Series Thread: Rangers Travel to St. Pete to Take on the Rays September 16-18

[saddles]

Counter point bottom of 6th for Burke

Lol. It is hard to counter "at times" with a single inning. It would have been a great counter if I had said "always."

 

[saddles]

Spings on the mound who has had a great year who really did not perform well for Rangers and BoSox but Rays evidently transform.

He never had a chance to sufficiently prove anything here or at Boston. This idea that we can know anything about a pitcher that struggles through his first 60 to 100 innings or about a position player from his first few hundred at bats is silly. Baseball is littered both with guys who got off to bad starts and turned that around once they were acclimated to the big leagues, and with guys who get off to great starts and then go on to a terrible career.

At this point we know nothing about Duran, Ragans, Otto, Huff, Thompson, Mathias, Dunning, Jung or Smith. That may even be true for Heim. Proclaiming any of those guys are here to stay, or that they will never make it as a starter in the league is premature at best. We have all been fans long enough to know better.

 

[Kelleyman]

Lol. It is hard to counter "at times" with a single inning. It would have been a great counter if I had said "always."

This lacks greatness in your eyes? Surely the timing was great?
And yet there was validity in what many said.

Still the defect remains even if the cause is in dispute. All things equal. The pitcher issues the walk duress or no duress. In this case Burke had two outs and evidently lost his touch minus one bad call.

 

[Kelleyman]

He never had a chance to sufficiently prove anything here or at Boston. This idea that we can know anything about a pitcher that struggles through his first 60 to 100 innings or about a position player from his first few hundred at bats is silly. Baseball is littered both with guys who got off to bad starts and turned that around once they were acclimated to the big leagues, and with guys who get off to great starts and then go on to a terrible career.

At this point we know nothing about Duran, Ragans, Otto, Huff, Thompson, Mathias, Dunning, Jung or Smith. That may even be true for Heim. Proclaiming any of those guys are here to stay, or that they will never make it as a starter in the league is premature at best. We have all been fans long enough to know better.

Is the same true for Howard? Can he join your we do not know list?

But yes most things in life are uncertain

 

[saddles]

 

[BULLPEN FAILURE]

Ranger legend

 

[saddles]

Is the same true for Howard? Can he join your we do not know list?

But yes most things in life are uncertain

I have no problem with those who think Howard can eventually get better. I don't even mind him coming back to pitch for us in the minors if no one picks him up when we DFA him after the season.

However, he does have 111 innings in the big leagues, and that is outside of the 60 to 100 innings I mentioned earlier. Lol

 

[saddles]

We currently have the ninth worst record with sixteen games left to play. We have ten games left against contenders and six with the Angels.

It looks like we are going to finish somewhere from the eighth to the eleventh worst record. The Cubs currently are a game worse than us with the Angels and Rockies a game better than us. We have the reverse tiebreaker on the other three teams, so all we have to do is be tied with them at the end of the year to get the better pre-lottery draft position.

In running the draft lottery app, it seems there is a big difference in finishing eighth and finishing eleventh when it comes to the possibility of landing a lottery pick.

As far as our final record goes, if we split against the Angels and go 3-7 against the contenders we will finish at 69-93.

I wonder how much difference it will make next year to simply do the following:

1) Obtain two good relievers
2) Obtain a decent starting pitcher in addition to re-signing Perez
3) Have Seager and Semien not have two awful months
4) Have our young guys with another year of experience
5) Have Jung all year

I would think those things would improve our win total significantly. Maybe as much as 15 games or more.

We also have a chance to produce our own reinforcements/improvements on the farm mid-season, and that could result in a handful more wins in the second half. One or two guys like Kent, Bradford, Winn, White, Foscue, Harris, Crim, and Zavala could emerge and be ready to produce. One or both of Duran and Smith could have something click with them between now and the end of ST.

The future, as early as 2023, looks bright, and you don't even have to squint to see that.

 

[DTC]

We currently have the ninth worst record with sixteen games left to play. We have ten games left against contenders and six with the Angels.

It looks like we are going to finish somewhere from the eighth to the eleventh worst record. The Cubs currently are a game worse than us with the Angels and Rockies a game better than us. We have the reverse tiebreaker on the other three teams, so all we have to do is be tied with them at the end of the year to get the better pre-lottery draft position.

In running the draft lottery app, it seems there is a big difference in finishing eighth and finishing eleventh when it comes to the possibility of landing a lottery pick.

As far as our final record goes, if we split against the Angels and go 3-7 against the contenders we will finish at 69-93.

I wonder how much difference it will make next year to simply do the following:

1) Obtain two good relievers
2) Obtain a decent starting pitcher in addition to re-signing Perez
3) Have Seager and Semien not have two awful months
4) Have our young guys with another year of experience
5) Have Jung all year

I would think those things would improve our win total significantly. Maybe as much as 15 games or more.

We also have a chance to produce our own reinforcements/improvements on the farm mid-season, and that could result in a handful more wins in the second half. One or two guys like Kent, Bradford, Winn, White, Foscue, Harris, Crim, and Zavala could emerge and be ready to produce. One or both of Duran and Smith could have something click with them between now and the end of ST.

