2014 Offseason

[TheRangerDude]

Rangers cant make a play for him till after July 2nd. They are limited to offering him $300k right now for blowing past their international bonus pool money 2 years ago.

So unless he wants to wait for either us or the Cubs (they are in the same boat)... then there's almost no chance he becomes a Ranger.

Thanks Xx. Been sort of behind on following the off season. Has there been any talks on extending Yu's contract? I havent seen anything but it seems like this would be the off season to go ahead and get that done.

 

[UK Cowboy]

Should we be in on this guy... only 19 and evidently he is supposed to be one of the best to ever come out of Cuba:

Sources: With MLB rule change, Cuban prospect Yoan Moncada is now a free agent - Yahoo Sports

I lost any hope when I saw the words ''bid'' and ''Dodgers''

 

[scotsman1948]

Rangers have signed Ryan Ludwick to a minor league contract with an invite to ST

 

[Justinkm83]

Should we be in on this guy... only 19 and evidently he is supposed to be one of the best to ever come out of Cuba:

Sources: With MLB rule change, Cuban prospect Yoan Moncada is now a free agent - Yahoo Sports

We can't sign him unless he waits until July 2nd. We've already spent our allotted international money.

 

[donaldson79]

]Personally I feel like with as young as he is it would probably be worth the investment. [/B] Plus if he is as good as advertised, he would be a steal at the salaries being thrown around at the moment.

That being said, I know nothing about the guy other than he is an IF and the Yanks are the favorites to land him. Getting into a bidding war with them is always tough and we do have a lot of IF depth. If he was a good 3B he is really worth a look though. This could be Beltre's last season with us . Also we could always trade IFs for outfield help. Sorta get the feeling we are capped out on salary for this season though.

Kind of a "contradiction in terms" really. He's 19 and who knows what he might have 3 years from now?

I was listening to Norm's show the other day and he went through the top 100 prospects for the Rangers since 2010. And it was amazing how many of em have turned into nothing more than a bag-of-beads.

He mentioned several teams/players and it is a bigger crap shoot than some think when it comes to long term prognostications.

 

[TheRangerDude]

Kind of a "contradiction in terms" really. He's 19 and who knows what he might have 3 years from now?

I was listening to Norm's show the other day and he went through the top 100 prospects for the Rangers since 2010. And it was amazing how many of em have turned into nothing more than a bag-of-beads.

He mentioned several teams/players and it is a bigger crap shoot than some think when it comes to long term prognostications.

You could be right, there is always a risk involved but scouts seem to be really serious about him being a 5-tool guy, based on the light reading I have done anyway . Like I said, I really don't know too much about him which is why I came here for input.

I feel the same way about really young prospects myself-its a crap shoot. That's why I really don't pay that much attention to the baseball draft or get too excited about gaining early picks. That said, based on what I read this kid isn't far away from being able to complete in the MLB at a high level.

Its pretty much a moot point either way for us now though since we would need him to wait and that doesn't appear to be whats going to happen.

 

[saddles]

Kind of a "contradiction in terms" really. He's 19 and who knows what he might have 3 years from now?

I was listening to Norm's show the other day and he went through the top 100 prospects for the Rangers since 2010. And it was amazing how many of em have turned into nothing more than a bag-of-beads.

He mentioned several teams/players and it is a bigger crap shoot than some think when it comes to long term prognostications.

If it was narrowed down to the top 10 it might look a lot better. I have no idea what list Norm was using, but I know off the top of my head the last few prospects that we have brought up that were supposed to be very good prospects have turned out to be pretty good for the most part. Looking back to guys like Blalock, Kinsler, Elvis, Feliz, Holland, Harrison and Ogando over the course of the last few years we have had a good measure of success. I can't recall too many guys since the Thomas Diamond days who have been busts. I know Smoak was supposed to be pretty good and disappointed, but some of us were out on him before he even came up. Lance Nix was another bust. We did have a couple of catchers who were overrated.

Anytime you include a list of 100 though there are going to be a whole lot of disappointments. That is why I don't get too excited about most of our prospects. If you narrow that down though this team hasn't had too many disappointments over the course of the last 5-8 years or so. A lot of the guys who have disappointed in the past would probably not be ranked nearly as high in our system today as they were back when we had a much thinner system. These guys in the top 5-10 today are much better than some of the guys we had that high a few years ago.

As far as this kid from Cuba is concerned I think we should consider him as a very good prospect if he is being touted that way because those doing the touting have had a pretty good record lately in doing that. From what I heard about Abreu I really, really, really wanted JD to pursue him hard and I was heart broken that night a little over a year ago when the White Sox out bid us for him. If it is being said this kid could be the best to come from there I think he will probably be a very good player. If he became available after the date in July and we needed a middle infielder I would be all for going all out to land him just like I was for Abreu.

