The Grill fires up again for a BBQ cook-off: KC @ TEX 4/10-12

[True Rangers Fan]

The Rangers return home after a quick road series to host the Royals for 3. At 5-4, the Rangers remain tied with the Angels for first place in the ALW. They are +3 compared to 2022 after 9 games. The Royals come in at 3-7.

Heaney, deGrom, and Eovaldi are your baseball starting pitcher guys. All games at 7pm, at the request of the Crawler.

 

[True Rangers Fan]

No. 1 in Power Rankings is no shock. But after that ...

MLB.com moves us up one spot, to 18

 

[saddles]

We were told that in addition to last year's long men in the bullpen, Hearn and Burke, that we needed 2 more to begin this year. Those 2 were Ragans and Dunning.

To date Ragans has not had a 2 inning outing yet. His average outing is slightly shorter than Will Smith's.

Burke has one outing of 2 innings.

Dunning has been a long man so far and Hearn has as well, to a lesser extent.

We kept Ragans from staying stretched out and from continuing to develop as a starting pitcher because of a supposed need for a long man. To me it seems like that "need" was a smokescreen to cover up the fact that the front office once again failed to meet the needs of the bullpen in the offseason.

Ragans and Dunning both are doing fine and their presence has helped the bullpen to do very well overall.

We could have signed a couple of guys and allowed those two to go to Round Rock and be ready when an inevitable injury occurs, or when they decide Heaney needs to be replaced in the rotation.

 

[True Rangers Fan]

2023 MLB Team Pitching Stats

As a team, the Rangers are 6th with a 3.65 ERA. 7th in WHIP (1.23) and tied for 10th with a .240 BA against.

9th in K's (88) and 7th best in BB allowed (26).

2023 MLB Team Hitting Stats

21st in OPS (.695), 20th in BA (.242), 10th best in K's (77) and 23rd in BB's (26)

 

[True Rangers Fan]

We were getting shit calls all day yesterday.

 

[Kelleyman]

We were told that in addition to last year's long men in the bullpen, Hearn and Burke, that we needed 2 more to begin this year. Those 2 were Ragans and Dunning.

To date Ragans has not had a 2 inning outing yet. His average outing is slightly shorter than Will Smith's.

Burke has one outing of 2 innings.

Dunning has been a long man so far and Hearn has as well, to a lesser extent.

We kept Ragans from staying stretched out and from continuing to develop as a starting pitcher because of a supposed need for a long man. To me it seems like that "need" was a smokescreen to cover up the fact that the front office once again failed to meet the needs of the bullpen in the offseason.

Ragans and Dunning both are doing fine and their presence has helped the bullpen to do very well overall.

We could have signed a couple of guys and allowed those two to go to Round Rock and be ready when an inevitable injury occurs, or when they decide Heaney needs to be replaced in the rotation.

Yeah could see a beef with Ragans but the season is not over and he could go back in a bit if unneeded in the pen
I bet Dunning starts before long. Well it would have been nice to get more polished pen pieces but for some reason they like Kennedy and Smith. Working out so far. Hearn may be sent down IMO

I would like to see Duran get more ABs. Th beef for now should be with the offense

 

[Kelleyman]

Would think Heaney and pen measure up favorably against Greinke

 

[DT LUNA]

Would think Heaney and pen measure up favorably against Greinke

Got some doubt but hope you are right

 

[Kelleyman]

Got some doubt but hope you are right

Notice Heaney and pen. Bet there is a shorter leash today if needed. Surely Greinke has regressed and is much more hittable

 

[saddles]

Yeah could see a beef with Ragans but the season is not over and he could go back in a bit if unneeded in the pen
I bet Dunning starts before long. Well it would have been nice to get more polished pen pieces but for some reason they like Kennedy and Smith. Working out so far. Hearn may be sent down IMO

I would like to see Duran get more ABs. Th beef for now should be with the offense

Well, none of us liked the lack of signing relievers during the offaeason. Then the whole "we need long guys out of the pen to begin the season" mantra started and Ragans was included. Then they refused to let him go long so the whole thing was simply an excuse to once again convert a starter to a reliever prematurely. It was a bad decision even if the excuse had been genuine. Now, it seems even worse to me. They are simply borrowing from Peter to pay Paul when they shouldn't have to and they are lying about why they did it.

The offense is an even more long term problem. I didn't think it was wise to depend on Heim, Garver or Miller after last year. Of course, a year ago, I didn't think Lowe would have the season he had so we will see.

 

[True Rangers Fan]

Well, none of us liked the lack of signing relievers during the offaeason. Then the whole "we need long guys out of the pen to begin the season" mantra started and Ragans was included. Then they refused to let him go long so the whole thing was simply an excuse to once again convert a starter to a reliever prematurely. It was a bad decision even if the excuse had been genuine. Now, it seems even worse to me. They are simply borrowing from Peter to pay Paul when they shouldn't have to and they are lying about why they did it.

The offense is an even more long term problem. I didn't think it was wise to depend on Heim, Garver or Miller after last year. Of course, a year ago, I didn't think Lowe would have the season he had so we will see.

Are Heim, Garver, or Miller considered "long term" problems? Odds seem very high that Garver and Miller aren't back next year. We'll have to see how Heim does this year to get an idea of his future here.

 

[DT LUNA]

Are Heim, Garver, or Miller considered "long term" problems? Odds seem very high that Garver and Miller aren't back next year. We'll have to see how Heim does this year to get an idea of his future here.

Agree on Heim. He is starting slow but I thought he had a decent year last season.

 

[Kelleyman]

So all this goes to the opinion of is this win now year or a year to develop.
I have ways thought the latter

So to me business decisions are superseding baseball ones to some degree. Maybe it can be balanced. Seeing soles and defense in the lineup over Grossman in RF was smart to me

 

[Kelleyman]

So decisions on Leody in play. I don’t mind him getting more work down there but want to see Garcia settle back in RF. I don’t mind him in CF but we really don’t have an adequate fill-in there in RF

 

[True Rangers Fan]

Agree on Heim. He is starting slow but I thought he had a decent year last season.

I don't see Jonah as the long term starting C. But I don't see that for Huff either.

 

[True Rangers Fan]

Defense heavy in the OF tonight.

 

[True Rangers Fan]

 

[True Rangers Fan]

 

[saddles]

Are Heim, Garver, or Miller considered "long term" problems? Odds seem very high that Garver and Miller aren't back next year. We'll have to see how Heim does this year to get an idea of his future here.

"Even more long term" meaning I wanted them gone since before I knew there would be a bullpen problem. Maybe I should have said I have seen them as a problem longer than the bullpen.

 

[saddles]

"Even more long term" meaning I wanted them gone since before I knew there would be a bullpen problem.

Although, I do also feel we will have bullpen options from the minors ready sooner than we will have position players ready. That just wasn't what I was getting at originally.

Huff could be an exception to the above paragraph though. He has already had a good stint up here three years ago so he could be ready fairly soon. He may be the best answer we have at catcher right now, but that is not really saying much.