Series Thread: Rangers Host the Astros For Four Games May 15-18

[saddles]

I am not certain Osuna is ready.

I agree with this statement.

 

[saddles]

Why not make it all merit based battinf order wise?

Because the MLB groupthink says veterans should be given weeks or even months to turn their game around. Baseball is much more seniority based than merit based.

 

[saddles]

I am not certain Osuna is ready. I think he will succeed but may hurt the club at first.
Ok letting him play AAA until the break

He needs a spot to play when they do bring him up. When Carter is ready to play there will not be a spot for Osuna. Hopefully, Carter will be ready well before the break. There is a spot right now.

It would be a great time to give him an audition and for him to see what he needs to work on when he goes back down.

 

[saddles]

 

[WastinSomeTime]

So should the team have brought back Kirby Yates???

He hasn't done well including against us and now he's on the DL.

 

[WastinSomeTime]

I think more than anything how CY has gone about building our BP has been the most irritating area of our team especially having a closer. I do think we have some decent pieces in our pen but we absolutely do not have a closer.

 

[saddles]

From Rangers Player Development:

Congrats to @RidersBaseball 1B/OF Abimelec Ortiz on being named Texas League Player of the Week!


Ortiz hit .450 with a 3 HR, 2 2B and 11 RBI over 5 games vs Corpus Christi last week, including a walk-off grand slam.

 

[saddles]

I wonder what Abi Ortiz's chances will be to be successful in the big leagues. He usually starts out slow at a new level. That is not a good recipe to be given much of a chance in the big leagues.

 

[WastinSomeTime]

From Rangers Player Development:

Congrats to @RidersBaseball 1B/OF Abimelec Ortiz on being named Texas League Player of the Week!


Ortiz hit .450 with a 3 HR, 2 2B and 11 RBI over 5 games vs Corpus Christi last week, including a walk-off grand slam.

Very nice week.

 

[Uncle Siggy]

He only played some of those guys when he absolutely had to. That is finally what happened with Smith and he succeeded. He has sat Duran for long periods of time when he didn't have to play him.

There has always been a big difference in how top draft picks are treated and how the rest of the younger players are treated. Guys like Rocker, Leiter, Jung, and Langford are in a completely different category than the rest of the prospects. Most likely, this year's first round draft pick will also be in that category.

Bradford had to have a lot of injuries happen to starting pitchers before he was given a chance. Smith languished on the bench without being given much of a chance until Seager was unable to play for an extended period of time.

Sam Huff was never given a chance with Bochy despite his good numbers he put up in the past.

It was well known throughout the industry that Ragans was a different pitcher when he came to spring training 2 years ago, and yet Bochy never gave him much of a chance.

Now, it isn't just Bochy, though. Wash was terrible at doing that. Woodward failed in that area as well. It is an industry wide problem. Bochy isn't alone in doing so, but that doesn't keep it from being a counterproductive way of running a team.

The opposite is a problem, too. Allowing guys like Pederson and Semien as much leeway as they are given is counterproductive.

The groupthink in baseball says keep running the veterans out there no matter how terrible they are. There is a completely different way they look at non-veterans, and especially the non-high-draft-pick non-veterans. Playing time is much more often determined by seniority than anything else, even more so than production.

Having Semien playing every day is a great example of what is wrong with the groupthink. Having him hit 5th is borderline organizational treason. These kinds of unwritten rules are bad for the sport.

There is no telling how many younger players, who could have eventually been very good, have given up the sport prematurely, because they were never given enough chances, while veterans occupied roster spots while at the same time stinking up the joint.

The concern that Bochy would sit Osuna too much is a legitimate concern. It will be a concern next year as well. Unlike Semien, Pederson, Grossman, and Garcia, Osuna would have to hit the ground running. He wouldn't be given any runway unless the issue was forced on Bochy either through multiple injuries or through the front office.

Smith basically remade himself when he went back to his old swing (ST 2024) and got rid of the one the Spankees or the Rangers got him to go to. Either way his old swing is what let him succeed and get the playing time/recognition he's getting now...

