Rangers vs Second to LASTROS.

[saddles]

Boy it's amazing what a bunch of running dumb-fucks our FO and ownership has turned in to in one season.

Frankly, I do feel JD has exposed his major weakness IMO - which is counting on injured players returning to form way too much - and I bet we're going to see some tightening of the mindset in this off season.

I feel JD is fair game, at least somewhat, in the not too distant future too.

JD's biggest weakness is his continuing to keep Wash as manager. That has been a big weakness for several years now.

 

[donaldson79]

On Colby for next season:

“When you make a mistake in our ballpark, it doesn’t come back,” manager Ron Washington said.
That is true, especially for fly-ball pitchers, the clan to which Lewis belongs. He moves the ball around the strike zone while challenging hitters. Elevate the ball enough over the course of an at-bat and a hitter will either swing under it and miss it or create an upper cut and lift a fly ball.
Such was the case in spacious Safeco Field on Wednesday. Given a big early lead on a three-run double by rookie Tomas Telis and a grand slam by fellow rookie Rougned Odor, Lewis let the big ball park do the work for him. Lewis attacked hitters, and they lifted fly ball after fly ball. He had 13 fly balls and seven strikeouts compared to just six ground balls (one of which was a double play). For the season, he’s averaging 0.83 ground balls per fly ball, which ranks 38th among 41 qualifying AL starters.

That’s translated to astonishingly effective numbers on the road for a guy who hadn’t pitched in nearly two years and is doing so with a surgically repaired forearm and a titanium hip. He’s 7-3 with a 3.69 ERA and has consecutive complete games on the road.
Contrast that with the numbers in Arlington, which has played more “neutral” this year than in the past, but is still a place where fly balls routinely become homers. At Globe Life, he’s 2-8 with a 7.17 ERA and a .344 opponents batting average. Including a pair of well-struck balls Wednesday by Mike Zunino and Kyle Seager, Lewis has allowed seven homers in 681/3 road innings. At home, he’s allowed 12 in 69 innings

 

[donaldson79]

What would keep JD from firing Wash other than not realizing that Wash is a bad manager of course?

My second paragraph answers this question IMO.

 

[saddles]

My second paragraph answers this question IMO.

Wash needed firing before this season though. What has happened on the playing field this season hasn't changed my opinion of Wash at all. The incident with Darvish enforced it and I think it has even made some of the Wash apologists change their minds. I just hope it changed the mind of our GM.

The injuries should not provide any type of cover for Wash.

 

[WastinSomeTime]

Boy it's amazing what a bunch of running dumb-fucks our FO and ownership has turned in to in one season.

Frankly, I do feel JD has exposed his major weakness IMO - which is counting on injured players returning to form way too much - and I bet we're going to see some tightening of the mindset in this off season.

I feel JD is fair game, at least somewhat, in the not too distant future too.

My statement made on JD was not that strong. I knew someone would get offended by it but it is true that we cannot have another season like this. Face it. Most of us was shocked when the Gentry trade was made. It caught all of us off guard and it did not make us a better team. We tried to patch things with players like Oswalt and Berkman. I have been behind JD all along and after some huge mistakes early on he has done great overall but I am not going to wear rose colored glasses.

 

[donaldson79]

My statement made on JD was not that strong. I knew someone would get offended by it but it is true that we cannot have another season like this. Face it. Most of us was shocked when the Gentry trade was made. It caught all of us off guard and it did not make us a better team. We tried to patch things with players like Oswalt and Berkman. I have been behind JD all along and after some huge mistakes early on he has done great overall but I am not going to wear rose colored glasses.

Not offended at all partner.

And I appreciate the lack of rose colored glasses more than most, I think anyway.

JD has done some terrific things and he's blundered mightily. Somewhat goes with the territory (see Detroit's GM Drombroski as example).

IMO if the Gentry trade was his biggest gaft, he'd be in hog heaven. However, this Prince situation may bite him and sooner than later. And he's had others too.

So it's a big off season for the entire organization.

 

[WastinSomeTime]

Not offended at all partner.

And I appreciate the lack of rose colored glasses more than most, I think anyway.

JD has done some terrific things and he's blundered mightily. Somewhat goes with the territory (see Detroit's GM Drombroski as example).

IMO if the Gentry trade was his biggest gaft, he'd be in hog heaven. However, this Prince situation may bite him and sooner than later. And he's had others too.

So it's a big off season for the entire organization.

