Tampa Bay Rays: Could J.P. Arencibia Be the Next Spark?

J.P. Arencibia must have chuckled a little bit when he saw Curt Casali hit for so much power with the Tampa Bay Rays. At the time of Casali’s call-up, he had 4 home runs with the Triple-A Durham Bulls while Arencibia had 10. In the time since, despite Casali’s homer surge, Arencibia has still beaten him in home runs 12 to 10. Of course, Casali has other advantages of Arencibia, with defense and on-base skills being foremost among them. But the Rays’ hope is that Arencibia can hit a few balls over the fence and make Casali’s absence easier to deal with.

If we just looked at the home runs, we could craft a narrative about Arencibia being a deserving player finally getting his big league…