Rangers motor into Detroit to rock the Tigers - 8/20 - 23

[Nightcrawler]

FML FML FML!

I was gone all day at the pool. I figured Kershaw would help us out today. Count on the Astros to win when they are at the damn juice box. Yankees and Astros are probably the 2 scariest teams to face on the road in the AL. Glad the Rangers got a win, but the Astros have been pissing me off lately. As for the Dodgers, I hope those over-ratedpussies never win a World Series and Magic Johnson goes back to basketball. That franchise is a joke, thanks for nothing!

 

[WilltheThrill]

I don't know about the roiding because I have a hard time believing they would get away it for this long. I'm with you 100% on beaning Donaldson. He's my #1 most hated.

I just know that when a team is hitting multiple HR's every single game and no other teams are doing so, it's highly suspicious. There are guys who are MUCH better and naturally powerful hitters, guys like Trout, Cabrera, Goldschmidt, etc., who aren't coming even close to the HR pace that the Blue Jays are on over the last 1-2 months.

To me, there are two very obvious indicators of steroid usage- freakishly built guys (McGwire, Sosa, Bonds), and career mediocre singles and doubles hitters who suddenly see a crazy spike in HR power mid-career (Brady Anderson, Bret Boone).

Bautista was a mediocre spare in Pittsburgh. He goes to Toronto and suddenly he's hitting 50-60 HR a year despite hitting .240-.250. Very suspicious.

Encarnacion never hit a ton of HR with Cincinatti despite hitting in a hitter's park for several seasons. Then, he gets traded to Toronto and suddenly he's an annual 40 HR beast. Very suspicious.

And now we have Donaldson in his first year in Toronto on pace to hit almost 50 HR. His previous career high was 29. Again, suspicious.

Any team that gets an extremely disproportionate amount of their runs through HR's (Oakland and now Toronto) I find very suspicious. If it were easily explainable and all innocent, then you would see a lot more teams hitting more HR's. But I'm not seeing any other teams scoring 10-15 per game anywhere near as often as Toronto. Most of their games lately have been video game-type scores. Their box scores read like this:

1st Inning
Donaldson doubled to left.
Bautista homered to left.
Encarnacion homered to right.

3rd Inning
Tulowitzki singled to left.
Donaldson homered to center.

5th Inning
Donaldson homered to left.
Encarnacion homered to center.

7th Inning
Bautista homered to left.
Encarnacion doubled to left.
Colabello homered to right.

Throw in a single or sac fly here and there by the other players, and there's your 12 runs. Not one other team's box score looks like theirs on a consistent basis. It's insane.

 

[DT LUNA]

FML FML FML!

I was gone all day at the pool. I figured Kershaw would help us out today. Count on the Astros to win when they are at the damn juice box. Yankees and Astros are probably the 2 scariest teams to face on the road in the AL. Glad the Rangers got a win, but the Astros have been pissing me off lately. As for the Dodgers, I hope those over-ratedpussies never win a World Series and Magic Johnson goes back to basketball. That franchise is a joke, thanks for nothing![/QUOTE

Anything else?

 

[BULLPEN FAILURE]

Woman hit by foul ball at Wrigley Field, taken to hospital

Extra netting is going to happen, only a matter of time.

 

[RevSader]

FML FML FML!

I was gone all day at the pool. I figured Kershaw would help us out today. Count on the Astros to win when they are at the damn juice box. Yankees and Astros are probably the 2 scariest teams to face on the road in the AL. Glad the Rangers got a win, but the Astros have been pissing me off lately. As for the Dodgers, I hope those over-ratedpussies never win a World Series and Magic Johnson goes back to basketball. That franchise is a joke, thanks for nothing!

Texas has 7 games vs the Astros and there are 39 games left to play...take a drink and a breath.

At the end of the first half Texas was 4 games under .500. And they went 22-13 since then to be 5 over .500. That's pretty damn impressive. Let it play out and save the freak outs for a little later. 87 games will get Texas in the playoffs whether by WC or Division title. They have some work to do.

 

[RevSader]

I just know that when a team is hitting multiple HR's every single game and no other teams are doing so, it's highly suspicious. There are guys who are MUCH better and naturally powerful hitters, guys like Trout, Cabrera, Goldschmidt, etc., who aren't coming even close to the HR pace that the Blue Jays are on over the last 1-2 months.

