Series Thread: Let's take 3 from Buck's Boys.....8/28-30

[donaldson79]

Yeah looking it more from his perspective. Of course he is no world beater with home runs. I read where he thought he found his repeatable stroke. Now re him catching Hamels, watch this. I think he gets the rest of the starts for him.

Point is I think he feels like he has a regular spot on this team for the foreseeable future and I would not be surprised if he is a back up on the roster even next year. His major league career has taken a turn for the better. He had to feel good about this.

Hope he's right on the HR stroke. Sure looked sweet last night.

And my biggest concern for him and going forward is his age (he'll be 33 in Dec). And of course he had a little difficulty finding the base-runner trying to score occasionally too. ha ha ha Or was that, "the other guy?"

Here's Banister's quote again re: both of our catchers: “You start trying to treat either one of them like an everyday guy at this point, not good for them,” Banister said.

 

[donaldson79]

Wonder if Rangers give him the GM spot and JD pres only but maybe handling more than baseball operations

Since Thad is not 45 and JD is not even 40, they both probably have goals & desires we aren't aware of.

Thad may just want to spread his wings and leave the nest, so-to-speak. Or JD my really enjoy being heavily involved with the day-to-day stuff and not want to relinquish this job function just yet. I have no idea.

And some of it is just the pure and simple, "If you hire good people, let them do their work to the best of their abilities, they succeed, then someone is going to want to give them a better opportunity than you may have available for them."

 

[Nightcrawler]

Don't know if anyone as heard anything about this or not:

With Mariners looking for a new GM, could Rangers lose Thad Levine?

We've already seen Nolan go to the Astros. Why does it seem like we are supplying the front office brains for our entire division? With the exception of Beane in Oakland of course. I don't like this, hopefully it's just a rumor. Thad needs to go to a NL team if he leaves, hopefully he doesn't.

 

[donaldson79]

Thad needs to go to a NL team if he leaves

I wonder if the time hasn't come to try and build into mgmt contracts some type of clause making it less attractive to move within one's own division. Some type of financial penalty, or even a "can't move within the division without sitting out a year" kind of thing.

This may be just total manure, I'm just throwing this out for fodder.

 

[Nightcrawler]

I wonder if the time hasn't come to try and build into mgmt contracts some type of clause making it less attractive to move within one's own division. Some type of financial penalty, or even a "can't move within the division without sitting out a year" kind of thing.

This may be just total manure, I'm just throwing this out for fodder.

There is something to the thought. Why should the Rangers be penalized for building a successful front office / organization? Unfortunately, executives in baseball can come and go as they please, they are not bound by contracts like the players are. In addition, when a team is out of contention in most sports and they are trading a good player at or around the trade deadline, usually they try to get the best package available while sending that player to a team they won't be competing with in the immediate future ( a different conference usually). The same thing happens in football. When a team wins the Super Bowl, their front office / team gets raided by opponents. Executives should have to play by that same set of rules in my opinion.

 

[donaldson79]

Executives should have to play by that same set of rules in my opinion.

The "stipulations" we're talking about here are quite common place in many, if not most, other industries.

I know, for example, the broadcast business would not allow a morning DJ to quit and move to another broadcast entity in the same market. Or a TV station's news person doing same.

FedEx has clauses with their executives re: UPS, Postal Service, etc.

So it's really not like we're suggesting anything unprecedented.

 

[Nightcrawler]

The "stipulations" we're talking about here are quite common place in many, if not most, other industries.

I know, for example, the broadcast business would not allow a morning DJ to quit and move to another broadcast entity in the same market. Or a TV station's news person doing same.

FedEx has clauses with their executives re: UPS, Postal Service, etc.

So it's really not like we're suggesting anything unprecedented.

To make matters worse, wouldn't we get nothing back from Seattle? The whole thing would suck all around.

 

[donaldson79]

To make matters worse, wouldn't we get nothing back from Seattle? The whole thing would suck all around.

