2014 Offseason

[donaldson79]

Welcome to the peanut gallery then.

What-the-fuck-ever.

Go ahead....we all know you've gotta have the last word.

 

[saddles]

He took into account the "big 3". You are right beyond there. He evidently doesn't agree that the Nicks will be any better in 2015. I agree that the experience this year should make them better. The question is how much. ST will tell the story.

I have no idea if they will be better or not, but in most cases young inexperienced pitchers do improve with experience. Even if they don't improve two of the other three will most likely improve over what we put out there this year by a big margin. Colby better than his first-half self and Derek much better than Saunders, Ross, Scheppers, Williams et al. Somehow it is hard for him to understand that that makes the rotation better. That is why I said to begin with that we "could bring back the same pitchers we ended the season with plus Darvish and the pitching would be significantly better in 2015." That doesn't mean every member of the rotation would be better; it means the rotation as a whole would be better.

I seriously doubt they will bring back the same rotation though. I think JD will look around when a lot of the better free agent pitchers have signed and sign a "bargain" type pitcher or two in January. I would imagine either or both of Ogando and Moreland will be dealt or released to pay for the pitchers. It will be an interesting offseason.

 

[saddles]

Glad to see the Rangers completed the initial round of interviews. It has really dominated Rangers news of late. I am ready to get someone hired and get on to other news.

I see the D'backs have narrowed their choices down to 4 and Bogar isn't one of them.

 

[ESPN Refugee]

Glad to see the Rangers completed the initial round of interviews. It has really dominated Rangers news of late. I am ready to get someone hired and get on to other news.

I see the D'backs have narrowed their choices down to 4 and Bogar isn't one of them.

I wonder if he's not in the top 4 of their list due to their thinking that Bogey is a surefire Ranger barring a crazy catastrophe.

 

[ESPN Refugee]

Why? Should we care? Does this say anything about Profar's future with us? Rosales?

No idea. I know absolutely nothing about Ed Lucas truth be told.

 

[saddles]

MLB Trade Rumors Podcast: Episode 1 ? MLB Trade Rumors

On this podcast they think McCarthy might get 4 years and maybe considered the best pitcher after the top 3 free agent starters. Probably $12 million per year if not more for 3 years and close to the same AAV for a 4th year. There is no way I would do that. They mentioned the Cubs, Angels, Red Sox, and Yankees. They put Liriano, Masterson, Peavy, and Kuroda in the same tier as McCarthy.

They think the Rangers could be in on David Robertson.

 

[scotsman1948]

We will be better simply because Holland will pitch for a whole year and not one month. Also because Colby will pitch for an entire year being used to his new stride. That is easy to know. You just hate the prospect of Nick and Nick pitching for us next year so much that you aren't even allowing yourself to think clearly about what you are saying. You will not admit that Derek and Colby by themselves makes us better than 2014 no matter if the Nicks improve or not.

as long as we're handicapped with the likes of the two Nicks an improvement of 7-12 games only gets us to 25 games under .500 which in my book isn't an improvement but if you're happy with it then i guess it's okay

 

[saddles]

as long as we're handicapped with the likes of the two Nicks an improvement of 7-12 games only gets us to 25 games under .500 which in my book isn't an improvement but if you're happy with it then i guess it's okay

I actually wasn't even referencing the W-L totals. I was simply saying the starting pitching would be significantly better. We will have to improve dramatically on offense before we get any good again. We could actually go out and get the 4th and 5th best free agent pitchers to come in and if our offense doesn't improve any we wouldn't win significantly more games than last year. It would help our run differential though.

We should improve on offense next year, but I am not sure by how much. We need a whole lot of improvement both on offense and in the rotation before we get to be a 90 win team again. It won't all happen in one offseason unless the budget goes up to about $155 million and that isn't going to happen. With our budget we will need several inexpensive younger players to carry a lot of the load and they won't be able to do that until probably 2017 or 2016 at the earliest.

I guess I don't mind being handicapped by the two Nicks as much as you do because I only see them as placeholders until Martin, and Chi Chi arrive sometime in the next 12 months. I think Jackson and Thompson could be here within within 24 months as well. I would like to spend any money we have on getting Yu extended.

