tOfficially Official 2016 Spring training thread

[romeo212000]

That is a joke Romeo. Go ahead and think that if it helps you though.

All I did the past 2 offseasons was say I thought they would do what JD said they would and that is exactly what they did. JD was never proven wrong. He made a believer out of me in the offseason that followed the 2013 season and I simply believed him afterwards. There was never any smoke screen used by JD. He was open and upfront about the budget.

You cannot be proven wrong because you set up your whole argument with a built in excuse. When they didn't increase the budget substantially each of the last 2 offseasons you simply invoked your fail safe excuse that they didn't need to spend on anyone. It is easy to say they will spend when they have to and then say they simply didn't have to.

Now Davis has indicated that they will increase the budget if they need to. That is good news to me. It is also a change from what I have heard for 2 or 3 years. I never said it would never change because JD never said that. In fact I went into this past offseason thinking it might have changed and hoped they would go after one of the higher priced hitters who was available. Then JD informed those who would listen that it hadn't changed and they refrained from pursuing any of the higher priced free agents just like last year.

Whatever you gotta tell yourself there, champ.

 

[donaldson79]

This from SI on our FA signing of Desmond and if he is under/over compensated.

Ian Desmond, LF, Rangers
Projected: Six years, $78.8 million
Actual: One year, $8 million
Verdict unclear



MLB

Video
Breaking down qualifying offer's impact on MLB's free agents
by Jay Jaffe
Desmond went completely off the map, not only signing a one-year pillow contract worth just $8 million, but also agreeing to move to leftfield, significantly undermining his value both to his new team and upon his re-entry to the market come the fall. As a shortstop, we projected Desmond to be worth $20.6 million in the coming season, but the move to left makes him less valuable in two ways. First, it moves him off his primary position (where he was still a solid defender despite some early-season yips) to one he has never played in the majors. Second, it moves him to a position with a much higher offensive standard, meaning that his bat will be less valuable overall. It’s not a given that Desmond will be underpaid in 2016, so I’m listing him here as the dividing line.

 

[saddles]

This from SI on our FA signing of Desmond and if he is under/over compensated.

Ian Desmond, LF, Rangers
Projected: Six years, $78.8 million
Actual: One year, $8 million
Verdict unclear



MLB
View attachment 94054
Video
Breaking down qualifying offer's impact on MLB's free agents
by Jay Jaffe
Desmond went completely off the map, not only signing a one-year pillow contract worth just $8 million, but also agreeing to move to leftfield, significantly undermining his value both to his new team and upon his re-entry to the market come the fall. As a shortstop, we projected Desmond to be worth $20.6 million in the coming season, but the move to left makes him less valuable in two ways. First, it moves him off his primary position (where he was still a solid defender despite some early-season yips) to one he has never played in the majors. Second, it moves him to a position with a much higher offensive standard, meaning that his bat will be less valuable overall. It’s not a given that Desmond will be underpaid in 2016, so I’m listing him here as the dividing line.

He may or may not be worth what we are paying him, but I really have to question the formula and theories they used to think he would be worth $20 million at SS this season.

 

[jta4437]

He may or may not be worth what we are paying him, but I really have to question the formula and theories they used to think he would be worth $20 million at SS this season.

Probably bc he's been worth 30+ million 3 of the last 4 years, and last year, a down year, was worth 13.7 in WAR, so even the slightest rebound in numbers would've put him in that 20+ range, according to WAR

But that was at SS

 

[jta4437]

He may or may not be worth what we are paying him, but I really have to question the formula and theories they used to think he would be worth $20 million at SS this season.

Basically he's a solid to above average defender even with the errors, and definitely an above average offensive SS

 

[saddles]

Probably bc he's been worth 30+ million 3 of the last 4 years, and last year, a down year, was worth 13.7 in WAR, so even the slightest rebound in numbers would've put him in that 20+ range, according to WAR

But that was at SS

I have never been sold on the reliability of the theory behind WAR either. It is an interesting theory and involves some very complicated formulas and math, but I think it is given too much credence. To say definitively that a player is worth a certain amount of dollars based on his WAR is to take the theory a little to seriously in my humble estimation.

There are a lot of people who are really into it and are sold on the theories behind the formulas, but I am just not one of them. I think if his WAR suggests that he is worth that much then that simply reminds me again why I don't follow WAR. I don't have any problem with those who are believers as long as they don't think they are intellectually superior and thus come off as condescending. I have run across a few of those from time to time. Seems like that part has gotten better the last year or two though.

 

[saddles]

 

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[saddles]

Nomar Mazara talks about his big day for Rangers

 

[True Rangers Fan]

Excited for Dutch's first day on the mound.

 

[saddles]

The story behind the new "You Can't Beat Me" motto.

Is 'YCBM' the Rangers' new motto? What does it even mean? | SportsDay

 

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[donaldson79]

Good grief. What did Colby throw, 2 innings and 35 pitches? Little soon to be talking about how his velocity is down after his first, brief outing of the year.

 

[Justinkm83]

I know the majority of fans prefer to see the regulars out there, but not me. This line-up excites me. I wish the game was televised.

 

[saddles]

Good grief. What did Colby throw, 2 innings and 35 pitches? Little soon to be talking about how his velocity is down after his first, brief outing of the year.

An in depth study is talked about at the link below. One can get tired head fairly quickly reading the study, but one thing I got was that "Pitchers on average retained 41% of their spring training speed changes into the regular season." Of course Colby could increase his velocity the next time out. I didn't see anything in the study comparing ST velocity from the first outing to the rest of ST.

Baseball Prospectus | Spinning Yarn: Do Spring Speeds Matter?

I did see on Zimmerman's spread sheet that Tepesch actually showed an increase in velocity of 1.4 MPH since the last time he pitched.

 

[saddles]

I know the majority of fans prefer to see the regulars out there, but not me. This line-up excites me. I wish the game was televised.

Yes, there will be plenty of time to see the regulars. Looking forward to seeing how these guys do today.

 

[True Rangers Fan]

Isn't colby coming off a medical procedure or two this off-season? I think it takes him a bit to get his mechanics sorted out. Even if it's a comparative measure vs. last year, all the Rangers need is Colby to take the hill 30 times this year. He'll keep us in most games.

 

[donaldson79]

Isn't colby coming off a medical procedure or two this off-season? I think it takes him a bit to get his mechanics sorted out. Even if it's a comparative measure vs. last year, all the Rangers need is Colby to take the hill 30 times this year. He'll keep us in most games.

Lewis had knee surgery. But I wonder when was the last time ol Colby didn't have some type of surgery/procedure in the off season?

 

[Kelleyman]