.
You know, blow up. Sometimes a guy in the bullpen
(23:04):
gets blown up and then you understand that, you know, But
when it's just multiple and whenit's just bleeding throughout
the game, that's not the race formed, you know?
You know, that's not how we usually win games, so.
Yeah, it's definitely, I'm not feeling the best about it, but
looking at the positives of it, they won a game yesterday that
(23:24):
they probably shouldn't have won.
They didn't look like they were good, but they were able to
manufacture runs. They were able to get hits with
runners in scoring position. Very important for this team.
Morrell was able to hit a Homer.Meisner went three for five.
I know he got tagged out at 3rd when he was doing that pop up
slide, so he probably should have had a triple out of it, but
he ended up getting tagged out. They got really lucky that they
(23:47):
were able to get that double play at the end of the game in
the 11th because I believe the Diamondbacks had bases loaded
one out in that and they had A and it was only 7 sixths at that
time and they had a chance to win with a with a single.
So I mean they're very, very lucky that they were able to get
(24:08):
combat victorious about that. But they had some guys that were
able to produce, which is very, very promising.
It was good to see Jonathan Aranda back in the line up.
I know it was only in a pinch hit position, but after getting
hit in both kneecaps on a on on a hit by pitch, I'm feeling I'm
feeling a lot better with about the fact that he was able to be
in the line up. Very happy about that.
(24:30):
We look to the game where he hitthe walk off Homer.
Very, very impressed by what I saw in the 9th inning.
They were dead to rights in thatgame.
Probably should have gotten swept or I guess mopped because
it would have been a four-game series.
But they were able to string hits together.
Beelow had that two run single. They had guys who are being
productive. They had guys who were able to
(24:52):
get hits in the clutch and then the pitching looked very solid
late and Aranda was able to hit the two run bomb.
Very happy to see all of that transpire as it did.
Of course, we can go back to that 16 to one game, though.
I think that that game is clouded because of what happened
after that point, because I'm pretty sure they lost four
(25:12):
straight after that point going into Saturday's game where Ronda
hit the Homer. Yeah, Yeah, that was Saturday's
game. So like that game also very
good. Got a lot of hits, was able to
produce with power. A lot of guys got on the stat
sheet, got RB is hit homers, hitextra base, you know, hit four
(25:35):
extra bases, that sort of thing.But within all that, it's been
very inconsistent. I think they're three and five
since that point, since that or including that game, they're
three and five 'cause they lost three.
No, they're three and six 'causethey lost the first game in the
Diamondback Series. So lost two out of three against
the Red Sox, three to four against the Yankees, and now
(25:55):
rubber match coming up tonight against the Diamondbacks as of
this recording. So both good and bad, they're
like, it's annoying because we can definitely see the
positives, but it's just those negatives that we really want to
see them try to find ways to rectify in some way.
(26:16):
I don't know. I mean, these are all since the
Braves. These are all good teams.
I mean, yeah, Red Sox are competing.
The Red Sox are like second right now or something.
I don't know. Second.
Yeah, second. The Yankees are first in our
division. The Diamondbacks, they're no
slouch, as we already said, eventhough they're like third in
their division. And then we have the Padres
(26:37):
right after this, who are the top.
Wow. So yeah, oh boy, we're in a
fucking we're in a heater for for this month.
I mean. Yeah, it's not.
Fun and you don't really see, you know, you know, you don't
really know which teams are going to be good before.
But I mean, you could have already told told that this was
going to be a difficult stretch for the Rays.
(26:59):
But I mean, they have not put upas much of a fight as I wanted
them to, even though they did win games in all the series.
They avoid getting swept, unlikewhen they went to the Rangers.
It's just the teams that are good are at the Mendoza line of
good. You know, like even the Rangers,
even though they're first in thedivision, they're like that.
(27:21):
You know, we're just, we're not beating those good teams in the
series. We're beating.
We're taking care of the bad teams.
You know, the teams are struggling right now, like the
Braves, we took care of that. But, you know, when we're facing
like the Red Sox or the Diamondbacks, who are, you know,
(27:42):
the opposite of our record 14 and 10 instead of 10 and 14,
like we're not convincingly and winning.
So this game tonight is very important.
Yes, 100%. Very important.
By the way, the pitching matchups raise.
I'm going to look these up for you guys pitching matchups for
(28:03):
tonight and for the rest of the weekend because we're going to
try to record over the weekend. We have, we have a really good
game tonight. We have Drew Rasmussen against
Corbin Burns, very good game. We have two really good match
ups after that, in my opinion. Shane Boz against Michael King
in the opener for the Padre series, Saturday Ryan Peppio
(28:25):
against Dylan Cease and then Sunday Zac Lattell against Randy
Vasquez, who's been hovering around A4 ERA.
Hasn't been great, hasn't been horrible.
But again, Lattell hasn't been great, hasn't been horrible.
