Series Thread: Rangers hope to revive offense at home vs A's 8/15-8/17

[PhantomWarrior]

Now for Harrell to come through and that may be a tall order.

Understand. Kinda like the feeling you get with two dollars left in your pocket two days into a 7 day Vegas trip and you already cashed in the return airline ticket.

 

[PhantomWarrior]

Yes, once he made that adjustment in his mechanics a few games ago he has been a much better pitcher.

Yeah he looked great and Lucroy did an awesome job behind the dish.

 

[PhantomWarrior]

Can't say I'm surprised about Choo. It sucks, but I'm used to watching this team with Choo on the DL. Probably the best option is Delino. See if he could jump start the line up again.

DDJ just can't hit a big league fast ball anymore. Sad to see.

 

[PhantomWarrior]

Well, you don't have to worry about Choo anymore. And watch how negatively this effects our entire lineup, b/c we flat don't have anyone else who's a good lead-off man.

Yes the options are slim. Only one would be Elvis IMO but for some reason whenever he moves to the top of the order he becomes 'old Elvis.' Plus he has been doing a great job with RISP in his current slot.

 

[PhantomWarrior]

Yikes! Harrell and Cheerios?!

Maybe I'll watch the fully covered Egyptian women's beach volleyball game tonight instead. LOL.

 

[PhantomWarrior]

LOL take a look at Detwiler's expression:

 

[jaar01]

Can some DFW reporter please ask Banister why Desmond never gets a day off? The guy is struggling and needs to "unplug" for a couple days. Remember he didn't really get an all star break either.

 

[BULLPEN FAILURE]

Can some DFW reporter please ask Banister why Desmond never gets a day off? The guy is struggling and needs to "unplug" for a couple days. Remember he didn't really get an all star break either.

It's important to remember that First-Half Desmond was playing way beyond anything his recent years would have suggested. There's a reason why he's on the Rangers for $8 million. This could just be him regressing to normal Ian Desmond.

 

[Nightcrawler]

I know someone else has brought this up before, but I'm just now noticing it myself. Why the hell does Lucroy get so many days off? What is the rooster doing? I hate the way Lucroy is being utilized. He should be catching 6 games a week and given an offday on Sunday. We are in a damn pennant race and there is only a month and half left. It's not even that hot outside this week, he's not going to burn up in this " heat".

 

[donaldson79]

I was trying to be optimistic. Oh well.

I understood what you were saying.

I understood too. However, it didn't work so well. ha ha

 

[donaldson79]

A great sign of leadership from AB showing the team this is how you bat with RISP.

Just wondering: What's his avg with RISP this season comparatively speaking? Honestly don't know.

 

[darrylgann]

Yikes! Harrell and Cheerios?!

Maybe I'll watch the fully covered Egyptian women's beach volleyball game tonight instead. LOL.

Heck, I may tune in for that, Phantom.

 

[DT LUNA]

Heck, I may tune in for that, Phantom.

You big spoofer

 

[Bmurph]

I know someone else has brought this up before, but I'm just now noticing it myself. Why the hell does Lucroy get so many days off? What is the rooster doing? I hate the way Lucroy is being utilized. He should be catching 6 games a week and given an offday on Sunday. We are in a damn pennant race and there is only a month and half left. It's not even that hot outside this week, he's not going to burn up in this " heat".

Sit the hot bats when they get hot, as often as possible and leave the ice colds ones in there everyday. Makes perfect sense to us all, doesn't it?

 

[WastinSomeTime]

Sit the hot bats when they get hot, as often as possible and leave the ice colds ones in there everyday. Makes perfect sense to us all, doesn't it?

And probably the last person who needs to catch Harrell is Chirinos. I hope he is taking the time to pick Lucroy's brain.

 

[WastinSomeTime]

I know that Profar is going to lead off but I started thinking would we rather have Andrus get 5 ABs or Profar in a game. Andrus has looked good at the plate. It is not a big deal to me one way or another just a thought.

 

[Kelleyman]

Nice take from Banny on LuCroy calling a game

 

[donaldson79]

but I started thinking would we rather have Andrus get 5 ABs or Profar in a game. Andrus has looked good at the plate.

I wouldn't just b/c of this seasons results.

Honestly and openly wondered if he'd recover from the previous "problem (s)."

 

[DT LUNA]

I wouldn't just b/c of this seasons results.

Honestly and openly wondered if he'd recover from the previous "problem (s)."

Agree. Don't fix "not broke"

 

[saddles]

Some really good stuff here.

Taxi to the terminal zone: The August 16th Baseball Texas Daily!

3. Jonathan Lucroy’s arrival has also marked the beginning of a few other changes in the pitching staff. Yu Darvish has started throwing his fastball more. Martin Perez is back to throwing his “best pitch”, the changeup. Sam Dyson trusts his sinker again. I asked Jeff Banister about where these mandates have come from, and why a pitching coach wouldn’t bring about those changes. I asked it not to throw Doug Brocail under the bus, but more to learn where that communication comes from, and why a catcher makes that big a difference.

“You have to understand the dynamics of game-calling and game-planning, and the recognition of a catcher; the ability to gain the trust of pitchers to switch mid-stream," he said. Then he grabbed a piece of loose paper from his desk, and looked me in the eye. So, this is your game plan. And in the third inning, sometimes it has to go like this [crumples paper, tosses it in the trash].”

Banister is at his best when he has an object lesson, be it verbal, or - in this case - an actual piece of crumpled paper. He becomes half-professor, half-preacher. When the topic is catching, all the better.

“It’s not fluid for pitchers. They love to have everything mapped out in their mind: ‘this is how it’s going to work. If I do this, this happens. If I do that, that happens.’ But that’s over with. And it’s a human body. There’s a lot of things that happen in that whole kinetic chain of events. They’re not robots…”

He pulls his right arm back to make a throwing motion, and with each throw, snaps his left fingers

“...they don’t just push the on button and [SNAP!] Iron Mike just takes over [SNAP!] and just throws [SNAP!] the same pitch the same [SNAP!] way all the time. There are fatigue factors; a lot of things come into play.”

“So you have a pitching coach, who is on the outside. Now, yes, he could go high school and start calling every single pitch, but he still doesn’t have the point of view of the hitter. But quality catchers who have honed their craft are very intuitive and perceptive in seeing little changes… hitters will change their feet position. They’ll open up, they’ll close up; change their head position. You can feel what they’re trying to do. And then, if you’re *really* good, you can see little differences in their delivery. You can almost see body language, telling you ‘I don’t want to throw a certain pitch, or I do want to throw a certain pitch’; confidence factors.”

“So there is a combination of the two, where a pitching coach, on the side, can have that conversation on pitch selection, thought processes. And then there’s that factor, when you get into the game, into the heat of battle. And that cranial functionality, sometimes, there’s a Pause Button in there. So.. sometimes a catcher can be a great taxi driver.”

Banister also talked about the fact that the Rangers aren’t the only team making game plans. “They’re doing that over there, too. Sometimes teams just drop anchor and wait you out. Sometimes, they’re jumping on every first pitch because you’re throwing a lot of first-pitch fastballs. It’s that whole fishing expedition that you go on every night.”