3:40 PM EDT, Thu March 28, 2024
DRaysBay

Tampa Bay Rays 2024 Spring Training Leaders

Photo by Joe Robbins/Icon Sportswire via It was a Spring to remember for some; for others a Spring to forget After six grueling agonizingly long weeks, Spring Training is mercifully over. The highly anticipated yet quickly yawn inducing schedule of about 30 exhibition games has reached its conclusion with the Rays and Tigers playing to a 3-3 tie on Tuesday afternoon. All of the meaningless statistics that will forever grace analytical websites will be the only thing to actually show that any games were played. Random minor league free agents, the occasional top...

Pinstripe Alley

NYY vs. PHI/DET (split-squad)

Photo by Julio Aguilar/ The final weekend of spring training is upon us. We’re so close, Yankee fans. This time next week, the Yankees will hopefully be up 2-0 in their opening series with the Astros, and indeed they can go 2-0 today as they split up the spring roster for a pair of games with the Tigers and Phillies. The road game in Lakeland will see Cody Poteet look to cement his place on the big-league roster, as the righty has had a strong spring to this point. All spring stats need to be discounted of course, but he’s posted an ERA, strikeout rate and FIP all...

Bless You Boys

Ryan Kreidler and the push for the Tigers’ final roster spots

Mike Watters-USA TODAY Sports The situation is complicated by various players’ options status and a lot of solid spring performances. When the Detroit Tigers signed veteran infielder Gio Urshela to a one-year deal during the second week of spring training, it looked like the Opening Day position player group was set. With Colt Keith signed to a long-term contract, third base was really the only position in open competition. The addition of Urshela made the group of Matt Vierling, Andy Ibáñez, and Zach McKinstry a bit redundant defensively, but there wasn’t much...

Bless You Boys

Friday Open Thread: Which prospect would you steal?

Photo by Mike Ehrmann/ There are some stellar options out there. It’s hard to believe it, but we’re already almost finished with spring training. And while this leads to more excitement: the regular season is just around the corner, it also means that we’ve been lucky to spend quite a lot of time watching prospects and rookies on other teams make a big splash in the pre-season. With that in mind, our open thread for the day revolves around which young player we would love to snag to add to the Tigers 40-man ahead of the new season beginning, and why. Do you think...

The Crawfish Boxes

Spring Training Game Thread. March 12, 2024, 12:05 CT. Astros @ Marlins

Jim Rassol-USA TODAY Sports Hunter Brown gets the start today The Astros lost 5 - 3 yesterday to Detroit, but from a Spring Training perspective, it was a win. Framber Valdez looked like ace Framber yesterday after a shaky Spring start. He allowed one run in four innings with four Ks and no walks. He effectively showcased his new pitch, the change-up, which will give major league batters just one more thing to guess at defending against Framber’s already formidable arsenal of pitches. The Tigers won by scoring four runs off Misael Tamarez in the eighth inning. Tamarez...

The Crawfish Boxes

Spring Training Game Thread. March 11, 2024, 12:05 CT. Astros @ Tigers

Photo by Megan Briggs/ Framber Valdez gets his second Spring start A plausible regular season lineup today, with likely OD starter Framber Valdez hoping to redeem himself after a terrible first start of the Spring.

www.thegoodphight.com

Spring Training Stuff Part 3

Jonathan Dyer-USA TODAY Sports A lot of ties this week. Not that it matters. A full week of games is wrapped up with a split-squad Friday against the Marlins and Tigers. The results of games or players don’t matter yet in camp. Aaron Nola got hit around today as he’s just trying to get spring training work in. I doubt anyone is concerned by with he performed. I took some notes on players who stand out for interesting reasons, whether it’s in results or process. Just a reminder that almost nothing at this point matters yet, I just think this stuff is...

Bless You Boys

Friday Open Thread: Pick your favorite player of the season

Photo by Kevin C. Cox/ Yes, it’s too soon, but this will be fun later. Before we start the season, we’ll have another open thread where you can make your bold predictions for how the Tigers will play in 2024, but for today, with spring training games underway and the roster pretty much set, we thought we’d try a different kind of prediction. Considering we’ve barely seen (or even heard) much of the Tigers’ pre-season so far, it should be impossible to pick a stand-out player as our favorite of the coming season. But that’s precisely what we want you to do in...