To me, there are two very obvious indicators of steroid usage- freakishly built guys (McGwire, Sosa, Bonds), and career mediocre singles and doubles hitters who suddenly see a crazy spike in HR power mid-career (Brady Anderson, Bret Boone).

Bautista was a mediocre spare in Pittsburgh. He goes to Toronto and suddenly he's hitting 50-60 HR a year despite hitting .240-.250. Very suspicious.

Encarnacion never hit a ton of HR with Cincinatti despite hitting in a hitter's park for several seasons. Then, he gets traded to Toronto and suddenly he's an annual 40 HR beast. Very suspicious.

And now we have Donaldson in his first year in Toronto on pace to hit almost 50 HR. His previous career high was 29. Again, suspicious.

Any team that gets an extremely disproportionate amount of their runs through HR's (Oakland and now Toronto) I find very suspicious. If it were easily explainable and all innocent, then you would see a lot more teams hitting more HR's. But I'm not seeing any other teams scoring 10-15 per game anywhere near as often as Toronto. Most of their games lately have been video game-type scores. Their box scores read like this:

1st Inning
Donaldson doubled to left.
Bautista homered to left.
Encarnacion homered to right.

3rd Inning
Tulowitzki singled to left.
Donaldson homered to center.

5th Inning
Donaldson homered to left.
Encarnacion homered to center.

7th Inning
Bautista homered to left.
Encarnacion doubled to left.
Colabello homered to right.

Throw in a single or sac fly here and there by the other players, and there's your 12 runs. Not one other team's box score looks like theirs on a consistent basis. It's insane.

Donaldson hit 29 homers playing half his games in Oakland and a bunch of games in HR supressive AL west parks, now he plays in the AL East which is full of hitters paradises. It's actually not that surprising when you look at park factors. Donaldson is a lot better than we thought, so I am glad Bean was too proud to keep him after their spat.

And the Astros hit more homers than the Blue Jays, do you think they are juicing?

 

[WilltheThrill]

Donaldson hit 29 homers playing half his games in Oakland and a bunch of games in HR supressive AL west parks, now he plays in the AL East which is full of hitters paradises. It's actually not that surprising when you look at park factors. Donaldson is a lot better than we thought, so I am glad Bean was too proud to keep him after their spat.

And the Astros hit more homers than the Blue Jays, do you think they are juicing?

Valbuena is the only candidate I see from Houston... career backup with subpar power, all of a sudden on pace to slug 30+ HR while barely staying above .200. But at least the Astros spread their HR's around. It's not the same 3 guys hitting multiple HR per game. One game it's Marisnick, the next it's Tucker, the next it's Carter, etc.

Plus Houston has a home park tailor made for HR. Correa is a phenomenal talent and already a better player than any of those 3 guys in Toronto. Altuve's got some pop for a little dude and Castro has decent power too. And Springer has always been a power hitter at every level. Valbuena's the only guy on their roster who sticks out as an anomaly, but even he isn't clubbing HR like the Blue Jays trio.

 

[jta4437]

Where does the $15 mil QO come from? If he's playing for $8 this season, he's certainly hasn't performed to a $15 level for 2016 IMO. So why offer him double his current contract?

I your opinion, what is "not much" for Colby?

Gallardo made like 14 million this year

 

[RevSader]

Valbuena is the only candidate I see from Houston... career backup with subpar power, all of a sudden on pace to slug 30+ HR while barely staying above .200. But at least the Astros spread their HR's around. It's not the same 3 guys hitting multiple HR per game. One game it's Marisnick, the next it's Tucker, the next it's Carter, etc.

Plus Houston has a home park tailor made for HR. Correa is a phenomenal talent and already a better player than any of those 3 guys in Toronto. Altuve's got some pop for a little dude and Castro has decent power too. And Springer has always been a power hitter at every level. Valbuena's the only guy on their roster who sticks out as an anomaly, but even he isn't clubbing HR like the Blue Jays trio.

Edwin and Jose have always hit homers...So adding Tulo and Donaldson to an environment where the ball flies out non stop doesn't make what they are doing surprising. The only reason we notice is that they have much improved pitching finally.

And Correa will be good for a long time, but you are really underselling Dondaldon's ability.

 

[BULLPEN FAILURE]

And Springer has always been a power hitter at every level.