The future, as early as 2023, looks bright, and you don't even have to squint to see that.

Nice points made.
Hopefully the Astros will lose a tad bit of steam next year and a little more in 2024 when the Rangers should start to come together.. gonna have to worry about those mariners tho.. possibly

 

[BULLPEN FAILURE]

Your burning Rangers questions, answered

 

[Kelleyman]

Rangers facing big offseason​

Is it possible the Rangers are closer to a turnaround than their 63-83 record might indicate? The answer depends upon how they address their rotation this offseason, and to a lesser extent on their choice of a manager. Their core group of position players actually looks pretty good.

The breakout of first baseman Nathaniel Lowe, promotion of third baseman Josh Jungand return of catcher/DH Mitch Garver next season will leave the Rangers set at every position but left field. And even in left, Bubba Thompson, Josh Smith and Ezequiel Durán give the team internal options.

Offense is not the problem for the Rangers, who rank fifth in the AL in runs per game. But the team needs to find three starting pitchers, and that’s assuming they re-sign left-hander Martín Pérez, a potential free agent who wants to return.
Even if Glenn Otto (acquired for Joey Gallo), Dane Dunning (for Lance Lynn) or Cole Ragans (the Rangers’ first-round pick in 2016) occupies one of the other spots, they would need to get busy. Trading for starting pitching is always difficult. The free-agent market, however, is expected to include not only Jacob deGrom, but also Carlos Rodón, Verlander, Tyler Anderson, Chris Bassitt, Corey Kluber, Nathan Eovaldi and others.

Rangers general manager Chris Young, who pitched 13 years in the majors, will need to identify which starters fit best. The good news: The Rangers, even after signing infielders Corey Seager and Marcus Semienfor a combined $500 million last offseason, are again in position to spend. Their guaranteed commitments for 2023 are $85.25 million.

Via Ken R

 

[BULLPEN FAILURE]

Rangers facing big offseason​

Is it possible the Rangers are closer to a turnaround than their 63-83 record might indicate? The answer depends upon how they address their rotation this offseason, and to a lesser extent on their choice of a manager. Their core group of position players actually looks pretty good.

The breakout of first baseman Nathaniel Lowe, promotion of third baseman Josh Jungand return of catcher/DH Mitch Garver next season will leave the Rangers set at every position but left field. And even in left, Bubba Thompson, Josh Smith and Ezequiel Durán give the team internal options.

Offense is not the problem for the Rangers, who rank fifth in the AL in runs per game. But the team needs to find three starting pitchers, and that’s assuming they re-sign left-hander Martín Pérez, a potential free agent who wants to return.
Even if Glenn Otto (acquired for Joey Gallo), Dane Dunning (for Lance Lynn) or Cole Ragans (the Rangers’ first-round pick in 2016) occupies one of the other spots, they would need to get busy. Trading for starting pitching is always difficult. The free-agent market, however, is expected to include not only Jacob deGrom, but also Carlos Rodón, Verlander, Tyler Anderson, Chris Bassitt, Corey Kluber, Nathan Eovaldi and others.

Rangers general manager Chris Young, who pitched 13 years in the majors, will need to identify which starters fit best. The good news: The Rangers, even after signing infielders Corey Seager and Marcus Semienfor a combined $500 million last offseason, are again in position to spend. Their guaranteed commitments for 2023 are $85.25 million.

Via Ken R

"return of catcher/DH Mitch Garver"

Why the hell are people so high on him being a major contributor?

 

[Kelleyman]

"return of catcher/DH Mitch Garver"

Why the hell are people so high on him being a major contributor?

Evidently injuries hindered and he had one big year prior. I doubt if they give up on him now but if he can catch his value decrease a lot IMO

 

[BULLPEN FAILURE]

Evidently injuries hindered and he had one big year prior. I doubt if they give up on him now but if he can catch his value decrease a lot IMO

his value decreases if he can catch?

 

[saddles]

return of catcher/DH Mitch Garver next season will leave the Rangers set at every position but left field. A

This is an extremely suspect conclusion.

 

[saddles]

"return of catcher/DH Mitch Garver"

Why the hell are people so high on him being a major contributor?

I don't get it at all. I wish other teams felt that way and would offer us something for him.

 

[saddles]

People used to put Odor's name down in ink as a solid, settled player at 2B every year too.

 

[saddles]

Offense is not the problem for the Rangers, who rank fifth in the AL in runs per game.

This team has several problems and the offense is one of them. Fifth place in the AL in a major category should never be considered any kind of goal accomplished

 

[BULLPEN FAILURE]

This team has several problems and the offense is one of them. Fifth place in the AL in a major category should never be considered any kind of goal accomplished

have to disagree on that point. 5th in the AL in runs per game not something to scoff at.

 

[BULLPEN FAILURE]

non-Rangers item:

There was a discussion on the baseball subreddit this weekend based on the question of whether or not Aaron Judge was having the best "bet on himself" season of all-time. As he is now having arguably one of the greatest seasons of all-time full stop, I think it's without a doubt he's going to cash in on himself. He proved a LOT of people wrong, including myself.