I don't want to say that he I don't want to say that he's bad
because he had bad start and if you take that out of the
equation, he's a lot better. Yeah, but.
(28:47):
It's enough to where you, I think that he's still very much
in the middle of that. But I mean, you have 3, in my
opinion, very solid matchups coming up over the weekend,
including tonight with I mean, Rasmussen, Baz and Papio.
Papio at his best is really good.
And then, of course, you have Corbin Burns, Cy Young winner,
(29:09):
Michael King, Cy Young candidate, Dylan C Cy Young
candidate. This should be very, very
entertaining. But yeah, tonight specifically,
you made a really good point with that, that this game is
very crucial because. Yeah.
I mean, a series win against a good team, yeah, a good a good
team would be so crucial for this team to know that they they
(29:29):
can beat the good teams. It does hurt, though, because I
want to go back to the Yankee series.
I don't think Aaron Judge hit a Homer that entire series.
But like, yeah, yeah, he did it.400 right now.
Yeah, he said. He fucking everything else.
He needed a Homer because he's basically just turned into Ty
Cobb. Yeah, and I mean, I don't want
to get into that fucking home run mess.
(29:52):
No, but it is. It is incredible that like the
Rays limited the damage with Judge.
Yeah. UN quote.
He didn't hit a Homer, but it didn't matter because he's now
found a way to just turn himselfinto Ichiro.
Yeah, it's I mean Aaron Judges. Oh my God, he's so good.
And I hate that he's good, but he's so good.
(30:12):
But outside of that, let's go into talking about the Padres
series. We already talked about it a
little bit. We'll get into our pick up
players as well. Before we end this podcast, what
needs to be done because my God,the Padres are very good at the
baseball. Yeah.
I mean, we just need, we need really good starts from the
pitching. The pitching needs to carry like
(30:33):
I mean that that's the tails oldest time for the Rays, but
also we need the clutch hitting that we got because I mean the
Padres are going to score some run.
Let's let's be frank and I mean the game yesterday when, you
know, we just keep kind of goingback and forth between the
(30:56):
scoring and like the 7th, 8th. You know, that that time frame
when this when the starters comeout, that that's when we need
our clutches hitters, you know, and we really need the veterans
to carry. So I'll probably be picking a
veteran as a pickup player. I like it to be, to be honest.
(31:17):
Yeah, I want to echo off of because I'll, I'll keep mine
quick. I want to echo off of what
you're saying. It is worth noting that Luis
arise, thank God he's OK by the way, because I was a very
scared. Oh yeah, that was terrible.
He's not going to be playing in this series.
So that's one guy that the Rays don't have to worry about.
But if but if you look at the rest of the roster, Tatis
putting on MVP numbers right now, Machado's been very solid.
(31:38):
Merrill's been very solid. Kroneworth has been OK.
He's he's been getting on base. Power's not crazy there right
now. Gavin Sheets has looked really
solid to start the season out. Iglesias has looked very solid.
The number, again, the power's not there with him, but you're
getting production. And then the the rotation, as
we've already talked about, you have very, very, very solid
(32:01):
pitching. I mean, Nick Pavetta's been a
stud. Actually, Cease has been garbage
this year. Wow, going seats has not been
good, so maybe this is a start with a race, take advantage of
it. But King has been really good.
Like I said, Vasquez has been OK.
Nothing crazy, but they need to find a way to win at least one
(32:21):
game. If they can steal a game off of
off of 1 of their really good pitchers, they're not facing
Pavetta. So that's I guess a help.
But you have life with Cease andVasquez.
You can steal a series in San Diego.
That's great. It's going to be really tough
because the crowds there are fantastic and we know that.
So we're just going to have to see.
It's going to be a weekend series in San Diego.
(32:43):
The fans are going to be popping, Petco's going to be
packed. The Rays just got to find a way
to silence the crowd in some way.
Yeah, I mean, I'll just Heckle what you you're saying honestly.
Well, Gibby, who you mentioned picking a veteran as your pickup
player, who are your guys this week?
Oh man, since you're going to pick Brandon Lau.
(33:07):
Jeez. I usually pick someone else with
Brandon because we all know thatthat's my go to I.
You know what we're going to. He's a veteran, but he's not a
veteran on the team. Danny Jansen to continue his
climb, hopefully he has. I mean, if we get any production
out of 7-8 and nine, we can win the games.
(33:29):
So that's very important and we just need and obviously Brandon
Low, but you're going to pick him.
I mean I, I mean I do want him to be successful.
Let it be known. And when When is Pep pitching?
Pep is bitching on Saturday. And then give me Pep because he
looked a little shaky as last start, but you know, he's still
solid. I mean choose up innings like he
(33:52):
done his business so. That is give.
Me give me pepeo. That is true for me.
I'm going to always go with B Lao.
I am going to also go with Jose Caballero.
Been liking what he's been doingrecently.
And then on pitching wise, I'll go with Zach Latale because I
(34:13):
want to see him continue to do well.
