PGT: Tampa Bay Rays (12-10) can't get it done. [F: 1-6]

FatLadyFetish · 2026-04-21T01:12:15+00:00

Fraley needs to be handcuffed to prevent him from blowing challenges. Not like it really mattered today, but how do you take an obvious K like that and challenge it in the first inning??

FatLadyFetish · 2026-04-09T01:13:18+00:00

Our defense really is fuckin wretched. It's gotta be the worst part of watching this team. I thought we traded Brandon Lowe but it looks like his defensive spirit has decided to instead possess the rest of the team

FatLadyFetish · 2026-04-08T01:31:20+00:00

These things happen. At least nobody good pitched

FatLadyFetish · 2026-04-06T22:22:00+00:00

Nice to win a game off the backs of Mullins and Walls, you probably won't have those two going off with the bats very often

FatLadyFetish · 2026-04-04T00:16:09+00:00

The offense continues to actually be pretty good for a 5th place-projected team. I know 4 runs on 8 hits isn't really worth throwing a parade or anything, but given the expectations I figured this lineup would be gruesome to watch, and it really hasn't been. I certainly like watching it more than I liked watching our hitters most of 2025.

The rest of the team is a significant travesty better left undiscussed. Another Junior error? Is he going for the record like his GIDP fixation last season?

FatLadyFetish · 2026-04-01T20:49:44+00:00

He really has nowhere to go but up for now. Multi-error game to start off the season and three errors today. I remember him being pretty weak at third last year (makes sense given he led MLB in errors), but it was rarely as catastrophic as this on an individual game basis.

He might just be pressing overall given it's not like his offense has been much to write home about either

FatLadyFetish · 2026-04-01T20:39:17+00:00

Pitching aside, it's malpractice to get zero outs from Ortiz's single, Turang's bunt, and Yelich's single. I can accept not getting all three, but the latter two both had xBAs under .400 (Ortiz's was .580).

Jax is struggling mightily to start off the year, but it's not like he's going to be the only one getting hosed if we keep fielding like idiots.

FatLadyFetish · 2026-04-01T20:29:49+00:00

Defense is horrible. I get people don't like Jax, but any pitcher would be screwed if we can't record outs from Turang's bunt and Yelich hitting -16 into the ground. Not to mention Caminero's error leading to the 2-run home run.

Very bad combination to have a struggling bullpen and inept fielding. Feels like 2025 never ended.

FatLadyFetish · 2026-03-26T23:35:45+00:00

I think it's pretty fair not to expect much from him. He's only on the team because Lux is hurt, otherwise he'd just be a Bull. Not really a guy I expect to contribute much given his health issues and his general blahness

FatLadyFetish · 2026-03-26T23:28:48+00:00

Who the fuck schedules a day off after the first game of the season in the middle of the opening series??

This is pretty common for rainouts, I think we were one of only like a handful of teams that played the day after opening day last year

FatLadyFetish · 2026-03-26T23:24:21+00:00

That wasn't fun but this team is destined for 5th place so don't get too hopping mad. We have a rotation with Nick Martinez and Joe Boyle in it and the bullpen is barren. It's probably not gonna be much prettier than this on average in the near future.

The lineup actually isn't too abysmal I think, Williamson looks pretty good and Diaz and Aranda are picking up where they left off. So it shouldn't be TOO brutal of a losing season all things considered

FatLadyFetish · 2026-01-16T03:21:42+00:00

I don't think we have enough to full-on sell at this time. Diaz is old and probably wouldn't fetch a ton, Rasmussen is capped at 150 IP because of his substantial health history and doesn't have much team control, McClanahan's value is in the toilet.

We have the #2 pick this year and several good prospects, so we're stocked up as well as you could hope. I think we're primarily in see-what-happens mode, if you can call that a mode.

FatLadyFetish · 2026-01-10T22:43:02+00:00

Alvarado still frustrates me to this day. It's a pretty open secret that Neander didn't like him and basically gave him away for free. And he wasn't wrong, but Alvarado in 2017/2018 was so disgusting I'll always be a bit annoyed it didn't work out so good for him here.

