TT: Rangers remind me of the 2014 Royals

[Finisher]

Rangers lineup has no easy outs and their manager has won 12 of his last 13 playoff series. Can't believe people here actually preferred to face them.

Anyway, we didn't sign a single difference maker during the offseason then doubled down on the stupidity by not adding anyone proven at the deadline. They gambled on pure hopium that Flaherty's good July wasn't a mirage, but it was. They gambled they could fix Fuji in time. Like, why are you gambling and not simply adding proven vets who might cost slightly more but would be far more reliable?

[Fiver6565]

27 minutes ago, RZNJ said:

I don’t think they consider Flaherty a long man and they apparently didn’t want to burn Gibson or Kremer yesterday.  It would have been perfect for someone like Irvin.  They went for Baker over Irvin thinking they wouldn’t need a long man.  They didn’t plan for a 1.2 outing from Grayson.   It backfired.  Still, the bottom line for me is that the starter went 1.2 and gave up 5 runs.   That’s always bad.

I’m not arguing with you but If they don’t consider Flaherty a long man then that is dumb too. They clearly did not intend to make him a one inning high leverage guy so what’s he doing here?  He was still starting less than a month ago so he should be able to give us 3-4 mediocre innings while the offense has a chance to get it together. 

[RZNJ]

5 minutes ago, Fiver6565 said:

I’m not arguing with you but If they don’t consider Flaherty a long man then that is dumb too. They clearly did not intend to make him a one inning high leverage guy so what’s he doing here?  He was still starting less than a month ago so he should be able to give us 3-4 mediocre innings while the offense has a chance to get it together. 

The offense had it together.  They scored 2 in the first and our starting pitching gave it right back plus more.   Perhaps Flaherty comes in and limits the damage over 3-4 innings.  Maybe not.  Bottom line, the bullpen didn’t do their job.  Hyde felt Baker and Webb were better options to stop the bleeding and it turned out wrong.   I still put most of the blame on GRod.

[Too Tall]

Here's what's helping me through this while I too don't understand no Irvin and instead Baker.  However, I am proud of our team and they will learn from this regardless of outcome. I am also very proud to be an Oriole fan. Oriole fans by and large are a class group. Can you imagine how Yankee or Philly fans would have treated Hicks after game one? We don't operate that way. Don't think players don't notice. Fox announcers noticed. Camden Yards the last two days was assume. This team did that - they brought fans back to Camden and that's - in my opinion - their greatest gift to us this year.

Texas is good and has a manager with a long and successful playoff record. They get pitching back next year and they are going to be scary good. We need pitching. The loss of The Mountain and Means really exposes that. Put those two on the playoff roster in place of Webb and Baker and it looks a lot different. We also need more consistent hitting. Except for 6 runs yesterday after it was already 9-2, we have been putrid for quite a while. Elias has his work cut out for him this off season regardless of how this ends. I still hope we can go into Texas and do to them................. HOPE! Tis all we have.

[Malike]

2 hours ago, Frobby said:

This start did remind me of many of Grsyson’s first 10 starts.  In particular, he either fell behind hitters, or couldn’t finish them off when he was way ahead in the count, and threw a lot of non-competitive pitches.  Apparently he threw about 75% fastballs, which was a puzzling choice.  

They slug .418 vs. Power Pitching. That might be why they went fastball-heavy. 

[tntoriole]

For all those who are just totally lauding the Rangers and “oh how could anyone prefer us playing them” nonsense .. they should be required to go back on MLB. TV and sit through the 8 consecutive losses this exact same team had against Angels, Twins etc.  a month ago. 

Watch how badly they played and see whether you might like that group or not. 
 

Or watch them be swept in Cleveland and lose at Boston just 2 weeks ago.. 

Yes they are hot at the moment but spare me as to how great they have played this year. 

The 2023 Rangers remind me not of the 2014 Royals but of the 2015 Rangers who were in ALDS and beat Toronto first two games and then lost the next two at home and lost game 5 back in Toronto. 

Joey Bautista with the 3 run homer in that game 5 that had the bat flip to end bat flios (created the backdrop for the Odor and Bautista fight the next year between those teams) 

Gunnar with a 3 run homer in game 5 would not bat flip it in their face at least! 

