I'm back with another installment of the 2013 SEGA Card-Gen set, and after all this time I am getting close to the end of the AL teams. Today's entry is the Tampa Bay Rays. The average number of cards per team across the whole set is 13, and the Rays come in a little under that number with 11 players included in the team set.
Starting things off is catcher Jose Molina. He had a pretty good career, making his money more for his abilities as a catcher than for his ability with a bat. He did pick up a couple of World Series rings, wining one with the Angels in 2002 and one with the Yankees in 2009. His 2013 season went okay, 2014 was a wreck, and he got released by the Rays last November.
In 2013 Loney was coming off of a down 2012 split between the Dodgers and Red Sox. He has picked things up since then, although I guess you'd like to see a little more power in your first baseman. He's still with the Rays.
Zobrist gets the nod at second base. He is a utility guy who has spent most of his time at second, with large chunks of time in right field and at shortstop. He's also played a number of games at several other positions. He was traded to the A's this year and spent a significant amount of time on the DL with a knee injury. He's pretty consistently put up big WAR numbers since 2009 and made the All-Star team twice.
Evan Longoria won Rookie of the Year in 2008 and put up three straight All-Star appearances from 2008 to 2010. From there he maybe tailed off a bit, but even with some regression he is in the top 50-100 players in the game, depending on the season. He'd probably be a lot more popular and famous if he played on a big-market team.
Yunel Escobar gets the call at shortstop for this team. He spent 2012 with the Blue Jays, but got traded in the offseason to the Marlins and then to the Rays. He's another guy who puts up consistently good WAR numbers from year to year. In between the 2014 and 2015 seasons he was again involved in a series of trades. The first sent him and Ben Zobrist to the Athletics, but then he was moves along to the Nationals and is currently playing pretty well for them.
Desmond Jennings is another guy who has put up decent numbers over a period of years. He's currently out with an injury that he sustained in April, and may return sometime next month.
I expected Matt Joyce's numbers to look a lot better than they did when I checked his Baseball-Reference profile, but outside of his All-Star campaign in 2011 and decent years surrounding it in 2010 and 2012, he has been okay but not great. Who knew? He's with the Angels now.
David Price is a consistent All-Star who has won a Cy Young Award once and come close on a couple of other occasions. After being traded to Detroit in 2014 he is at least in the conversation for it again this year. Various Cy Young predictors have him ranked between 4 and 6 currently in the race.
Jeremy Hellickson won Rookie of the Year in 2011 and had a good 2012 which feeds his good rating on this game card, but things have fallen off for him since then. He was traded to the Diamondbacks before the 2015 season and has been about replacement-level for them. He is currently dealing with a blister on his pitching hand.
Moore had a good 2012 and an All-Star 2013 where he went 17-4 on the year. In 2014 he got injured and needed Tommy John surgery. He has recently returned to the field, but in his three starts this month he's given up a lot of runs and has a bit of rust to knock off.
The Rays only get one relief pitcher in this set, Jake McGee. McGee had a knockout 2012 and is pretty consistently a great option as a reliever. He was probably in line to be the Rays' closer this year, but he spent some time injured and that was enough time for Brad Boxberger to grab the role and keep it. If Boxberger struggles then McGee would be first in line to step in and regain the role.
2013 SEGA Card-Gen Directory
Those 70s-style Rays fauxbacks (sported by Hellickson) might just be my favorite uniform of all-time. Well, at least recently anyway.
ReplyDeleteThey are a pretty cool uniform. I was actually going to write something about that in the post, but I got sidetracked. These SEGA Card-Gen Extravaganza posts run pretty long, so I am usually pretty worn out by the time I get to the pitchers.
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