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Series Thread: Rangers Host the Mariners For Three Games May 2-4

saddles

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The Rangers offense is still struggling badly. There are several players struggling and many of them have struggled for most of the season.

One of those struggling hitters, Jake Burger, has being demoted to AAA Round Rock. I don't think he is the fall guy or anything, but unfortunately for him, he has options remaining and can be sent down.

Another reason that Burger is being demoted is because the Rangers have a hot hitter at Round Rock who can come up and take his place. Blaine Crim is that hitter. Blaine Crim has hit, and hit very well, at every level throughout the system. He has deserved a shot for a while, now.

Blaine was blocked by Nathaniel Lowe for a while. The Rangers finally traded Lowe, but instead of allowing a cheaper option to come up and either play 1B or DH, they chose to trade for Burger and sign Joc Pederson. The Burger signing was fine and he and Crim could have split time between 1B and DH. Instead, the Rangers inexplicably signed Joc Pederson for more than enough money to sign a closer. The team would have been much better off with Crim and a closer instead of with Pederson amd no closer.

With the Rangers having a paltry offensive output for over a month, the team finally got desperate enough to demote Burger and give Blaine Crim a chance. Let's hope Blaine gets off to a hot start because we know how impatient this club is with younger players, with Bochy and CY at the helm. There is very little chance Crim will stay up here for very long, but it will be important for him to show something while he is here.

If Crim comes in and hits well it could cause the front office to consider trading either Burger or Pederson at the deadline. That would be a bold move coming just a few months after one of those two was acquired. The better Crim performs in his stint up here, the more likely it will be for such a trade to take place.

One thing Crim becoming a part of the lineup going into next year will alleviate will be financial pressure on the front office going forward. That will especially be the case if it is Pederson that is traded. There is also a strong possibility that Garcia will no longer be around due to both Carter and Osuna stepping up and showing they deserve to be a part of the lineup. That adds even more financial flexibility.

For now, the Rangers face off against the Mariners. Leiter, Corbin and deGrom will pitch in this series. Leiter is another player whose performance this year will go a long way in providing some financial flexibility going into 2026. Let's hope he can give us close to 6 innings tonight and keep the Mariners at 2 runs or less.

I am going to see Crim's debut tonight. The last two players I went to see make their debut were Joey Gallo and Josh Smith. They both had good games in their debuts. Let's hope Blaine Crim does the same tonight. I sure would like to see him get a couple of hits this evening.
 

DTLUNA

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The Rangers offense is still struggling badly. There are several players struggling and many of them have struggled for most of the season.

One of those struggling hitters, Jake Burger, has being demoted to AAA Round Rock. I don't think he is the fall guy or anything, but unfortunately for him, he has options remaining and can be sent down.

Another reason that Burger is being demoted is because the Rangers have a hot hitter at Round Rock who can come up and take his place. Blaine Crim is that hitter. Blaine Crim has hit, and hit very well, at every level throughout the system. He has deserved a shot for a while, now.

Blaine was blocked by Nathaniel Lowe for a while. The Rangers finally traded Lowe, but instead of allowing a cheaper option to come up and either play 1B or DH, they chose to trade for Burger and sign Joc Pederson. The Burger signing was fine and he and Crim could have split time between 1B and DH. Instead, the Rangers inexplicably signed Joc Pederson for more than enough money to sign a closer. The team would have been much better off with Crim and a closer instead of with Pederson amd no closer.

With the Rangers having a paltry offensive output for over a month, the team finally got desperate enough to demote Burger and give Blaine Crim a chance. Let's hope Blaine gets off to a hot start because we know how impatient this club is with younger players, with Bochy and CY at the helm. There is very little chance Crim will stay up here for very long, but it will be important for him to show something while he is here.

If Crim comes in and hits well it could cause the front office to consider trading either Burger or Pederson at the deadline. That would be a bold move coming just a few months after one of those two was acquired. The better Crim performs in his stint up here, the more likely it will be for such a trade to take place.

One thing Crim becoming a part of the lineup going into next year will alleviate will be financial pressure on the front office going forward. That will especially be the case if it is Pederson that is traded. There is also a strong possibility that Garcia will no longer be around due to both Carter and Osuna stepping up and showing they deserve to be a part of the lineup. That adds even more financial flexibility.

For now, the Rangers face off against the Mariners. Leiter, Corbin and deGrom will pitch in this series. Leiter is another player whose performance this year will go a long way in providing some financial flexibility going into 2026. Let's hope he can give us close to 6 innings tonight and keep the Mariners at 2 runs or less.

I am going to see Crim's debut tonight. The last two players I went to see make their debut were Joey Gallo and Josh Smith. They both had good games in their debuts. Let's hope Blaine Crim does the same tonight. I sure would like to see him get a couple of hits this evening.
Enjoy the game. Hope Crim delivers.
 

saddles

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One reason why this club needs financial flexibility in the future is so that we can finally sign a legitimate closer and set up man. A lot of folks in the media and Twitter wanted to give the Rangers an excuse for not spening on the pen by pointing to Hader's early season troubles last year. Since then Hader has done pretty well. Hopefully, CY will finally see that spending on the back end of the pen makes a whole lot of sense.
 

saddles

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Great stuff here from Scott Lucas:

Blaine Crim
The offense needs a spark, so the Rangers are calling up an almost-28-year-old AAA first baseman in his minor league walk year.

