Rangers vs. A's - Series of the year edition

[Nightcrawler]

God help us.........

 

[jaar01]

Well, it really is pretty simple. Sweep the A's or turn the page to 2014. Anything less than a sweep and the division race is basically over. And I want nothing to do with a 1 game WC again. The Rangers have no shot at beating any team's best starter at this point. Plus, Wash sneaking into a 1 game playoff likely saves his job, and that is the last thing I want to see.

So it's sweep the A's or bust. Even 2 out of 3 won't get it done.

 

[Nightcrawler]

Depends..... If Oakland loses 1 out of the next 2. Winning the series would be good enough

 

[RevSader]

Texas needs wins regardless of who they play. Tampa needs to lose and I hope the Orioles can keep the Yankees at bay for a little while longer.

 

[darrylgann]

God help us.........

 

[RevSader]

Texas got swept when you made the thread nightcrawler, so you should probably never do it again.

 

[lainey12]

Meh...
Go Rangers!

 

[Nightcrawler]

Texas got swept when you made the thread nightcrawler, so you should probably never do it again.

I'm playing the odds.... Hopefully I got all of the bad games out of my system!

 

[lainey12]

If they lose the first, it's going to be hard to watch the second, I might get lucky and be too busy anyway
I don't expect much, not even a WC...so even that would be exciting and a unlikely miracle at this point.

but, alas...I love the Rangers.

 

[darrylgann]

It's 15 to 1 A's, I'm smelling a Twins comeback!

 

[Sexy]

Thanks Minnesota.

 

[fanman8825]

Well, it really is pretty simple. Sweep the A's or turn the page to 2014. Anything less than a sweep and the division race is basically over. And I want nothing to do with a 1 game WC again. The Rangers have no shot at beating any team's best starter at this point. Plus, Wash sneaking into a 1 game playoff likely saves his job, and that is the last thing I want to see.

So it's sweep the A's or bust. Even 2 out of 3 won't get it done.

I actually agree with you on not having a 1 game WC. Your right it probably gets Wash an extension. 7 years is alot for one manager any where. By this time next week we ought to know what direction this team is headed in.

 

[Tacobenboy]

Clutch and not clutch

There are two reasons that the A's are a better team than our Rangers and yes I said it, a better team. First is that their core players, stars if you can call them that, come through night after night in big situations. Just watch them, almost every night it's either Crisp, Donaldson, or Cespedes coming through with a huge hit. Now that Reddick is back he will join this list of clutch players. For our Rangers, our big studs consistently fail to come through in big moments and ther's your difference. As of earlier this week, the A's led the AL in walks drawn and the Rangers led the AL in outs recorded on first pitches of at bats. plate disciplne goes a long way towards being able to be clutch in pressure situations. The second big reason is that Bob Melvin is a much better in game manager than Wash.

Don't get me wrong I'm still rooting like hell for the Rangers and personally hate the A's but the differences are clear to see and it hurts to watch it and hurts worse to admit it.

 

[RevSader]

There are two reasons that the A's are a better team than our Rangers and yes I said it, a better team. First is that their core players, stars if you can call them that, come through night after night in big situations. Just watch them, almost every night it's either Crisp, Donaldson, or Cespedes coming through with a huge hit. Now that Reddick is back he will join this list of clutch players. For our Rangers, our big studs consistently fail to come through in big moments and ther's your difference. As of earlier this week, the A's led the AL in walks drawn and the Rangers led the AL in outs recorded on first pitches of at bats. plate disciplne goes a long way towards being able to be clutch in pressure situations. The second big reason is that Bob Melvin is a much better in game manager than Wash.

Don't get me wrong I'm still rooting like hell for the Rangers and personally hate the A's but the differences are clear to see and it hurts to watch it and hurts worse to admit it.

What you call a better team, I call better outcomes. I think they are about equal if anything.

And clutch isn't real. It's just confirmation bias.

 

[darrylgann]

There are two reasons that the A's are a better team than our Rangers and yes I said it, a better team. First is that their core players, stars if you can call them that, come through night after night in big situations. Just watch them, almost every night it's either Crisp, Donaldson, or Cespedes coming through with a huge hit. Now that Reddick is back he will join this list of clutch players. For our Rangers, our big studs consistently fail to come through in big moments and ther's your difference. As of earlier this week, the A's led the AL in walks drawn and the Rangers led the AL in outs recorded on first pitches of at bats. plate disciplne goes a long way towards being able to be clutch in pressure situations. The second big reason is that Bob Melvin is a much better in game manager than Wash.