 

[saddles]

Ranking the Rangers: No. 5 Derek Holland - Dallas Texas Rangers Blog - ESPN Dallas

No. 5: Derek Holland

2014 stats: 2-0, 1.46 ERA (in five starts), 37 IP, 6.1 K/9

2015 projected stats: 12-11, 4.17 ERA, 7.28 K/9, 2.1 WAR


I look for Derek to have a much better year than this projection.

 

[saddles]

Welcome back Ryan Ludwick.

 

[jta4437]

Ranking the Rangers: No. 5 Derek Holland - Dallas Texas Rangers Blog - ESPN Dallas

No. 5: Derek Holland

2014 stats: 2-0, 1.46 ERA (in five starts), 37 IP, 6.1 K/9

2015 projected stats: 12-11, 4.17 ERA, 7.28 K/9, 2.1 WAR


I look for Derek to have a much better year than this projection.

They've all been on the crappy side

 

[Bmurph]

Ranking the Rangers: No. 5 Derek Holland - Dallas Texas Rangers Blog - ESPN Dallas

No. 5: Derek Holland

2014 stats: 2-0, 1.46 ERA (in five starts), 37 IP, 6.1 K/9

2015 projected stats: 12-11, 4.17 ERA, 7.28 K/9, 2.1 WAR


I look for Derek to have a much better year than this projection.

Most of these projections are on the low side so far, but this seems pretty low for Derek IMO

 

[romeo212000]

They've all been on the crappy side

There's some awfully pessimistic projectors out there, and they all seem to based solely off last seasons record.

 

[saddles]

There's some awfully pessimistic projectors out there, and they all seem to based solely off last seasons record.

The fangraphs projections do seem to be flawed.

 

[saddles]

Ranking the Rangers: No. 4 Elvis Andrus - Dallas Texas Rangers Blog - ESPN Dallas

No. 4 Elvis Andrus

2014 Stats: 157 games, 619 AB, 163 H, .263/.314/.333

2015 Projected stats: 599 AB, .269/.327/.345, 2.9 WAR

 

[Hambombs]

Ranking the Rangers: No. 5 Derek Holland - Dallas Texas Rangers Blog - ESPN Dallas

No. 5: Derek Holland

2014 stats: 2-0, 1.46 ERA (in five starts), 37 IP, 6.1 K/9

2015 projected stats: 12-11, 4.17 ERA, 7.28 K/9, 2.1 WAR


I look for Derek to have a much better year than this projection.

Same here

 

[saddles]

Ranking the Rangers: No. 3 Prince Fielder - Dallas Texas Rangers Blog - ESPN Dallas

No. 3 Prince Fielder

2014 stats: 42 games, 150 AB, .247/.360/.360, 3 HRs, 16 RBIs, -0.3 WAR

2015 projected stats: 138 games, 510 AB, .282/.380/.483, 24 HRs, 86 RBIs, 2.4 WAR

 

[donaldson79]

There's some awfully pessimistic projectors out there, and they all seem to based solely off last seasons record.

If I could get some decent odds on both Prince and Holland I'd put a $100 on each to exceed these "projected numbers."

 

[saddles]

Here are a few projections from Fangraphs that won't be in Calvin's Top 10 projections.

Moreland 383 AB, .244/.308/.416
Chirinos 384 AB, .236/.296/.378
Profar 252 AB, .244/.317/.380
Rua 400 AB, .242/.296/.384

Lewis 7-8, 4.65 ERA, 6.57 K/9, 1.35 WHIP, IP 125
Detwiler 8-10, 4.93 ERA, 5.32 K/9, 1.46 WHIP, IP 144
Perez 2-2, 4.58 ERA, 6.11 K/9, 1.43 WHIP, IP 29
Harrison 1-1, 4.30 ERA, 6.05 K/9, 1.38 WHIP, IP 20
Scheppers 3-3, 3.64 ERA, 7.62 K/9, 1.27 WHIP, IP 55
Tolleson 3-3, 3.79 ERA, 8.48 K/9, 1.30 WHIP, IP 65
Mendez 3-3, 4.24 ERA, 7.47 K/9, 1.39 WHIP, IP 55
Claudio 2-2, 3.73 ERA, 7.11 K/9, 1.27 WHIP, IP 45
Fujikawa 2-1, 3.83 ERA, 7.65 K/9, 1.27 WHIP, IP 30
Klein 2-2, 4.06 ERA, 8.97 K/9, 1.39 WHIP, IP 40
Renaudo 3-3, 4.82 ERA, 6.34 K/9, 1.46 WHIP, IP 54

 

[saddles]

Back where he broke in, Ludwick's passion for game remains | texasrangers.com

 

[saddles]

Outlook: Darvish, SP, TEX | texasrangers.com