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West Coast wind-down continues.....Seattle 9/19-21

donaldson79

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I guess we still have an opportunity to be somewhat of a spoiler.....But for me, it's really about the individual performances from now until the finish-line.......What's y'all's take?
 

DT LUNA

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I guess we still have an opportunity to be somewhat of a spoiler.....But for me, it's really about the individual performances from now until the finish-line.......What's y'all's take?
Don't see any thing left for this season except looking ahead to next year and what we have going in.
 

saddles

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I guess we still have an opportunity to be somewhat of a spoiler.....But for me, it's really about the individual performances from now until the finish-line.......What's y'all's take?
It is a tough time for us fans. A lot of last year was frustrating for a lot of the season and certainly in the postseason. It left a terrible taste in my mouth and that taste is still there. I just don't like where we are organizationally. I can't forsee a realistic shot at being good enough to push for WS anytime soon. We are spinning our wheels.
 

saddles

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Rangers' Jake Diekman records one of the most efficient five-out saves you'll ever see vs. Angels

It turned out to be the most efficient five-out save in more than seven years. The last pitcher to get the final five outs and record a save on 10 or fewer pitches was Matt Capps for Minnesota -- against the Rangers -- on Sept. 3, 2010. According to Stats, LLC, no pitcher had ever recorded a save of at least five outs on 10 or fewer pitches and allowed a walk since pitch counts began being tracked in 1988.
 

saddles

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In going back to look at the season prediction thread that I put up before the season started I see I missed in a lot of areas. There were two questions that I would like to see what you guys think about as the season comes to a close. They are:

Which player will be the most pleasant surprise this season?


Which player will be the most disappointing surprise this season?



The players picked before the season started were Profar, Mazara, DeShields and Rua for the most pleasant surprise.

The ones picked for most disappointing were Hamels/Choo, Cashner, Odor and Choo again. I wonder who that was that picked Cashner?
 

donaldson79

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I wonder who that was that picked Cashner?

I don't know, but he sure deserves a tip-of-the-hat on that one. :suds:

And if we had a chance to re-vote now, it'd be DDJ for most pleasant, and the obvious one, Odor for most disappointing.......

But like you pointed out, whomever had Cashner had a good one.
 

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I guess we still have an opportunity to be somewhat of a spoiler.....But for me, it's really about the individual performances from now until the finish-line.......What's y'all's take?

About the same. Would like to see Calhoun get a few more knocks, maybe even his first MLB HR. Anything Diek does will be a bonus. But really, that's about it.
 

DT LUNA

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Casner and DeShields for most pleasant
Odor/Napoli most disapointing
 

saddles

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I think Cashner, Mazara, Gallo, DeShields, and Elvis should all be given some consideration for most pleasant surprise.

Odor for biggest disappointment.
 

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I can't say Napoli was a disappointment because his performance was more or less exactly what I predicted it would be. I guess I'll say the biggest disappointment was Odor, which is strange to say about a 2B with almost 30 HR.
 

donaldson79

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I guess I'll say the biggest disappointment was Odor, which is strange to say about a 2B with almost 30 HR.

It's really not so strange when you think of how horrid he is in all other phases of the game. He's below avg while running the bases, and well below avg in BA & DEFENSE.
 

donaldson79

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I think Cashner, Mazara, Gallo, DeShields, and Elvis should all be given some consideration for most pleasant surprise.

I honestly wasn't surprised to see Maz ratchet up his game this season. But you can sure more a solid case for the other 4 you mentioned.

And now that I see you posting Gallo, I may have to switch my vote from DDJ to him, b/c he's shown an awful lot this season, and given us all something to look forward to in the years to come.
 

saddles

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2017 Prospect Year In Review: Kyle Cody

He was sent to Hickory to start 2017, and actually had a rough first month and a half or so. But he started to find his groove around the start of June, and he kept getting better and better as the season went on. On June 17th, he started a game vs. the Lakewood Blueclaws and pitched a gem, allowing 2 baserunners across 8 innings while striking out 8. He went on a tear after that, allowing only 2 earned runs over his next 5 starts while striking out batters at a great clip and rocking a .143 BA against. He was named the Rangers’ Minor League Pitcher of the Month for July. Cody was healthy all year and pitched with consistency and was rewarded with a late-season callup Down East for a month with the Wood Ducks.