Don't get me wrong I'm still rooting like hell for the Rangers and personally hate the A's but the differences are clear to see and it hurts to watch it and hurts worse to admit it.

Hopefully our core will get better with a year behind in Profar and Martins experience level. They should only get better, I would think. I would also give you next year where Madagan's influence would kick in. It wasn't going to happen over night. It'd also help seeing free swinger AJ go. As far as Wash

 

[Tacobenboy]

What you call a better team, I call better outcomes. I think they are about equal if anything.

And clutch isn't real. It's just confirmation bias.

Rev, we've had a long history of chatting baseball and I always respect your thoughts but confirmation bias suggests a small sample size. If you go back to the second half of last year, there is something on the order of 210 games worth of sample size that suggests that the A's are more adept at, hate to say it, "doing what the game asks them to do". Having been a baseball man for over thirty years I will also tell you that it is absolutely not a coincidence that the patience and discipline at the plate displayed by A's hitters in general is a major contributing factor to their ability to come through when they need to at a much higher rate than the Rangers.

No way are the A's more talented or deeper than the Rangers I get that. As far as team goes though, sad to say, no way a the Rangers better than the A's and that's just the plain truth. Now all I'm hoping for is for the Rangers to spend the weekend kicking the ever loving shit out of the A's to start a hot streak that carries us all on a ride back to the WS. Reality is setting in but I shall not give up on our Rangers.

 

[Nightcrawler]

I know some of you hate talking about the wild card, but we're still in decent shape in the wild card picture. The Yankees are the 3rd team and we are 4 games better than the yanks in the loss column. If we can play well next week against Oakland and TB. We should get a wildcard at least.....

 

[RevSader]

Rev, we've had a long history of chatting baseball and I always respect your thoughts but confirmation bias suggests a small sample size. If you go back to the second half of last year, there is something on the order of 210 games worth of sample size that suggests that the A's are more adept at, hate to say it, "doing what the game asks them to do". Having been a baseball man for over thirty years I will also tell you that it is absolutely not a coincidence that the patience and discipline at the plate displayed by A's hitters in general is a major contributing factor to their ability to come through when they need to at a much higher rate than the Rangers.

No way are the A's more talented or deeper than the Rangers I get that. As far as team goes though, sad to say, no way a the Rangers better than the A's and that's just the plain truth. Now all I'm hoping for is for the Rangers to spend the weekend kicking the ever loving shit out of the A's to start a hot streak that carries us all on a ride back to the WS. Reality is setting in but I shall not give up on our Rangers.

They are better at seeing more pitches than Texas. OBP plays a huge rule in their over all success. I don't think we will ever be able to dissect the outcomes and say clutch exists. I just don't see the data backing that up over a long period of time. I always say given enough ABs in a certain situation a player is going to perform as well as he always does. If he does perform higher than expected e.g. David Murphy in 2012, then I expect a regression soon.

It is very annoying that the Rangers are not playing to their level or even above their heads like they were in the early part of the season. This team was on pace to win 100 games for a majority of the season. Then it went by the wayside because of streaks.

All that to say I don't think the way Texas or Oakland both play is sustainable for success in the post season. The A's will be in trouble when the game slows down and their patience sees them in a 0-2 counts in the playoffs. Much like Texas' offense won't get it done if they cannot muster hits with RISP. I think they are ultimately about even, but for different reasons.

 

[WhiteMamba]

Rev, we've had a long history of chatting baseball and I always respect your thoughts but confirmation bias suggests a small sample size. If you go back to the second half of last year, there is something on the order of 210 games worth of sample size that suggests that the A's are more adept at, hate to say it, "doing what the game asks them to do". Having been a baseball man for over thirty years I will also tell you that it is absolutely not a coincidence that the patience and discipline at the plate displayed by A's hitters in general is a major contributing factor to their ability to come through when they need to at a much higher rate than the Rangers.

No way are the A's more talented or deeper than the Rangers I get that. As far as team goes though, sad to say, no way a the Rangers better than the A's and that's just the plain truth. Now all I'm hoping for is for the Rangers to spend the weekend kicking the ever loving shit out of the A's to start a hot streak that carries us all on a ride back to the WS. Reality is setting in but I shall not give up on our Rangers.

Very good analysis. I agree with all of it.

 

[ESPN Refugee]

2 out of 3 is all Texas needs.