Texas Rangers 2018-2019 Offseason Thread

[saddles]

Baseball America South Atlantic League top 20 prospects includes three Texas Rangers

The Baseball American top 20 prospect list for the South Atlantic League is out, and three Texas Rangers prospects made the list.


Bubba Thompson, the center fielder who was the Rangers’ first round pick in the 2017 draft, was the highest ranked Ranger, coming in at #5 and earning praise for performing well and having good at bats despite this being his first year focusing just on baseball. Tyler Phillips, the 2015 16th round RHP who had a breakout year for the Hickory Crawdads, checked in at #9 on the list. Finally, A.J. Alexy, part of the Yu Darvish trade, and like Phillips a RHP who was a later round pick from a cold weather state, grabbed the #19 spot.


Thompson and Phillips were the only two players I thought were a lock for the list. Alexy is someone who I thought would be in the mix at the back end. Other players who I suspect were in consideration are Tyreque Reed, the big first baseman who struggled early but finished the year strong, and righthanded relievers Demarcus Evans and Joe Barlow, who had very good years and were almost untouchable in the second half. Evans and Barlow are going to get a chance to show their stuff against more advanced hitters in the Arizona Fall League this month.

 

[Kelleyman]

Not having too much more patience with DDJ as a starter. He has elite speed which is very usable but if the money is right he looks like a bench player to me.

 

[Kelleyman]

Not sure how many roster spots going to be available for position players needing to be rostered. Has to be a factor for the 3 mentioned earlier this thread. It is good to hold but hate to lose a guy like we did with Herrera on rule 5.

 

[saddles]

Not sure how many roster spots going to be available for position players needing to be rostered. Has to be a factor for the 3 mentioned earlier this thread. It is good to hold but hate to lose a guy like we did with Herrera on rule 5.

We had room for Herrera. We saved a spot for DeShields so we in essence traded Odubel for DeShields.

We do have some pitchers on the 40 that can be released along with Alberto and maybe DeShields.

 

[DT LUNA]

DeShields is in a completely different category. He has had over 1300 AB and most of those AB have come during consistent playing time. Consistent playing time is something that has barely been afforded those other two. With Rua, every time he has had consistent playing time for a month or so he has done well. Robinson has had barely over 200 AB.

You see those three guys as the same because you have so little patience with guys breaking into the league. If they aren't a hit immediately you give up on them. That is why I mentioned Nelson Cruz. It isn't because I expect Robinson to be the next Nelson Cruz. For one thing Robinson would not lose us a WS title with his glove. Unless you have changed drastically, I can bet you were ready to run Cruz out of town and hated every time he got another chance. Remembering Cruz is important because he should have taught Rangers fans that sometimes guys take awhile to come into their own.

You sure have a lot of patience. LOL

 

[saddles]

You sure have a lot of patience. LOL

I see it as more of a lack of impatience. I used to say the same kinds of things about Profar. Then when he finally got a chance to play every day it became evident that he shouldn't have been written off a year or two before when so many wrote him off.

I have lost my patience with certain players over the years though..

 

[scotsman1948]

DeShields is in a completely different category. He has had over 1300 AB and most of those AB have come during consistent playing time. Consistent playing time is something that has barely been afforded those other two. With Rua, every time he has had consistent playing time for a month or so he has done well. Robinson has had barely over 200 AB.

You see those three guys as the same because you have so little patience with guys breaking into the league. If they aren't a hit immediately you give up on them. That is why I mentioned Nelson Cruz. It isn't because I expect Robinson to be the next Nelson Cruz. For one thing Robinson would not lose us a WS title with his glove. Unless you have changed drastically, I can bet you were ready to run Cruz out of town and hated every time he got another chance. Remembering Cruz is important because he should have taught Rangers fans that sometimes guys take awhile to come into their own.

I have plenty of patience with new players breaking into the league but all 3 have demonstrated an consistent inability to deal with Major League pitching which is shown by their Mendoza line career numbers. I would rather give some of our talent along the lines of IKF or Guzman or Heineman etc their opportunity to come up. They can't do much worse and we might find some surprises. Deshields, Rua, Robinson and Alberto are standing in the middle of the road blocking the next wave

 

[DT LUNA]

I see it as more of a lack of impatience. I used to say the same kinds of things about Profar. Then when he finally got a chance to play every day it became evident that he shouldn't have been written off a year or two before when so many wrote him off.

I have lost my patience with certain players over the years though..

Was referring to your explanation about Cruz and Robinson. Sorry I was not clear.

 

[saddles]

I have plenty of patience with new players breaking into the league but all 3 have demonstrated an consistent inability to deal with Major League pitching which is shown by their Mendoza line career numbers. I would rather give some of our talent along the lines of IKF or Guzman or Heineman etc their opportunity to come up. They can't do much worse and we might find some surprises. Deshields, Rua, Robinson and Alberto are standing in the middle of the road blocking the next wave

You have patience with players who start off hot. You have zero patience with those who don't.

 

[saddles]

Was referring to your explanation about Cruz and Robinson. Sorry I was not clear.

No problem DT.

 

[Kelleyman]

No problem DT.

I still thought it was funny

 

[Kelleyman]

We had room for Herrera. We saved a spot for DeShields so we in essence traded Odubel for DeShields.

We do have some pitchers on the 40 that can be released along with Alberto and maybe DeShields.

Well yes. Hahaha of course we had room if we did not want to pick. Could be the same this year.

Point is who we keep out of DDJ,Rua and Drew will be a factor of who we need to protect from Rule 5, who we might want out there and their salary

 

[Kelleyman]

I hated not keeping Herrera because he was red hot right in I think Dominican ball before the draft. Had no idea he would convert to CF

Patience with Profar needed to happen BTW as he showed signs of brilliance before injury. If Beltre does not come back we might extend him and still might regardless IMO

 

[Kelleyman]

Astros got Day game. Who would have thunk

 

[saddles]

 

[saddles]

Before it is all said and done this team will need pitching and hitting. Organizationally, we might be deeper in pitching than we are in hitting.

 

[DT LUNA]

[/QUOTE

 

[DT LUNA]

Typical JD. Leaves ya not sure what he said.

 

[saddles]

Typical JD. Leaves ya not sure what he said.

It seems like he said something similar last offseason with the exception of the trading hitters part.

 

[BULLPEN FAILURE]

There's going to be a lot of big ticket free agents this offseason most likely, sounds like JD is trying to temper expectations.