World Series Champions, Texas Rangers 2024 Spring Training Thread

[armadillooutlaw]

Mark my words: This year's offense is going to be the best in team history, no doubt. The pitching staff will exceed expectations, and the bullpen will finish as a top ten unit, maybe top five. Texas wins 95+ games on to a repeat WS title.
deGrom finishes as WS MVP.

 

[WastinSomeTime]

Top three of Eovaldi, Gray and Dunning is very good. I like Heaney and Bradford to be real solid guys, as well. At this point I'm just concerned about depth. Urena looks like he can be a depth guy, though. And Leiter looks like he may be on his way with a little more seasoning in the minors.

I'm concerned with depth as well.

 

[saddles]

I think if one of Leiter, Kent or White starts off well that that would be huge as far as our depth. Scherzer should be back within 8 or 9 weeks of Opening Day.

I would really like for them to trade for a good AAA pitcher to help out in that regard.

 

[WastinSomeTime]

I think if one of Leiter, Kent or White starts off well that that would be huge as far as our depth. Scherzer should be back within 8 or 9 weeks of Opening Day.

I would really like for them to trade for a good AAA pitcher to help out in that regard.

I still would not mind Monty. I am not sure if I feel comfortable with Bradford or Heaney. I hope I am wrong. Monty was nails for us down the stretch and in the playoffs.

 

[saddles]

 

[Senator_fan]

Cole Ragans named opening day starter for Kansas City.

The trade of Ragans was unequivocally worth the world series.

He may be great this season and beyond, he may be great this season and good or average in the future, he may get knocked around. We'll have to wait and see.

I will say the Rangers may have been more apt to keep him if they could ever figure out the pitching coach heirarchy from the minors through the show. For some reason this club has never been able to consistently develop quality pitchers, and it is painful to see many moved on to other clubs where they then blossom.

im ok with what Ragans does because Chapman definitely helped us get the trophy.

Although I like Ragans a lot, he was in no position to help the Rangers last year. He wasn’t ready to perform at that level. He flourished on a last place team with the Royals with no expectations or pressure, big difference. CY had a gun to his head to do something and he did.
CY inherited JD’s dumb ass move to trade Clase. If that trade was not made then Clase was in the pen last year and Ragans would still be a Ranger. Stop blaming CY, he brought the first championship to the organization in his first year. He turned the club around. Give the guy some credit.

 

[WastinSomeTime]

Although I like Ragans a lot, he was in no position to help the Rangers last year. He wasn’t ready to perform at that level. He flourished on a last place team with the Royals with no expectations or pressure, big difference. CY had a gun to his head to do something and he did.
CY inherited JD’s dumb ass move to trade Clase. If that trade was not made then Clase was in the pen last year and Ragans would still be a Ranger. Stop blaming CY, he brought the first championship to the organization in his first year. He turned the club around. Give the guy some credit.

Trading him did not bring us a World Series. Keeping him would have eventually helped us either later in the year or in the future.
By the way, I love CY. He's a players GM and he made a lot of great moves.

 

[saddles]

Although I like Ragans a lot, he was in no position to help the Rangers last year. He wasn’t ready to perform at that level. He flourished on a last place team with the Royals with no expectations or pressure, big difference. CY had a gun to his head to do something and he did.
CY inherited JD’s dumb ass move to trade Clase. If that trade was not made then Clase was in the pen last year and Ragans would still be a Ranger. Stop blaming CY, he brought the first championship to the organization in his first year. He turned the club around. Give the guy some credit.

Lol. He isn't perfect.

I am thrilled with the World Series championship, but his lack of building a bullpen came within a hair's breath of keeping us out of the postseason.

And I disagree with you about Ragans. When it comes to within a year or two of his free agency, and the Royals put him on the market, I think we will see what the contenders think of him.

So you think him having no pressure in KC verse the "pressure" he faced here in 2022 caused his velocity to improve from 92 MPH to 98 to 100 MPH?

 

[saddles]

 

[saddles]

 

[Senator_fan]

Lol. He isn't perfect.

I am thrilled with the World Series championship, but his lack of building a bullpen came within a hair's breath of keeping us out of the postseason.

And I disagree with you about Ragans. When it comes to within a year or two of his free agency, and the Royals put him on the market, I think we will see what the contenders think of him.

So you think him having no pressure in KC verse the "pressure" he faced here in 2022 caused his velocity to improve from 92 MPH to 98 to 100 MPH?

I wish Ragans the best but I have no idea how he’ll perform in a year or two or how his velocity improved, but that would be physically related. “Pressure” is mental.

 

[WastinSomeTime]

What's a couple of million dollars. Drop in the bucket. LOL! No wonder he was a close friend.

 

[saddles]

I wish Ragans the best but I have no idea how he’ll perform in a year or two or how his velocity improved, but that would be physically related. “Pressure” is mental.

That is what I was thinking. The change that everyone saw in ST was velocity related. That was what caused Keith Law to say Cole was one the 10 most likely to have a breakout season. I think he would have been the same with or without pressure. There is nothing in Cole's background to suggest he couldn't handle pressure. He went through 2 Tommy John surgeries and fought back from each. He had handled a ton of adversity prior to last year.

 

[saddles]

What's a couple of million dollars. Drop in the bucket. LOL! No wonder he was a close friend.

I am sure there were exceptions written into the contract, but this guy is one whose firing triggers Ohtani's ability to opt out of his contract.

 

[gregrey972]

Rangers Sign Michael Lorenzen

March 22: The Rangers have now announced the signing. Right-hander Jacob deGrom was transferred to the 60-day injured list to …

www.mlbtraderumors.com

Are we excited about this?

 

[saddles]

Rangers Sign Michael Lorenzen

March 22: The Rangers have now announced the signing. Right-hander Jacob deGrom was transferred to the 60-day injured list to …

www.mlbtraderumors.com

Are we excited about this?

He was one of the ones I thought made sense if we wanted to spend less than Montgomery would cost.

 

[saddles]

I guess Bradford and Urena both will be long men out of the pen now. Although, Lorenzen finished the year pitching in relief last year.

 

[saddles]

 

[saddles]

Rotoballer had this 2 days ago:

Free-agent right-hander Michael Lorenzen threw 70 pitches on Sunday, getting up and down four times while also hitting 94 to 96 mph with his fastball on the radar gun, according to a report viewed by The Athletic. The 32-year-old veteran remains without a team with Opening Day quickly approaching, despite the fact that he threw a no-hitter with the Philadelphia Phillies in 2023. If Lorenzen does sign with a team soon, he should be pretty stretched out despite not facing actual competition in spring training

 

[saddles]

Frim Jeff Wilson:

Lorenzen, 32 was the choice over left-hander Jordan Montgomery, who reportedly hasn’t yielded much from his high salary demands. Lorenzen is settling for less money than he made each of the past two seasons, and the deal should keep the Rangers under the second luxury-tax threshold, which comes with a steeper penalty for an overage.

But Lorenzen lands with the reigning world champions and could potentially push left-hander Cody Bradford to the bullpen at some point in April. The Rangers also have starters Jose Urena and Jack Leiter still in big-league camp as rotation depth, though Urena can opt out of his deal.

No matter how built up Lorenzen will claim to be, the Rangers are unlikely to open the season with him on the active roster.