tOfficially Official 2016 Spring training thread

[donaldson79]

Nothing to do with baseball or the Rangers.

But I live right on Cedar Creek Lake, and I look out my window and see two fools in a pontoon boat fishing right out in the middle. These two knuckleheads know there is severe weather in the immediate area, but here they sit.

Hope they live through it.

 

[True Rangers Fan]

Holland on the mound today. Dutch doesn't need to be lights out today, but I would like a good showing.

 

[True Rangers Fan]

Nothing to do with baseball or the Rangers.

But I live right on Cedar Creek Lake, and I look out my window and see two fools in a pontoon boat fishing right out in the middle. These two knuckleheads know there is severe weather in the immediate area, but here they sit.

Hope they live through it.

Seems there was a musician a few months back who went duck hunting during that terrible Oklahoma ice storm.
People... sheesh.

 

[True Rangers Fan]

Well, that was interesting. Dutch faced 4 batters, and even with a single and a 4 pitch walk, he still only threw 7 pitches total.

 

[donaldson79]

Well, that was interesting. Dutch faced 4 batters, and even with a single and a 4 pitch walk, he still only threw 7 pitches total.

The pitchers best friend, the DB, has been registered.

 

[True Rangers Fan]

There have been 9 outs in this game, and so far 5 of them have come on a first pitch.

 

[True Rangers Fan]

Dutch with a fantastic second inning. Two 3-pitch strikeouts and a 1-pitch ground out. (6/12 game outs have been on 1 pitch now).

 

[saddles]

He had a couple nice games and hit a couple HRs, but to me that didn't go about reversing any of the disappointment of the rest of the season,

It doesn't change the fact that in "proving himself he still only hit .242, and his .871 OPS was propped up by a couple games with HRs,

all said and done he didn't do anything in my mind or obviously the front offices or Banister to keep him from landing back on the bench or them from bringing in Desmond

Well, we basically disagree on how disappointing his performance was last season after he came back from being injured. Different people just see things and interpret things differently.

I think Hamilton being here was the main reason Rua was never considered a 2016 starter. I think they were surprised that Desmond was available for a one year deal and they jumped at the opportunity once Hamilton went down. They decided to gamble that he would rebound. They have chosen to gamble on what once was happening again instead of gambling on others in LF. They very well might have chosen to sign Desmond had Rua hit .270 after he came back last year.

As far as his July performance goes, yes, it can be said that it was propped up by a couple of games with HRs. In that same way it could also be said that it was weighted down by a couple of games with an ohfer. Without 2 hitless games that July his average would have been .308 that month. If you can take away two games worth of accomplishments then it is only fair to conversely be able to look at what could have been if you take away 2 bad games. What's good for the goose...

 

[True Rangers Fan]

Couple of good manufactured runs. First pitch outs now at 8/15.

 

[saddles]

I don't think anything is being held against Rua b/c of Winter Ball

1) Rua's proved himself last year to be:
a) Injured or
b) Ineffective... And I'm sorry 33 ABs where he hit .242 and walked once doesn't prove much of anything to me when taken as a whole with the rest of the season, that's just cherry picking at that point

2) Also Hamilton is going to miss a month or longer

3) They want Gallo, Mazara and Brinson to spend quite a bit of time in AAA

4) Kivlehan has proven even less than Rua at the ML level

5) Ruggiano has proven himself to be more of a 4OFer type than anything else

Lastly, Desmond was brought in b/c they wanted a proven bat in LF at a discounted rate... and now the have Ruggiano, Rua, Kivlehan and Desmond to battle it out... with Desmond probably having a big advantage b/c he's done it before and he's getting 8 million...

Now did the team feel they had a lack of proven options b/c they didn't have a Winter Ball sample from Rua to base their decision on? That's a different thing all together

He did have a talk with JD to clear the air about something. Whether whatever they had to talk about caused the team to lose confidence in him we will never know for sure. Either way things should be fine concerning that matter now.

Yes, overall he was ineffective last year, but in a very small sample size when coming back from a prolonged layoff. That layoff coupled with his lack of experience to me doesn't equate to him being disappointing. I am not going to blame any player for their performance when it was chiefly caused by an injury. Due to his injury and due to the acquisitions of first Hamilton and then Napoli Rua didn't get "plenty of opportunities for him to take the job back."

Kivlehan's ML experience had already been noted.

 

[scotsman1948]

I remember years in the not too distant past when I wondered what in the world we would do if we had an injury because we had so few real options ready in the minors. This year will be a lot different in that regard.

agree what with Rua, Brinson and Mazara

 

[True Rangers Fan]

Another bizarre turn of events. Dutch gets two 1-pitch outs to start. Then gives up a single on 1 pitch, then Mazara commits a 3-base error on the next pitch, a single on the next pitch, then Dutch gets one more 1-pitch out.

6 batters, 6 pitches. 20 pitches total for Dutch in 3 innings. 11/18 outs recorded on a first pitch.

 

[saddles]

As said earlier Choice did well I the exhibition season. It proves nothing. I would like to see Rua perform again to see if progress re leg kick translates. I think it helped Elvis.
I think it is wrong to be suspicious of the FO alleged prejudgment see Rua. He will get a fair shake IMO

HaHa. It is easy to remember Choice. There are some classic examples of ST stats not translating. Then again look at the ST Ian Kinsler had before his first big league season. He had an OPS of .861 that spring.

 

[romeo212000]

HaHa. It is easy to remember Choice. There are some classic examples of ST stats not translating. Then again look at the ST Ian Kinsler had before his first big league season. He had an OPS of .861 that spring.

The Michael Choice thing is still such a head scratcher.

 

[saddles]

Another bizarre turn of events. Dutch gets two 1-pitch outs to start. Then gives up a single on 1 pitch, then Mazara commits a 3-base error on the next pitch, a single on the next pitch, then Dutch gets one more 1-pitch out.

6 batters, 6 pitches. 20 pitches total for Dutch in 3 innings. 11/18 outs recorded on a first pitch.

I don't believe GameDay is keeping up with pitches thrown today. They are showing all hits as happening on one pitch and not keeping up with the pitches thrown prior to the hit. They are probably showing all walks on 4 pitches and I would bet all strikeouts on 3 pitches. There are no radar gun results either.

For example Ruggiano just stuck out with a full count and they only show 3 pitches--all strikes.

 

[saddles]

The Michael Choice thing is still such a head scratcher.

Yeah, I thought JD had made a great trade to get Choice for Gentry.

 

[True Rangers Fan]

I don't believe GameDay is keeping up with pitches thrown today. They are showing all hits as happening on one pitch and not keeping up with the pitches thrown prior to the hit.

My afternoon has been completely wasted.

 

[donaldson79]

Yeah, I thought JD had made a great trade to get Choice for Gentry.

As much as I enjoyed Gentry, he was and still is, at best, a 4th OF.

Would we have been better off with Gentry than Choice for that one season? Sure. But in the bigger picture, we gave up not much and got not much back.

 

[donaldson79]

My afternoon has been completely wasted.

You do enjoy yourself here now don't ya?

 

[saddles]

My afternoon has been completely wasted.

Can you not listen to the audio?