Series Thread: Rangers Host Mariners For Three Games April 6-8

[saddles]

What a difference a series makes. All of the good will the Rangers had gained from their fans after the first two road series has completely evaporated after a humiliating sweep on the part of the Reds. The team's offense is suddenly anemic and very reminiscent of what fans suffered through in 2025. On top of that, the pen is starting to show the late inning woes that plagued the team last year for a big part of the season.

As I mentioned yesterday, yhe current winning percentage works out to a record of 50-62 when the trade deadline arrives on August 3. That is not to say that I believe that will be the record, but for now it points in that direction.

If all three of Pederson, Smith and Jung continue to hit poorly then the offense doesn't have a lot of hope. If management stubbornly continues to try to pretend Chris Martin belongs in a big league bullpen and that Robert Garcia should be pitching in high leverage situations, then we are going to continue to see the team struggle in the low scoring games that the offense will provide in spades.

That means the team will continue to struggle, at least for now. How long can the team's psyche endure an early struggle before they start believing that they are the same team destined for the same struggles as last year's team.

As much as I dislike how the back end of the bullpen was built, I still have to put the biggest part of the blame on the offense. As a record number of very young players seem to be thriving across the big leagues, the Rangers are severely lacking in that department right now. Wyatt Langford has struggled and he should be leading the way. I picked him to be the team's MVP. I have been one of the biggest fans there is of the two Josh's, but both Jung and Smith have been overall disappointments so far.

I saw one fan's conversation with Jamey Newberg about the offense, yesterday. The fan asked, "I’m confused - you criticize the hitting, but don’t mention Viele a single time? Is there a reason he is constantly untouched?" To which Jamey responded, "I'm not qualified to judge if the messaging is even a small part of the problem. Go ahead if you'd like. For me, the hitters have to hit." Jamey often takes this tack. He very rarely questions any form of Rangers management.

My response to Jamey was, "Either CY has accumulated a whole lot of hitters who can't hit, some of which have been jettisoned, or the hitting coach is to blame. Like you, I am not qualified to judge, but either the hitting coach or CY is to blame. It's either the talent gatherer or the coach of the talent." Someone in the organization is to blame besides the players. The players should be blamed, but either someone gathered a bunch of uncoachable players or a coach simply cannot coach them. That is the case if so many hitters continue to struggle.

We head into the series with the Mariners needing some vast improvements and at least two wins. We are facing 3 right-handed pitchers again in this series so we will get the chance to see Pederson for three more games in a row.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention the good things that came out of the series with the Reds. Leiter and Rocker both had good games. Leiter continues his push to become known as this team's best pitcher. The two older veterans deserve more time to prove otherwise, but Leiter's start to the season combined with how he finished off last season, make it look like he is on his way to being next year's Opening Day starting pitcher after cementing his spot as the ace of this team later this season.

Also, the rest of the bullpen, besides Martin and Garcia have done well. I still don't know that I trust Tyler Alezander, but he has been fine so far. It is a shame that Carter Baumler suffered an injury because he looked very good in his last appearance.

Okay, let's go out and sweep the Matiners with an improved offense and show everyone what a difference a series can make in a positive direction. It is still early. At least two of the struggling hitters need to improve very quickly to turn this thing around.

 

[comet28]

My issue is that the team is so damn boring. In 2023 you could just turn on the TV and see a Rangers rally going. I get that GLF is bland and generic, but we had no problem scoring runs back then. Every game was a thriller like Astros-A's yesterday. And maybe the bullpen wouldn't look as bad if they weren't coming into a 2-2 tie every time.

 

[fanman8825]

What a difference a series makes. All of the good will the Rangers had gained from their fans after the first two road series has completely evaporated after a humiliating sweep on the part of the Reds. The team's offense is suddenly anemic and very reminiscent of what fans suffered through in 2025. On top of that, the pen is starting to show the late inning woes that plagued the team last year for a big part of the season.

