2017 Texas Rangers offseason thread

[Kelleyman]

Miami was 28th in attendance in 2017, for what it's worth.

After there baseball fans in Miami?

 

[Kelleyman]

Who would have expected the Yankees to be where they are at. Surely the Astros and Cleveland have more talented clubs.

Back to my original premise. If the Rangers land top pitching this offseason, anything can happen including playoffs and if then a little magic, even a WS championship. So I continue to hope

I have no allusions that the Rangers will be the most talented team next year. Too many holes but strange things can happen in the playoffs. Let's get their first.

 

[Kelleyman]

After there baseball fans in Miami?

Bad delivery of a marginal joke. Should have said.............Are there baseball fans in Miami?

For the record I want money spent on pitching. HAHA

 

[DT LUNA]

Who would have expected the Yankees to be where they are at. Surely the Astros and Cleveland have more talented clubs.

Back to my original premise. If the Rangers land top pitching this offseason, anything can happen including playoffs and if then a little magic, even a WS championship. So I continue to hope

I have no allusions that the Rangers will be the most talented team next year. Too many holes but strange things can happen in the playoffs. Let's get their first.

I'm with you. Never give up. anything can happen.

 

[saddles]

Who would have expected the Yankees to be where they are at. Surely the Astros and Cleveland have more talented clubs.

Back to my original premise. If the Rangers land top pitching this offseason, anything can happen including playoffs and if then a little magic, even a WS championship. So I continue to hope

I have no allusions that the Rangers will be the most talented team next year. Too many holes but strange things can happen in the playoffs. Let's get their first.

I don't have any problem with folks having hope. I just don't want the Rangers to short circuit or compromise the long term plan by trading off pieces to bring in a veteran who is not going to make us the best team in the league. I also want the team to be willing to be more active as sellers at the next deadline if they are in the same situation as this last deadline.

I have a lot of hope for the future if we don't compromise the future for the present. I also have the patience to look past this coming season and realize this team could be very special if we patiently wait for guys like Ragans, Crouse, Cody, Matuella, Taveras, Seise, Guzman, Calhoun, Whatley and some others to arrive.

 

[saddles]

Texas Rangers' Arizona Fall League overview

 

[saddles]

 

[True Rangers Fan]

I have a lot of hope for the future if we don't compromise the future for the present. I also have the patience to look past this coming season and realize this team could be very special if we patiently wait for guys like Ragans, Crouse, Cody, Matuella, Taveras, Seise, Guzman, Calhoun, Whatley and some others to arrive.

I can get on board with this. I will gladly take 2 shitty seasons for 8 terrific ones.

 

[Kelleyman]

We are going to get pitching. Just wonder who? Have to think one will be a splash or Beltre would not be on board with JD. Not sure they tender Barnette. Such a crap shoot at times with relievers. I think we pick up one vet reliever but roll with some of the young guys like LeClerc and Rodriguez. Not sure they would spend the money on Kintzler although they did spend a bit on Nathan.

There may be trades on the horizon. Hate to think it might be Calhoun. I have a good feeling about him. A natural hitter. We have to clear some logjams though. Maybe get a bullpen piece that way

 

[Duane1952]

Cashner's QO is suppose to be 17.4 million.

 

[Nightcrawler]

Who would have expected the Yankees to be where they are at. Surely the Astros and Cleveland have more talented clubs.

Back to my original premise. If the Rangers land top pitching this offseason, anything can happen including playoffs and if then a little magic, even a WS championship. So I continue to hope

I have no allusions that the Rangers will be the most talented team next year. Too many holes but strange things can happen in the playoffs. Let's get their first.

I’ve always believed this.

The mlb playoffs are a crap shoot. If you could just get in, take the playoff spot and do your best, good things can happen.

The NBA it is so frustratingly obvious whose going to be in the finals.

The NFL is usually predictable.

NHL and MLB have the best playoffs in my opinion. You never know who will be there in the end.

I don’t think JD should build teams with a wildcard in mind, but it has been proven lately that you can do something with a wildcard if you just get in. I hope the Yankees can do us all a favor and send the Astros home. I’d probably root for them against the dodgers too.

I’m gonna go take a shower now after saying that

 

[DT LUNA]

I’ve always believed this.

The mlb playoffs are a crap shoot. If you could just get in, take the playoff spot and do your best, good things can happen.

The NBA it is so frustratingly obvious whose going to be in the finals.

The NFL is usually predictable.

NHL and MLB have the best playoffs in my opinion. You never know who will be there in the end.

I don’t think JD should build teams with a wildcard in mind, but it has been proven lately that you can do something with a wildcard if you just get in. I hope the Yankees can do us all a favor and send the Astros home. I’d probably root for them against the dodgers too.

I’m gonna go take a shower now after saying that

Have another drink and don't drown in the shower.

 

[Kelleyman]

 

[jta4437]

Miami was 28th in attendance in 2017, for what it's worth.

Fans that give a crap about baseball, plus what would it have been without Stanton?

Stanton would bring money to the park, Choo is just a sunk cost

 

[donaldson79]

By Kevin Sherrington, Staff Columnist Contact Kevin Sherringtonon TwitterKSherringtonDMN

Only a few hours before backing the Cubs into a corner with a postseason performance just about unrecognizable to anyone around here, Yu Darvish sent a nice note to our Evan Grant. And if that's not the kind of irony my journalism professors always craved in a lead, I haven't learned anything since.