No, there's not any compensation in situations like this.

But, it's the way things are and it's part of the downside of having a good,yet very young, FO.

If Thad wants to go, I don't think there's anything we can do, contractually, to dissuade him. Nor would we want too IMO.

I'm strictly looking at the overall concept of contracts, and toward future one's.

 

[WastinSomeTime]

Don't know if anyone as heard anything about this or not:

With Mariners looking for a new GM, could Rangers lose Thad Levine?

Many thought it a big deal to lose AJ.

 

[WastinSomeTime]

At the risk of being nit-picky, since he's got 10 HR in his ML life, and 4 to show for this season, I'm not sure what you mean about his "HR stroke coming around."

And this from the DMN re: Hamels and who catches him:

Hamels has worked with both catchers — Bobby Wilson and Gimenez — and not expressed a preference.

Gimenez caught Hamels’ win at Detroit on Sunday. Banister also wants to avoid pushing either cather too hard. Neither is an everyday player at this stage of his career.

“You starting trying to treat either one of them like an everyday guy at this point, not good for them,” Banister said.

And Banister left it up to Hamels to decide who catches him.

 

[WastinSomeTime]

In 20 games in August, Trout is hitting .183 (13 for 71) with one homer and five RBIs. He has gone 14 consecutive games without hitting a home run -- his longest stretch without one this season -- his last homer coming Aug. 7 vs. Baltimore.

I also am not sure if anyone saw his throw from short CF last night to the plate but it was really weak.

 

[romeo212000]

In 20 games in August, Trout is hitting .183 (13 for 71) with one homer and five RBIs. He has gone 14 consecutive games without hitting a home run -- his longest stretch without one this season -- his last homer coming Aug. 7 vs. Baltimore.

I also am not sure if anyone saw his throw from short CF last night to the plate but it was really weak.

Trout has an absolute wet noodle for an arm and he's not nearly as good of a CF as everyone makes him out to be. The bastard sure can hit though, and we need his ass to stay ice cold for a few more weeks.

 

[romeo212000]

In other news, Houston will play 13 of their 27 games in September on the road including a tough 10 game stretch at Oakland, LAA, and finish the road trip with a four game series in Arlington. We'll play them 7 times in September, so we pretty much control our own destiny.

 

[donaldson79]

And Banister left it up to Hamels to decide who catches him.

Where did you see or hear this?

According to what I'm seeing/hearing from Banister, this isn't the case, at least to date.

 

[donaldson79]

We'll play them 7 times in September, so we pretty much control our own destiny.

I would never have thought his going into the season, for either team, quite honestly.

 

[romeo212000]

I would never have thought his going into the season, for either team, quite honestly.

I'm just happy to be here.

 

[WastinSomeTime]

Where did you see or hear this?

According to what I'm seeing/hearing from Banister, this isn't the case, at least to date.

It was in the DMN before last nights game.

Take your pick: Rangers manager Jeff Banister will let Cole Hamels choose his own catcher

 

[WastinSomeTime]

Trout has an absolute wet noodle for an arm and he's not nearly as good of a CF as everyone makes him out to be. The bastard sure can hit though, and we need his ass to stay ice cold for a few more weeks.

Right. I brought this up a few weeks ago and I remember you were on board with it as well in the fact that Trout is not the all around player people try to claim he is. And that team is really hurting when Trout is not on his game offensively.

 

[WastinSomeTime]

In other news, Houston will play 13 of their 27 games in September on the road including a tough 10 game stretch at Oakland, LAA, and finish the road trip with a four game series in Arlington. We'll play them 7 times in September, so we pretty much control our own destiny.

And Houston has struggled on the road. They are 26-37.

 

[romeo212000]

Right. I brought this up a few weeks ago and I remember you were on board with it as well in the fact that Trout is not the all around player people try to claim he is.

He's an average to maybe slightly above average defender due to his speed. However, he's an absolute terror at the plate and on the bases. Still the best all around player in baseball IMO.