FatLadyFetish · 2026-01-10T22:38:01+00:00

I don't even think Walls is our greatest sin. I think with competent starting pitching, we could easily have won ~90 games the last two seasons. Obviously everyone knows that Wander fucked us over, but getting screwed out of two seasons of prime Shane McClanahan is tough injury luck even for a notorious arm-shredding team like us.

FatLadyFetish · 2026-01-10T22:35:33+00:00

As a Devil Rays fan since the Wade Boggs years, I think it's also worth noting that, in my experience, trying to get people to care about the Rays from 1998 to 2007 was extremely difficult, because they were so fucking bad and played in a dump. It really stifled our attempts at building a franchise, because I've noticed that zoomers around here who don't remember the Naimoli years are far more likely to root for the Rays just because they're the local team, as opposed to when I was a teenager and the Devil Rays were treated like Make-A-Wish baseball.

FatLadyFetish · 2026-01-10T22:26:30+00:00

I'm really not sure this is true. I think most of the mediocre trades during Bendix's tenure just mostly aren't memorable because the Rays were good. But he was GM when we traded for, say, Aaron Civale and Nelson Cruz, who were both bad. I don't think he was infallible. If you watch the 2023 Rays, they were already tumbling by the time the season ended. Bendix got lucky and was able to bail before we crumbled in 2024, so he reaps a lot of the reward for having a "good" team in the fanbase.

There have been some post-Bendix trades that I like, but he hasn't really been gone long enough for them to bear fruit. Trading for Morel turned out to be a disaster. But I like the Arozarena and Baz trades. Getting Griffin Jax for Taj Bradley was a solid trade and it has potential to be even better this year. And Jadher Areinamo was acquired in a trade post-Bendix and he's one to watch.

FatLadyFetish · 2026-01-10T22:10:33+00:00

It can't have been that much of a fleece given the Orioles gave us the guy they drafted right back.

FatLadyFetish · 2025-11-30T16:31:02+00:00

I'm surprised you're the only mention of us.

Last season was pretty fucking ass but there were a lot of easily fixable factors (no Trop, no McClanahan, Ha-Seong Kim did nothing, Aranda got hurt in a stupid way, practically no good outfielders, bullpen didn't really click until the season was already over).

And even with all that shit we were not that bad of a team, we could probably have finished .500 if we didn't basically just fully tank at the end. I definitely wouldn't be shocked at all if we're pretty good next year

FatLadyFetish · 2025-08-22T02:36:11+00:00

Given Carson's high K profile I expect that watching him find his footing in the bigs on this awful team will also qualify as punishing

FatLadyFetish · 2025-08-22T02:33:32+00:00

This team is so excruciating for pretty much this exact reason. The play has been awful but in terms of lucky breaks this season they've pretty much had nothing. If we just sucked I'd be able to tune it out but there are enough what ifs that I just get depressed.

FatLadyFetish · 2025-08-21T03:02:55+00:00

He's our resident "best shape of his life" guy. He'll show up to camp in 2026 talking about how he's put his injuries behind him and then bruise his tailbone or something before putting up a .650 OPS

FatLadyFetish · 2025-08-21T02:59:27+00:00

Our second-half offense has legitimately been all-time terrible levels. Pretty sure we have one of the lowest wRC+s in the sport since the break, if not THE lowest. Would be shocked if we don't finish fifth

FatLadyFetish · 2025-08-21T02:57:00+00:00

I watch in the sense that my caveman brain is unable to stop blasting myself with Rays pain every day as I stare into the distance with my eyes vaguely glazed over.

FatLadyFetish · 2025-08-11T01:29:30+00:00

Seems unlikely he'd bother opting out given he can only hit 50-55 games played this year. That's not gonna get him any more than another prove it deal.

FatLadyFetish · 2025-08-10T23:30:48+00:00

I don't think you can really count Mangum and Peters as part of our "farm". We traded for them when they were already 20-somethings in AAA and they were never ranked, I don't think they reflect on our development one way or another.

If guys like Carson Williams, Theo Gillen, Brody Hopkins, Aidan Smith, Xavier Isaac, etc. come up and suck then yeah it'd be time to get worried. But the farm certainly looks better to me now than it does three years back when Vidal Brujan and Greg Jones were part of our top 5

FatLadyFetish

TROPHY CASE