Texas Rangers 2021 - 2022 Offseason Thread

[Kelleyman]

 

[Kelleyman]

 

[saddles]

I will take a slightly shortened season every year if it will stop the wildcard madness.

 

[saddles]

That would have been a good idea last November.

 

[DTC]

I wouldn’t mind 12 teams in the playoffs. It would create more teams going for it and more excitement.
Top 2 seeds from each league get a bye.
#3 seed plays #6 seed and 4&5 play each other in best of 3 series. Then best of 5 with #1 playing whoever they want between the 2 left over teams.

Or just keep it at 10 and let the top 3 seeds have a bye while the 2 wildcards play a 3 game series. Not a 1 game

 

[saddles]

I wouldn’t mind 12 teams in the playoffs. It would create more teams going for it and more excitement.
Top 2 seeds from each league get a bye.
#3 seed plays #6 seed and 4&5 play each other in best of 3 series. Then best of 5 with #1 playing whoever they want between the 2 left over teams.

Or just keep it at 10 and let the top 3 seeds have a bye while the 2 wildcards play a 3 game series. Not a 1 game

If a fan wants teams simply trying to finish a little better than .500 so they can sneak in to the playoffs and hopefully catch lightning in a bottle, then the more wildcard teams the better. If a fan wants his team to try and acquire enough talent to win 100 games and be the best team in baseball, then having only one wildcard is the best, because it keeps you from losing by some fluke in an extended postseason. It also requires teams to build a better team. I am that latter type of fan. Winning 85 games doesn't excite me at all. I want my team to put together a team that has a chance to win 100 games.

 

[saddles]

I wonder how effective a starting pitcher will be the next year after pitching all the way through several playoff rounds in a given year. I would imagine it would take a toll on their arm.

 

[saddles]

A 2022 bounce-back candidate for each American League West team

These are guys who slipped for whatever reason in 2021 — performance, injuries, etc. — but could play big roles for their teams.

theathletic.com

Levi Weaver gives us quite a laugh by picking Spencer Howard.

"It’s easy to lose Howard in the discussion of the Rangers’ young, up-and-coming starting pitchers — Dane Dunning, Taylor Hearn, Jack Leiter, Cole Winn, Owen White, A.J. Alexy, Ricky Vanasco, Ronny Henríquez, Glenn Otto, Cole Ragans, Yerry Rodriguez, Brock Burke, Kyle Cody, Zak Kent … you get the picture — but if Howard’s offseason has gone according to plan, he might outperform all of them in 2022." — Levi Weaver

What was that Dandy Don used to say? "If 'ifs' and 'buts' were candy and nuts, we would all have a merry Christmas."

 

[scotsman1948]

If a fan wants teams simply trying to finish a little better than .500 so they can sneak in to the playoffs and hopefully catch lightning in a bottle, then the more wildcard teams the better. If a fan wants his team to try and acquire enough talent to win 100 games and be the best team in baseball, then having only one wildcard is the best, because it keeps you from losing by some fluke in an extended postseason. It also requires teams to build a better team. I am that latter type of fan. Winning 85 games doesn't excite me at all. I want my team to put together a team that has a chance to win 100 games.

and teams do that by building a team that starts out winning 85 games and then improve the next season to 90-92 and then the next to 100. you cannot expect a team to be mediocre one season and miraculously win a 100 the next season.

 

[saddles]

College baseball season starts today. Potential top 10 draft picks Chase DeLauter, Brooks Lee, Jace Jung, Jacob Berry, Brock Jones and Gavin Cross will begin to show everyone why they are the pick to make. This should be a great year for all of them. Maybe someone else jumps into the fray, maybe even a pitcher.

 

[Kelleyman]

If a fan wants teams simply trying to finish a little better than .500 so they can sneak in to the playoffs and hopefully catch lightning in a bottle, then the more wildcard teams the better. If a fan wants his team to try and acquire enough talent to win 100 games and be the best team in baseball, then having only one wildcard is the best, because it keeps you from losing by some fluke in an extended postseason. It also requires teams to build a better team. I am that latter type of fan. Winning 85 games doesn't excite me at all. I want my team to put together a team that has a chance to win 100 games.

I get this and less teams in the playoffs would have kept STL out and netted TX a WS

However I do think their would be more fan interest stirred if playoffs were a bit more extended. I like byes for division winners with the next round best of 5 leading to best of 7

Also think it might stir up more player movement after break and maybe dare I say less tanking

I do not want to take away from the purity of the game but do agree that the game needs to let th big stars shine when it is on the line. Not sure what other ideas I have.

There is surely been progress since in the olden days when only 2 divisions and Texas finished second with a really good record and got no playoff berth

 

[saddles]

Also think it might stir up more player movement after break and maybe dare I say less tanking

With more teams in contention there will be less teams trading away players, so there should be less movement. The "tanking" will be in the form of, "we only have to be a barely above .500 team and hope things work out right." Higher level tanking in addition to the lower level tanking.

 

[scotsman1948]

With more teams in contention there will be less teams trading away players, so there should be less movement. The "tanking" will be in the form of, "we only have to be a barely above .500 team and hope things work out right." Higher level tanking in addition to the lower level tanking.

this last season there were 8 American league and 7 National league teams that finished at .500 or better out of 32 teams. there might be some lower-level tanking if you're well below .500 but with more playoff spots those teams close to or slightly above .500 and the possibility of playing X number of playoff games might encourage more teams to try. but if you're only seeing 5 playoff teams per league and you're at .500 or slightly below and 10+ games out of the last playoff spot and there's 5+ teams ahead of you what makes more sense: staying pat and holding on to players who may never see the playoffs or trading away your players and adding possible good prospects who might

 

[saddles]

From Jim Callis via the MLB Pipeline inbox:

Which 2021 draftee (or international signee) are you most excited to see make his full-season debut?
-- @WBoor

I'm most excited to see Jack Leiter, who went No. 2 overall to the Rangers, for a few reasons.

Not only will it be Leiter's full-season debut but also his pro debut because he didn't pitch after signing for a franchise-record $7,922,000. He was the most dominant pitcher in college baseball last spring at Vanderbilt, where he no-hit South Carolina in his first Southeastern Conference start and tied for the D-I strikeout lead (179 in 110 innings), and I want to see how his repertoire translates against pro hitters. He's the favorite to be the first 2021 draftee to reach the big leagues and his performance will give us a better idea of how quickly that might happen.

 

[saddles]

 

[saddles]

I get this and less teams in the playoffs would have kept STL out and netted TX a WS

STL is not what kept us from winning that World Series. They had nothing to do with us not putting in Endy Chavez for defensive purposes or from starting Derek Holland a second time instead of Matt Harrison.

 

[Kelleyman]

With more teams in contention there will be less teams trading away players, so there should be less movement. The "tanking" will be in the form of, "we only have to be a barely above .500 team and hope things work out right." Higher level tanking in addition to the lower level tanking.

Or more demand for players and the lessor teams make some available that in the past wanted to make available such as Minor who we waited a year to trade

Ha we shall see

 

[Kelleyman]

STL is not what kept us from winning that World Series. They had nothing to do with us not putting in Endy Chavez for defensive purposes or from starting Derek Holland a second time instead of Matt Harrison.

Yes we could have won in spite of and the fake rainout surely did not help but using your own theory STL should never had made the playoffs.

 

[scotsman1948]

Yes we could have won in spite of and the fake rainout surely did not help but using your own theory STL should never had made the playoffs.

but if it hadn't been St Louis it would have been another team

 

[saddles]

Happy National Battery Day