Series Thread: Rangers Host the Dodgers For Three Games April 18-20

[jaar01]

Nate Lowe is hitting .295
3 HRs
16 RBIs

Change of scenery ( hitting philosophy) seems to have done him good

 

[Kelleyman]

Tough series. And yes the bars need to get it done. Some hard hit balls did not find hoes. The last play was a joke

Only got one game but LAD and league took notice

 

[Kelleyman]

Nate Lowe is hitting .295
3 HRs
16 RBIs

Change of scenery ( hitting philosophy) seems to have done him good

Heard he has more strikeouts but Is pulling the ball more

 

[Kelleyman]

Need a balanced lineup with contact hitters like Smith Harris and Pilar. Marcus should be that but sadly is not
Wyatt can be both

 

[fanman8825]

About 3 guys in the lineup are capable of getting a hit these days and the rest have vey little to no chance

Seager Smith Langford. Think I am fairly close

 

[saddles]

Nate Lowe is hitting .295
3 HRs
16 RBIs

Change of scenery ( hitting philosophy) seems to have done him good

Let's see what he does for the year.

 

[saddles]

From Shawn McFarland:

“I’m not having concerns right now,” Bochy said. “Sure, you’d like to see more runs, but these guys — I keep saying it — they’ll come out of it, because they’re not going to hit what they’re hitting. Yeah, if this kept going on for a month or something, yeah, I think you’d be concerned. We have a lot of baseball left and guys are still trying to get in their groove.”

 

[fanman8825]

Why not take a look at Crim?

He had another Hr today. He is batting 329. Foscoe had a couple of hits. He is batting 354. Time to consider giving one or both an opportunity
I never expected the offense to be this bad. It’s a tough watch

 

[fanman8825]

From Shawn McFarland:

“I’m not having concerns right now,” Bochy said. “Sure, you’d like to see more runs, but these guys — I keep saying it — they’ll come out of it, because they’re not going to hit what they’re hitting. Yeah, if this kept going on for a month or something, yeah, I think you’d be concerned. We have a lot of baseball left and guys are still trying to get in their groove.”

Well Bruce its getting close to a month. I will check back in with coach in about a week

 

[fanman8825]

Tough series. And yes the bars need to get it done. Some hard hit balls did not find hoes. The last play was a joke

Only got one game but LAD and league took notice

Yeah spot on and we almost got swept. It’s early but we got to find out in the next month or so if some of these guys are going to coming out of their hitting funk.

 

[saddles]

Well Bruce its getting close to a month. I will check back in with coach in about a week

The A's pitching will interfere with that, and then folks will act like the slump that starts against the Mariners is a brand new one.

Then we will have the Rockies and Whote Sox coming up in May to do well against. We will have some sporadic hitting over the course of the next 5 weeks, but nothing will be changeded of we cannot hit better against the mediocre and good pitching.

 

[Senator_fan]

Out of the 27 innings played with the Dodgers we had the lead for 1 inning not counting the walk off inning.

 

[WastinSomeTime]

We have 2 series against the Athletics coming up in the next 11 days. They are 26th in team ERA. When we hit well against them, it won't mean anything long term. I can almost guarantee you that the narrative from the media and some fans will be that the hitting is fixed.

I will just be glad if they are capable of scoring runs against them. The Dodgers brought some guys out of the BP and we did nothing against them. Yates wasn't one of those guys.

 

[saddles]

I will just be glad if they are capable of scoring runs against them. The Dodgers brought some guys out of the BP and we did nothing against them. Yates wasn't one of those guys.

Oh, I do too, but I am not going to get my hopes up just because we do well against them, if we do. Similarly, it didn't impress me before the deadline last year when we manhandled the White Sox.

 

[Kelleyman]

The A's pitching will interfere with that, and then folks will act like the slump that starts against the Mariners is a brand new one.

Then we will have the Rockies and Whote Sox coming up in May to do well against. We will have some sporadic hitting over the course of the next 5 weeks, but nothing will be changeded of we cannot hit better against the mediocre and good pitching.