And he actually pitched even better the next level up, according to the numbers. He posted a 2.05 ERA in 5 starts with the Ducks, fanning 10.3 per 9 and limiting walks. He didn’t allow a home run at the A+ level, and only allowed 4 over 95 innings in Hickory. The Rangers let him eat, too, throwing at least 89 pitches in all 5 starts. It was just a great, snowballing type of season for Cody, who seemed to get better with the more attention he was garnering.


When you see Cody pitch the first thing that’s going to stand out is the size. At a Sadzeckian 6’7”, 245, he’s a fairly imposing figure, and he’s got an easy delivery that yields a ton of downward action. He throws a fastball that sits 92-95 and it stays at that level as he works deep into games. He also throws what looks to be a promising slider, and a change that’s showing improvement.

If I had to guess I think the Rangers see Cody as one of the only pitchers in the organization immune to their new, slower development process for pitchers. Cody profiles as a workhorse type. He works deep into games and pitches efficiently and he’s shown he can hold up to higher pitchcounts. He’s also an experienced 23-year-old, with 4 years in a good baseball conference and now a pair of pro-ball seasons where he’s compiled 35 starts. It wouldn’t surprise me if they keep his High-A career rather short and start him at Frisco in 2018.


I love guys like Cody. He doesn’t project to be a 1 or 2 or maybe even a 3, but he looks like he could be the best kind of BORP, one who isn’t gonna blow anyone away with his stuff but he could be a dependable innings-eater who throws strikes and works deep into games. He’s made a name for himself after his 2017 campaign and you’re definitely going to see him on some preseason rankings next year, I would guess slotting in somewhere around the top 10-13 on Rangers lists. It’s hard to believe, but if he continues to shove and things fall right (remember the lack of quality SP depth at the Rangers’ higher levels), he could debut with the big boys sometime in 2018.
 

saddles

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I honestly wasn't surprised to see Maz ratchet up his game this season. But you can sure more a solid case for the other 4 you mentioned.

And now that I see you posting Gallo, I may have to switch my vote from DDJ to him, b/c he's shown an awful lot this season, and given us all something to look forward to in the years to come.
He has shown an awful lot and not just in the HR department.
 

saddles

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I don't get labeling Kyle Cody a BORP after the season he had. Sometimes when guys do much better than they were expected to it takes awhile for the evaluators to give him credit. I am looking forward to seeing what he does next year.
 

saddles

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2017 Prospect Year In Review: Cole Ragans

After a rough 2017 debut with Spokane on Opening Night, Cole didn’t allow an earned run across his next three starts and went into July sporting an ERA in the 2’s and a K/9 in the 13’s. The Rangers had already shown that they would be patient with Ragans, having him pitch only 7 innings as a Rookie baller last year, and by starting him out in Spokane this year when it was rumored before the season he’d skip Low-A and move right on to Hickory. The Rangers continued their slow roll by allowing six days rest between starts, and by keeping him on a leash of around 5 innings or mid-to-low-70s pitchcounts for the first month or so of the season. They let him build up into the mid-80s as the year went on, and then in his next to last start of the regular season they let him ball out and throw 97 pitches (although those 97 pitches only got him through 4.2 innings). Ragans showed durability while being surrounded on Rangers’ lists by guys like Matuella and Martin and Palumbo. So that alone was extremely refreshing.


As the season progressed Ragans’ numbers leveled off a bit (to the point where, you know, he wasn’t like the best pitcher the Northwest League has ever seen), but he continued to put up extremely promising numbers for a 19 year old in a league where he was over 2 years younger than the average player. He finished the regular season at 57 and a third innings with an ERA of 3.61 and an FIP of 3.80. He continued to strike out opposing batters at a remarkable clip, and ended up setting the Spokane Indians record for strikeouts in a season, beating out Derek Holland’s 83 from 10 seasons ago. He also made the end-of-year All-Star team alongside Indians OF Miguel Aparicio.