As I mentioned yesterday, yhe current winning percentage works out to a record of 50-62 when the trade deadline arrives on August 3. That is not to say that I believe that will be the record, but for now it points in that direction.

If all three of Pederson, Smith and Jung continue to hit poorly then the offense doesn't have a lot of hope. If management stubbornly continues to try to pretend Chris Martin belongs in a big league bullpen and that Robert Garcia should be pitching in high leverage situations, then we are going to continue to see the team struggle in the low scoring games that the offense will provide in spades.

That means the team will continue to struggle, at least for now. How long can the team's psyche endure an early struggle before they start believing that they are the same team destined for the same struggles as last year's team.

As much as I dislike how the back end of the bullpen was built, I still have to put the biggest part of the blame on the offense. As a record number of very young players seem to be thriving across the big leagues, the Rangers are severely lacking in that department right now. Wyatt Langford has struggled and he should be leading the way. I picked him to be the team's MVP. I have been one of the biggest fans there is of the two Josh's, but both Jung and Smith have been overall disappointments so far.

I saw one fan's conversation with Jamey Newberg about the offense, yesterday. The fan asked, "I’m confused - you criticize the hitting, but don’t mention Viele a single time? Is there a reason he is constantly untouched?" To which Jamey responded, "I'm not qualified to judge if the messaging is even a small part of the problem. Go ahead if you'd like. For me, the hitters have to hit." Jamey often takes this tack. He very rarely questions any form of Rangers management.

My response to Jamey was, "Either CY has accumulated a whole lot of hitters who can't hit, some of which have been jettisoned, or the hitting coach is to blame. Like you, I am not qualified to judge, but either the hitting coach or CY is to blame. It's either the talent gatherer or the coach of the talent." Someone in the organization is to blame besides the players. The players should be blamed, but either someone gathered a bunch of uncoachable players or a coach simply cannot coach them. That is the case if so many hitters continue to struggle.

We head into the series with the Mariners needing some vast improvements and at least two wins. We are facing 3 right-handed pitchers again in this series so we will get the chance to see Pederson for three more games in a row.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention the good things that came out of the series with the Reds. Leiter and Rocker both had good games. Leiter continues his push to become known as this team's best pitcher. The two older veterans deserve more time to prove otherwise, but Leiter's start to the season combined with how he finished off last season, make it look like he is on his way to being next year's Opening Day starting pitcher after cementing his spot as the ace of this team later this season.

Also, the rest of the bullpen, besides Martin and Garcia have done well. I still don't know that I trust Tyler Alezander, but he has been fine so far. It is a shame that Carter Baumler suffered an injury because he looked very good in his last appearance.

Okay, let's go out and sweep the Matiners with an improved offense and show everyone what a difference a series can make in a positive direction. It is still early. At least two of the struggling hitters need to improve very quickly to turn this thing around.

Great opening. Enjoyed the read

 

[comet28]

I'd still say it's too early to make "on-pace" record claims. After all, before the last series it would have been 75-37.

 

[saddles]

Great opening. Enjoyed the read

Thanks.

 

[fanman8825]

My issue is that the team is so damn boring. In 2023 you could just turn on the TV and see a Rangers rally going. I get that GLF is bland and generic, but we had no problem scoring runs back then. Every game was a thriller like Astros-A's yesterday. And maybe the bullpen wouldn't look as bad if they weren't coming into a 2-2 tie every time.

Excellent point. We could come back easilly being down 5 or 6 to nothing. Everybody was hitting.2023 seems like a blip now.
Jung Garcia and Heim all had career years. We had the emergence late in the year of Evan Carter. Mitch Garver had one of his best years. Trade for Montgomery worked out magnificently. We started off hot(40-20)and regressed in the 2nd half to the point where we almost missed the playoffs in the final weekend against the Mariners.
Boche then hit all the right buttons and suddenly tbe bullpen was near perfect.
Even when Adolis got hurt in the Arizona series and couldnt come back I still felt conident we were winning that series with the championship.

