Ian Malinowski

3 weeks ago | draysbay.com | Ian Malinowski

Hi Geckos!It’s Coach Ian here. Since we keep getting rained out of practice I wanted to give you something to do with baseball anyway. Here are a few fielding situations to talk through with your parents. Can you figure out how to get the out? I bet you can! First off, here’s a picture of a baseball field. The little green circles are y’all — Geckos playing the field. Can you point at each circle and say the name of the position? I’m sure your parents can help.

3 weeks ago | draysbay.com | Ian Malinowski

In 2024 Rays catchers managed only 1.2 fWAR, with most of it on the defensive side of the ball. So they went out and signed Danny Jansen, a highly-regarded veteran free agent, to fill that hole at and behind the plate. So far Jansen been among the worst pitch framers in baseball. And that’s weird! To understand just how weird, we need to back up. In 2011, Mike Fast published his research into the impact of catcher framing, expanding on previous work done by Dan Durkenkopf and by Bill Letson.

2 months ago | draysbay.com | Ian Malinowski

Photo by Nick Cammett/Diamond Images via Getty Images The St. Petersburg City Council met this morning and approved cash toward repairs to Tropicana Field’s roof. This vote specifically approved $22.5 million which will be for the fabrication of the roof material in Germany, its transport to China for assembly, and then its installation in St. Pete.

2 months ago | draysbay.com | Ian Malinowski

Kevin Sousa-Imagn Images The big story to start this season is the “torpedo” or “bowling pin” bats which a handful of Yankees have used while hitting a ton of home runs. And it turns out that Giancarlo Stanton was actually using one last postseason when he slugged .709 with seven home runs. At least two Rays players, Junior Caminero and Yandy Diaz, have also begun experimenting with them.

Dec 16, 2024 | draysbay.com | Ian Malinowski

Photo by Trinity Machan/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images The Rays pitching depth has only expanded this off-season, despite the recent trade of Jeffrey Springs and Jacob Lopez. The Rays 40-man roster remains full of pitchers, with the majority of them ready to contribute at the major league level. In the list below I’ll denote players are out of options with an asterisk (*), and players on contracts where options do not apply, like Pete Fairbanks, with two asterisks (**).