Series Thread: Rangers Travel to Minnesota for 4 Games August 24-27

[Duane1952]

No. No they are not. You people are ridiculous.

It’s called a slump. It’s a losing streak. They’re playing very poorly and finding new ways to lose every night. But that does not make them the worst team in baseball. No team with Corey Seager and their rotation is the worst in baseball. And as far as how they’re playing right now, the Yankees are worse.

Their bullpen is pretty bad.

 

[Senator_fan]

LeClerc and now Sborz. Bochy is really playing with fire tonight.

I was never sold on Sborz. He did surprise me for a while though. I never gave up on Leclerc. He has been pretty good since giving up 3 runs to the Angels in mid June.

 

[saddles]

The bats going silent after the 4th didn't help matters.

 

[scotsman1948]

No. No they are not. You people are ridiculous.

It’s called a slump. It’s a losing streak. They’re playing very poorly and finding new ways to lose every night. But that does not make them the worst team in baseball. No team with Corey Seager and their rotation is the worst in baseball. And as far as how they’re playing right now, the Yankees are worse.

Even with Seager and their rotation they can’t win right now. By the time they right the ship if they do they will be behind both Seattle and Houston in the west and there will be at least 3 other AL teams ahead of them in the WC. It will be difficult for them to recover

 

[saddles]

Didn’t say you did. But I feel like some here are watching baseball for the first time.

Baseball is a weird, weird sport. Things change on a dime completely out of the blue. The team as they’re playing right now would get beat in the postseason. But the postseason doesn’t start tomorrow. They still have over 30 games between now and then.

What if Heim improves? What if tonight’s 5 runs are a sign that the offense is slowly coming out of their slumber? What if Jung returns and makes a difference? Are you telling me that a trio of Eovaldi-Scherzer-Montgomery with an improved offense couldn’t beat the Twins or the Blue Jays or the Rays in a series? If the starters go 6 innings, we only see Stratton, Burke, and Chapman. That’s doable.

That is a whole lot to go right.

Other things can go wrong too.

 

[WilltheThrill]

Even with Seager and their rotation they can’t win right now. By the time they right the ship if they do they will be behind both Seattle and Houston in the west and there will be at least 3 other AL teams ahead of them in the WC. It will be difficult for them to recover

They’re still in first place, and they have a series with both Houston and Seattle. Nothing is settled. At all. Yet you are calling them the worst team in baseball and saying they have no chance at all. Neither of those things are true.

 

[WilltheThrill]

That is a whole lot to go right.

Other things can go wrong too.

That’s 2 things. Heim improving and Jung coming back healthy.

 

[WastinSomeTime]

That’s 2 things. Heim improving and Jung coming back healthy.

It's a shame about those two. Heim has been leaving a lot of guys on base. But definitely not giving up on him because of what I saw before the injury.

 

[WilltheThrill]

Saying “this team absolutely stinks right now” (true) and “this team is officially done and they have no chance and they definitely aren’t making the playoffs” are not the same things.

One is observationally and verifiably correct. The other is hyperbole and passing off statements about the future as undeniable fact when it’s nothing more than guesswork.

We aren’t Oakland or Kansas City. This team has proved for MULTIPLE months that they are capable of playing playoffs-caliber baseball. Bad teams can’t do that at all. Maybe we’re not consistently good. But we’re capable of being so. And right now we’re still in first place with 30 plus games to go to break out of this awful cycle we’re in now. Even if the team lands somewhere in the middle of awesome and awful, I’m still not going to write off their chances in August.

 

[DT LUNA]

Bottom line:
1.We hit better
2. Pitched worse

 

[age8311]

The Astros lost 17-1 today, and they lost yesterday. Not going to write off the rangers based on this slump or just cause Astros are in our division.

 

[scotsman1948]

They’re still in first place, and they have a series with both Houston and Seattle. Nothing is settled. At all. Yet you are calling them the worst team in baseball and saying they have no chance at all. Neither of those things are true.

They are playing like the worst team right now. A 7 game losing streak is the worst going right now

 

[saddles]

Ehh, I’d say he’s batting roughly .500.

All the points you made are valid. But he did overhaul the rotation in 1 season with signings and trades. They’re borderline elite now. Jankowski has been a steal of a signing for a bargain basement price.

The bullpen fiasco and Ragans disaster are black eyes for CY, but he’s done some other stuff well.

