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I feel better about losing to Texas now


Frobby

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3 hours ago, Jagwar said:

What is the state of the Texas farm system after this year's trade deadline?

It's solid.  Langford is the headliner.  Drafted this summer and finished the season in AAA.  Very aggressive but he performed wherever he played.  I like Brock Porter more than Leiter.  Foscue is a Norby-lite.  Where the professional rankers land with Walcott will be interesting.  17 y/o international guy.  Talented/exciting/etc. but his K% can't get worse as he moves up.  Abimelec Ortiz has a name from the 1890's, but hits like a 1990's guy and could be a nugget.

 

1 hour ago, Sports Guy said:

What the Rangers get out of Leiter and Rocker should matter too

Brock Porter > Leiter.  And Rocker is textbook TINSTAAPP in that he could be a thing, but is more likely an insurance claim.

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2 hours ago, Moose Milligan said:

This isn't a slight, but you do seem to have a distaste towards "high paid mercenary free agents" (I've seen you use that term before, mostly in regards to Mussina).

Like you, I prefer to see teams being built the way we've been built, the way Tampa has been built, etc.  But it's been shown time and time again that teams that spend a lot don't always win it all, or even make the playoffs.  

Speaking strictly for myself, I don't understand the agenda against "high paid mercenary" players.  deGrom was going to be high priced wherever he went.  So was Semien, so was Seager.  Any free agent who commands a six figure contract is pretty much a high paid mercenary no matter where they end up.  It just so happens Texas did a Texas thing and went big and gobbled up a few of them.  

Tip of the cap to them.  Spending money to cover up mistakes isn't hard, but it's still a gamble.  Steven Cohen tried it this year with the Mets, it backfired spectacularly.  He might be the first to tell you that you can't necessarily buy your way out of a funk.

My comment was more about the fact that the media was starting to focus on the fact the Rangers went from a 100-loss season to Al Championship on two years like it was amazing. They literally bought their way there. Sure they made some good choices, and their offense has been a real juggernaut, but $217 million dollars will buy you a lot of breaks. 

 

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I don’t. Them being hot doesn’t make it any better. It just annoys me that it’s the same thing as the last time we had a legit shot to win the World Series. I especially hate when teams just buy their way into the postseason. If you wanna hate the Yankees, you gotta hate teams that emulate them. 

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TEX really was fluent at all-in.     It surprised me at the end of the offseason after putting $20mm on Martin Perez in November, and $175mm on Jacob deGrom in early December, and $20mm on Andrew Heaney a week later that right after Christmas, when market watchers here were gazing at Nathan Eovaldi, last man standing, TEX outbid Elias there too.

And then attrition, and then TEX outbid Elias for Jordan Montgomery, whose absence from one and presence with the other influenced the TEX-BAL ALDS.

They also got whatever's left of Max Scherzer.

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26 minutes ago, waroriole said:

I don’t. Them being hot doesn’t make it any better. It just annoys me that it’s the same thing as the last time we had a legit shot to win the World Series. I especially hate when teams just buy their way into the postseason. If you wanna hate the Yankees, you gotta hate teams that emulate them. 

If you want to work up a froth for the Rangers Yankee-ness, you can also pump it up that they are on their second new ballpark since OPACY opened, and the new new one is the baseball-y cousin of Jerry Jones' Cowboys things.

The new lottery also helped them out getting to stack Langford with the Vandy guys.

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1 hour ago, interloper said:

IMO it wasn't the Texas offense that clubbed us, it was two starting pitcher meltdowns featuring lack of command. 

This. I believe the ability was there with both Rodriguez and Kremer, but emotionally, they crumbled like cookies in the playoff atmosphere.Now Kremer had many things on his mind, and it's questionable whether he should have pitched at all. However, as Tony often points outs, Grayson has got to work on emotional command, as well as command of his stuff. 

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4 hours ago, Bird Lady said:

This. I believe the ability was there with both Rodriguez and Kremer, but emotionally, they crumbled like cookies in the playoff atmosphere.Now Kremer had many things on his mind, and it's questionable whether he should have pitched at all. However, as Tony often points outs, Grayson has got to work on emotional command, as well as command of his stuff. 

Maybe Grayson, maybe in the 2nd inning. We’ll probably never know exactly where that lollipop throw to 1st came from — maybe that was him “tightening up,” as they say. But let’s keep in mind, the kid pitched the biggest game of our regular season on that same mound a couple weeks earlier, and he threw 8 shutout innings to bring a brutal slide to a screeching halt. His emotional maturity certainly wasn’t at issue that evening. 
 

As for Kremer, he gave up the 1st inning HR to Seager, and then in the disaster 2nd inning, it went: Lowe lined out, Jung singled, Taveras fouled out, Semien doubled, IBB to Seager, Garver doubled, García homered.

The guys who hurt him were Seager (169 wRC+ for the season), Jung (110 wRC+), Semien (124 wRC+), Garver (138 wRC+), and Garcia (124 wRC+).

With all due respect to Dean, every one of those guys is just better than him. Much better, honestly. With the exception of Jung (who had a 120 wRC+ himself when he got hurt in August), each of those guys was Gunnar/Adley equivalent or better. And in the case of Seager, much better.

I don’t think there’s any narrative required to explain what happened with Kremer. He’s a decent back-end starter who was asked to pitch to a lineup of scalding hot all-stars in their hitter-friendly home park — him getting tagged was always the most likely outcome. The fact that he did get pounded doesn’t mean he must have failed mentally or buckled under the pressure. The obvious explanation is the simplest one: he got beat by a bunch of guys who are better than him.

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I'm quite happy knowing that at this very moment Rob Manfred is freaking out about the prospect of record low television ratings for a Diamondbacks/Rangers World Series.

I'm actually more interested in watching the series featuring the Rangers who never won a World Series and the Diamondbacks whose last championship was 22 years ago.

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4 minutes ago, OsFanSinceThe80s said:

I'm quite happy knowing that at this very moment Rob Manfred is freaking out about the prospect of record low television ratings for a Diamondbacks/Rangers World Series.

I'm actually more interested in watching the series featuring the Rangers who never won a World Series and the Diamondbacks whose last championship was 22 years ago.

It should be an entertaining WS.

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9 minutes ago, TonySoprano said:

The 2021 Diamondbacks finished with a 52-110 record, identical to the Orioles that year.   They're in the Series.   

The O's consolation was the 1-1 pick and Jackson Holliday.

Just 2 years ago In 2021 the Rangers and Diamondbacks went 112- 212 a combined 100 games under .500.

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53 minutes ago, OsFanSinceThe80s said:

I'm quite happy knowing that at this very moment Rob Manfred is freaking out about the prospect of record low television ratings for a Diamondbacks/Rangers World Series.

I'm actually more interested in watching the series featuring the Rangers who never won a World Series and the Diamondbacks whose last championship was 22 years ago.

The Dallas/Ft. Worth designated media area is #5 in the US (Houston is #8) and Phoenix is #11.  While not ideal like LA vs. NY, it's very far from a disaster.

Baltimore (#28) vs. Milwaukee (#37) would be a disaster.

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