The college two-way star finally made his pro debut as a pitcher Saturday. I don’t want to say it was inevitable that Jake Cronenworth would end up pitching professionally, but didn’t it feel possible when the Rays added Brendan McKay and Tanner Dodson in back-to-back drafts, indicating they’re interested in two-way players? Except for 2018, he’s hit well professionally, but when he was drafted, it was a bit of a surprise that it was as an infielder and not a pitcher. Triple-A Durham Bulls (25-16) Durham closed with four straight runs in a 4-3 win over Rochester. Nick Solak’s RBI single in the fifth started the comeback, and in the seventh, he tied the game with a solo home run. An inning later, Nate Lowe’s bases-loaded walk gave the Bulls their first lead. After Jake Cronenworth made his professional mound debut with a scoreless first inning, Ryan Merritt allowed three runs in four innings. 2B Nick Solak: 3-for-4, 1 R, 1 HR, 2 RBI (.909)PH Nate Lowe: 0-for-0, 1 RBI, 1 BB (.850)LF Jason Coats: 3-for-4, 1 R, 1 2B, 1 HR, 1 RBI (.858) RHP Jake Cronenworth: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 1 K (0.00)LHP Ryan Merritt: 4 IP, 7 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 3 K (7.67) Durham’s site offers this recap. Double-A Montgomery Biscuits (27-15) Montgomery was shut out by Jacksonville, 4-0. The Biscuits were hitless with runners in scoring position and left 10 on base. Riley O’Brien allowed all four runs. RF Jesus Sanchez: 1-for-3, 1 BB (.792)DH Brendan McKay: 1-for-3, 1 HBP (.464) RHP Riley O’Brien: 6 IP, 6 H, 4 R (3 ER), 0 BB, 5 K (3.86) Class A-Advanced Charlotte Stone Crabs (21-21) Charlotte couldn’t get out of an early hold in a 7-4 loss to Clearwater. The Threshers went up 1-0 in the first and led 6-0 through five innings. Paul Campbell allowed four runs in four innings, and Tanner Dodson allowed two in three frames. In the sixth, Carl Chester’s two-run homer capped a three-run inning, and the Stone Crabs scored in the seventh to pull within two before an insurance run was allowed in the eighth. SS Matt Duffy: 0-for-2, 1 BB, 1 HBP2B Vidal Brujan: 2-for-4, 1 R, 1 RBI (.745)C Ronaldo Hernandez: 0-for-3, 1 RBI (.602)RF Moises Gomez: 0-for-4, 1 K (.642)LF Garrett Whitley: 0-for-4, 2 K (.739) RHP Paul Campbell: 4 IP, 6 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 3 K (5.49)RHP Tanner Dodson: 3 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 0 K (4.02) Charlotte’s site offers this recap. Class-A Bowling Green Hot Rods (24-18) Bowling Green scored eight unanswered runs in an 11-3 rout of Lake County. Each team scored three times in the first, but Chris Betts’ solo homer in the third started a run of eight straight runs that put the game away. Kaleo Johnson also went deep, hitting a three-run home run in the fourth. In his first start of the season, Cristopher Sanchez allowed three runs in four innings, and Alan Strong struck out seven in five scoreless frames out of the bullpen. SS Wander Franco: 2-for-6, 2 R, 1 2B, 1 SB (.899)CF Michael Smith: 3-for-5, 2 R, 1 3B, 3 RBI, 1 BB, 1 K, 1 SB (.778)1B Kaleo Johnson: 1-for-5, 1 R, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 2 K (.744)C Roberto Alvarez: 4-for-5, 1 R, 1 2B, 1 RBI (.678) LHP Cristopher Sanchez: 4 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 2 K (4.50)RHP Alan Strong: 5 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 7 K (1.83) CLICK HERE FOR ALL BOX SCORES Sunday’s games (probables courtesy of milb.com) Durham vs. Rochester 5:05 p.m. ET (MiLB.TV, radio stream)Arturo Reyes (2-1, 2.30) vs. TBA Montgomery @ Jacksonville 3:05 p.m. ET (MiLB.TV, radio stream)Sam McWilliams (2-1, 3.49) vs. Sixto Sanchez (0-0, 0.00) Charlotte @ Clearwater 1 p.m. ET (radio stream)Michael Plassmeyer (0-0, 3.52) vs. Damon Jones (1-2, 0.76) Bowling Green @ Lake County 1:30 p.m. ET (MiLB.TV, radio stream)TBA vs. Luis Oviedo (4-2, 4.13) *Listed as TBA on milb.com Scouting the opposition Rochester Red Wings (Minnesota)14-24 (5th in IL North)Offense: 184 R (10th) .784 OPS (8th)Pitching: 6.02 ERA (13th) 1.52 WHIP (12th)Top-30 prospects: OF Brent Rooker (6), SS Nick Gordon (15), LHP Lewis Thorpe (17), LHP Stephen Gonsalves (18), OF LaMonte Wade (21), RHP Zack Littell (23), OF Luke Raley (24) Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp (Miami)15-28 (5th in SL South)Offense: 102 R (10th) .575 OPS (10th)Pitching: 3.30 ERA (4th) 1.22 WHIP (3rd)Top-30 prospects: RHP Sixto Sanchez (1), RHP Jorge Guzman (7), OF Brian Miller (14), RHP Jordan Yamamoto (18), RHP Robert Dugger (22), SS Joe Dunand (23), SS Bryson Brigman (26) Clearwater Threshers (Philadelphia)20-21 (3rd in FSL North)Offense: 157 R (4th) .719 OPS (1st)Pitching: 3.74 ERA (7th) 1.33 WHIP (9th)Top-30 prospects: 3B Alec Bohm (1), RHP Spencer Howard (7), RHP Colton Eastman (11), LHP Zach Warren (17), C Rodolfo Duran (20), 2B Daniel Brito (21), OF Jhailyn Ortiz (22), OF Matt Vierling (27) Lake County Captains (Cleveland)23-17 (T-2nd in MWL East)Offense: 177 R (2nd) .697 OPS (4th)Pitching: 3.64 ERA (7th) 1.33 WHIP (8th)Top-30 prospects: SS Tyler Freeman (3), C Bo Naylor (4), RHP Luis Oviedo (8), OF Will Benson (21), OF Quentin Holmes (27) Daily news and links MLB Pipeline selected a player from each organization who was undervalued in his draft. Baseball America recently updated its list of the top draft prospects.

