The 2023 Texas Rangers Spring Training Thread

[BULLPEN FAILURE]

thanks to @Kelleyman, we may be able to get a new banner. I can put this together if it works out.

Any suggestions from the crew about what you all would like to have on it?

 

[Kelleyman]

Rangers taking their sweet time to finalize their roster. Makes me wonder if they are still exploring trade market

 

[Kelleyman]

thanks to @Kelleyman, we may be able to get a new banner. I can put this together if it works out.

Any suggestions from the crew about what you all would like to have on it?

Haha we all know you are the brains and tech geek of this operation. I can’t even type right Maybe you can be our administrator

Should we put a saddle somewhere as a pic?

Guess the obvious is DeGrom Seager, and Marcus. Should your fav Lowe and his face be in it. Any prospects? Like Carter and Leiter?

Thanks for your work with this @Ephland all I did was bang the door a bit

 

[saddles]

thanks to @Kelleyman, we may be able to get a new banner. I can put this together if it works out.

Any suggestions from the crew about what you all would like to have on it?

As far as which players to include I would vote for deGrom, Perez, Seager, and for a look toward the future, Josh Jung. If there is a fifth player, then Adolis.

 

[saddles]

Rangers taking their sweet time to finalize their roster. Makes me wonder if they are still exploring trade market

I would imagine a big part of it is simply indecision. Which relieves to finalize the pen with? What to do about Taveras? Is it best to keep Duran up? There may be some organizational disagreement as well.

 

[saddles]

One rule change has not gotten much press, but is going to be big. It involves instant replay. The following is from an article on The Athletic:

Let's sum up the new replay system for you:

• Managers now need to hold up their hands immediately after a play to signal to the umpires that they’re thinking about challenging. The previous rule gave them 10 seconds before they even had to decide whether to give the signal, but it was rarely enforced.

• Once their hand goes up this year, the umpire starts a 15-second replay clock. But if the manager wants to challenge, he has to decide before the clock hits zero. MLB told all 30 managers, in a video conference meeting Friday, that the allotted time will be strictly enforced. Once the timer reaches zero, all challenge requests will be denied. What could go wrong there?

• The previous rule gave managers 20 seconds to decide whether to challenge. But again, that was almost never enforced, because on many occasions, after the 20 seconds, the umpire would approach the dugout and literally ask the manager, “Do you want to review this or not?” Now the umpires will remain on the field. So there will be no more conversations and no more wiggle room.

• After that, the replay system works generally the same as it has since it was introduced in 2014. Each team still gets one challenge per game, but keeps its challenge every time a call gets overturned.

 

[DT LUNA]

One rule change has not gotten much press, but is going to be big. It involves instant replay. The following is from an article on The Athletic:

Let's sum up the new replay system for you:

• Managers now need to hold up their hands immediately after a play to signal to the umpires that they’re thinking about challenging. The previous rule gave them 10 seconds before they even had to decide whether to give the signal, but it was rarely enforced.

• Once their hand goes up this year, the umpire starts a 15-second replay clock. But if the manager wants to challenge, he has to decide before the clock hits zero. MLB told all 30 managers, in a video conference meeting Friday, that the allotted time will be strictly enforced. Once the timer reaches zero, all challenge requests will be denied. What could go wrong there?

• The previous rule gave managers 20 seconds to decide whether to challenge. But again, that was almost never enforced, because on many occasions, after the 20 seconds, the umpire would approach the dugout and literally ask the manager, “Do you want to review this or not?” Now the umpires will remain on the field. So there will be no more conversations and no more wiggle room.

• After that, the replay system works generally the same as it has since it was introduced in 2014. Each team still gets one challenge per game, but keeps its challenge every time a call gets overturned.

Leave baseball a lone.

 

[saddles]

Josh Jung can be our ticket to future bonus draft picks. Carter and White would be eligible as well, but they won't get the service time this year.

Re: Prospect Promotion Incentive or PPI from Baseball America

The process by which players can qualify their clubs for PPI draft picks looks like this:

(1) The player must appear on a preseason Top 100 Prospects ranking by at least two of Baseball America, ESPN or MLB Pipeline.

(2) The player must be rookie-eligible and must have fewer than 60 days of prior MLB service.

(3) Any player who meets the requirements above must accrue at least one year of MLB service as a rookie. Because one year of service requires 172 days on an active roster, that means the player must break camp with the team or be called up within two weeks of Opening Day.


To trigger a PPI draft pick for their club, these players must accrue one year of service in 2023 and win ROY that season or place top three in MVP or CYA voting in 2024 or 2025.

