ST. PETERSBURG — Jim Hickey will spend as much as four hours today going over the Minnesota Twins hitters, making notes on each player. His hot zones in the strike zone, his cold zones. What he’s done during his last 30, 50, 100 at-bats. What pitches he can hit. What pitches he can’t.
Hickey, the Rays’ pitching coach, will take that information and combine it with the hours of prep work by bullpen coach Stan Boroski and scouting reports compiled by the baseball ops crew and relay it to the pitching staff during a 15-minute meeting held this afternoon before batting practice.