It is so nice to have Meadows back After a disappointing and frustrating 4-3 loss, the Rays will look to rebound against Masahiro Tanaka by sending Blake Snell on the mound; a rematch of an equally frustrating loss on Sunday where nothing weird happened. Suit back up, and take back first. https://t.co/tJKotKCnmg#RaysUp pic.twitter.com/qlIP5MIDh0— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) May 18, 2019 Remember when the Rays out scored opponents in the 1st inning? That didn’t happen. Masahiro Tanaka started the game where he left off on Sunday, striking out all three batters he faced in the 1st inning. Rays did seem to get to him a little better this game, with a few singles sprinkled here and there, but the Rays couldn’t get to Tanaka at all. It also didn’t help that the ump was giving Tanaka all the calls on the edge. Only 2 of those pitches were swung on. The first run of the game came via an wild pitch. Snell got himself into some trouble with back to back hits by Brett Gardner and DJ LeMaheiu and a Luke Voit walk loaded the bases with only 1 out. Snell got out of it (somewhat) with a strikeout of Aaron Hicks and Gary Sanchez, but a wild pitch scored Gardner and made it 1-0 Rays. Kratz let one go by him for a run but he probably went 9/10 blocking bouncing curves and change ups last inning. He’s been pretty solid back there for a guy taking a crash course.— Dan Slaubaugh (@DanSlaubaugh) May 18, 2019 Snell looked great other wise going 6.0 IP with 6 H, 1 BB, 9 K, 1 R. He did have some help thanks to this slick play by Wily Adames. Dominik Vega Hech of a play For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction right? I think that law of physics could be applied to the Rays luck this year. The Rays had that great play by Adames, and in the 6th inning Snell threw what should’ve been an easy play to get Aaron Hicks out, but ended up throwing it away and allowing Hicks to make it to 2nd with only 1 out. Snell was able to get Sanchez to strikeout on a low 96 mph FB, and a single by Gleybar Torres almost scored Hicks from 2nd. Almost. Dominik Vega Freakin laser Austin Meadows with a throw on the money to nab Aaron Hicks, and keep the Rays within 1. That seemed to be the turning point. The Rays didn’t get to see Tanaka in the 7th (finally) and it only took two pitches for them to tie it. We're all tied up Lowe. #RaysUp pic.twitter.com/8u2SUeRxXJ— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) May 18, 2019 Combination of Chaz Roe and Adam Kolerk would get through the 7th, and keep the score tied. Rays didn’t really have any other opportunities, as none of the ground balls hit off of Tommy Kahnle and Zach Britton (after the B. Lowe) HR left the infield. Emilo Pagan took over for the 8th, and set up the Yankees hitters well. Despite giving up an Aaron Hicks single, Pagan got the top of the Yankees order to strike out, including a beautiful pitch sequence of Luke Voit, who after being ahead in the count 2-0, was searching fastball, got three fastballs, and swung through all of them. Rays had to face Aroldis Chapman in the 9th, which lol getting a hit against him. Aroldis Chapman career vs the #Rays - 17.1 IP, 4H, 0R, 3 BB, 30K. This would be a great time for the lefty to allow his first run against Tampa Bay.— Neil Solondz (@neilsolondz) May 18, 2019 And Kevin Cash decided to bring Emilio Pagan out for the bottom of the 9th in a tie game against the Yankees to face Gleybar Torres, Gio “Albert Pujols” Urshela, and Cameron Maybin. Torres struck out. Urshela flied out to deep center, but not after an impressive battle, going 12 pitches. And got Maybin to strike out, sending this game to extras, where the Rays are not lucky going 0-4 in extra innings. Besides the Lowe HR, the Rays hitters have been forgettable, with the Yankees’ Johnathan Holder making very quick work of the Rays in the 10th inning, retiring Garcia, Kiermaier, and Adames on the same amount of pitches that it took to get Gio Urshella out in the 9th. Rays’ bats came alive in the 11th inning when Austin Meadows took an inside pitch and blasted it out of the park to give the Rays a 2-1 lead. Your browser does not support HTML5 video. Getting the lead is one thing. Keeping the lead is another. Rays not only are 0-4 in extra innings. They are 2-8 in 1 run games. BUCKLE UP Showing faith in is closer, Kevin Cash would go to Jose Alvarado, who had .2 IP on 26 pitches and gave up a 2-run lead in last nights 4-3 loss. 1st batter: Luke Voit - Single (Thario Estrada would pinch run) 2nd Batter: Aaron Hicks - Strikeout 3rd Batter: Gary Sanchez - Grounded into double play. Around the Horn Diaz to Lowe to Choi WHEW. Big confidence booster for Alvarado, Rays win 2-1 and are back in 1st place with a half game lead. Charlie Morton will look to get the series win agains the Yankees tomorrow. Game time is 1:05 PM.

