Series Thread: Rangers Return Home to Face Boston for Three Games September 18-20

[armadillooutlaw]

I don't want to argue.

Stop it, you two. Your fighting is tearing this family apart. Lol.

 

[Senator_fan]

As much as I like Bradford I would rather him come out of the bullpen for 2 or 3 innings at this point. His numbers after one time through the lineup are not good and worse after two times.
You could start him but don’t expect more than 3 innings and pull him quickly.

 

[Kelleyman]

I tbink it is all hands on deck most games foing forward. If we need Bradford to hold a lead for Dunning then bring him in

 

[WilltheThrill]

Rangers 84-68: vs SEA (3), at LAA (3), at SEA (4)
Astros 85-68: vs KC (3), at SEA (3), at ARI (3)
Mariners 84-68: at TEX (3), vs HOU (3), vs TEX (4)
Blue Jays 85-67: at NYY (1), at TB (3), vs NYY (3), vs TB (3)

Mariners and Blue Jays hold a slight advantage in that they have slightly more home games remaining than road games. Rangers and Astros both play their last week on the road.

However, the Mariners and Blue Jays play somewhat tougher opponents, with all 10 above .500 for both teams. Meanwhile, the Astros get one “easy” series with the Royals and the Rangers get an “easy” one vs. the Angels (easy based solely on record).

Gonna be a wild final 11 days.

 

[saddles]

Things to consider about who is in the starting rotation from here until the end of the regular season.

We have 10 games left. We are going to get six starts out of Montgomery, Dunning, and Eovaldi. That leaves 4 games for some combination of Perez, Gray, Heaney or Bradford.

In the last month, Heaney has one good start and one good relief appearance

In the last month Gray has had 2 decent starts and 3 bad ones.

In the last month Bradford has only had one start and it came 23 days after his last start in AAA. His five relief appearances in September were all scoreless. He averaged less than 1.2 innings per relief outing and he was used about once every 3 days.

If Bradford stayed in relief it seems, based on Bochy's history of using him, that that he would make three more appearances for a total of about 4.1 innings.

In Bradford's 7 starts this year he has averaged about 4.1 innings. The average was a whole inning higher when he was starting on a somewhat regular basis. Based on that, if he starts 2 more times he probably gives us 8.2 innings.

That means we should get 4.1 innings out of Bradford if he is in the bullpen and 8.2 or a little more if he starts.


It appears, the way Perez has been pitching we could very well get 10 innings from him as a starter.

I think if Perez starts 2 more games, we use the bullpen for 8 innings tops, and if Bradford starts we use the bullpen about 9 innings total in those 2 outings.

It is a good chance Gray gives us no more than 3 innings per start, meaning the bullpen would work 12 innings total, in his 2 starts. The results from 2 Heaney starts would be very close to the same, maybe causing the bullpen to work 10 or 11 innings.

 

[WilltheThrill]

Things to consider about who is in the starting rotation from here until the end of the regular season.

We have 10 games left. We are going to get six starts out of Montgomery, Dunning, and Eovaldi. That leaves 4 games for some combination of Perez, Gray, Heaney or Bradford.

In the last month, Heaney has one good start and one good relief appearance

In the last month Gray has had 2 decent starts and 3 bad ones.

In the last month Bradford has only had one start and it came 23 days after his last start in AAA. His five relief appearances in September were all scoreless. He averaged less than 1.2 innings per relief outing and he was used about once every 3 days.

If Bradford stayed in relief it seems, based on Bochy's history of using him, that that he would make three more appearances for a total of about 4.1 innings.

In Bradford's 7 starts this year he has averaged about 4.1 innings. The average was a whole inning higher when he was starting on a somewhat regular basis. Based on that, if he starts 2 more times he probably gives us 8.2 innings.

That means we should get 4.1 innings out of Bradford if he is in the bullpen and 8.2 or a little more if he starts.


It appears, the way Perez has been pitching we could very well get 10 innings from him as a starter.

I think if Perez starts 2 more games, we use the bullpen for 8 innings tops, and if Bradford starts we use the bullpen about 9 innings total in those 2 outings.

It is a good chance Gray gives us no more than 3 innings per start, meaning the bullpen would work 12 innings total, in his 2 starts. The results from 2 Heaney starts would be very close to the same, maybe causing the bullpen to work 10 or 11 innings.

Something also to consider are the opponents and their splits.

Both Seattle and LAA hit left handed pitchers better than right handed pitchers, by around 0.15 AVG higher each. In fact, Seattle is the 4th best team in baseball when facing lefties on the road.

Of course Eovaldi and Montgomery are guaranteed rotation spots for the last 10 games. Let’s also assume Dunning is as well. That’s 2 RHP and 1 LHP. The remaining two spots will go to either Bradford (L), Gray (R), Perez (L), or Heaney (L).

Seattle’s 5 best hitters (Julio Rodriguez, Teoscar Hernandez, Ty France, Eugenio Suarez, Cal Raleigh) all bat right-handed and are all much better against lefties. Raleigh is actually a switch hitter, but he’s more dangerous from the right side. Kelenic, Ford, and Crawford are all left-handed.

So with Seattle, logic would say that Jon Gray would be a much better choice than, say, Heaney or Perez. But as we all know, Gray’s current form is pretty poor. So do you start the guy who has the best total stats from 2023 who would also theoretically give the opponent the hardest time? Or do you start the guys who have better recent stats/form but would possibly favor the opponent’s most dangerous hitters? Tough, tough call.