 

[saddles]

I'd still say it's too early to make "on-pace" record claims. After all, before the last series it would have been 75-37.

I think it serves more to point out where we stand right now, and not necessarily as a prediction tool. It might be easy to say, "hey we are just one game under .500, so we are good." We are also playing at a winning percentage of .444, and that is not good. It shows us where we will be if we continue with status quo.

 

[armadillooutlaw]

What a difference a series makes. All of the good will the Rangers had gained from their fans after the first two road series has completely evaporated after a humiliating sweep on the part of the Reds. The team's offense is suddenly anemic and very reminiscent of what fans suffered through in 2025. On top of that, the pen is starting to show the late inning woes that plagued the team last year for a big part of the season.

As I mentioned yesterday, yhe current winning percentage works out to a record of 50-62 when the trade deadline arrives on August 3. That is not to say that I believe that will be the record, but for now it points in that direction.

If all three of Pederson, Smith and Jung continue to hit poorly then the offense doesn't have a lot of hope. If management stubbornly continues to try to pretend Chris Martin belongs in a big league bullpen and that Robert Garcia should be pitching in high leverage situations, then we are going to continue to see the team struggle in the low scoring games that the offense will provide in spades.

That means the team will continue to struggle, at least for now. How long can the team's psyche endure an early struggle before they start believing that they are the same team destined for the same struggles as last year's team.

As much as I dislike how the back end of the bullpen was built, I still have to put the biggest part of the blame on the offense. As a record number of very young players seem to be thriving across the big leagues, the Rangers are severely lacking in that department right now. Wyatt Langford has struggled and he should be leading the way. I picked him to be the team's MVP. I have been one of the biggest fans there is of the two Josh's, but both Jung and Smith have been overall disappointments so far.

I saw one fan's conversation with Jamey Newberg about the offense, yesterday. The fan asked, "I’m confused - you criticize the hitting, but don’t mention Viele a single time? Is there a reason he is constantly untouched?" To which Jamey responded, "I'm not qualified to judge if the messaging is even a small part of the problem. Go ahead if you'd like. For me, the hitters have to hit." Jamey often takes this tack. He very rarely questions any form of Rangers management.

My response to Jamey was, "Either CY has accumulated a whole lot of hitters who can't hit, some of which have been jettisoned, or the hitting coach is to blame. Like you, I am not qualified to judge, but either the hitting coach or CY is to blame. It's either the talent gatherer or the coach of the talent." Someone in the organization is to blame besides the players. The players should be blamed, but either someone gathered a bunch of uncoachable players or a coach simply cannot coach them. That is the case if so many hitters continue to struggle.

We head into the series with the Mariners needing some vast improvements and at least two wins. We are facing 3 right-handed pitchers again in this series so we will get the chance to see Pederson for three more games in a row.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention the good things that came out of the series with the Reds. Leiter and Rocker both had good games. Leiter continues his push to become known as this team's best pitcher. The two older veterans deserve more time to prove otherwise, but Leiter's start to the season combined with how he finished off last season, make it look like he is on his way to being next year's Opening Day starting pitcher after cementing his spot as the ace of this team later this season.

Also, the rest of the bullpen, besides Martin and Garcia have done well. I still don't know that I trust Tyler Alezander, but he has been fine so far. It is a shame that Carter Baumler suffered an injury because he looked very good in his last appearance.

Okay, let's go out and sweep the Matiners with an improved offense and show everyone what a difference a series can make in a positive direction. It is still early. At least two of the struggling hitters need to improve very quickly to turn this thing around.

Assuming the rotation stays healthy and productive, I wish they'd give the high leverage responsibilities to Latz and Winn most of the time.
The offense needs to pick up the pace. Even just decent 4-5 runs a game with this caliber of starting pitching should be enough to win most games. As for the rotation, Leiter is absolutely looking like the Ace of the team. Gore isn't much off as far as looking excellent, as well.
As skinny as the team is when it comes to top flight hitting prospects, I wish that once Bradford returns, they would seriously consider moving deGrom for some big help there. The pitching dropoff would likely be minimal and it could provide massive help towards being a serious championship contender again.