 

 

Edited October 9, 2023 by tntoriole

[Surhoffan17]

1 hour ago, Moose Milligan said:

I don't believe the moment was too big for Grayson.  Grayson came back after loading the bases and attacked, attacked, attacked.  We've seen him hit 100 before and pitch well.

Picked a bad day to not have his best stuff, but it happens.

I think ultimately though you might be right in regards to running into a team that all of a sudden got hot.  In that respect, they remind me of the Royals that year.  Big differences between those teams though, the Rangers can hit, the Royals really relied on good defense and an elite bullpen.  So far the Rangers defense looks fairly decent but their bullpen is a mess.  Of course, our guys haven't been able to really expose that until it was too late yesterday.

I'm hoping we can at least steal a game tomorrow so we don't look totally outclassed.  

 

Right. Similar in terms of how hot they are. KC had just swept a good Angels team and Tex did the same to TB before playing us. They are hot as blazes. But almost opposite in how they are winning. 

[Say O!]

2 hours ago, Malike said:

They slug .418 vs. Power Pitching. That might be why they went fastball-heavy. 

This. Based on comments from Smoltz during the broadcast and Graysons post game, it seemed that data/analytics suggest TEX struggles against fastball velocity.  That may also explain Baker/Webb (and maybe even RP Flaherty) in the bullpen over Irvin.  Clearly FB velocity doesn’t win when can’t locate/throw strikes. 

[Fiver6565]

5 hours ago, Tony-OH said:

I don't disagree with any of this. I also don't like the five days off thing they have. That's too long for a team to sit idle. 

I''m not sure how you get rid of the 5 days off and keep the 3 game WC round.  Which I do prefer 3 games there vs the old one and one it was.  I think the five days is workable, teams just need to figure out how to work around it and what works best.  I don't think the layoff had anything at all to do w/ these two games (not implying that you do either).

[allquixotic]

I really hate the Rangers, and have ever since I was growing up and they beat us 26-7 and 30-3. I had such high hopes for our revenge this year, but at this rate we may never get revenge on them. So disappointing to be cowed by a team with an awful bullpen. A few more lucky bounces and we could’ve outscored them yesterday. Our offense wasn’t bad.

[baltfan]

8 hours ago, Tony-OH said:

He failed miserably. It's not about velocity, it's about controlling his emotions and stuff. He did not do either. He'll learn from this, and I think one day he will be that ace that starts game one, but there is no other way to explain yesterday's start as anything but an utter failure.  

He's been very good since returning but this start reminded me of when he first came up and the moment was a little too much for him. I think going back to the minors helped him calm down, and when he started to control his emotions, he found his command.

He was pitching on 11 days rest. That’s why his command was awful.  It was very predictable.  The team did a poor job keeping guys sharp during that break.  I wonder if they originally were slotting Means for Game 2 and had Grayson on a schedule to pitch a simulated game closer to the playoffs only to find out late that Means wasn’t going to be available and screwing up Grayson’s schedule.  

[baltfan]

1 hour ago, Fiver6565 said:

I''m not sure how you get rid of the 5 days off and keep the 3 game WC round.  Which I do prefer 3 games there vs the old one and one it was.  I think the five days is workable, teams just need to figure out how to work around it and what works best.  I don't think the layoff had anything at all to do w/ these two games (not implying that you do either).

Make the wild card 3 straight games at home for the team with the better record.  Shorter break, keeps teams sharp, and makes the wild card more of a disadvantage. 

[Fiver6565]

1 hour ago, baltfan said:

Make the wild card 3 straight games at home for the team with the better record.  Shorter break, keeps teams sharp, and makes the wild card more of a disadvantage. 

Umm isn’t that exactly what it is?  They get a day after the season, and then a day before the DS if it goes all three. What are you changing on this suggestion?

[eddie83]

I heard Hyde’s presser today. He was asked about Baker. Said they liked how he threw in AAA playoffs. 

[Can_of_corn]

16 minutes ago, eddie83 said:

I heard Hyde’s presser today. He was asked about Baker. Said they liked how he threw in AAA playoffs. 

Lots of AAA hitters in the playoffs?