In terms of stuff, his somewhat self-perpetuated comparison to Cole Hamels has been widely discussed both on this site and on the baseball Twitterverse. They have the same basic repertoire, an eerily-similar motion, and, obviously, the same name. Ragans rocks the fastball/curve/change and they’re all decent or better and he often dominated Low-A competition with his stuff. The FB sits around 92-94 and is expected to increase in velo as he matures and adds muscle. His motion is very fluid and repeatable, I assume because he was watching Phillies games from a young age and practicing in front of a full-length mirror. And the term “advanced pitchability” is used a lot when discussing Ragans, and his potential to cruise through the lower levels is starting to come to fruition. He has some control issues, not at all uncommon with such a young pitcher, and they were on display with his BB/9 in the 5’s. But overall Cole’s “debut” season is a unanimous success. He’s slated to start Game 2 of Spokane’s first round series of the NWL playoffs tonight in Vancouver.


It’ll be interesting to see what the Rangers do with him next year. There’s been much talk about how the Rangers have been handling their young pitchers this year, but we’ll see if their patience holds up now that they have some pretty shiny toys to play with at the lower levels, especially ones like Ragans who could probably hold up if he were to, say, skip Hickory and the A-Ball level and start 2018 as a High-A Wood Duck.
 

saddles

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2017 Prospect Year In Review: Jose Trevino

The first part of the article details Trevino's offensive regression this year. Then they get inot his catching skills and leadership skills.

Past the bat, Trevino has matured into a very solid backstop, physically and mentally. He’s stocky but athletic, with a strong arm and an increasingly-quick throwing motion. He threw out 41% of base-stealers. Trevino has turned into a great blocker, allowing only 3 passed balls in 850-something innings, which, with some of the Riders’ pitching problems this year, was huge.


Trevino has also become almost alarmingly good at managing a pitching staff, for a 24-year-old with only 3 years of full-time catching under his belt (although according to reports he was good at managing a pitching staff as a 2nd and 3rd baseman, as well). It’s easy for even a casual fan to see that he carries some authority when he walks out to the pitcher’s mound, and the Riders pitchers sang his praises quite a bit. Sadzeck talked about him pre-season, Gardewine talked about him upon his first call-up. Nick also hinted at a strong sense of accountability across the Frisco clubhouse and you gotta think Trevino was a big part of that. And then he’ll go and do stuff like this to show he’s not a cold, severe baseball robot.

What Trevino has between the ears is an asset to everyone around him. From all accounts he’s a phenomenal leader, one who rolls out of bed in the morning ready to accept the team captain role. Assuming he carves out a decent major league career (which I still think is very likely) he’s going to be someone that’s used as a mouthpiece for the team, because he’s very well-spoken and has a clear understanding of both the game and of the team dynamic. This positive makeup goes beyond the lines, as well. The RoughRiders as an organization are great about autographs and pictures, and Trevino is at the head of that, often seen down the 3rd baseline signing for kids both before and after games. As mentioned before, Trevino is from Corpus Christi, and after Hurricane Harvey when the RoughRiders and the Corpus Christi Hooks banded together to raise some donations, it was Trevino front and center in the promo video.

The kid’s just got it all upstairs, and you can’t help but pull for him to have a better 2018. It appears he won’t be getting a late-season ML callup, but he should be added to the 40-man this winter, and he’ll spend another spring playing with the big boys before being sent down to sharpen his teeth a bit more behind the plate and with the stick. Where he goes will depend largely on the Rangers catching depth as an organization, combined with what they want to do with backup catcher slash starting infielder Isiah Kiner-Falefa, who’s around the same age/proximity to ML. Is Trevino going to be the 3rd catcher on the organizational ladder? Or will they add someone between himself, Chirinos and Nicholas? I would guess that Trevino spends a bit more time at the AA level to start 2018 and makes the jump into AAA at some point around the halfway mark, and he should make his Major League debut sometime next summer, either in September or earlier due to injury.


Trev had a great year everywhere except at the plate, where he still had some exciting moments. He’ll be somewhere around the Rangers’ top 10 to start next season and he still projects as a major league catcher due to the glove and the makeup. He was one of the highlights of the RoughRiders season, and if there’s one young player in the Rangers’ org you could be sure will shake off an iffy year with the bat, it’s Trevino.
 

donaldson79

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He has shown an awful lot and not just in the HR department.

Actually, the HR department I'm only mildly surprised at. It's his athletic flexibility and understanding/accepting of where the strike zone is, and how to take advantage of it.
 

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It's really not so strange when you think of how horrid he is in all other phases of the game. He's below avg while running the bases, and well below avg in BA & DEFENSE.

That's what I'm saying... 2B generally don't show power like that.
 
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