However, he can do well. So hoping for the best there
from him. But with that being said, as we
mentioned, the start of the NFL draft is today.
So happy NFL Draft for those that are that are that that
we'll be watching tonight. The playoffs will be going on.
So happy playoffs time for all you Bolts fans out there and
(34:36):
everyone else who has their hockey team still in the
playoffs, unlike me. Plenty of stuff going on.
Hopefully the Rays will stabilize this weekend, get some
wins going. But with that being said, it's
going to conclude things on thislatest episode of Raise the
Roof. We appreciate you guys as always
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(34:57):
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(35:18):
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And let's get back to this latest episode of Raise the
Roof. It's time to Raise the Roof for
(00:58):
our latest regular season episode.
Welcome back, everyone, to the podcast.
I'm your host Alex Murphy with me, my Co host Gibby, how are
you doing? I know the Rays haven't
necessarily brought us a lot of happiness recently, but overall
how we doing? You know, the Rays aren't
bringing me much happiness. Obviously I had a little voice
(01:18):
crack right there. That was a little, that was a
little weird. So the Rays, they're not
bringing me much joy recently. I mean, I like Chandler Simpson
coming up and I like our rookiesSome, some of that is really
good. But other stuff on the Rays, not
so much, you know, But then, youknow, the lightning kind of
broke my heart 2 days ago. They play again tonight.
(01:41):
Hopefully they don't lose like that again, although we are kind
of limping through the playoffs at this moment.
And then my Orlando Magic aren'tdoing too hot either.
You got a lot of bad goings. On at least at least the box to
be expected. So you want to see the bucks?
(02:02):
Add someone to the to to the regime.
Yeah, and I've heard that they're probably going to trade
down in the draft, which is, which is probably the smart move
when you, you know, you have a pretty competent team.
So we'll see. We'll see what they do there.
I'm actually going to the draft party.
(02:23):
Oh nice. At Raymond James.
Are they, do they have any like free giveaways and stuff like
that? Anything that they're.
Doing I have no idea, but I knowthey have all the players.
They have a player from every draft class.
Oh, that's sick. Yeah, because it's the 50th
season of Bucks football. Yes.
So that's that's kind of awesome.
(02:45):
That's. Really cool.
I love that. I think that's a great idea.
Yeah. So I'm going to go to that today
later today, whoever they pick, it's probably going to be a God
because I mean they've just beenreally good at the first round
picks, picking like all time defensive guys, and I mean like
(03:05):
Tristan worse, like on the offensive line and then like
Evita Vaya draft like in 2020 was probably one of the best
draft picks of all time. So I mean the bucks always they
always go all out with the draftpicks.
So I'm excited to see them at. So that's what's going on, Alex,
in terms of other things happening.
Well, I know I'm just looking atthe Locked on Bucks, their mock
(03:29):
drafts and all that stuff. I do see Evan Klosky, former
guest of the podcast, and hopefully we'll get him on
moving forward, has someone thatI'm very familiar with who is
someone that he thinks that the Bucks are going to draft.
I would assume that this is like.
This 5th. Round or so, but Ty Felton,
(03:50):
who's out of Maryland. So that means that they would
have both Rakeem Jarrett and Ty Felton in the same wide receiver
core. So they're trying to add up with
the Maryland guys. Yeah, I mean, Big 10 is where
it's at. I mean, a lot of a lot of bucks.
Legends are big. Are big.
Some people are saying Maryland's wide receiver you,
and to those people, you're 100%wrong.
(04:11):
Yeah. I don't know where that I mean,
Yeah, I don't even know where that distinction comes from.
They got they got a couple of guys, but not nearly enough.
So from the excitement of the Bucks hopefully drafting some
cool guys for the next generation or next iteration of
the franchise to a team that continues to frustrate us, the
(04:34):
Rays have had two very interesting cool wins this last
week and then a bunch of losing.Yeah.
It's not going well basically toto put things lightly.
They won 16 to one against the Red Sox, then lost the rest of
(04:55):
that series. They lost three to four to the
Yankees outside of a 9th inning rally where they scored four off
Devin Williams, ended up tying the game at at 88 and then
Jonathan Aranda hit what I believe is his first career walk
off Homer in the 10th inning. Yes, I believe that, yes.
And then they lost first game ofthe series against down backs.
(05:18):
And then last night, of which I definitely fell asleep during
part of that game because I didn't even know that they
scored two runs in the top of the 11th inning.
Like at some point I was just like, I just kind of gave up
because I was like, I need to sleep.
The Rays ended up beating the Diamondbacks at 11 inning 76.
Nearly blew that game too, by the way.
So yeah, 3 very interesting, intriguing wins in different
(05:44):
ways, whether it be comebacks, whether it be walk off wins,
whether it be blowouts and then a bunch of losing in the middle.