Yes, he has done some things well, but overall I think he has had a rough year. GMs of teams with hopes of postseason success, need to do significantly better.

Even overhauling the rotation was to the detriment of the pen. Heaney's money should have been spent on the pen.

It is his first year, but he had better learn from this and keep from making the same mistakes. Although, I think he did make the same mistake with the pen at the deadline, so I will be surprised if he fully addresses the pen in the upcoming offseason.

 

[WilltheThrill]

Reminds me of people saying "what if the Angels go on a run? Then Trout comes back and they've got him AND Ohtani for the postseason!"

It shouldn’t. We’re in first place. The Angels were 6-8 games back, not to mention sitting behind multiple teams for a Wild Card spot. And they didn’t have the rotation OR the lineup we have.

Our current playoff chances sit somewhere around 70% and slowly dropping. Theirs sat at 5% at the deadline. Nowhere near the same level of needing absolutely everything to go right.

 

[saddles]

That’s 2 things. Heim improving and Jung coming back healthy.

This statement is part if it too:

"What if tonight’s 5 runs are a sign that the offense is slowly coming out of their slumber?"

 

[WilltheThrill]

Yes, he has done some things well, but overall I think he has had a rough year. GMs of teams with hopes of postseason success, need to do significantly better.

Even overhauling the rotation was to the detriment of the pen. Heaney's money should have been spent on the pen.

It is his first year, but he had better learn from this and keep from making the same mistakes. Although, I think he did make the same mistake with the pen at the deadline, so I will be surprised if he fully addresses the pen in the upcoming offseason.

Not improving the pen really was unforgivable. I honestly think he thought he didn’t need to worry about a mediocre pen because he thought we weren’t going to be division leaders this year. He probably thought he could improve that at a later date. Big, big mistake.

 

[Senator_fan]

Bochy has made some bad moves, but CY has set him up for failure by ignoring the pen in the offseason and only half way addressing it at the deadline.

Between the pen, the way they handled Ragans and giving Englert away, CY has had a rough first year.

Part of the problem with Bochy is he’s never managed the pitcher facing a 3 batter minimum and the ghost runner.
CY didn’t make it any easier by not signing Matt Moore when he gets both LH and RH batters out.

Englert remains to be seen.

I knew CY gave up too much by giving Ragans away. But he had the opportunity to get Chapman before the bidding war on July 31st and he couldn’t afford to wait. KC jumped at the chance to get Ragans because they were not going to get any thing close to him at the deadline, otherwise they wouldn’t have pulled the trigger immediately.

 

[WilltheThrill]

This statement is part if it too:

"What if tonight’s 5 runs are a sign that the offense is slowly coming out of their slumber?"

That’s going to happen regardless. No team… not even Oakland… scores 0 or 1 runs for that many games in a row for that long. Even if they don’t return to early season beast mode, they will be better than last week by default.

 

[saddles]

Part of the problem with Bochy is he’s never managed the pitcher facing a 3 batter minimum and the ghost runner.
CY didn’t make it any easier by not signing Matt Moore when he gets both LH and RH batters out.

Englert remains to be seen.

I knew CY gave up too much by giving Ragans away. But he had the opportunity to get Chapman before the bidding war on July 31st and he couldn’t afford to wait. KC jumped at the chance to get Ragans because they were not going to get any thing close to him at the deadline, otherwise they wouldn’t have pulled the trigger immediately.

The mistake with Ragans was made long before KC asked for him. Had we handled him right he would have not been available for Chapman. We could have had enough to get Chapman without Ragans though.

 

[WilltheThrill]

I know he’s part of the team, so he comes with the package. But you could EASILY argue that the Rangers would be 2-2 instead of 0-4 over their last 4 games if Bochy hadn’t totally screwed up.

Montgomery’s start against Arizona was one of the absolute worst-managed games I’ve seen by any manager in a very long time. Bochy lost it once by not allowing Montgomery to finish. Then he tired out the bullpen. Then he lost it again by walking the tying run on base with Will Smith pitching. That game should have been a win.

Then tonight, he uses Sborz with a 1-run lead and then Smith with a tie game. No Burke, no Chapman, not even rolling the dice with a second inning from LeClerc. He put in 2 terrible relievers who can’t get anyone out to decide the game. Inexcusable.