Wait. What?

Texas drafted Blaine Crim in 2019’s 19th round from Mississippi College. He signed for the princely sum of $5,000. Across six seasons, Crim has batted .296/.372/.507, and he’s never endured a season-long slump. His worst batting average is .277, worst OBP .357, worst slug .469. He’s been remarkably consistent and healthy.

He’s hit 49 homers in 295 AAA games across 2023-2025 (about 19 per 500 PA), plus a combined 78 doubles and triples. His walk/HBP rate is an impressive 13%, and he doesn’t strike out that much (18%).

His swing tends to lean more towards liners than towering flies, and his contact is stout and true. In 2025, he sports a 52% hard-hit rate (league average is 39%), a median exit velocity of 95.9 (league 90.0), and a 90th-percentile exit of 107.9 (league 104.0). He’s prone to neither popups nor excessive grounders. This season, he’s hitting .313/.365/.515, and in looking at the balls in play I’m not seeing weirdly lucky results like I found with JP Martinez a couple of years ago. His line seems honest, at least as honest as any line in the Pacific Coast League can be. He has a pronounced reverse split so far, but on the whole I’d say his platoons are close to normal. He tends to whiff more than average against breakers and changes, but that's offset by a good take rate against the out-of-zone versions and solid results on contact.

So, why hasn’t he been promoted before now? Ultimately, I’d have to say because the decision-makers (both in Arlington and around the Majors) have never quite reached the point at which they’ve felt compelled to make a move. I’ve sometimes talked about a player forcing management’s hand. Crim just isn’t quite that type. He has always been very good, but kind of quietly so. He doesn’t really impart a “best player on the field” vibe, although I’ve attended many a game where I’ve marveled at how perpetually locked in he is compared to most of his teammates and opposition. He has some flaws, namely a lack of positional flexibility and a listed height of 5’10”.

We can analyze and hypothesize all day, but as I’ve said before, we can learn a great deal from the (in)actions of the teams. Obviously, he hadn’t reached the Majors before today. Crim has been a potential 40 addition since the fall of 2022 but never protected. He’s been available in three Rule 5 drafts but never taken. Last December via two trades, the Rangers swapped a starting 1B with two years of control for one with four years of control. He wasn’t the prize or a pot sweetener in trades for Jordan Montgomery, Aroldis Chapman, Andrew Chafin, Carson Kelly, etc.

A recent Baseball America piece discussed the decline of lefty-throwing position players, including at first, adding: “Major league first basemen are more likely to throw righthanded today than they were a decade ago… First basemen also are shorter on average than they used to be… A greater number of sub-6-foot players are playing first base today.”

All true, but a good many of those players are shy of six feet by one inch, while Crim is listed at 5’10”. A negligible difference to most of us, perhaps, but in terms of getting an opportunity in the first place, it’s huge. Crim also bats exclusively right-handed. And although Crim has moonlighted at third over his pro career, he’s essentially an adequate defensive 1B, and the likelihood of him playing the hot corner in the Majors is remote.

I queried Baseball Reference’s Stathead service for players and seasons meeting these criteria since 1920: 1) listed height 5’10” or below, 2) bats right-handed only, 3) played at least 75% of games at 1B, 4) played no other positions (except DH), 4) minimum 20 PA.

Andrew Vaughn, 2023-2025
Steve Garvey, 1974-1987
Chuck Harrison, 1965-1969, 1971
Lew Fonseca, 1929, 1933
Stuffy McInnis, 1920-1926
Dutch Schliebner, 1923

That’s it. Crim is up against over a century of animosity toward his type of player, and while analytics have changed the game radically, baseball is still a sport steeped in inertia. Plus, this positional selection begins far earlier than the upper minors. If you see an adolescent below six feet, you’re looking for where he can play other than first.

In terms of Texas minor league history, the analogs for Crim that come to mind are catcher Brett Nicholas and OF Jared Hoying. Both were minor league lifers awaiting free agency in 2016, and both would be called up to assist a contending club, not after roster expansion but in the early part of the season. Nicholas was later traded for some low-level relief prospect named Emmanuel Clase, while Hoying parlayed his call-up into three seasons in Korea.

Someone on social media asked if I thought Crim could hit MLB pitching. If I knew with certainty, I wouldn’t have placed this paragraph down at the bottom, plus my involvement in baseball would be more intense than blogging as a side gig. I don’t know. I’ve seen so, so many guys smash AAA pitching in hitter-friendly parks, only to be overwhelmed in the Majors. The history of hitters who debut at Age 27 isn’t great. Mostly, they have their moments but can’t hang on.

I do know with certainty that Crim deserves this chance.
 

Kelleyman

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saddles

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From Jared Sandler:

Blaine Crim said his parents drove 14 hours from Destin, FL to be here tonight because they couldn't find a flight.

His wife, Katie, is the Head Women's Soccer Coach at North Greenville. She had to reschedule a few exit meetings with players to make sure she could make it!
 

DTLUNA

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I see where Pederson is in the 3 hole again.
 

scotsman#1948

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Rather see Leody in 3 hole than Pederson. Leody gets a hit now and then. ( sarcasm)
know it wasn't going to happen with him at AA but was hoping that they would also bringing up Osuna and ship Taveras somewhere
 
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