Notable Additions: Asdrubal Cabrera IF, Steven Souza Jr. OF, Kevin Jepsen RP, John Jaso C, Ernesto Frieri RP

Notable Losses: Yunel Escobar IF, Wil Myers OF, Ben Zobrist OF/IF, Joel Peralta RP, Matt Joyce OF, Jermey Hellickson SP, Jose Molina C

The Rays have one strength they will rely on all season; pitching. The Rays’ pitching rotation finished in the top ten last season with a collective 3.48 ERA in 2014. They were led by Alex Cobb who has been a rather quite contributor the past two seasons. He finished with a 2.87 ERA through 166.1 innings of work. He has held his ERA under 3.00 in each of his past two seasons and will be looking to make 2015 the third consecutive year. Chris Archer will be the second man in the rotation. Archer has been excellent the past two seasons where he’s kept his ERA in the low 3’s. Drew Smyly has will take the the third spot in the rotation and he too has been solid in the past two seasons. He’s kept his ERA in the low 3’s. Seeing the trend yet? Jake Odorizzi will be the fourth man in the rotation and will be looking to breakout in 2015. He finished 2014 with a 4.13 ERA and had a 9.3 SO9 rate. He clearly has the ability to finish off batters and will be looking to get ahead in counts. When healthy, Matt Moore will take over as the fifth starter. He missed almost all of 2014 with an arm injury but will be ready to compete in 2015. He finished 2013 with a 3.29 ERA through 150.1 innings and picked up 17 wins.

Most people think the Rays will struggle in 2015 and might end up at the bottom of the division. They might be right. I think the Rays might surprise people in 2015. I know they have little to no hitting but defense wins championships. Their pitching will keep them in just about every game and if the offense can find a way to scrape out around four runs a game, this team will win their fair share of games. The rest of the AL East have very little pitching which will make the job easier on the Rays.

The offense will turn to Evan Longoria for answers in 2015. Longoria saw a dip in his batting average last season when he finished hitting .253 with 22 home runs. He played in 162 games last season and will strive to do so again in 2015. He’s hit 30+ home runs three different time throughout his career and has driven in over 100 runs twice. He has the talent to provide the offense with consistency and will make or break this offense. The Rays have a few other players who have the capability to provide power. Desmond Jennings has hit double digit home runs each of his four full seasons in the Majors. John Jaso hit 9 home runs in just 307 at bats. He will finally be given the opportunity to play a full season and will be ready to show what he can do. James Loney has reemerged in the past two seasons and has shown his ability to make superb contact. He finished last season with a .290 batting average and struck out just 80 times. The offense will have to play small ball to produce runs. They definitely won’t be a top offense but might be able to produce enough for wins.

Breakout Player: Jake Odorizzi SP

Odorizzi will be entering his second season as a full time starter and will be looking to prove that he is capable of dominating hitters. His 9.3 SO9 rate shows that he has the ability to finish off batters but he will be looking to work deeper into games and get ahead early in the count. He will enjoy having a strong bullpen to back him up. If healthy I expect:

3.57 ERA, 181.2 IP, 9.2 SO9

Game Changer: Steven Souza Jr. OF

Souza will have the opportunity to start in the outfield this season. There are a lot of people who believe that he can be a difference maker in the Majors and he will have to prove that in 2015. He struggled in his short time in 2014 when he finished with a .130 batting average through just 23 at bats. If he can get going, the offense will have enough firepower to win games.

The Rays have the pitching to go a long way. It will be a matter of if the offense can produce. With a weak AL East the Rays will have a chance to surprise people. We will just have to wait to see.

Make sure to check back in on March 31st for my complete standing predictions along with a few other fun pieces of news. Until then, you will be able to find a new preview of an individual team from March 1st through the 30th here at KRUI.FM.

The post Tampa Bay Rays 2015 Preview Edition #21 appeared first on KRUI Radio.

ALDS Series 1: Rangers vs. Rays
Series Begins Friday, September 30
4:07 pm on TBS

