It’s Steve Carney’s birthday, and the Tampa Bay Rays have given him the gift of a great pitching matchup tonight in Anaheim between Tyler Glasnow and Shohei Ohtani (until Ohtani got scratched after the show was taped). Plus the minor league schedule gets going this week, and Steve explains why it might be longer than you think before Wander Franco makes the jump to the big leagues.
And Bally Sports Sun’s Doug Waechter stops in to talk about what it was like to watch Brett Phillips‘ World Series walk-off in person last year, and what expects to see moving forward from the pitching staff.
Steve Carney is the founder and publisher of St. Pete Nine. One of the people most associated with baseball coverage in Tampa Bay, he spent 13 seasons covering the Rays for flagship radio station WDAE, first as producer of Rays Radio broadcasts, then as beat reporter beginning in 2011. He likes new analytics and aged bourbon, and is the owner of one of the ugliest knuckleballs ever witnessed by baseball scouts.