Agree, which is why I said the jury is still out. Overall I like JD. He overcame the bad early trades of Danks, Young/Adrian Gonzalez trade to SD, picking up Cantu and then later Christian Guzman for Roark and others. But like you said in the life of a GM you will have bad trades in the mix. It is like playing the stock market. But many fans are looking at JD as this is his first big test without Ryan regardless if Ryan had anything to do with any trades previously. JD had a tremendous amount of bad luck this past season but he also took some huge chances on players he thought would help. I feel he will get the job done and we will be fine next season and headed back in the right direction. But we shall see.

 

[saddles]

My statement made on JD was not that strong. I knew someone would get offended by it but it is true that we cannot have another season like this. Face it. Most of us was shocked when the Gentry trade was made. It caught all of us off guard and it did not make us a better team. We tried to patch things with players like Oswalt and Berkman. I have been behind JD all along and after some huge mistakes early on he has done great overall but I am not going to wear rose colored glasses.

I have been critical of JD several times over the past couple of years, but I have to admit that I thought the Choice trade for Gentry was a good trade. I can't be critical of that trade. It just hasn't worked out so far. Some good trades simply don't work out. I am critical of the Berkman acquisition, the Garza trade, the Fielder trade and the Choo acquisition and I was before they didn't work out. I am also critical of him not going strongly enough after Abreu. I thought he should have pursued McCann last offseason as well and I am not convinced that McCann would have performed as poorly here as he did in NY. He definitely should have been in on Cruz after Cruz's price and length of contract went down. There is always his choice of manager to criticize him for. I will not criticize him for the Choice trade though.

I will give JD kudos for stepping up and trying to clean up Wash's mess concerning Darvish.

 

[donaldson79]

I have been critical of JD several times over the past couple of years, but I have to admit that I thought the Choice trade for Gentry was a good trade. I can't be critical of that trade. It just hasn't worked out so far. Some good trades simply don't work out. I am critical of the Berkman acquisition, the Garza trade, the Fielder trade and the Choo acquisition and I was before they didn't work out. I am also critical of him not going strongly enough after Abreu. I thought he should have pursued McCann last offseason as well and I am not convinced that McCann would have performed as poorly here as he did in NY. He definitely should have been in on Cruz after Cruz's price and length of contract went down. There is always his choice of manager to criticize him for. I will not criticize him for the Choice trade though.

I will give JD kudos for stepping up and trying to clean up Wash's mess concerning Darvish.

Agree with ya 100% on the Gentry opportunity. And I think we're keeping an open mind that we now have a 25/26 year old who may turn out to be something.

Although I hated the Garza trade, I tipped my hat for JD going after the best pitching option available at the time. He went after the ring and failed. And we're on the same page about Berkman. He was fools gold and everyone but JD knew it.

I was under the impression we did make a legitimate run at McCann. Can't quote numbers, but I wouldn't have gone into the territory the Yanks did regardless. And had we gotten McCann, we would have never discovered what an inexpensive, yet valuable player Chirinos has become.

I think once Cruz turned us down on the qualifying offer he was history. He put too much emphasis on being a regular in the OF IMO, but it appears in the long run, he made a brilliant gamble on himself. Kudos to him.

 

[donaldson79]

Agree, which is why I said the jury is still out. Overall I like JD. He overcame the bad early trades of Danks, Young/Adrian Gonzalez trade to SD, picking up Cantu and then later Christian Guzman for Roark and others. But like you said in the life of a GM you will have bad trades in the mix. It is like playing the stock market. But many fans are looking at JD as this is his first big test without Ryan regardless if Ryan had anything to do with any trades previously. JD had a tremendous amount of bad luck this past season but he also took some huge chances on players he thought would help. I feel he will get the job done and we will be fine next season and headed back in the right direction. But we shall see.

I hear ya.

It's interesting to me how little grief he catches for the AG trade. In fact, we damn near gave him away for nothing due to our line of evaluation was Adrian would never be a hitter with power. Yet, he's somehow managed to hit over 250 since leaving. Oh well.

And I think JD can stand on his own. But he does need to check his NY ego some. Perhaps this season has taught him a little humility, which according to some other GMs/agents, will be a good thing. This too comes with seasoning/age just like most things in life.

This is going to be an interesting and exciting off season for all parties concerned. Will give us plenty to rattle our cages about.