So very inconsistent the race have been, especially at home
where again, we we mentioned it,not just us, but the guests that
we had on before the season started mentioned the importance
of getting off to a hot start athome.
(06:06):
And the Rays have not done that at all.
I believe they went five and eight in this last home stand.
This was a 13 game home stand, the first time that they've had
one since like 2003. So it's so it's been a while.
And I mean, they played like the2003 team.
Like if you go five and eight, it's not really great.
(06:27):
Yeah, yeah. It didn't look too pretty, Alex.
And yeah, I mean, there's just, I mean, you run to the Red Sox.
The Red Sox series gets off to agreat start.
And I think you tweeted this, Alex.
It's like we hit our quota for the runs for the week that day,
you know, and then after that, we lose 7 forward that was
(06:51):
tight. But we just, we were just kind
of swearing some garbage runs inthe end.
So it wasn't really that competitive of a game.
And then a bunch of, and then 210 games between the Red Sox
one and the Yankees one after the first day.
And then obviously Saturday's game, which went pretty well for
us. So yeah, there's this been it's
(07:13):
it's it's been some tough seriesback-to-back division opponents.
And then we've run into the Diamondbacks, who are arguably
in the best division in baseballright now, which is the, I don't
think it's an. Arguably, they are.
They, I mean, they obviously they are.
I mean, they're their winning records are like dominating
other than like the Mets and theCubs and in the East and the
(07:36):
Central. I mean, they're they're yeah,
they're clearly the best division.
So running the Diamondbacks there last night was a great
game. So I mean, you you're happy to
see that. And who do you see getting this
production? I mean, who's really getting
these wins? I mean, we got Brandon Lowe in
(07:58):
another slump right now. I hate to say it.
I hate to say it, but. No, no, it's accurate.
I mean, he started out the season well and like it wasn't
even like he was amazing at start of the season.
He was just like he had some success and now he's just kind
of falling off a Cliff. Like he it it like it sucks
because he just tends to do this.
He like he is arguably the streakiest player on the team
(08:23):
when it comes to when he's hot, he's one of the best players in
baseball. When he's cold, he's Taylor
Walz, Alex Jackson, Danny Jansento start the season Like that
sort of bit level of bad. Yeah, I mean, it's just all it's
basically all the new additions who are doing anything yesterday
if you don't have Danny Jansen, if you don't have Cameron
(08:46):
Meisner, if you don't have Chandler Simpson, if you don't
have Christopher Morrell, which was a a late addition of last
season, but we didn't really gethis like full scope of towards
the last season. But if you don't have any of
those guys, if you don't have basically if you don't have
those rookies in there, we don'twin that game.
And how are the rookies, the onethat are supposed when these
(09:10):
veterans are supposed to be the guys that are carrying the team?
How is it? How how have we let the rookies
just completely take this over? I mean, Meisner is the best
rookie. I mean, at least hitter wise.
I'm not sure about other like pitchers or anything, but I mean
hitting wise, he's he's the bestrookie right now.
(09:33):
He's already got like almost onefull WAR this season.
So I mean that's insane first ofall.
And then Jake Mangum is still doing great, but he got injured
last night. So there's that.
And now we have, we keep flip flopping on how much outfield
depth we have. It's like we almost had too much
(09:55):
and then we didn't have any and now we have some more and now we
have less. It's just the Rays are a mess.
It's a mess. Yeah, I don't.
Even know where to go. Well, if you look at the going
to the outfield specifically because again, something that we
addressed before the season was the lack of outfield depth on
the opening day roster. Guys like Cameron Meisner have
(10:18):
definitely made that less of an of an issue.
And then guys like Jake Mangum and Christopher Morales had a
pretty decent start of the year,not amazing, but decent.
So that's kind of patched it up.But with Mangum getting hurt
yesterday, for those who didn't see he pulled up after running a
ball out to first base, I believe it was his left left.
(10:43):
They say it was like a left groin injury that happened.
It seems like from what Ryan Bass just said here, 'cause I
pulled that up earlier today andhe mentioned something about
Jake here. Jake will get imaging tomorrow
to learn the severity of his left brain injury.
He's doesn't feel too concerned but but said whatever I'm tasked
(11:09):
with, we're going to attack it head on full speed and we'll be
better because of it. But yeah, so.
He's always full speed dude. Yeah, we don't know what's going
to happen with him, but again, one of the best rookies in
baseball has definitely started out his MLB career on a high.
It has been absolutely fantasticacross the board.
(11:30):
Great defensive player. He was leading the American
League in stolen bases, which isinsane, and was hitting close to
350 while at the plate. So, and again, that that
includes the fact that there's not really a lot of power that's
associated with it. But he's been able to be
productive both at the plate andon the bases and in the field.
(11:51):
So he's pretty much done everything.
So now you have him injured potentially for an extended
period of time. Richie Palacios is injured.
Josh Lowe is injured. And.
Who? Oh yeah, Johnny was injured.