 

[saddles]

Bradford's next outing is scheduled for Wednesday with Frisco.

 

[saddles]

Assuming the rotation stays healthy and productive, I wish they'd give the high leverage responsibilities to Latz and Winn most of the time.
The offense needs to pick up the pace. Even just decent 4-5 runs a game with this caliber of starting pitching should be enough to win most games. As for the rotation, Leiter is absolutely looking like the Ace of the team. Gore isn't much off as far as looking excellent, as well.
As skinny as the team is when it comes to top flight hitting prospects, I wish that once Bradford returns, they would seriously consider moving deGrom for some big help there. The pitching dropoff would likely be minimal and it could provide massive help towards being a serious championship contender again.

Degrom's no ttade clause really works against a mid-season trade unless the team is in such bad shape that he wants out.

 

[comet28]

Excellent point. We could come back easilly being down 5 or 6 to nothing. Everybody was hitting.2023 seems like a blip now.
Jung Garcia and Heim all had career years. We had the emergence late in the year of Evan Carter. Mitch Garver had one of his best years. Trade for Montgomery worked out magnificently. We started off hot(40-20)and regressed in the 2nd half to the point where we almost missed the playoffs in the final weekend against the Mariners.
Boche then hit all the right buttons and suddenly tbe bullpen was near perfect.
Even when Adolis got hurt in the Arizona series and couldnt come back I still felt conident we were winning that series with the championship.

Well the pen had some struggles in Baltimore and Arizona but we were already up 10 runs in those games. Hard to imagine this team doing that on the regular

 

[saddles]

From Scott Lucas:

It's early, but after Emiliano Teodo's first two outings, I was wondering how many more of similar fashion would result in reassignment to Arizona. He's been around a while, so Frisco seems less likely. He should either be facing top-level competition or rebooting at the complex.

Out of the blue, yesterday brought the return of the early-2025 version of Teodo who was on the cusp of his MLB debut. (Maybe no call-up was imminent, but he was pitching at that level.) Teodo fanned the side swinging in order on 15 pitches, 11 for strikes. Teodo emphasized the slider, picking up four calls, two misses and two fouls. He also missed a bat with his lone 89 MPH changeup.

In a clean 9th, Josh Sborz peaked at 95.5 MPH, throwing two pitches faster than anything else this spring and eight above his previous regular-season high of 93.8. He missed three bats on five swings against that heater.

 

[saddles]

It would be nice to see Winn, Latz, Sborz, and Teodo pitching in the 8th and 9th inning by the middle of this month.

 

[saddles]

It would be nice to see Winn, Latz, Sborz, and Teodo pitching in the 8th and 9th inning by the middle of this month.

It would also be nice to see the fillowing:

Martin DFAed
Garcia optioned to AAA

 

[comet28]

It would also be nice to see the fillowing:

Martin DFAed
Garcia optioned to AAA

Don't forget Joc DFAed and Jung to AAA

 

[fanman8825]

Well the pen had some struggles in Baltimore and Arizona but we were already up 10 runs in those games. Hard to imagine this team doing that on the regular

I remember telling my friend who is a huge Orioles fan that the Rangers bullpen had been struggling that year. Chapman was a roller coaster ride. Leclerc was up and down. Brock Burke was bad in the regular season and playoffs. C.Stratton struggled toward the end after being traded here. Sborz was DFAed in July and it looked like the end for him.
Bochy brought him back and Sborz was near perfect in the playoffs only giving up 1 earned run. Leclerc and Chapman were better in the playoffs. Also got key contributions from Bradford, Gray and Heaney.
What a ride that was

 

[saddles]

It looks like Winston Santos will pitch for Frisco on Thursday.

 

[saddles]

Former Ranger, Kohl Drake, has been named PCL pitcher of the week. Good for him.

 

[saddles]

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[DTLUNA]

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Pedersen again! Go fish.