YGY Radio Show Rewind: 2015 Tampa Bay Rays Preview

On last night’s episode of the Yanks Go Yard Radio Show, brought to you by KNODA.com, I started off the show by recapping the week that was at New York Yankees Spring Training. Among the highlights this week included the spring debuts for CC Sabathia and Andrew Bailey, Masahiro Tanaka’s second consecutive great start against the Atlanta Braves, and Stephen Drew having three RBI’s in the last two days.

However, the main concern out of camp this week is the injury to Jacoby Ellsbury. The Yankees center fielder has a strained oblique and has not played in each of the last three games. However, there isn’t much concern by Joe Girardi and the team yet, but if Ellsbury doesn’t come back as the season gets closer, the level of concern could go up:

The focus of this episode was around the Tampa Bay Rays, as we concluded our look at the AL East for 2015. The Rays are an interesting team because they have a new manager in Kevin Cash after Joe Maddon left for the Cubs and a new general manager in Matt Silverman now that Andrew Friedman is with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

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Tampa Bay traded away second baseman Ben Zobrist and outfielder Wil Myers during the offseason, but they also acquired infielder Asdrubal Cabrera in free agency and traded with the Nationals for Steven Souza Jr., a young outfielder who showed great promise in triple-A Syracuse last season.

The one main concern for Tampa has to be their starting rotation. Matt Moore is trying to come back from Tommy John surgery, Alex Cobb is trying to recover from forearm tightness, and Drew Smyly has elbow tendinitis. With Jeremy Hellickson now with the Arizona Diamondbacks, the rotation will look a lot different when the 2015 season begins for Tampa.

To talk about these issues and much more, I spoke with Joe Saunders, one of the writers over at Rays Colored Glasses about the Rays’ front office changes as well as his expectations for the team this season. Here are some of the other topics that we discussed:

• Are the Rays taking a new approach with Maddon and Friedman no longer with the team?
• Was there more of an emphasis this winter on improving their minor league system?
• Who will start on Opening Day? Chris Archer? Jake Odorizzi?
• Is this the year Nathan Karns breaks out in the rotation?
• Impact of the additions of Cabrera and Souza Jr.
• Where will Nick Franklin be playing in the infield in 2015?
• With Kevin Jepsen the new closer, is the bullpen a concern for Rays fans?
• X-Factors on Offense and Pitching
• How many wins will the Rays finish with in 2015?

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