As far as our differences go though I hope there are no hard feelings. We are both just fans wanting our team to get better.

 

[Justinkm83]

I heard the other day on the radio that there are some in the organization that would like to see Cora as the bench coach since we have such a strong Latino presence on our team. That makes sense to me.

 

[Justinkm83]

MLB Trade Rumors Podcast: Episode 1 ? MLB Trade Rumors

On this podcast they think McCarthy might get 4 years and maybe considered the best pitcher after the top 3 free agent starters. Probably $12 million per year if not more for 3 years and close to the same AAV for a 4th year. There is no way I would do that. They mentioned the Cubs, Angels, Red Sox, and Yankees. They put Liriano, Masterson, Peavy, and Kuroda in the same tier as McCarthy.

They think the Rangers could be in on David Robertson.

I don't know why unless we're planning to ship Neftali out. The bullpen is the least of my worries for next year.

 

[saddles]

I don't know why unless we're planning to ship Neftali out. The bullpen is the least of my worries for next year.

I think it is just another example of how national media guys can't be believed when they are reporting on the Rangers.

 

[Justinkm83]

He seems to have different figures than Saddles. Our complete off-season outlook is on MLB trade rumors, if anyone's interested.




In addition to the many injuries suffered in Texas, former manager Ron Washington left the team in early September for personal reasons. MLBTR will continue to track the latest from the Rangers ongoing managerial search. Presently, the field is wide open with as many as eight candidates.
Once a manager is selected, GM Jon Daniels has a tough road ahead of him this offseason. He’s said he doesn’t “expect to play at the top end of free agency this year,” so it’s unclear how much payroll the club has available. Currently, $107.15MM is guaranteed to nine players. Arbitration expenses shouldn’t be unwieldy, but may tie up around $12MM. Assuming payroll stays steady after the losing season, Daniels will have about $15MM to $25MM with which to work.
As noted, injuries contributed heavily to the team’s 95 losses. Of the regulars, only Andrus survived the season unscathed, and he turned in a disappointing .263/.314/.333 line. Over 2,000 player days were lost to injury. It’s the biggest injury burden since data has been collected on the topic, and they also lost the most salary to injury.
Aside from this season, Texas has recently done well with injuries. It’s hard to pin blame on the training staff. Some players suffered fluky injuries like Holland (dog tripping incident). Others were lost for extended periods with difficult-to-prevent problems like Jurickson Profar, Harrison, and Perez. It’s not worth digging into the entire list of injured Rangers – it suffices to say the list is long.

 

[saddles]

He seems to have different figures than Saddles. Our complete off-season outlook is on MLB trade rumors, if anyone's interested.




In addition to the many injuries suffered in Texas, former manager Ron Washington left the team in early September for personal reasons. MLBTR will continue to track the latest from the Rangers ongoing managerial search. Presently, the field is wide open with as many as eight candidates.
Once a manager is selected, GM Jon Daniels has a tough road ahead of him this offseason. He’s said he doesn’t “expect to play at the top end of free agency this year,” so it’s unclear how much payroll the club has available. Currently, $107.15MM is guaranteed to nine players. Arbitration expenses shouldn’t be unwieldy, but may tie up around $12MM. Assuming payroll stays steady after the losing season, Daniels will have about $15MM to $25MM with which to work.
As noted, injuries contributed heavily to the team’s 95 losses. Of the regulars, only Andrus survived the season unscathed, and he turned in a disappointing .263/.314/.333 line. Over 2,000 player days were lost to injury. It’s the biggest injury burden since data has been collected on the topic, and they also lost the most salary to injury.
Aside from this season, Texas has recently done well with injuries. It’s hard to pin blame on the training staff. Some players suffered fluky injuries like Holland (dog tripping incident). Others were lost for extended periods with difficult-to-prevent problems like Jurickson Profar, Harrison, and Perez. It’s not worth digging into the entire list of injured Rangers – it suffices to say the list is long.

