Are they tanking? Are they streaking? Whatever happens will be at the Grill for 4 against HOU 9/13-16

[BULLPEN FAILURE]

Hearn with another quality start yesterday. We can officially slot him as the ace of the staff. Leody 2.0 continues to impress, and the Rangers as a whole appear to have solved the Oakland problem. Which is all wonderful, except for the horrible timing as the Rangers continue to slide down the draft board. Rangers are 6-4 in their last 10.

20 games left in 2021, and the first 20% of them are against the *'s. All games at 7:05p, so us old fogeys don't have to stay up too late. Howard goes tonight for his 2, with Alexy to follow him. Lyles and Arihara will go on TUE and WED, and Thursday's starter has yet to be named. Willie Calhoun should be returning soon.

 

[saddles]

Jeff Wilson makes a case for Hearn being the Rangers pitcher of the year.

Jeff Wilson's Texas Rangers Newsletter | Substack

A look at everyone's favorite rebuilding baseball club. Click to read Jeff Wilson's Texas Rangers Newsletter, a Substack publication with thousands of subscribers.

jeffwilson.substack.com

 

[saddles]

I like this approach from Hearn.

"Hearn didn’t record a strikeout in the first five innings as he pitched to contact, which is his preferred style of pitching despite ownership of a fastball that can reach the mid-90s."

"His mantra is three pitches or less to each hitter. He wants the innings more than the strikeouts."

'“It’s just my mentality of trying to get ahead and stay ahead and not trying to chase strikeouts,” said Hearn, who struck out two. “I’d rather have seven innings of two strikeouts rather than five innings and a ton of punchouts.”'

It is contrary to what the baseball stat gurus like, but it makes sense. So many like to evaluate pitchers on the ability to get batters to swing and miss. That is good, but it should not be the be-all-end-all for evaluating pitchers.

 

[BULLPEN FAILURE]

Jeff Wilson makes a case for Hearn being the Rangers pitcher of the year.

Jeff Wilson's Texas Rangers Newsletter | Substack

A look at everyone's favorite rebuilding baseball club. Click to read Jeff Wilson's Texas Rangers Newsletter, a Substack publication with thousands of subscribers.

jeffwilson.substack.com

Eric Nadel mentioned that Hearn's development is the biggest bright spot this year.

 

[BULLPEN FAILURE]

"His mantra is three pitches or less to each hitter. He wants the innings more than the strikeouts."

Good approach.

If there was one knock against Darvish when he got here, it's that he liked going after strikeouts too much.

 

[saddles]

Three in the top 50.

 

[scotsman1948]

Three in the top 50.

Let’s not trade them away

 

[saddles]

Let’s not trade them away

I would hope not. Lol

 

[BULLPEN FAILURE]

 

[saddles]

I am looking forward to following his career.

 

[BULLPEN FAILURE]

I am looking forward to following his career.

"What if... the Rangers never traded Hans Crouse?"

 

[BULLPEN FAILURE]

As we approach the end of the season, and the beginning of the postseason, it looks like MLB is going to get some of the chaos they wanted with the second WC spot. As of right now, the top 3 teams in the AL WC hunt are in the AL East. OAK and SEA are both only 3 games out, for a total of 5 teams within 3 games of each other for both WC spots.

In the NL, either the Dodgers or the Giants will take the first WC spot (whoever doesn't win the division), but there are 4 teams within 3 games of each other for the second spot.

Personally speaking, I'd like to see the Rays go the distance.

 

[saddles]

As we approach the end of the season, and the beginning of the postseason, it looks like MLB is going to get some of the chaos they wanted with the second WC spot. As of right now, the top 3 teams in the AL WC hunt are in the AL East. OAK and SEA are both only 3 games out, for a total of 5 teams within 3 games of each other for both WC spots.

In the NL, either the Dodgers or the Giants will take the first WC spot (whoever doesn't win the division), but there are 4 teams within 3 games of each other for the second spot.

Personally speaking, I'd like to see the Rays go the distance.

I know it will never go away, but I hate having 2 WC teams with a play in game. To me, having one WC was much better.

 

[scotsman1948]

I am looking forward to following his career.

Sorry to say it but I don’t really think if he had stayed that he would have had a future here. Just too many better pitcher prospects in the organization for him to make it

 

[BULLPEN FAILURE]

I know it will never go away, but I hate having 2 WC teams with a play in game. To me, having one WC was much better.

Eventually I think (or rather, I hope) we'll see another expansion/realignment. Two teams added and each league revised to have 4 divisions of 4 teams each. Then the division winners are the only ones who go to the postseason.

 

[saddles]

Sorry to say it but I don’t really think if he had stayed that he would have had a future here. Just too many better pitcher prospects in the organization for him to make it

That is a very odd thing to say. We had 2 better and one had just been drafted. Only Leiter and Winn were better prospects at the time.

We do have a lot of good pitching prospects and a lot of good position prospects. Eventually we will trade some of that surplus for an ace when he is needed.

 

[BULLPEN FAILURE]

Sorry to say it but I don’t really think if he had stayed that he would have had a future here. Just too many better pitcher prospects in the organization for him to make it

If the idea is that there isn't room for Crouse in the system, fair enough. But the idea that you needed to include Crouse in a package for Howard that already included Gibson and Kennedy is something I will never ever understand.

 

[scotsman1948]

That is a very odd thing to say. We had 2 better and one had just been drafted. Only Leiter and Winn were better prospects at the time.

In the next year or two he would have been passed by 3 or 4 others including Alexy, Dunning, Hearn, Otto etc

 

[scotsman1948]

If the idea is that there isn't room for Crouse in the system, fair enough. But the idea that you needed to include Crouse in a package for Howard that already included Gibson and Kennedy is something I will never ever understand.

I wasn’t happy about including him either but with the numbers we would have probably moved him in the next year or so anyway

 

[saddles]

I wasn’t happy about including him either but with the numbers we would have probably moved him in the next year or so anyway

Then move someone further down the line. Keep the best and trade the rest.