Duran had playing time until the pitchers figured out he was too impatient and would chase trash because he was trying to do too much...

Ragans may have been a different pitcher in 2023 ST but was the same old 6.00 ERA in his time with the team. A change of scenery did him some good for awhile, but now he's back to a 5.00 ERA again now that batters have figured him out, so now he'll have to change his ways or get kicked to the curb...

When you have vets that have had success in the past and are making big money you can't just kick them to the curb you have to figure out what ails them and hopefully they are receptive enough to the proposed fix(es). Some guys really like to pull the ball and when they don't get their pitch they don't look good. Pederson and Semien both like low and inside and until they show they can do damage with middle/up outside pitches and quit chasing junk (take walks) they're not going to do well...

Osuna will get his chance at a cup of coffee when it's time to do call ups later. Unless he really goes on a tear soon and makes it to where they don't have any choice to call him up because he's playing better than Carter, Haggerty and Pillar...

Huff still isn't getting hardly any playing time with the Giants. And I'm guessing it's because they're looking at making the playoffs instead of just trying not to be the team in the cellar of their division, that right there is what dictates who's playing and who isn't most of the time...

 

[Uncle Siggy]

He hasn't done well including against us and now he's on the DL.

That was kinda the point I was making is that past history doesn't always equate to present/future production, all players have down turns it's almost inevitable. The Rangers would have wasted $14M signing a 5.00 ERA pitcher and the folks who wanted to resign him would now be bitching their brain out about benching/trading him...

 

[saddles]

Smith basically remade himself when he went back to his old swing (ST 2024) and got rid of the one the Spankees or the Rangers got him to go to. Either way his old swing is what let him succeed and get the playing time/recognition he's getting now...

Duran had playing time until the pitchers figured out he was too impatient and would chase trash because he was trying to do too much...

Ragans may have been a different pitcher in 2023 ST but was the same old 6.00 ERA in his time with the team. A change of scenery did him some good for awhile, but now he's back to a 5.00 ERA again now that batters have figured him out, so now he'll have to change his ways or get kicked to the curb...

When you have vets that have had success in the past and are making big money you can't just kick them to the curb you have to figure out what ails them and hopefully they are receptive enough to the proposed fix(es). Some guys really like to pull the ball and when they don't get their pitch they don't look good. Pederson and Semien both like low and inside and until they show they can do damage with middle/up outside pitches and quit chasing junk (take walks) they're not going to do well...

Osuna will get his chance at a cup of coffee when it's time to do call ups later. Unless he really goes on a tear soon and makes it to where they don't have any choice to call him up because he's playing better than Carter, Haggerty and Pillar...

Huff still isn't getting hardly any playing time with the Giants. And I'm guessing it's because they're looking at making the playoffs instead of just trying not to be the team in the cellar of their division, that right there is what dictates who's playing and who isn't most of the time...

Well, suffice it to say, I see many of these things much differently than you do, and I have already stated why.

 

[saddles]

That was kinda the point I was making is that past history doesn't always equate to present/future production, all players have down turns it's almost inevitable. The Rangers would have wasted $14M signing a 5.00 ERA pitcher and the folks who wanted to resign him would now be bitching their brain out about benching/trading him...

That is not nearly as much as they wasted on Semien.

They need to have their sights set on better relievers than Yates, anyway. Closers cost a lot of money and CY wants to shop in the bargain basement for relievers. That is how he lucked into Yates to begin with. He spends big in some places and fails to spend enough in other areas.

 

[saddles]

It is always a gamble to spend big, but it is necessary to take those risks at times. If you are going to spend big then you need to be willing to admit when a mistake has been made and not ignore what is staring you right in the face. It took forever for JD to admit that about Odor. Let's see how long it takes CY to admit it about Semien.

