The Tampa Bay Rays had a very good major league season, even though they missed the playoffs. How did the minor league system fare?
As part of our continuing coverage at Call to the Pen of the minor leagues, we will be covering each organization’s top players for 2018. The coverage will go in reverse order of record. Today, we will look at the Tampa Bay Rays.
We are going to review the system’s leaders for each organization statistically, then choose one hitter and one pitcher to honor for every team. This will be primarily based on statistical performance, though some “age relative to level” could come into play, so a very impressive season from a 28-year-old in AA will rank below a nearly as impressive season from a 20-year-old at the same level.
After we review each organization’s hitter and pitcher of the year, we will close out October with Call To The Pen’s Minor League team of the year. That will lead into November starting our team top 10 prospect lists. In other words, there will be plenty of minor league content on the way at CTTP, so keep coming back for more each day this offseason!!
Tampa Bay Rays minor leagues
Probably the team with the fastest-rising minor league system this year was the Tampa Bay Rays, and many felt that they would have a mediocre season in 2018. Instead, the Rays competed for the Wild Card until the end of the season and won over 90 games.
The minor league system is stacked with talent, and the top prospect lists for the Rays will be very intriguing as multiple lists could have multiple different arrangements of players. That can be a blessing and a curse, as it definitely requires a player to produce to be noticed!
Before we offer up awards on the season, let’s take a look at the system’s statistical leaders:
Organization Leaders (min. 150 PA, 50 IP)
BA: Connor Hollis .365
OBP: Connor Hollis .469
SLG: Wander Franco .587
OPS: Connor Hollis 1.004
R: Vidal Brujan 112
H: Nathaniel Lowe 159
2B: Tristan Gray 38
3B: Thomas Milone 11
HR: Nathaniel Lowe 27
RBI: Nathaniel Lowe 102
SB: Vidal Brujan 55
TB: Nathaniel Lowe 274
W: Zach Lee 12
G: Jordan Harrison 50
GS: Zach Lee 25
IP: Zach Lee 145 2/3
SV: Ian Gibaut 14
K: Brock Burke 158
ERA: Colin Poche 0.98
WHIP: Colin Poche 0.86
K/9: Colin Poche 14.2
K/BB: Brendan McKay 7.36
Let’s look at the award winners…