Road trip concludes with a visit to an old friend: TEX @ OAK 5/26-29

[BULLPEN FAILURE]

The Rangers stay in Cali and head north to the Bay area for a 4 game Memorial Day weekend set against former Rangers great Elvis Andrus and his new squad. The Rangers come in at 19-23 and in 3rd place, 2 games ahead of the A's. They are 6-4 in their past 10, including going 5-4 against very tough Astr*'s and Angels teams.

Throwing baseballs this weekend will be everyone but Otto. Bookending the series will be Perez leading off and Dunning to close it out, with Gray and Hearn in between. Rangers should come away with at least two wins out of this series. Game times are 8:40, 8:40, 3:07, and 3:07.

On the hitting side, several slumpers have turned into thumpers. Calhoun, Garver, Miller, and Semien have all been making quality contributions recently. El Bombi appears to be slumping a bit, and Ibanez and Lowe have played themselves to the pine.

Have a safe weekend if you're traveling. Or even if you're not.

 

[saddles]

Huff getting a look in place of struggling Lowe

The usual suspects led the way on offense for the Rangers on Wednesday night at Angel Stadium, with Mitch Garver homering in his third straight game and Kole Calhoun hitting his team-leading seventh long ball of the month. But it was Sam Huff, making his first career start at first

www.mlb.com

“I want to see Sam hit,” said Woodward. “Sam’s had some good at-bats against some good pitching.”

On the other side is Lowe, who through 38 games has a slash line of .245/.300/.317 with an OPS+ of 82. Woodward theorized that his struggles on offense might be compromising Lowe’s defense as well. He has three errors already this season, and his -3 outs above average placed him No. 38 out of 41 qualified MLB first basemen this year.

 

[saddles]

Leiter goes tonight. I guess he pitches every 6 days now instead of every 7 days.

 

[BULLPEN FAILURE]

Leiter goes tonight. I guess he pitches every 6 days now instead of every 7 days.

WATCH: Leiter, Frisco face San Antonio on MLB.TV

 

[scotsman1948]

Huff getting a look in place of struggling Lowe

The usual suspects led the way on offense for the Rangers on Wednesday night at Angel Stadium, with Mitch Garver homering in his third straight game and Kole Calhoun hitting his team-leading seventh long ball of the month. But it was Sam Huff, making his first career start at first

www.mlb.com

“I want to see Sam hit,” said Woodward. “Sam’s had some good at-bats against some good pitching.”

On the other side is Lowe, who through 38 games has a slash line of .245/.300/.317 with an OPS+ of 82. Woodward theorized that his struggles on offense might be compromising Lowe’s defense as well. He has three errors already this season, and his -3 outs above average placed him No. 38 out of 41 qualified MLB first basemen this year.

makes sense

 

[saddles]

BA updated Rangers top 30 prospect list

Baseball America has updated their top 30 prospect list for the Rangers

www.lonestarball.com

The Texas Rangers’ top 30 list is updated and is available, and there are a couple of rather notable changes. First and foremost, Evan Carter has jumped up to #3 on the list from #7 this offseason. BA has high praise for Carter’s “universally excellent skill set,” and this would put Carter in the overall top 100 prospects in MLB.

BA identifies the biggest risers in each of the West systems, and along with Carter, the Rangers have Cole Ragans, Larson Kindreich and Winston Santos making jumps, with Ragans moving from 25 to 14, and Kindreich and Santos entering the top 30.

In terms of a noteworthy drop, Cole Winn went from #3 to #5 in the updated list, being passed by Carter at #3 and Ezequiel Duran, at #4. Winn has had a spate of wildness over the last month, while Carter has excelled and Duran has slashed .305/.355/.571 for AA Frisco.

 

[saddles]

Winston Santos making jumps, with Ragans moving from 25 to 14, and Kindreich and Santos entering the top 30.

It is hard to see by his stats what they are seeing in Santos.

 

[saddles]

Jim Callis updated mock draft

Jim Callis’s latest mock draft has the Rangers going with a college bat

www.lonestarball.com

Callis has us taking Parada. @DTC

 

[scotsman1948]

It is hard to see by his stats what they are seeing in Santos.

i mean any prospect that isn't totally dominating whatever level he is at then they should not be considered

 

[saddles]

Jim Callis has Jackson Holliday going first and Termarr Johnson going sixth. If I was a gambling man I would bet a lot that Holliday will not go 5 spots ahead of Johnson. I think Johnson will go before Holliday.

 

[saddles]

From Scott Lucas:

Cole Winn carried a no-hitter into the 5th, struck out nine of 24 batters, The one, cheap run occurred resulted from a three-hit span in which two came off the bat at less than 70 MPH. Winn also walked four of the first 12 batters and had a fastball strike rate of 44% in that span.


Can't say enough about Ezequiel Duran's great start. He's never hit this well outside of the Dominican Republic, and since last summer's trade he's spent most of his time at short. He won't be playing there as a Ranger, of course, but competence at the position aids most courses the Rangers could take with him.

Blaine Crim has now played more games in Frisco (74) than Hickory (73) post-2020. He's batted .295/.348/.537 in AA, a very slight dropoff from his .300/.372/.559 in high-A. His walk/HBP has dipped a little, and a couple of the high-A homers have turned into doubles. He's still homering at nearly twice the league rate.

David Garcia has usually needed time to acclimate to a level and was hitting .193/.258/.316 just over a week ago. Whether he's settling in or is just on a heater, he's suddenly sporting a slugging percentage 40 points higher than his previous best.

 

[Kelleyman]

Huff Garver and Lowe in this article

 

[BULLPEN FAILURE]

Huff Garver and Lowe in this article

Forgot that Khris Davis was on this team at one point

 

[Kelleyman]

So we are seeing some end games for guys that don’t produce. Just wonder who will replace Ibanez at some point prior to Jung

 

[BULLPEN FAILURE]

So we are seeing some end games for guys that don’t produce. Just wonder who will replace Ibanez at some point prior to Jung

Miller/Culberson

 

[Kelleyman]

Matt Carpenter to Yanks

 

[Kelleyman]

Miller/Culberson

That is what is easiest one to make especially if we bring up OF imo

 

[saddles]

So we are seeing some end games for guys that don’t produce. Just wonder who will replace Ibanez at some point prior to Jung

Wendzel has hit poorly and is now hurt. Smith was doing great up until earlier this week. Maybe he will get it turned around, stay hot for about three or four weeks and then get called up. Maybe if Duran impresses enough for a couple more weeks they would even consider him.

 

[saddles]

 

[saddles]