It’s deja vu all over again between these two teams. The Rays and Rangers matched up last season in the ALDS where the Rangers, on the arm of Cliff Lee dominated the Rays, taking the series 3-2 and ultimately getting to the World Series, only to come up short against Lincecum and the pitching of the Giants.  Joe Maddon has elected to start Matt Moore in game 1 of this series.  This will be Moore’s second start as a Major Leaguer.  Yes, I said SECOND career start.  In his first start he sparkled against the Yankees, winning the game.  The rookie will face off against C.J. Wilson who has the number of the big hitters for the Rays.  Evan Longoria and B.J. Upton are a combined 3-27 against him with 13 strikeouts.  This first match-up could prove to be a big momentum booster for the Rangers.  After Moore/Wilson, we will see James Shield for the Rays and Derek Holland for the Rangers.  Holland went 1-0 against the Rays this season, but the Rays did hit him well, bringing his ERA up to a 5.84 this season against the Rays.  After Saturdays’ games neither team has established a for sure starter.  One would assume that the Rays will throw David Price off short rest, or Jeremy Hellickson off even shorter rest.  Either of these guys is a good option for them to face off against what should be Colby Lewis and Matt Harrison who respectively have had solid seasons.  The Rangers have Alexi Ogando on reserve here as well to come in if needed, but Ron Washington could limit Ogando’s work in the postseason, because Ogando is not used to throwing this many innings, as he only threw 72 1/3 innings last season compared to his 169 2/3.  The series will come down to which teams hitting can perform better.  The scale tends to tip towards the Rangers in the hitting categories, because of the way they are able to drive in runs and consistently hit for average, as well as power, but the Rays can also be extremely potent and should be able to manufacture runs against Texas.  This series could fly under the radar as one of the better match-ups in the playoffs this season, but that isn’t anything new to these two teams.  They are used to nobody talking about them, but look who’s talking now.

–By Tyler Tjelmeland

ALDS Series 2: Yankees vs. Tigers
Series Begins Friday, September 30
7:37 pm on TBS

This match-up is one of the more intriguing match-ups in recent memory in playoff baseball.  The Detroit Tigers have a great 1-2 pitching punch with Verlander and Valverde.  The Yankees grabbed home field advantage so this game will feature “new” Yankees Stadium and should be a fun one for those left handed bats.  It was extremely important for the Yanks to lock up the advantage for Granderson, Tex, and Nick Swisher to showcase that left-handed power on the Yankees side.  The Tigers will throw ace Justin Verlander and the Yankees will throw C.C. Sabathia in game one, in what should prove to be an awesome match-up.  The rotation is set-up very nicely for the Tigers, throwing Verlander against C.C. could be the best method, because beating Sabathia is the game you absolutely need.  They need to dictate the tempo of the series, and getting an early win in game 1, in New York would give the Tigers the best chance to succeed in these playoffs.  The Yankees not surprisingly dropped two starters in A.J Burnett and Bartolo Colon (completely off the postseason roster) and will throw a 3 man rotation with Sabathia, Ivan Nova, and Freddy Garcia, with 8 pitchers in the bullpen, including Burnett and Phil Hughes.  The Tigers will throw Verlander in game 1 and then red-hot Doug Fister is the projected starter in game 2.  Fister went 7-0 in his last 8 starts with an unprecedented 0.65 ERA.  After Fister, the slider chucking Max Scherzer will be slated against Garcia in game 3.  The pitching match-ups favor the Tigers and that could prove to be a tough obstacle for the Yankees to overcome, but hey, it’s the Bronx Bombers, with home-field advantage. Should be an awesome series!

-By Tyler Tjelmeland

NLDS Series 1: Brewers vs. Diamondbacks
Series Begins Saturday, October 1^st
1:07 pm on TBS

Both the Brewers and Diamondbacks went to the wire in a fight for home field advantage in the first round. The Brewers won
that battle and will now host Arizona at Miller Park for games one and two. The Brewers had to use Zach Greinke to secure home field, so Yovani Gallardo will start game one on Saturday. The D-Backs have announced that their Cy Young Award candidate, Ian Kennedy, will be on the mound in the opener. The Brewers will send Zach Greinke to the mound on short rest in game two and Shaun Marcum has game three. The Diamondbacks have yet to announce the rest of their rotation. Arizona is a young team with little postseason experience while the Brewers are determined to win before they likely lose slugger Price Fielder to free agency. The Diamondbacks won the season series with the Brewers four games to three, getting two of those wins at Miller Park. However, October baseball in Milwaukee is a whole different atmosphere when the Brewers close the roof and pack the place with over 41,000 fans. This should play out to be an exciting series and has a good chance of going all five games.   –By Jordan Kabialis

Predictions:

Jordan Kabialis: Phillies in 4 games

Tyler Tjelmeland: Phillies in 4 games

Adam Gassensmith: Phillies in 4 games

Stephen McDonald: Phillies in 3 games

Predictions:

Jordan Kabialis: Phillies vs. Brewers, Phillies in 6

Tyler Tjelmeland: Phillies vs. Brewers, Phillies in 6

Adam Gassensmith: Phillies vs. Brewers, Brewers in 7

Stephen McDonald: Phillies vs. Brewers, Phillies in 6

– National League Playoff Picture

– American League Playoff Picture

ALDS, NLDS, ALCS, NLCS, WorldSeries photos courtesy of MLB.com

The post MLB Playoff Predictions appeared first on KRUI Radio.