That's 4 outfielders. Three of those guys, four of the
(12:14):
like, all four of those guys arepotential starting, if not
starting outfielders. So all of that you're missing
right now. And the outfield outside of
Christopher Morrell is just a bunch of rookies.
It's Meisner and Chandler Simpson, who we didn't get a
chance to talk about because he had gotten called up since our
last podcast. But now Chandler Simpson is
(12:36):
going to be in the mix. It looks like he's going to be
here for longer than I think anyof us expected because I don't
know if any of us expected him to start the season out or at
least get to the majors by this point, meaning late April of 25.
And also just coming in and understanding it right away like
it's, it's insane. Yeah, he's been absolutely
(12:59):
fantastic. But again, yeah.
Exactly. Yeah, because the race, I mean,
the Rays don't have the depth and I'm curious to see what they
do moving forward if Mangum endsup being because Mangum's going
to be on the, unless it's some sort of day-to-day thing,
Mangum's going to be on the IL at least for 15 days, which
(13:21):
means the Rays are going to be down to, I guess that would be 4
Outfitters if you put a Caballero out there.
Yeah, but the potential of another guy needed in the
outfield, I mean, it's it's veryconcerning, at least in the
short term, they've been able tohave production from the
(13:42):
outfield and we do expect to seelike Mangum's.
It doesn't seem like, I guess Mangum said he wasn't concerned,
but it doesn't seem like that injury is going to be a long
term injury. Hopefully it looks like Deluca's
going to be coming back soon potentially.
Josh could be coming back soon. Richie is going to be out the
longest out of all of them as ofright now, which sucks because I
(14:04):
really wanted to see how Richie did in his second season with
the Rays. But again.
He was doing so that one game, he came back, he was doing so
good. I know I'm really disappointed
about it because I, I, I really like the guy and I think that
he's, I think that he's a great boost for this team and a great
spark plug. But hopefully they'll get some
(14:24):
reinforcements back. And then you'll have to start
doing the same sort of roster reconstruction that we were
discussing previously of like, hey, this guy's doing really
well. This guy's doing really well,
really well. This guy's earned a spot on the
roster Who's not going to be on the roster.
And it's just frustrating because like we're still seeing
like I want Curtis Mead to do sowell right now.
(14:45):
And Curtis Mead has not shown that he can.
He is a Major League player. Like, I think at times he showed
that over his first, you know, one or two cups of coffee in the
majors. But he's not showing that now
after what he did in the spring training.
I understand that he earned his spot after what he did in spring
training, but definitely has notshown that he deserves to be on
(15:08):
the roster. And then, yeah, I don't want to
keep beating a dead horse, but Taylor Walls continuing to get
at bats on this team and not showing productivity as well as
having blunders in the infield. Now, again, I know infielders
will have, you know, blunders and errors here and there, but
(15:30):
to be that unproductive in the field, you need to be so much
better defensively. Much as if we were talking about
what happened with Alex Jackson last year, which is everyone
mentioned, the defense, the defense, the defense, Well, when
you're hitting 120, the defense has to be so much better than
the offense for you to say, oh, hey, we can live with this.
(15:50):
And right now or at that, at that point, the Rays could not
live with what Alex Jackson was doing.
And at this point, the Rays cannot live with what Taylor
Walls is doing at shortstop. So you have two position or you
have two players that have been very unproductive.
Not to mention the fact that Danny Jansen has had struggles
to begin the season out, Ben Borgvat has not looked good to
(16:12):
start the season out and other guys like Yandi's in a slump to
start the season out. Brandon got back into a slump.
Junior hasn't been the guy that we expected out of the gates.
Like there's a lot of, you know,Gibby, as you mentioned, the
rookies, the rookies are the ones who are carrying this team
right now. Yeah, I mean, as you say, Alex,
there's a lot of duds on this roster and you can't have the
(16:36):
dud of all duds when I mean, there's already like 2 automatic
outs in a three in, in a three batter span, you know?
So like we can't, we we just can't, we can't have that.
So yeah, I mean, Hassan Kim cannot come soon enough.
Yeah, Oh my God, we need Hassan Kim to get back so.
(16:57):
And listen, I every time I'm at the ballpark and I'm watching
Taylor Wallace play and do some deep, incredible defensive play,
I like him for that, you know, and it feels good.
And he's done that for many years on this team.
But it's just, you know, the experiment's over.
It's run its course. I mean, there's only some. 400
(17:19):
Major League games. Yeah, there's only so much like
hitting coaches can do. There's only so much, there's
only so much anyone can do in this situation.
And you know, it's, it's really,it's really his time.
And yeah, we're not going to beat this dead horse, but.
(17:39):
Everyone, it just sucks because you look at the Rays shortstop
situation and how it could have been fine at this point, but
some person decided to do something really stupid, you
know, to ruin that. And then you think that like
there's all these what ifs that lead to different situations.