You can't just keep running a guy out there because you spent a certain amount. Don't follow up one big mistake with another one. Swallow your pride and fix the mistake. Sometimes that means eating a significant part of a big contract. Let's see if CY can do that this coming offseason.

 

[saddles]

Seong-Jun Kim still has another year of school left. He graduates from high school next January.

 

[Billybass]

That was kinda the point I was making is that past history doesn't always equate to present/future production, all players have down turns it's almost inevitable. The Rangers would have wasted $14M signing a 5.00 ERA pitcher and the folks who wanted to resign him would now be bitching their brain out about benching/trading him...

I do not think we should build a bullpen around 38 year old guys. BTW, how old is Martin ? 38.
Young was lucky as hell to have Yates have a career year at that age.
The year before we overpaid dramatically for Chapman. The time to build the bullpen is in the offseason, not months before the trade deadline.
Look at career numbers of our bullpen pitchers. The only one who is good is Martin. And he’s 38.
It is ridiculous to put all the blame on the hitters. We would have swept the Astros with a decent pen.
All a team has to do to beat us is hang close and wait for our bullpen. On one of our bullpen holds out guy walked 2 guys in a row, and then Altuve swung at ball 4.
Young has a job to do. It’s time for him to do it.

 

[WastinSomeTime]

That was kinda the point I was making is that past history doesn't always equate to present/future production, all players have down turns it's almost inevitable. The Rangers would have wasted $14M signing a 5.00 ERA pitcher and the folks who wanted to resign him would now be bitching their brain out about benching/trading him...

It seems a relief pitcher can have a very good couple of years and just bottom out after that. Some who come to mind is Devenski, Kimbrell and Brock Burke. Yates stats last year was an outlier compared to the previous 3 seasons and now the current one. I know some want Robertson but at 40 years old I wouldn't want to pay him much and don't feel like he's the closer we are needing.

 

[Duane1952]

Smith basically remade himself when he went back to his old swing (ST 2024) and got rid of the one the Spankees or the Rangers got him to go to. Either way his old swing is what let him succeed and get the playing time/recognition he's getting now...

Duran had playing time until the pitchers figured out he was too impatient and would chase trash because he was trying to do too much...

Ragans may have been a different pitcher in 2023 ST but was the same old 6.00 ERA in his time with the team. A change of scenery did him some good for awhile, but now he's back to a 5.00 ERA again now that batters have figured him out, so now he'll have to change his ways or get kicked to the curb...

When you have vets that have had success in the past and are making big money you can't just kick them to the curb you have to figure out what ails them and hopefully they are receptive enough to the proposed fix(es). Some guys really like to pull the ball and when they don't get their pitch they don't look good. Pederson and Semien both like low and inside and until they show they can do damage with middle/up outside pitches and quit chasing junk (take walks) they're not going to do well...

Osuna will get his chance at a cup of coffee when it's time to do call ups later. Unless he really goes on a tear soon and makes it to where they don't have any choice to call him up because he's playing better than Carter, Haggerty and Pillar...

Huff still isn't getting hardly any playing time with the Giants. And I'm guessing it's because they're looking at making the playoffs instead of just trying not to be the team in the cellar of their division, that right there is what dictates who's playing and who isn't most of the time...

Unless the vets you have obviously can’t do it anymore. This the second season Garcia and Semien have sucked. How long you going to give them. If the Rangers don’t make the playoffs it’s going to be on Pederson, Garcia and Semien. And most time they are batting 3,4 and 5 in the lineup.

 

[saddles]

From Texas Rangers PR:

Rangers transactions for Monday:

-INF/OF Michael Helman acquired from Pittsburgh via waiver claim and optioned to Round Rock (AAA).
-INF Jonathan Ornelas designated for assignment.

 

[saddles]

With Ornelas gone the Rangers find themselves very thin at SS on the 40 man roster. In fact, the only guys who can play SS are on the 26 man presently. If we have an injury to two of the shortstops on the roster, we might have to put either Cauley or Walcott on the roster. Or, trade for a SS version of Hedges. Lol