 

[donaldson79]

Damn it. There was a fantastic article on SI this morning regarding AB, and I failed to post it and now it's gone.

Some of you guys are much better at finding things than I am. So if you can locate it, it's one fine read and very, very complimentary of Mr Beltre.

 

[saddles]

Agree with ya 100% on the Gentry opportunity. And I think we're keeping an open mind that we now have a 25/26 year old who may turn out to be something.

Although I hated the Garza trade, I tipped my hat for JD going after the best pitching option available at the time. He went after the ring and failed. And we're on the same page about Berkman. He was fools gold and everyone but JD knew it.

I was under the impression we did make a legitimate run at McCann. Can't quote numbers, but I wouldn't have gone into the territory the Yanks did regardless. And had we gotten McCann, we would have never discovered what an inexpensive, yet valuable player Chirinos has become.

I think once Cruz turned us down on the qualifying offer he was history. He put too much emphasis on being a regular in the OF IMO, but it appears in the long run, he made a brilliant gamble on himself. Kudos to him.

I think the media made more of Cruz wanting to play OF than he did. When asked after he signed he said playing OF was a consideration, but he never claimed it was the deciding factor. I personally think Cruz would have signed here in a heartbeat had we matched what he got. JD never even tried at that point.

Chirinos was a good discovery, but he will never have the potential McCann would have had here. I don't remember us even offering McCann anything. I wanted him from the start of free agency and followed it very closely, but we never pursued him. A I recall we signed Soto and proclaimed him to be the starter fairly early on. Chirinos would have made a fine backup to McCann.

I didn't like the Garza trade because we were at least 2 bats away from being a contender at the time. JD chased needed pitching, but failed to get the hitting we needed just as bad or worse. Without the extra good bats it made no sense to pursue pitching in my opinion. Had Garza pitched great we would have still been 2 bats short.

 

[darrylgann]

Damn it. There was a fantastic article on SI this morning regarding AB, and I failed to post it and now it's gone.

Some of you guys are much better at finding things than I am. So if you can locate it, it's one fine read and very, very complimentary of Mr Beltre.

@si_mlb: Adrian Beltre leads the list of players having superb seasons for cellar-dweller teams. Adrian Beltre delivering again despite Rangers' abject 2014 season - MLB - SI.com http://t.co/9ljEaYDpIO

 

[donaldson79]

I think the media made more of Cruz wanting to play OF than he did. When asked after he signed he said playing OF was a consideration, but he never claimed it was the deciding factor. I personally think Cruz would have signed here in a heartbeat had we matched what he got. JD never even tried at that point.

Chirinos was a good discovery, but he will never have the potential McCann would have had here. I don't remember us even offering McCann anything. I wanted him from the start of free agency and followed it very closely, but we never pursued him. A I recall we signed Soto and proclaimed him to be the starter fairly early on. Chirinos would have made a fine backup to McCann.

I didn't like the Garza trade because we were at least 2 bats away from being a contender at the time. JD chased needed pitching, but failed to get the hitting we needed just as bad or worse. Without the extra good bats it made no sense to pursue pitching in my opinion. Had Garza pitched great we would have still been 2 bats short.

OK

 

[Xx srs bsns xX]

This board never ceases to amaze me.....

 

[RevSader]

This board never ceases to amaze me.....

???

 

[WastinSomeTime]

@si_mlb: Adrian Beltre leads the list of players having superb seasons for cellar-dweller teams. Adrian Beltre delivering again despite Rangers' abject 2014 season - MLB - SI.com http://t.co/9ljEaYDpIO

I always thought that Pudge would be my favorite Ranger of all time but Beltre is right up there. The guy is such a warrior and comes to play everyday. They both have such a great time playing this game but you never have to wonder about their intensity and determination to succeed.

 

[WastinSomeTime]

For those interested in Evan Gattis. Cannot imagine anyone wanting BJ Upton. I loved it when he was coming to bat for Tampa in those playoff games because you just knew he would do nothing.

On trading Evan Gattis, B.J. Upton, and building the Braves' future - Talking Chop

 

[donaldson79]

This board never ceases to amaze me.....

And why is that? Is this a good thing?

 

[RevSader]

I always thought that Pudge would be my favorite Ranger of all time but Beltre is right up there. The guy is such a warrior and comes to play everyday. They both have such a great time playing this game but you never have to wonder about their intensity and determination to succeed.

Top five:

Pudge
Juando
Beltre
Rusty
Cruz