Anyway, as Darvish explained in a long text, it wasn't really the Rangers' fault that he looks something like a playoff ace only now, as a Dodger.

Part of Darvish's motivation was a stand-up defense of Doug Brocail and the since-departed Brad Holman, his pitching coaches in Texas. The rest, no doubt, was a reply to the Dodgers' actual contribution.

The plan here, as always, is to figure out who gets credit, who's to blame and how to keep this under 900 words.

What we've heard lately, mostly from the Dodgers, is how they streamlined Darvish's approach. Of course, we've heard this before. Darvish is forever shelving pitches, only to bring them back after rummaging around his repertoire.

To be fair, there do seem to be differences. First, he's returned to the arm slot he used before Tommy John surgery. He did this, apparently, because he wanted to, and the Dodgers said, "You bet."

Besides the mechanical adjustment to restore his world-class slider, Darvish is digesting the data the Dodgers feed him.

Now, in case you were wondering, the Rangers have numbers geeks, too, so it's not as if data is new to Darvish. Jon Daniels concedes it may have been presented differently, and that, friends, makes all the difference.

Sometimes it's not what you say, but how you say it. Or who says it. It's a lesson the Rangers learned a long time ago, in other administrations.

Maybe you remember Bobby Witt. A former first-round pick by the Rangers, he struggled mightily with his command, leading the club to send him to Triple-A. The pitching coach there, a guy named Ferguson Jenkins, made a few minor alterations and shipped him back a new man.

Witt didn't exactly return as a Hall of Famer, but he pitched 16 big league seasons, and he had his moments. What's stuck with me all these years, though, was the reaction from Bobby Valentine when the media heaped credit on Jenkins for kick-starting Witt's career.

"What has Fergie told Bobby," Valentine asked, exasperated, "that we haven't?"

Could have been it was a Hall of Famer who said it, instead of Tom House, the Inspector Gadget of pitching coaches.

No matter how good the coach, no single approach fits all sizes. Darvish's case presents fairly unique challenges. Besides intelligence, talent and an ego to match, the cultural difference occasionally gets lost in translation.

For instance, Darvish didn't seem to understand A.J. Pierzynski in 2013. Pierzynski, never one to let an opinion die quietly, tried to loosen up the staff ace with his blunt sense of humor. When that failed, the catcher tried tough love, which only made matters worse. Next thing you knew, Darvish and Pierzynski no longer played pitch and catch.

Funny thing is, 2013 remains Darvish's best season. Maybe the drama was good for him.

At any rate, subsequent attempts by Mike Maddux, then Brocail as well as a host of catchers intent on getting Darvish to establish his fastball before mixing in his other ingredients, have yielded varying degrees of success. Nothing quite pushed Darvish to the top of the heap, where his talent says he belongs.
So why does everything seem to be coming together now, at 31? Could be the Dodgers' input, which, by the way, is led by a former Ranger, Rick Honeycutt. Could be he realizes to get that big payday this winter, he needs to prove he's a big-game pitcher, so he's more receptive. Could be he's more relaxed in Los Angeles, where Clayton Kershaw's the Dodgers' ace, with all the psychological baggage that implies.

Or it could simply be a small sample size, and his next start he goes back to his old self.

No matter what happens from here on out, it's not necessarily the Rangers' fault. Some players need the jolt of a move to shake them from their stubbornness. Some benefit from the internal competition generated by elevated play around them. From my youth, there's the lesson of Joe Morgan, a good player in Houston; a Hall of Famer amid all the rest in Cincinnati.

But if Darvish really has figured it out, it's up to the Rangers to find out why. Some soul-searching is in order. There's a reason this organization has such trouble finding pitchers, only to lose them. Recall that Darvish's opponent Tuesday was Kyle Hendricks, a former Rangers minor leaguer who's worked out pretty well for the Cubs.

To make matters worse, Darvish hasn't just been good in the playoffs, he's been historic: First postseason pitcher in 40 years to draw a bases-loaded walk. Watching him take four straight pitches made me think of his home run last year. Clearly he spent far too much time in the batting cage here.

 

[True Rangers Fan]

To make matters worse, Darvish hasn't just been good in the playoffs, he's been historic: First postseason pitcher in 40 years to draw a bases-loaded walk. Watching him take four straight pitches made me think of his home run last year. Clearly he spent far too much time in the batting cage here.

Kinda weird that the example they pick of his "historic performance" is of him batting, not pitching.

 

[True Rangers Fan]

Stanton would bring money to the park

I don't believe that to be the case, from an individual basis. A successful team is what brings money to the park, and that will take more than Stanton.

 

[DT LUNA]

I don't believe that to be the case, from an individual basis. A successful team is what brings money to the park, and that will take more than Stanton.

He will draw for awhile but it will require a promising season to keep attendance coming.

 

[saddles]

I agree with Sherrington that some "soul-searching" by the Rangers management regarding the pitching is needed. The Darvish situation is really complicated, but there have been a number of guys who simply stopped developing when they got to our upper levels and a number of guys who we have traded away or let go who became successful elsewhere. Some of that is just the nature of the beast, but there is a little too much of it happening to be just that.

 

[saddles]

I think a guy like Stanton being on the club does help the revenue side. The revenue is helped some in attendance, some in TV ratings, and some in merchandise sales. A player like that helps your club in a lot of different ways.