Maybe give Jon Gray one last shot at starting Tuesday against the Angels, and if he starts to struggle like he did today, go to another pitcher and then permanently remove Gray from the rotation before the final series against Seattle.

 

[saddles]

Langford was 0 for 3 with 2 walks tonight.

 

[saddles]

Something also to consider are the opponents and their splits.

Both Seattle and LAA hit left handed pitchers better than right handed pitchers, by around 0.15 AVG higher each. In fact, Seattle is the 4th best team in baseball when facing lefties on the road.

Of course Eovaldi and Montgomery are guaranteed rotation spots for the last 10 games. Let’s also assume Dunning is as well. That’s 2 RHP and 1 LHP. The remaining two spots will go to either Bradford (L), Gray (R), Perez (L), or Heaney (L).

Seattle’s 5 best hitters (Julio Rodriguez, Teoscar Hernandez, Ty France, Eugenio Suarez, Cal Raleigh) all bat right-handed and are all much better against lefties. Raleigh is actually a switch hitter, but he’s more dangerous from the right side. Kelenic, Ford, and Crawford are all left-handed.

So with Seattle, logic would say that Jon Gray would be a much better choice than, say, Heaney or Perez. But as we all know, Gray’s current form is pretty poor. So do you start the guy who has the best total stats from 2023 who would also theoretically give the opponent the hardest time? Or do you start the guys who have better recent stats/form but would possibly favor the opponent’s most dangerous hitters? Tough, tough call.

Maybe give Jon Gray one last shot at starting Tuesday against the Angels, and if he starts to struggle like he did today, go to another pitcher and then permanently remove Gray from the rotation before the final series against Seattle.

Those are good points to consider.

So going with the lefty/righty splits as a decision maker, wouldn't that make Stratton, Hernandez and Leclerc the go to guys from the bullpen the rest of the way.

Another thing to consider is Bradford has some reverse splits. Lefties are hitting 78 points higher against him, and their OPS is 76 points higher against him. Righties have only hit .230 against Bradford this year.

 

[saddles]

 

[saddles]

 

[saddles]

 

[Kelleyman]

Cole pitches today for the Yankees
Maybe they get a win and gives us an edge going into tomorrow

 

[saddles]

There are one or two relievers in this mix.

 

[saddles]

Cole pitches today for the Yankees
Maybe they get a win and gives us an edge going into tomorrow

At this point, I am still wanting to win the division and have the Blue Jays knock one of our division opponents out of the wild card race.

 

[saddles]

Rangers Likely To Put Martin Perez Back In Rotation

The Rangers are likely to put left-hander Martin Perez back in the rotation after he's thrived in a bullpen role. Read more at MLB Trade Rumors.

www.mlbtraderumors.com

 

[saddles]

 

[saddles]

 

[saddles]

There are one or two relievers in this mix.

Yuki Matsui, LHP, Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles
One of the top relievers in Japan, Matsui has the advantage of full international free agency; as a result, he’s attached to neither a posting fee nor MLB Draft pick compensation. Matsui, 27, is very likely to explore options in North America, and many in the industry believe he’d prefer to sign with a Major League team.

MLB clubs often talk about assembling bullpens that feature diverse blends of arm angles and pitch arrays. Matsui will help in that regard. He stands 5-foot-9 and throws a splitter, slider and 4-seam fastball with good carry. (At 16 years old, Matsui famously relied on his slider to strike out 22 batters in a high school tournament game.)

Matsui’s repertoire profiles well when evaluated through pitch metrics, which provides greater confidence in his ability to transition to MLB. He’s maintaining a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 6.7 this season, an improvement over his 2022 numbers. Matsui profiles as a seventh-inning reliever, and possibly better, in a Major League bullpen next year.

 

[saddles]

There are one or two relievers in this mix.

Naoyuki Uwasawa, RHP, Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters
MLB fans are familiar with the Fighters, as the original club of Darvish and Ohtani. The Fighters are known as a player-friendly organization that typically honors the posting requests of star players; Uwasawa is the latest example, although he is not as accomplished as Darvish or Ohtani.
Uwasawa, who has trained at Driveline in the U.S., is viewed as a potential back-end starter or long reliever in the Major Leagues. He relies on breaking pitches, because his fastball velocity does not stand out. This season, he has struck out 6.6 batters per nine innings, relatively low by the standards of MLB starters. But Uwasawa may generate a higher swing-and-miss rate in MLB — at least initially — because he throws an effective forkball that is less commonly seen by hitters in North America.

 

[saddles]

https://x.com/yakyucosmo/status/1702180699728748646?s=20

Shōta Imanaga, LHP, Yokohama DeNA BayStars
Imanaga’s name is familiar to American fans, as he started against Team USA in the World Baseball Classic gold medal game. Imanaga was credited with the victory after allowing one earned run in two innings.

While Imanaga permitted a home run to the scorching-hot Trea Turner, he also showed the baseball world why he’s such a highly regarded starter. He struck out Paul Goldschmidt with a devastating splitter and caught Cedric Mullins looking at a 94-mph fastball on the outside corner.

On the FOX Sports broadcast that night, Ken Rosenthal reported that U.S. players noticed similarities between Imanaga and Braves star Max Fried, due in part to the southpaw’s effectiveness against right-handed batters.

The BayStars plan to post Imanaga this offseason, and Major League teams generally view him as a No. 2 or 3 starter. Yakyu Cosmopolitan (@yakyucosmo) reported last week that 10 teams scouted Imanaga’s most recent start: the Yankees, Red Sox, Blue Jays, Rangers, Phillies, Cubs, Reds, D-backs, Giants and Padres.