What if #5 didn't exist? I don't know how long Willie
(18:00):
Adamus would have stayed on thisteam because Willie Adamus could
not see at the Trop and he admitted it in a podcast and
admitted it publicly. That bro was blind as a bat when
he was trying to catch a a family ball at the Trop and
trying to see the baseball, which is astonishing that he put
up the numbers that he did at any rate with that.
So like you first wonder how long would Willie have stayed
(18:22):
after that point? Because it's not like he was
there for that long. And then Walls got caught up in
2021. So you think back to that, what
if #5 didn't exist? How long would Willie be on
there? Like then from that point, when
does Willie get traded? When do you when do you put
Walls into the equation? And it leads us to this, like
this has been something that we've been it, it, it seemed
(18:46):
like it was solved for a couple years.
Now it's not solved again. We're back to that 2021 stage
when walls had first gotten called up.
But now we're at this point because we're now waiting on
Hassan Kim to be this guy who's supposed to be, who's supposed
to be the stopgap. And you look at like the Rays
could have had Luke Riley and they could have kept Luke Riley,
(19:07):
But no, they traded for Jose Caballero because they needed
the depth at shortstop. So there's all these what if
scenarios and trades and, and things like that that have
happened that you could have gone differently if, if the
cards fall different ways. And it's just frustrating.
And I, I didn't even want to go into the catcher situation
'cause I don't think that there's anything like that.
(19:27):
The Razer just cursed the catcher position.
Like they got one really good season out of Mike Zunino.
They got 1/2 a good season out of Travis Darneau and 1/2 a good
season out of Wilson Ramos. Yeah, I mean, exactly.
So yeah, I mean, our catcher position always going to be
cursed, but yeah, our shortstop position especially cursed
(19:52):
obviously for obvious reasons, as you already stated.
So yeah, he's supposed to. It's just.
It's not work. It's the formula is not working
right now. No things and things are getting
illuminated because it's the start of the season.
So the issues that guys in this dressing, this doesn't just go
(20:13):
for shortstop. There are things outside of the
shortstop position that are being need to be addressed and,
and this goes throughout the series that we talked about.
The Rays actually had a lot of runners in scoring position
success yesterday. I think they went like 6 for 16,
which for them is really good and for any usually team is
really good. But so you had a lot of success
(20:33):
with runners in scoring positionyesterday.
And then throughout the rest of the homestand versus the Red Sox
and the Yankees, the Rays did not have runners in scoring
position success outside of like2 games.
And the Rays got stifled. I mean we were cheering on
Sunday because they changed an error to a hit because Max Freed
(20:54):
was tossing an absolute gem. Now granted Chandler Simpson
would have been safe on that play 100 of 100 times.
There was no way that that Goldie after almost not getting
him out the first time when he was much closer to the bag and
Chandler Simpson almost beat Freed to the bag in that
exchange. There was no way he was getting
(21:15):
him out a second time with him being further away from the bag
and free not getting a good jumpon it.
So like that made sense that it was overtime.
But again, we were we were celebrating that because we knew
that the rays were going to get like we knew that there was a
good chance of that the rays could get no hate.
And that doesn't really bring mea lot of trying to think the
(21:37):
right word for it, but but comfort, that doesn't really
bring me a lot of hopefulness when it comes to this team that
and these things exist early. I mean, like I'm already having
some concerns about Edwin Huseida.
Taj kind of was able to stabilize himself, but there was
still plenty of concerns there, concerns about Lattell until
(22:00):
Shane gets back. Like there's just different guys
who have kind of popped up here and there who have had issues.
And, and I'm hoping it's just anearly season thing, but again,
there's enough issues to where I'm already showing some
concern. Yeah, I mean, we talked about it
all the beginning of of the seasons, like this is your home,
(22:21):
your longest home stands are like the most important time
because, you know, you got to win these games now.
And doing that during that home stand was not too good for us.
So yeah, I mean, we just got to,we got to really turn some stuff
around. Yeah, the pitching bullpen wise,
(22:42):
yeah, some of it's just been a disaster class.
You know, it's usually just one person, but sometimes it's just
consecutively 3, you know, of our bullpen guys getting scored
on three innings in a row. Yeah.
And and that's just not good that that can't happen.
You know, blow up. Sometimes a guy in the bullpen
(23:04):
gets blown up and then you understand that, you know, But
when it's just multiple and whenit's just bleeding throughout
the game, that's not the race formed, you know?
You know, that's not how we usually win games, so.
Yeah, it's definitely, I'm not feeling the best about it, but
looking at the positives of it, they won a game yesterday that
(23:24):
they probably shouldn't have won.
They didn't look like they were good, but they were able to
manufacture runs. They were able to get hits with
runners in scoring position. Very important for this team.
Morrell was able to hit a Homer.Meisner went three for five.