On the latest episode of Buc ‘N Nuts, we discuss the OTAs and all the drama surrounding some key players On the most recent episode of the Buc ‘N Nuts podcast, host Derick Schroeppel is joined by fellow Bucs Nation writer Evan Winter to dive in to some offseason chat. The guys discuss the drama surrounding Gerald McCoy - including some comments made by McCoy’s wife via Instagram - and what his future holds in Tampa. Derick also adds a little fuel to the fire for those that like to point to Warren Sapp’s demeanor when looking at McCoy’s shortcomings. The guys also discuss the Jason Pierre-Paul accident, Vernon Hargreaves’ absence, and some takeaways they are excited about in the early stages of OTAs. Check out the episode below!

Tampa Bay might finally accomplish what they set out to do when they drafted Gerald McCoy What if I told you the Tampa Bay Buccaneers would get a defensive tackle from the 2010 NFL Draft, pair him with another young defensive tackle later on and return to the post-season as a result of doing so? Would you be happy? This is exactly what could happen if the Bucs do indeed move on from veteran defensive tackle Gerald McCoy and sign veteran free-agent Ndamukong Suh. Now, it’s likely some of you have stopped reading by now and just scrolled straight to the comments. But for those of you who are still reading let me premise what follows by saying this, I’m not necessarily recommending this happens, I’m saying it could happen regardless of what anyone likes or dislikes about it and I’m going to attempt here not to convince you but to help you (and me in the process) understand. Ok. Like most everybody, the first question I had when this idea was first inserted into my brain was: What about the cap? It’s a good question. But that’s not the first question I want to talk about. I want to talk production. Over the past two seasons Suh has played in three more regular season games and three more post-season games than McCoy. In those, Suh has 107 total tackles while McCoy has 75, and McCoy had twelve sacks compared to Suh’s nine. Suh also had two forced fumbles and recoveries while McCoy had none. Suh has stopped ball carriers in the backfield thirteen times over the past two seasons, while McCoy has done so nineteen times. Quarterbacks were hit by McCoy 45 times in addition to his nine sacks in 2017 and 2018, while quarterbacks were hit 31 times over the same span by Suh. I don’t know guys, seems like a push to me. Which is interesting because in 2010 it was considered risky business drafting a defensive tackle as high as the Detroit Lions and Tampa Bay Buccaneers both did with picks two and three respectively. Yet, both have had relatively successful individual careers while one has stayed with the team who drafted him and the other is expected to play for his fourth team in 2019. There’s one more category of production we need to address though, and that’s penalties. Suh developed a reputation fairly early in his career as a dirty player. He had eleven penalties as a rookie, and seven of them involved him being overly aggressive or stepping over physical restrictions placed by the league. Only three were pre-snap penalties (encroachment, neutral zone infraction and defensive offside). In contrast, McCoy committed just four penalties his rookie season and only one was of a physical nature (unnecessary roughness against Atlanta in December of 2010). While Suh spun into the ‘dirty player’ character, McCoy was busy often times being the best part of a bad situation. Some good seasons, albeit not playoff seasons, were sprinkled in here and there, but largely McCoy’s time has been spent vacationing while others - including Suh - were chasing post-season opportunities. In fact, while McCoy is still searching for his first taste of January football in the NFL, Suh has appeared in six contests (two with Detroit, one with the Miami Dolphins and three with the Rams in the 2018-19 season). Back to the penalties, Suh has calmed down as of late being flagged eight times in the 2018 season with three of those being pre-snap penalties and two coming by way of roughing the passer infractions. But it’s interesting, because these penalties, while a detractor for some are also part of the reason he may be attractive to the new look Buccaneers defense. He’s aggressive. And