Series Thread: Rays at the Rangers

[Nightcrawler]

I hate to be the freaking rain cloud, but I'm to the point if I were Ray Davis I would call JD and Bannister into my office tomorrow and fire them both.

How the hell Sam Dyson is still on this team and getting innings that count is beyond me. He has had 1 good inning all year and they still trot him out there. It's obvious neither are going to get the fuck rid of that piece of garbage so it's time to get drastic.

JD usually has this team competing for the playoffs every year. A small part of me wonders if we gave Minnesota the true brains of the operation ( Thad Levine), but I'm giving JD the benefit of the doubt for now. Bannister fucking sucks tho. I don't like him or his moves and I think the team would perform better with a different guy. I agree with you on Banny, but not JD. Not yet on JD anyway. JD should be able to emulate what the Yankees did last trade deadline as sellers with the pieces he has to move this July.

 

[Bmurph]

Congrats Apaches!

 

[Bmurph]

And on to the Astros series where the Rangers will likely get throttled, gonna be a long summer

 

[Nightcrawler]

And on to the Astros series where the Rangers will likely get throttled, gonna be a long summer

Would like to see us give Keuchel his first loss of the season.

 

[True Rangers Fan]

JD usually has this team competing for the playoffs every year. A small part of me wonders if we gave Minnesota the true brains of the operation ( Thad Levine), but I'm giving JD the benefit of the doubt for now. Bannister fucking sucks tho. I don't like him or his moves and I think the team would perform better with a different guy. I agree with you on Banny, but not JD. Not yet on JD anyway. JD should be able to emulate what the Yankees did last trade deadline as sellers with the pieces he has to move this July.

Championship teams are not built in an offseason.

 

[saddles]

Championship teams are not built in an offseason.

I guess the final pieces could be added in a deadline season/offseason, but it might take awhile before those final pieces are ready to become a championship team.

 

[saddles]

JD usually has this team competing for the playoffs every year. A small part of me wonders if we gave Minnesota the true brains of the operation ( Thad Levine), but I'm giving JD the benefit of the doubt for now. Bannister fucking sucks tho. I don't like him or his moves and I think the team would perform better with a different guy. I agree with you on Banny, but not JD. Not yet on JD anyway. JD should be able to emulate what the Yankees did last trade deadline as sellers with the pieces he has to move this July.

JD earned a lot of cred with the Teixeira trade and a few others, but he has definitely opened himself up to a good bit of criticism. He would probably still have Wash here had Wash not removed himself. The Prince/Choo offseason was a disaster. He has made a couple of questionable midseason pitching moves. In hindsight,the Lucroy trade and maybe the Hamels trade are probably going to turn out to not be worth it. JD's reputation is due mainly to the Teixeira trade, the Cliff Lee trade, and the Beltre and Yu signings. Those were all great, but they are getting further and further away in the rear view mirror.

He has another shot at adding to his reputation in a very positive way if he realizes he should be a seller this July. Let's see what happens.

 

[True Rangers Fan]

I guess the final pieces could be added in a deadline season/offseason, but it might take awhile before those final pieces are ready to become a championship team.

Even if the pieces are in place, things have to go well. Hames, Diekman, Gomez... all on the shelf. Barnette, Jeffress, Dyson... underperforming. Lucroy, Odor and Napoli too. Beltre missed the first 2 months.

I'm certainly not saying JD has made all the right moves. But he's made his fair share, and some things are simply beyond his control. We should be years past "giving him the benefit of the doubt."

 

[Nightcrawler]

Maybe Dyson will trip over his dog and we will all have something to celebrate.

I'm going to go out on a limb by saying that I think the bullpen won't blow another lead today.

 

[Nightcrawler]

Seeing the batting average against stats for Dyson's pitches made me cringe. Only banister would keep sending that joker back out there.

 

[saddles]

Even if the pieces are in place, things have to go well. Hames, Diekman, Gomez... all on the shelf. Barnette, Jeffress, Dyson... underperforming. Lucroy, Odor and Napoli too. Beltre missed the first 2 months.

I'm certainly not saying JD has made all the right moves. But he's made his fair share, and some things are simply beyond his control. We should be years past "giving him the benefit of the doubt."

There are lots of ways to look at it and I can understand folks having different opinions about him. I can accept almost every opinion with the exception of one that says he should be fired and the one that says he has so much cred that he shouldn't be questioned. I can understand just about every opinion in between.