I know he got tagged out at 3rd when he was doing that pop up
slide, so he probably should have had a triple out of it, but
he ended up getting tagged out. They got really lucky that they
(23:47):
were able to get that double play at the end of the game in
the 11th because I believe the Diamondbacks had bases loaded
one out in that and they had A and it was only 7 sixths at that
time and they had a chance to win with a with a single.
So I mean they're very, very lucky that they were able to get
(24:08):
combat victorious about that. But they had some guys that were
able to produce, which is very, very promising.
It was good to see Jonathan Aranda back in the line up.
I know it was only in a pinch hit position, but after getting
hit in both kneecaps on a on on a hit by pitch, I'm feeling I'm
feeling a lot better with about the fact that he was able to be
in the line up. Very happy about that.
(24:30):
We look to the game where he hitthe walk off Homer.
Very, very impressed by what I saw in the 9th inning.
They were dead to rights in thatgame.
Probably should have gotten swept or I guess mopped because
it would have been a four-game series.
But they were able to string hits together.
Beelow had that two run single. They had guys who are being
productive. They had guys who were able to
(24:52):
get hits in the clutch and then the pitching looked very solid
late and Aranda was able to hit the two run bomb.
Very happy to see all of that transpire as it did.
Of course, we can go back to that 16 to one game, though.
I think that that game is clouded because of what happened
after that point, because I'm pretty sure they lost four
(25:12):
straight after that point going into Saturday's game where Ronda
hit the Homer. Yeah, Yeah, that was Saturday's
game. So like that game also very
good. Got a lot of hits, was able to
produce with power. A lot of guys got on the stat
sheet, got RB is hit homers, hitextra base, you know, hit four
(25:35):
extra bases, that sort of thing.But within all that, it's been
very inconsistent. I think they're three and five
since that point, since that or including that game, they're
three and five 'cause they lost three.
No, they're three and six 'causethey lost the first game in the
Diamondback Series. So lost two out of three against
the Red Sox, three to four against the Yankees, and now
(25:55):
rubber match coming up tonight against the Diamondbacks as of
this recording. So both good and bad, they're
like, it's annoying because we can definitely see the
positives, but it's just those negatives that we really want to
see them try to find ways to rectify in some way.
(26:16):
I don't know. I mean, these are all since the
Braves. These are all good teams.
I mean, yeah, Red Sox are competing.
The Red Sox are like second right now or something.
I don't know. Second.
Yeah, second. The Yankees are first in our
division. The Diamondbacks, they're no
slouch, as we already said, eventhough they're like third in
their division. And then we have the Padres
(26:37):
right after this, who are the top.
Wow. So yeah, oh boy, we're in a
fucking we're in a heater for for this month.
I mean. Yeah, it's not.
Fun and you don't really see, you know, you know, you don't
really know which teams are going to be good before.
But I mean, you could have already told told that this was
going to be a difficult stretch for the Rays.
(26:59):
But I mean, they have not put upas much of a fight as I wanted
them to, even though they did win games in all the series.
They avoid getting swept, unlikewhen they went to the Rangers.
It's just the teams that are good are at the Mendoza line of
good. You know, like even the Rangers,
even though they're first in thedivision, they're like that.
(27:21):
You know, we're just, we're not beating those good teams in the
series. We're beating.
We're taking care of the bad teams.
You know, the teams are struggling right now, like the
Braves, we took care of that. But, you know, when we're facing
like the Red Sox or the Diamondbacks, who are, you know,
(27:42):
the opposite of our record 14 and 10 instead of 10 and 14,
like we're not convincingly and winning.
So this game tonight is very important.
Yes, 100%. Very important.
By the way, the pitching matchups raise.
I'm going to look these up for you guys pitching matchups for
(28:03):
tonight and for the rest of the weekend because we're going to
try to record over the weekend. We have, we have a really good
game tonight. We have Drew Rasmussen against
Corbin Burns, very good game. We have two really good match
ups after that, in my opinion. Shane Boz against Michael King
in the opener for the Padre series, Saturday Ryan Peppio
(28:25):
against Dylan Cease and then Sunday Zac Lattell against Randy
Vasquez, who's been hovering around A4 ERA.
Hasn't been great, hasn't been horrible.
But again, Lattell hasn't been great, hasn't been horrible.
I don't want to say that he I don't want to say that he's bad
because he had bad start and if you take that out of the
equation, he's a lot better. Yeah, but.
(28:47):
It's enough to where you, I think that he's still very much
in the middle of that. But I mean, you have 3, in my
opinion, very solid matchups coming up over the weekend,
including tonight with I mean, Rasmussen, Baz and Papio.
Papio at his best is really good.
And then, of course, you have Corbin Burns, Cy Young winner,
(29:09):
Michael King, Cy Young candidate, Dylan C Cy Young
candidate. This should be very, very
entertaining. But yeah, tonight specifically,
you made a really good point with that, that this game is
very crucial because. Yeah.