He assumes the budget will go up even though JD said it wouldn't. He also stopped at 13 players when there will be 12 more needed. He listed the 9 guys with guaranteed money and the 4 arbitration eligible ones. That adds up to $119.15 million, but he doesn't add in the $1 million buyout for Rios so it is really $120.15. That leaves about $12 million to get to the $132 million that JD suggested would be the budget. $12 million for 12 players doesn't leave a whole lot left even if 8 of those players are first year players at the minimum.

He gets his figures from ignoring what JD has said he will do and assuming that the Rangers will spend more. The national writers just don't get it where it concerns the Rangers sometimes. The past 3 years they have had us signing some very big free agents and those haven't panned out. They had us getting Prince when he was free a few years back. The same website has us going after the most expensive closer on the market. They just don't get it.

 

[Justinkm83]

He assumes the budget will go up even though JD said it wouldn't. He also stopped at 13 players when there will be 12 more needed. He listed the 9 guys with guaranteed money and the 4 arbitration eligible ones. That adds up to $119.15 million, but he doesn't add in the $1 million buyout for Rios so it is really $120.15. That leaves about $12 million to get to the $132 million that JD suggested would be the budget. $12 million for 12 players doesn't leave a whole lot left even if 8 of those players are first year players at the minimum.

He gets his figures from ignoring what JD has said he will do and assuming that the Rangers will spend more. The national writers just don't get it where it concerns the Rangers sometimes. The past 3 years they have had us signing some very big free agents and those haven't panned out. They had us getting Prince when he was free a few years back. The same website has us going after the most expensive closer on the market. They just don't get it.

I imagine money will come off for Harrison, and I think players will be traded. It's hard to predict the budget because we don't know who will be on the roster. I think the budget will stay around the same as last year, but I think the FO would give JD the green light if he feels a move will help the club. The attendance hurt the owners, and I'm sure they don't want that to happen 2 years in a row.


I never saw anything about us being interested in Robertson but maybe I overlooked it.

 

[saddles]

I imagine money will come off for Harrison, and I think players will be traded. It's hard to predict the budget because we don't know who will be on the roster. I think the budget will stay around the same as last year, but I think the FO would give JD the green light if he feels a move will help the club. The attendance hurt the owners, and I'm sure they don't want that to happen 2 years in a row.


I never saw anything about us being interested in Robertson but maybe I overlooked it.

They just might get some of Harrison's 2015 money back, but there is no way they can assume that they will and it would be very bad business to count on it in a budget.

JD has said he could go to the owners and ask that they raise the budget if he felt he needed to. H also said he saw no need to do that based on last year's free agents or this year's free agents. I think he would definitely rethink that if he finds himself needing to add salary at the trade deadline, but he doesn't appear ready to do that in the offseason.

I posted the link to that podcast earlier where they said the Rangers would be ion on Robertson. But that is only the latest for guys on that website to think we are going to spend more money than we usually do. They have been guilty of that several times in the past.

 

[saddles]

I imagine money will come off for Harrison, and I think players will be traded. It's hard to predict the budget because we don't know who will be on the roster. I think the budget will stay around the same as last year, but I think the FO would give JD the green light if he feels a move will help the club. The attendance hurt the owners, and I'm sure they don't want that to happen 2 years in a row.


I never saw anything about us being interested in Robertson but maybe I overlooked it.

The attendance did hurt the owners and I think that is the reason why they want to keep the budget where it was last year or even less despite the new local TV contract kicking in. They appear to be leaning towards taking the stance Hicks took. That is "You show up and we will spend; you don't show up and we will not spend."

 

[donaldson79]

DMN has a terrific article on what the managerial candidates have in common, and what the FO is looking for in hiring a new one.

It's rather long or I'd post it here.

 

[WastinSomeTime]

The attendance did hurt the owners and I think that is the reason why they want to keep the budget where it was last year or even less despite the new local TV contract kicking in. They appear to be leaning towards taking the stance Hicks took. That is "You show up and we will spend; you don't show up and we will not spend."

Win and attendance will go up.

 

[saddles]

Win and attendance will go up.

Yes, indeed. Kind of like "build it and they will come." Build a winner and they will most definitely come.

 

[RevSader]

Yes, indeed. Kind of like "build it and they will come." Build a winner and they will most definitely come.

2.7 MM showed up to watch a team lose nearly 100 games.