Logistically, there can be a maximum of two PPI draft picks awarded for ROY wins in any given season and as many as 12 awarded for placing top three in MVP or CYA races. In practice, the number of PPI picks awarded for MVP or CYA finish will be much lower, because players with one, two or three years of service do not often compete for those awards.

 

[BULLPEN FAILURE]

As far as which players to include I would vote for deGrom, Perez, Seager, and for a look toward the future, Josh Jung. If there is a fifth player, then Adolis.

There's what Reddit has for the Rangers sub. We can certainly come up something with multiple players.

 

[saddles]

Some observations from Tepid on the backfield.

I didn’t get to see Brock Porter pitch in a game, but I did see him and a pack of coaches have a loooong side session. First impression is that he’s a very big young man. Listed at 6’4” 205lbs and I’d say he’s every bit of that. In shorts and a t-shirt, his massive quads are definitely impressive, but in uniform the striking thing about his appearance is his wide shoulders. “PORTER” goes almost straight across his back, without much of a curve at all. Dude is shaped like the letter “Y”. He’s gonna be a big, athletic-looking fella by his mid-20s. Kid appears to be working hard, and I noticed some of the head whack I saw in a few of his high school videos is already muted and nearly gone.

Next up is everybody’s favorite new dude, Anthony Gutierrez. First, I gotta say, the kid has bounce in his step. Off the field he moves like he doesn’t have a care in the world and seldom is seen without a smile. He’s not brash, but isn’t afraid to return a verbal volley in English or Spanish. Between the lines, he’s pretty obviously talented. As in, a baseball casual would easily pick him out after a 9-inning game as being one of, if not THE best player on the field. Even though he’ll be only 18 all season, his talent is THAT obvious. I think he’ll stick in CF and if he doesn’t, he looks to have more than enough arm for RF. He tracks pitches at the dish and stays 100% locked in during not only ABs, but also while in the outfield. He’s really good and seems mature for his age. Texas has a very, VERY interesting player here. Also, sometimes he wears batting gloves, other times he doesn’t. Because he’s 18.

With Chase Lee in Round Rock and hopefully knocking on the big leagues’ door at some point as a middle-man this season, Texas needed a new funky righty. Enter Jackson Kelley, their 12th round selection last year our of Mercer University. As is often the case with side-armers, he took a minute to get to that release point and spent all 4 years in college. I’m bringing him up because, like Lee, he showed pretty impressive command not only in college, but also in this side session. Those strings in front of the catcher are pretty dang close together and this kid was slipping his pitches in between them almost every time he wanted to. Uniquely, you can also see him signal CB at 0:30 and hear a coach off to the side say “Oh baby, over the top” just before Jackson changed it up and did just that: threw a good CB with a pretty normal 3⁄4 arm slot. Between Mercer and the Cape Cod League last year (his first season as a full-time reliever), this kid had 20BB and 107K in 76 innings. I’d never really heard of him, and THAT’S why every year I tell my wife “I’m sorry, but I really do have to go out to Arizona in person.”

Joe Palumbo still throws a mean CB. His FB was 91-93 and the yakker was 78mph at an elite 2900 rpms. He hasn’t pitched much over the last 3 years as he’s battled injuries and health issues, but he looked happy and healthy and I expect he’ll provide some depth in Round Rock this year.

New 40-man member, Dustin Harris still has an excessively quick bat. Excessively quick. And he spent most of Spring Training splitting time between LF and 1B. I’ll be very curious to see where he gets most of his defensive action as his season gets underway, presumably at Round Rock.

If Harris is to make appearances at 1B for Round Rock, those days could result in Blaine Crim moving to DH. (Tsutsugo will likely be there too?) I saw Blaine play 1 game and he turned around 95 on the inner half and sent it 415’. (The video below results in a walk. Saved you a click.) As we’ve discussed before, it seems every team has a prospect like Blaine: easy to root for, but will have to prove himself at every level, including the big leagues if he earns that chance. I really hope he gets there.

 

[saddles]

 

[Kelleyman]

Think I will get off early to watch the game Thursday and likely fire up the grill but nothing as good as this

 

[Kelleyman]

Should be more news on the way.

 

[saddles]

I guess they feel good enough about Garver being able to catch.

 

[saddles]

 

[saddles]

 

[saddles]

This is ridiculous.

 

[saddles]

I wonder how much better Jung has to be than the Yankees' rookie, Volpe, in order to win ROY. You know those NY writers already have Volpe written in ink on their ballots. Lol

 

[saddles]

 

[saddles]

No Duran today.