I mean, a series win against a good team, yeah, a good a good
team would be so crucial for this team to know that they they
(29:29):
can beat the good teams. It does hurt, though, because I
want to go back to the Yankee series.
I don't think Aaron Judge hit a Homer that entire series.
But like, yeah, yeah, he did it.400 right now.
Yeah, he said. He fucking everything else.
He needed a Homer because he's basically just turned into Ty
Cobb. Yeah, and I mean, I don't want
to get into that fucking home run mess.
(29:52):
No, but it is. It is incredible that like the
Rays limited the damage with Judge.
Yeah. UN quote.
He didn't hit a Homer, but it didn't matter because he's now
found a way to just turn himselfinto Ichiro.
Yeah, it's I mean Aaron Judges. Oh my God, he's so good.
And I hate that he's good, but he's so good.
(30:12):
But outside of that, let's go into talking about the Padres
series. We already talked about it a
little bit. We'll get into our pick up
players as well. Before we end this podcast, what
needs to be done because my God,the Padres are very good at the
baseball. Yeah.
I mean, we just need, we need really good starts from the
pitching. The pitching needs to carry like
(30:33):
I mean that that's the tails oldest time for the Rays, but
also we need the clutch hitting that we got because I mean the
Padres are going to score some run.
Let's let's be frank and I mean the game yesterday when, you
know, we just keep kind of goingback and forth between the
(30:56):
scoring and like the 7th, 8th. You know, that that time frame
when this when the starters comeout, that that's when we need
our clutches hitters, you know, and we really need the veterans
to carry. So I'll probably be picking a
veteran as a pickup player. I like it to be, to be honest.
(31:17):
Yeah, I want to echo off of because I'll, I'll keep mine
quick. I want to echo off of what
you're saying. It is worth noting that Luis
arise, thank God he's OK by the way, because I was a very
scared. Oh yeah, that was terrible.
He's not going to be playing in this series.
So that's one guy that the Rays don't have to worry about.
But if but if you look at the rest of the roster, Tatis
putting on MVP numbers right now, Machado's been very solid.
(31:38):
Merrill's been very solid. Kroneworth has been OK.
He's he's been getting on base. Power's not crazy there right
now. Gavin Sheets has looked really
solid to start the season out. Iglesias has looked very solid.
The number, again, the power's not there with him, but you're
getting production. And then the the rotation, as
we've already talked about, you have very, very, very solid
(32:01):
pitching. I mean, Nick Pavetta's been a
stud. Actually, Cease has been garbage
this year. Wow, going seats has not been
good, so maybe this is a start with a race, take advantage of
it. But King has been really good.
Like I said, Vasquez has been OK.
Nothing crazy, but they need to find a way to win at least one
(32:21):
game. If they can steal a game off of
off of 1 of their really good pitchers, they're not facing
Pavetta. So that's I guess a help.
But you have life with Cease andVasquez.
You can steal a series in San Diego.
That's great. It's going to be really tough
because the crowds there are fantastic and we know that.
So we're just going to have to see.
It's going to be a weekend series in San Diego.
(32:43):
The fans are going to be popping, Petco's going to be
packed. The Rays just got to find a way
to silence the crowd in some way.
Yeah, I mean, I'll just Heckle what you you're saying honestly.
Well, Gibby, who you mentioned picking a veteran as your pickup
player, who are your guys this week?
Oh man, since you're going to pick Brandon Lau.
(33:07):
Jeez. I usually pick someone else with
Brandon because we all know thatthat's my go to I.
You know what we're going to. He's a veteran, but he's not a
veteran on the team. Danny Jansen to continue his
climb, hopefully he has. I mean, if we get any production
out of 7-8 and nine, we can win the games.
(33:29):
So that's very important and we just need and obviously Brandon
Low, but you're going to pick him.
I mean I, I mean I do want him to be successful.
Let it be known. And when When is Pep pitching?
Pep is bitching on Saturday. And then give me Pep because he
looked a little shaky as last start, but you know, he's still
solid. I mean choose up innings like he
(33:52):
done his business so. That is give.
Me give me pepeo. That is true for me.
I'm going to always go with B Lao.
I am going to also go with Jose Caballero.
Been liking what he's been doingrecently.
And then on pitching wise, I'll go with Zach Latale because I
(34:13):
want to see him continue to do well.
However, he can do well. So hoping for the best there
from him. But with that being said, as we
mentioned, the start of the NFL draft is today.
So happy NFL Draft for those that are that are that that
we'll be watching tonight. The playoffs will be going on.
So happy playoffs time for all you Bolts fans out there and
(34:36):
everyone else who has their hockey team still in the
playoffs, unlike me. Plenty of stuff going on.
Hopefully the Rays will stabilize this weekend, get some
wins going. But with that being said, it's
going to conclude things on thislatest episode of Raise the
Roof. We appreciate you guys as always
for your support on our social media accounts.
It's Raise the Roof TB on Twitter slash X Instagram and
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(34:57):
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(35:18):
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