Some of what has happened with those guys you mentioned shouldn't be too alarming though. Beltre and Napoli are at the age that under-performing and/or getting hurt are not to be unexpected. Most of those relievers as well as Gomez were anything but sure shots when we acquired them. The relievers could very well turn it around next year though.

You could look at those relievers and almost say we were fortunate when they were very good. It all depends on what each individual brings with them to the evaluation I guess. I feel we are very fortunate that Cashner has done as good as he has. We are actually very fortunate that Adrian can still perform to the level he still plays at when he is healthy, but when he does stop performing or when he gets hurt again it shouldn't be unexpected at his age. We were probably very fortunate last year that Beltran, Lucroy, and Gomez did as well as they did. I guess I am trying to say that if we are going to cut JD some slack when guys under-perform then we maybe should not credit him so much when guys over-perform.

 

[Nightcrawler]

There are lots of ways to look at it and I can understand folks having different opinions about him. I can accept almost every opinion with the exception of one that says he should be fired and the one that says he has so much cred that he shouldn't be questioned. I can understand just about every opinion in between.

Some of what has happened with those guys you mentioned shouldn't be too alarming though. Beltre and Napoli are at the age that under-performing and/or getting hurt are not to be unexpected. Most of those relievers as well as Gomez were anything but sure shots when we acquired them. The relievers could very well turn it around next year though.

You could look at those relievers and almost say we were fortunate when they were very good. It all depends on what each individual brings with them to the evaluation I guess. I feel we are very fortunate that Cashner has done as good as he has. We are actually very fortunate that Adrian can still perform to the level he still plays at when he is healthy, but when he does stop performing or when he gets hurt again it shouldn't be unexpected at his age. We were probably very fortunate last year that Beltran, Lucroy, and Gomez did as well as they did. I guess I am trying to say that if we are going to cut JD some slack when guys under-perform then we maybe should not credit him so much when guys over-perform.

I recall most fans being disappointed with beltran. I definitely was expecting more. He didn't show up in the post season at all, but to be fair pretty much nobody on the team did.

 

[saddles]

I recall most fans being disappointed with beltran. I definitely was expecting more. He didn't show up in the post season at all, but to be fair pretty much nobody on the team did.

Looking back at his numbers you have a point. I guess I was thinking about him having some timely HRs during the last couple of months and overrating his overall play due to that. He wasn't bad during the regular season after he got here, but I was wrong about him over-performing though.

 

[DT LUNA]

JD could put Mays Mantle and Koufax on the field but they have to perform. Too many we have gotten should have been better and haven't. Hamels Napoli Jefferess Lucroy Fielder Choo should have brought this team much more than they did and I can't hang that on JD except maybe a couple of bad contracts ( Choo/Fielder) which was concerning dollars and years but that didn't excuse sub par play.

 

[jta4437]

JD could put Mays Mantle and Koufax on the field but they have to perform. Too many we have gotten should have been better and haven't. Hamels Napoli Jefferess Lucroy Fielder Choo should have brought this team much more than they did and I can't hang that on JD except maybe a couple of bad contracts ( Choo/Fielder) which was concerning dollars and years but that didn't excuse sub par play.

Fielder was a failure to realize and properly vet his injury and concerning career trends, instead they took people not in the organization at their word and that was on JD and the medical staff

Also throwing in extra capital for a guy like Jeffress who had issues that weren't a secret was also pretty foolish

 

[True Rangers Fan]

Too many we have gotten should have been better and haven't.

Hamels was brought in to be an ace with postseason experience, and he completely shit the bed in the 2016 ALDS. He wasn't the only one who disappointed, but to me, he's the most glaring.

 

[saddles]

One way you can question JD about the decision to trade for Hamels is how much worse Hamels had pitched against AL teams than he did against NL teams. His splits were even more pronounced than usual. If he continues to pitch at a level less than an ace from here on out I don't think it could be said that that is surprising.

 

[saddles]

To me one of JD's flaws is that he overvalues NL pitching.

 

[DT LUNA]

JD is certainly not perfect. But let's generalize for a moment.How many WC teams have we had? How many division championships can we claim? And how many WS have we played in? Not to shabby JD. Glad you weren't perfect. lol.

 

[True Rangers Fan]

JD is certainly not perfect. But let's generalize for a moment.How many WC teams have we had? How many division championships can we claim? And how many WS have we played in? Not to shabby JD. Glad you weren't perfect. lol.

He's overseen the greatest run of success this franchise has had. It's almost impossible to sustain it year in, year out. The down years suck, but there's no way to avoid them.