Seattle coming in 7-31 thru 8-2.

[Bmurph]

 

[True Rangers Fan]

 

[DT LUNA]

How cool is that

 

[darrylgann]

I have a feeling we aren't done trading this month. Lot of our higher paid players will be put on waivers (Choo, Napoli, Gomez, maybe Cashner). And some may be gone. Though JD has the month to think about this. Happy August!

 

[darrylgann]

Wish we had a whole line-up of Beltres!!

 

[Bmurph]

You cant get tired of seeing this

 

[Bmurph]

 

[Bmurph]

 

[donaldson79]

Scouts Take on The Darvish Deal

Very nice read. Thanks for the post.

 

[PolarVortex]

Yeah I didn't think I'd see the day where I said that Texas' issue was hitting, not pitching. We have average pitching and below average hitting. We have a lot of guys that want the HR ball but can't play station to station baseball. No idea who our hitting coach is, but need a new one. This entire year we have been waiting for "our guys to put it together and get hot" and they just can't. Some of that is the age and type of players we have, some of it is just not good contact hitters.

Historically, hitting has been easy to fix in Arlington. I have faith that the hitting will return. Pitching, not so much. It's hard to find the right pitchers in a hitter-friendly environment. But y'all had a good run. Came up short on a championship, but still a nice run. Time to blow it up and re-build it again.

 

[donaldson79]

How cool is that

Very!

 

[Bmurph]

 

[donaldson79]

But y'all had a good run. Came up short on a championship, but still a nice run. Time to blow it up and re-build it again.

Yeah, you're probably correct. But for now, I think we're all in a "sort of shock" over this realization. Not very pleasant place to be, b/c some of us were around when the Rangers were one of the worst teams/franchises in all of baseball. Dread the thought of those days, revisiting us.

 

[Bmurph]

This may be better

 

[PolarVortex]

Yeah, you're probably correct. But for now, I think we're all in a "sort of shock" over this realization. Not very pleasant place to be, b/c some of us were around when the Rangers were one of the worst teams/franchises in all of baseball. Dread the thought of those days, revisiting us.

The nice thing about baseball in this era is that teams that are willing to spend can re-build quickly if the they have the right people in the front office. A combination of smart draft choices and smart free agent purchases. You have to figure out who you have now that will also be part of your future nucleus and build around them: Mazara, Odor, DeShields, Gallo, and Andrus is still only 28. Beltre will be around as long as he can still hit. Dude probably has another 400-500 hits left in him.

Gallo, I think, will eventually hit for a higher average. I'm not sure Odor will.

 

[True Rangers Fan]

The Dodgers Did Not Steal Yu Darvish | FanGraphs Baseball

A bit wordy, here's the interesting parts:

"The same was true of rental players this year; the returns for pending free agents was just significantly less than we’ve come to expect."

"The teams in actual playoff races are mostly looking at a Wild Card play-in game, and giving up a high price to land a guy who may or may not be available to pitch in a winner-take-all contest isn’t something most teams are interested in."

"Despite the Rangers’ best efforts to drum up interest — I was told that they were calling teams who hadn’t expressed any interest in Darvish up to a half hour before the deadline to see if they wanted to make a late bid — they just found themselves in a disadvantageous position; there just weren’t enough suitors to really start a big bidding war."

"While Darvish is a very good pitcher, he’s also running the lowest strikeout rate and highest home-run rate of his career, and his in-season trends aren’t that encouraging. If a team was already a bit queasy about paying a premium for a rental, Darvish’s recent performances didn’t do anything to help convince anyone to overpay."

 

[saddles]

I have a feeling we aren't done trading this month. Lot of our higher paid players will be put on waivers (Choo, Napoli, Gomez, maybe Cashner). And some may be gone. Though JD has the month to think about this. Happy August!

I don't think Cashner or Gomez would clear waivers.

 

[donaldson79]

The Dodgers Did Not Steal Yu Darvish | FanGraphs Baseball

A bit wordy, here's the interesting parts:

"The same was true of rental players this year; the returns for pending free agents was just significantly less than we’ve come to expect."

"The teams in actual playoff races are mostly looking at a Wild Card play-in game, and giving up a high price to land a guy who may or may not be available to pitch in a winner-take-all contest isn’t something most teams are interested in."

"Despite the Rangers’ best efforts to drum up interest — I was told that they were calling teams who hadn’t expressed any interest in Darvish up to a half hour before the deadline to see if they wanted to make a late bid — they just found themselves in a disadvantageous position; there just weren’t enough suitors to really start a big bidding war."

"While Darvish is a very good pitcher, he’s also running the lowest strikeout rate and highest home-run rate of his career, and his in-season trends aren’t that encouraging. If a team was already a bit queasy about paying a premium for a rental, Darvish’s recent performances didn’t do anything to help convince anyone to overpay."

Great post. Think it says some things which some of us were thinking all along too.

 

[True Rangers Fan]

Great post. Think it says some things which some of us were thinking all along too.

It's a lot of those reasons why I think he's going to end up well short of the 7/175 he allegedly is targeting.

 

[DT LUNA]

Guarantee it was