hungry. While Suh has had the dirty label slapped on him since nearly the beginning of his career, McCoy had a label slapped on him too: Soft. Now, it came in many versions. Complaints about his smiling during losses or post game. Helping opposing players up, again smiling and being cordial with them during the games as well. Not seeming mad enough about losses and struggles. Not being aggressive enough. Bu the bottom line is, every time he was criticized for one of these things, he was being told he wasn’t being mean enough. Meanwhile his draft classmate was being too mean. Kind of a three bears type of situation. Well, with aggression comes penalties from time-to-time. They’re two things that go together in the patterns of athletics. Does all of what we’ve discussed so far combined with the apparent revelation McCoy simply doesn’t want to play in Tampa anymore, paired with the apparent truth the coaching staff is co-signing the sentiment, lead to anyone thinking signing Suh is a good idea? If it does then we can step through the next door enter the seventh layer of NFL hell, also known as: The Salary Cap. Let’s talk about money. According to the NFL Players Association salary cap report, the Bucs currently sit at around $1.7M in cap space with money still owed to draft picks Devin White, Jamel Dean and Mike Edwards meaning the team is operating with a deficit of about $6M. So, removing McCoy’s $13M which is what the team is expected to do shortly - or not shortly, who knows at this point - would give them about $6-7M in remaining space after inking their still unsigned draft picks give or take some money after they carry the one, split the dividend of the previously guaranteed money, account for the windspeed coming out of the northwest, divide by the stipulations of the collective bargaining agreement nobody actually understands but lawyers pretend they do, multiply by the blades of grass eaten by the average NFL lineman on a yearly basis, remind everyone Jason Licht once drafted Roberto Aguayo, and then carry the one, just one last time and voila! you have a salary cap number. Now, we’re already almost 1,000 words into this, so I’m not going to bore you with a whole slew of details, but let’s just say the Bucs could easily and justifiably clear another $5-7M in cuts if certain non-rookies and non-marquee players don’t show up and show out in mini-camps or early in training camp. And no I’m not talking about Vernon Hargreaves. This means, with some neat math and potentially predictable moves, the team could clear up to or close to the projected $10M many think Suh is going to want or is asking for. Of course, the team may not even need to pay him $10M depending on Suh’s priorities. He’s older now, a little bit wiser, and usually players in his situation covet security a bit more than they do anything else. If Licht and company were to offer him, say $20M over two years with seven of it fully guaranteed this season and seven fully guaranteed next year, then the Bucs could get Suh for the seven this year and save six next year if it doesn’t work out. With north of $34M in cap space for 2020 (according to spotrac.com) - before considering the $12.5M Tampa Bay saves in 2020 by cutting or trading McCoy - and only Jameis Winston expected to fully break the bank next year, swallowing $7M for Suh next year is a bit easier to do if needed. Paying him the balance of the $13M is simple if the defense pans out (cue gasp and anger because I just insinuated the Bucs could possibly pay Suh more than they’d pay McCoy in 2020 under current contract stipulations). And don’t worry, even if they kept Suh and still had to pay Winston the $20M or so he’d get in a new deal, the team would still be left with money and options to clear even more space if needed and justified - this time I am talking about Hargreaves, among others. Whew! Man, that’s a lot of stuff to digest. I’m not saying it’s going to happen. But I’m saying it’s a possibility. And honestly, I’d welcome it. Suh was the best defensive tackle in a traditionally over drafted defensive tackle duo in 2010. Back then, Tampa Bay drafted McCoy possibly because they wanted him more, but most likely because he was the best available. Then they tried to pair him with another defensive tackle by drafting Brian Price. What if the Bucs could now get the defensive tackle they probably wanted anyway in Suh, and pair him with another young recently drafted defensive tackle in Vita Vea? Well, it just might help the team make it back to the post-season, which is what the team thought they were on the verge of doing when they drafted McCoy in the first place. Oh, and 2010 Buccaneers draft pick Cody Grimm is back on the team now (as a coach), so it kind of ads another layer to the whole 2010 draft class coming back to make it’s mark on this season.