They say that good pitching beats good hitting and these games were close and we pretty much shut down their hitting

Yes we will excel against bad pitching and hope to do better against very good pitching

 

[fanman8825]

They say that good pitching beats good hitting and these games were close and we pretty much shut down their hitting

Yes we will excel against bad pitching and hope to do better against very good pitching

If we were to play the Dodgers now in a 7 game series I could these games being very similar to what we just saw this past weekend.
Question is as this season plays out do the Rangers acquire a couple of more bullpen arms at the deadline to match up with the Dodgers?
Right now I see these teams very close but the Dodgers have a better bullpen. That is why we lost this series. Their offense struggled too, but we have too many guys struggling.
The Dodgers could get knocked off as some of their favored teams have in the past, but this year their pitching is elite and is good as I have ever seen.
As far as our offense goes the team still has options internally for improvement. If Crim and Foscue continue to hit at RR and the same Rangers can’t hit then CY is going to have an obligation to bring them up. Not doing so is a disservice to the organization and the fans.
Bochy seems to be too nonchalant about offensive changes saying they will come out of it and they can’t keep hitting like this.
Even if some of the slumping players start to hit better it still may not be good enough.
IMO I don’t think Semian or Burger are going to hit much over 200. Burger could start hitting Hrs but he is overmatched against good Rh pitching. Pederson is a mess and have no idea what’s going to happen with him.
Don’t even want to get into Garcia or Tavares because it’s too much for me. Guess I want to wait it out a little longer with Garcia.

 

[saddles]

Baseball America comes out with a new Hotsheet each week where they list the top 20 prospects of the last week. This week's edition features a bonus entry below #20. The bonus entry was the Rangers' David Davalillo.

David Davalillo, RHP, Rangers​

The only reason Davalillo didn’t leave with a perfect game on Friday night was because one of his strikeout pitches skittered to the backstop for a wild pitch. It was a great outing from a pitcher who seems to string them together week after week. In 145 pro innings, Davaillo has a 2.17 career ERA. In full-season ball, it’s below 1.80. Davalillo has enough of a fastball (93-94 mph) because he spots it well, and he has a slider, curve and split-change that he commands with precision, too. Davalillo doesn’t seem to make mistakes up in the strike zone. If you see him put a pitch in the top third of the zone, it’s almost assuredly a late-count fastball that plays up because hitters are so worried about him pounding the bottom of the zone.

 

[fanman8825]

Baseball America comes out with a new Hotsheet each week where they list the top 20 prospects of the last week. This week's edition features a bonus entry below #20. The bonus entry was the Rangers' David Davalillo.

David Davalillo, RHP, Rangers​

The only reason Davalillo didn’t leave with a perfect game on Friday night was because one of his strikeout pitches skittered to the backstop for a wild pitch. It was a great outing from a pitcher who seems to string them together week after week. In 145 pro innings, Davaillo has a 2.17 career ERA. In full-season ball, it’s below 1.80. Davalillo has enough of a fastball (93-94 mph) because he spots it well, and he has a slider, curve and split-change that he commands with precision, too. Davalillo doesn’t seem to make mistakes up in the strike zone. If you see him put a pitch in the top third of the zone, it’s almost assuredly a late-count fastball that plays up because hitters are so worried about him pounding the bottom of the zone.

I see he is listed as 6.1 175. Wondering with some gradual weight gain he could possibly get that fastball up to 95-96.
Otherwise he looks like a very good prospect

 

[saddles]

Leiter and Rocker are getting closer to having enough big league experience to be no longer considered prospects. Two Rangers' pitching prospects who have been ranked very high during the last two years, Jose Corniell and Alejandro Rosario, are injured and are on the backburner, presently. Another highly regarded pitching prospect, Emiliano Teodo, has been deemed a reliever by the organization.

Most folks would say that that leaves Bratt, Drake, Stephan and Bonzagni as the next tier. I am beginning to see that much differently. David Davalillo is racing up the charts in my estimation. He may rank the highest, in my estimation, before long.

I usually make my first top 30 prosoects list out in mid-May. By then, Davalillo could be my highest ranked pitching prospect.

 

[saddles]

From The Prospect Times:

Sebastian Walcott has an 8-game hit-streak.

During this streak — he's hitting:

— .333 AVG
— .487 OBP
— .593 SLG
— 1.079 OPS
— 1 HR
— 8 RBI
— 9 BB
— 6 SO