What blows b-hole is that Springer has been out for awhile, and the 'stros are getting him back soon.

 

[RevSader]

Gallardo made like 14 million this year

And he's added more value than the cost of his contract. Not by a bunch (2.5 million), but he's done it. Colby has added surplus value by about about 12 million.

Just throwing out information, not jumping on what you've said.

Also, as I've said before, no player has accepted a QO since its inception. So I don't get why anyone would be worried about Yo taking it this off season. 16 million for a 2 win pitcher is breaking even. You purposely offer to to guys that you don't want to take it...

Gallardo is probably going to get a 3-4 year deal somewhere worth 36-48 million.

Look at Brandon McCarthy. Yo is younger than him and will get a equal or better deal.

 

[RevSader]

New thread for home series vs Jays is up.

 

[WilltheThrill]

Edwin and Jose have always hit homers...So adding Tulo and Donaldson to an environment where the ball flies out non stop doesn't make what they are doing surprising. The only reason we notice is that they have much improved pitching finally.

And Correa will be good for a long time, but you are really underselling Dondaldon's ability.

Edwin and Jose have not always hit HR, and that's my point. Jose Bautista bounced around for years from Baltimore to Kansas City to Tampa Bay and on to Pittusburgh because he couldn't hit a lick. His BEST season before coming to Toronto was 16 HR. Then in his first full season with Toronto he hit 54 HR. Encarnacion had one season of 26 HR in multiple seasons with Cincy and all other seasons with less than 20 HR. Now he's in Toronto hitting 30-40 HR a year.

Also, the Jays are hitting HR at insane paces in just about every park in baseball, so it's not like they're just taking advantage of a HR-prone home park. I don't suspect them of roiding because they're winning. So, I'm not noticing their improved pitching. I'm just seeing an abnormal amount of 10-15 run games with a ton of HR's and deep doubles being hit. No other winning team slugs the ridiculous way they do.

The Blue Jays have scored 658 runs, tops in baseball. The second place team (NYY) has 582. The Blue Jays have scored 76 more runs than the next best offensive team in baseball. I find it hard to believe that no other team with all of the loaded offenses out there can come within even 70 runs of a team that features Justin Smoak, Chris Colabello, and Kevin Pillar as regulars.

Also, the Blue Jays have a team SLG % of .443. No other team is within even 10 percentage points of them, not even Houston. And Toronto has a grand total of one guy hitting over .300 and just one more over .280. The rest all hit between .200-.260.

Maybe I'm wrong, but they're putting up video game stats with marginal talent.

 

[donaldson79]

Gallardo made like 14 million this year

I looked at his overall contract and avg the yearly amounts. So, really completely unaware of what he's making this year.

Thanks.......this sheds some light on what might happen next.

 

[jta4437]

Great W today. I had a feeling Nap was about to start hitting. Here's a feel good video about the Rangers. Try to hang around to see the end.

Against LHPs, thats no surprise, but no way he should be in there against RHPs

 

[jta4437]

Edwin and Jose have always hit homers...So adding Tulo and Donaldson to an environment where the ball flies out non stop doesn't make what they are doing surprising. The only reason we notice is that they have much improved pitching finally.

And Correa will be good for a long time, but you are really underselling Dondaldon's ability.

Bautista's 16 was his career high in 6 years before his 54 HR outburst, so i would disagree on him

Encarnacion hit 20+ before Toronto, as has Donaldson

 

[RevSader]

Bautista's 16 was his career high in 6 years before his 54 HR outburst, so i would disagree on him

Encarnacion hit 20+ before Toronto, as has Donaldson

I shouldn't have said always...but I should have said since playing everyday in Toronto they have hit a lot of homers. That place does wonders for guys it seems...all that Canadian viagra!

 

[jta4437]

I shouldn't have said always...but I should have said since playing everyday in Toronto they have hit a lot of homers. That place does wonders for guys it seems...all that Canadian viagra!

I was only disputing Bautista, he's always been suspect in my mind

 

[RevSader]

I was only disputing Bautista, he's always been suspect in my mind

With how they test these days, I don't know how he would be beating it. If he is, then damn he's smart about it.

 

[romeo212000]

With how they test these days, I don't know how he would be beating it. If he is, then damn he's smart about it.

Nelly and A-Rod both beat it.