2019 Texas Rangers Spring Training Thread

[scotsman1948]

reading that the Rangers are showing interest in Sergio Romo but only with a minor league offer with ST offer

 

[saddles]

Every Move the Texas Rangers Have Made this Off-Season... so far

 

[saddles]

Which of our starting pitchers do you expect to be the most pleasant surprise? Which of our starting pitchers do you expect to be the biggest disappointment?

I will say Volquez as the biggest surprise.

I will guess that Lynn is the biggest disappointment. Not that he will necessarily have the worst results, but that we will have 2 more years to put up with his less that mediocre results.

 

[Nightcrawler]

Can’t wait until Choo is gone.

Choo and fielder set this franchise back in a big way.

 

[DT LUNA]

Can’t wait until Choo is gone.

Choo and fielder set this franchise back in a big way.

Big contracts that can't continue to happen. At the time these two were made, we looked to them to take us to a higher plateau. It did not work out due to serious injuries. So the idea was not bad at the time but shortly after, things beyond control resulted in bad contracts. Regardless, we need no more like these. IMO

 

[Kelleyman]

 

[Duane1952]

Big contracts that can't continue to happen. At the time these two were made, we looked to them to take us to a higher plateau. It did not work out due to serious injuries. So the idea was not bad at the time but shortly after, things beyond control resulted in bad contracts. Regardless, we need no more like these. IMO

I hope they learned their lesson with Fielder. No more half ass physicals.

 

[saddles]

Big contracts that can't continue to happen. At the time these two were made, we looked to them to take us to a higher plateau. It did not work out due to serious injuries. So the idea was not bad at the time but shortly after, things beyond control resulted in bad contracts. Regardless, we need no more like these. IMO

I think they were bad decisions to begin with. Choo at 4 years would have been fine, but 7 was way too many. Fielder had already lost bat speed the year before. So neither of the deals made sense from the get go to me.

We should have began rebuilding that offseason.

 

[Kelleyman]

Fielder had already lost bat speed the year before. .

You are being redirected...

You disagree with the experts opinion made just prior to the trade. Many speculated about loss of bat speed post trade. Trade was good in principle but obviously did not work as intended.

 

[DT LUNA]

You are being redirected...

You disagree with the experts opinion made just prior to the trade. Many speculated about loss of bat speed post trade. Trade was good in principle but obviously did not work as intended.

Kinda what I said.

 

[saddles]

You are being redirected...

You disagree with the experts opinion made just prior to the trade. Many speculated about loss of bat speed post trade. Trade was good in principle but obviously did not work as intended.

Nope. Fraley reported it was the year prior that the bat speed decreased. That was according to scouts in the game.

That is why the lack of a physical was a terrible decision. Much like the trade was a terrible decision.

 

[saddles]

"The overwhelming view of major league scouts is that the swing changed last season. Fielder had less of his old-school uppercut and was late getting to fastballs away, a pitch he often sees. His large frame got in the way." - Gerry Fraley (March of 2014)

 

[saddles]

You are being redirected...

You disagree with the experts opinion made just prior to the trade. Many speculated about loss of bat speed post trade. Trade was good in principle but obviously did not work as intended.

It was Mark Anderson that disagreed with the experts. Even though, if you look at those at bats that he highlighted it showed that the others were right.

Fielder's power numbers agreed with all of those scouts as well. His HR went from 38 to 30 to 25 between 2011 and 2013.

It was a foolish trade based on what scouts had seen. I hope we have done whatever is necessary to keep a huge mistake like that from ever happening again. There is no guarantee that we have though.

 

[saddles]

The article referenced above was a Baseball Prospectus article. It seemed to disagree with what most scouts thought. That publication seems to want to be different than the prevailing opinion. Here is how they have our prospects ranked.

The Top Ten:
Leody Taveras, OF
Bubba Thompson, OF
Julio Pablo Martinez, OF
Anderson Tejeda, SS
Taylor Hearn, LHP
Cole Winn, RHP
Joe Palumbo, LHP
Hans Crouse, RHP
Tyler Phillips, RHP
A.J. Alexy, RHP

That is a completely different take than most experts have. Putting Crouse at 8 is ridiculous.

 

[Kelleyman]

Nope. Fraley reported it was the year prior that the bat speed decreased. That was according to scouts in the game.

That is why the lack of a physical was a terrible decision. Much like the trade was a terrible decision.

Was not the trade 2013 and this article referenced 2014?

Not sure Fraley is an expert but perhaps Anderson is not either

100% of general public are experts after the fact.

No one doubts you did not like the trade. We were still burned about Abreu not getting picked up but needed a power LHB and needed to free Profar still gasping from 2011 trying to keep a window open despite overpay. But you get that and I know you wanted to keep the Hickory bunch intact. Alas

 

[Kelleyman]

 

[Kelleyman]

Let’s hope they are not truly experts

 

[jta4437]

Was not the trade 2013 and this article referenced 2014?

Not sure Fraley is an expert but perhaps Anderson is not either

100% of general public are experts after the fact.

No one doubts you did not like the trade. We were still burned about Abreu not getting picked up but needed a power LHB and needed to free Profar still gasping from 2011 trying to keep a window open despite overpay. But you get that and I know you wanted to keep the Hickory bunch intact. Alas

I'll have to agree with saddles here, there were definitely rumblings about lost bat speed well ahead of our trade for Fielder

 

[saddles]

Was not the trade 2013 and this article referenced 2014?

Not sure Fraley is an expert but perhaps Anderson is not either

100% of general public are experts after the fact.

No one doubts you did not like the trade. We were still burned about Abreu not getting picked up but needed a power LHB and needed to free Profar still gasping from 2011 trying to keep a window open despite overpay. But you get that and I know you wanted to keep the Hickory bunch intact. Alas

It was an article that referenced the 2013 season. We traded for Fielder a couple of months after the 2013 season. The scouts Fraley were going by had said that about the 2013 season.

Fraley is no expert and when he gives his opinions they are only opinions. In this case he stated what he heard from scouts.

It wasn't hindsight because it was before Fielder took a single regular season at bat for us.

They failed to get Abreu But that shouldn't have been followed up by getting a player who was obviously slipping.

I wanted them to either be really aggressive that offseason or rebuild. I would have been happy either way. Instead they tried to split the difference. lol

 

[saddles]

Let’s hope they are not truly experts

That is going to improve after everyone gets to see how some of our very young guys develop and how some of the injured have recovered.