That Astros thread is like our very own Horn Meltdown thread, minus the need to go to another site to pull tears. It's glorious.

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1. I dont think Giles knows the record of the last 20x these teams have faced off.

2. If he thinks the Astros should win those type of games... news flash, don't give up the hits, he controlled it.

3. The Rangers are young and have a top 3 farm system, lot more division titles will be won.

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The Astros just don't have that veteran leadership with skins on the wall.

The Rangers have learned how to win and this team has demonstrated consistently that it wants to win more than the other team.

Elvis has 39 Post season games including 2 WS appearances.

Beltre, Moreland, Colby, Holland... all were on the 2011 WS team.

Hamels has 15 PostSeason GS, including 3 WS GS.
Fielder has 44 PostSeason Games, including 4 WS Games.

Even Desmond has 9 PostSeason games.

The real key, though... is staying healthy. The Rangers have remained relatively healthy, and because of the depth of both prospects and veteran signings, the Rangers have been able to plug in.

Look at the info I posted on the AAA Round Rock game and that is a lineup that has a number of players the Rangers could use.

So I'm curious this morning...who smacked Roogie in the mouth in the walkoff celebration. Clearly had a busted lip!

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Whoever the mod is on that thread/this forum is a Houston loving dewsh....so what do you expect?

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At least we are able to counter their mod on this thread with a life-long Rangers fan, amirite?

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The Astros just don't have that veteran leadership with skins on the wall.

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True. Could probably add that as 4. to the list. Not many teams do have our level of leadership, it is a great mix of veterans (Beltre, Fielder, Hamels, Lewis etc) and young guys.

Our farm system is what's scary and I give all the the credit to the scouts and JD. We have traded quite a bit over the past few years to get guys like Hamels in here but you wouldn't notice it. Having a minor league pipeline that balances out veterans (and keeps payroll down) is what will keep this team competing for years.

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And before we start penciling in guys like Gallo (2017), Brinson (2018), Tate (2017), Ortiz (2018) and Yohander (2018), let's look at 2017:

We lose:
Moreland - Marginal contributions (mostly defensively) so far. Gallo?
Desmond - Huge loss
Colby - AJ Griffin easily fills in here. Or he could re-sign. Or Tate.
Cesar Ramos - He is now a long-reliever. Anyone.
Drew Stubbs - Role player. Brinson? Hoying? Cordell? Re-sign?

We have like a $115.6M payroll (with Serfs and Arbs to be added) scheduled for 2017. Our 2016 appears to be $159M.

All this could change on a whim, but things look very good. I'd like to see the Rangers work on extending Darvish. I think he'll wait for FA (after 2017 season and he will be 31). Will he get $30M? 5 years?

BTW, Strasburg became only the 8th pitcher to get 1,000 in his first 144 Games of MLB. Kerry Woods was the quickest in 134.


Darvish has 692 in 85 Appearances. To get there in 133 games, he'll need 308 in 48 Games.
That's 6.42 K/Appearance. He is putting up 10.1/9IP, this year, so he could very well make it, but he'll have to pickup the pace because he is only averaging 6K/Appearance for his 2 games in 2016.

The company:
Kerry Woods 134 Games
Clemens 143
Strasburg (2016) - 144
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Gooden (1988) - 145
Nomo 147
Kershaw 155
Felix 165

Not sure who the other 5 are, but I added a few others. I used end of season numbers, for easy compilation:
At 144 games, Nolan had 822K
At 149 games, Hamels had 897 K
At 159 games, RJ had 948 K

I knew he took some practice there but wow. Did not figure it would be this quick.

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Lineup tonight:
Profar 1B
Desmond CF
Mazara RF
Beltre 3B
Odor 2B
Fielder DH
Rua LF
Andrus SS
Wilson C

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Really like this lineup. Hoping Prince's 2-hit night is a sign of better things to come.

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I knew he took some practice there but wow. Did not figure it would be this quick.

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Profar might just kind of be the chosen one. He has a vibe about him. Let's see how this works out.

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2017

Let Moreland and Desmond walk as FAs

OF: Gallo, Mazara, Choo

IF: Beltre, Andrus, Odor, Profar

My only concern would be miscues like what the Astros saw last night just due to inexperience.

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I knew he took some practice there but wow. Did not figure it would be this quick.

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Profar might just kind of be the chosen one. He has a vibe about him. Let's see how this works out.

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2017

Let Moreland and Desmond walk as FAs

OF: Gallo, Mazara, Choo

IF: Beltre, Andrus, Odor, Profar

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That may be the slowest and worst fielding OF of all time.

OF: Choo, Brinson, Mazara
IF: Beltre, Andrus, Odor, Profar/ Gallo (one DHing)

Will be fun to watch for sure. The kid is a legit talent. My hope is he stays healthy the whole year and gives the club no chance to send him down. If we had two like that this year ( Mazzara and Profar) that is very exciting.

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2017

Let Moreland and Desmond walk as FAs

OF: Gallo, Mazara, Choo

IF: Beltre, Andrus, Odor, Profar

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Man that lineup looks good. If Fielder gets his **** together at DH and our pitching staff gets completely healthy...

ETA - above from an offensive standpoint. Agree that the OF defense might be weak.

Absolutely no way Mazara can play CF. He's not fast enough and i would much rather see Gallo at first or DH.

2017

1b- Gallo
2b- odor
3b- Beltre
SS- Andrus
LF- Choo
CF- Brinson
RF- Mazara
DH/ utility- Profar

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I knew he took some practice there but wow. Did not figure it would be this quick.

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Profar might just kind of be the chosen one. He has a vibe about him. Let's see how this works out.

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2017

Let Moreland and Desmond walk as FAs

OF: Gallo, Mazara, Choo

IF: Beltre, Andrus, Odor, Profar

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I think you meant this:

OF: Choo, Profar Mazara

IF: Beltre, Andrus, Odor, Gallo

No Profar in CF either. He's not fast enough.

Nor does he have the arm strength

I don't think Profar is going to want to play 1b long term either. I hate to say it but we might want to look at selling Andrus or Odor, as crazy as that sounds. Only for the right piece though. If you are trading Odor, you better get a STAR in return.

Otherwise I think your best bet is:

3b - Profar, ss - Andrus, 2b- Odor, 1b - Beltre

Don't make me put DeShields in there.

How about Ian Desmond @ 4yr/$82M?

He turns 31 in Sept.

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Don't make me put DeShields in there.

How about Ian Desmond @ 4yr/$82M?

He turns 31 in Sept.

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If we could offload the Fielder or Choo contracts that would be perfectly fine with me.

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I don't think Profar is going to want to play 1b long term either. I hate to say it but we might want to look at selling Andrus or Odor, as crazy as that sounds. Only for the right piece though. If you are trading Odor, you better get a STAR in return.

Otherwise I think your best bet is:

3b - Profar, ss - Andrus, 2b- Odor, 1b - Beltre

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Beltre's legacy will be Top 3 3B All-Time. You will not get him to DH or 1B. GP@3B and all stats as a 3B.

The Astros have buried the Rangers in wins.

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Don't make me put DeShields in there.

How about Ian Desmond @ 4yr/$82M?

He turns 31 in Sept.

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If we could offload the Fielder or Choo contracts that would be perfectly fine with me.

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If I did the math right... 4yr / $82M would put him complete at the 7yr deal he turned down with Washington.

He is making $8M and Moreland ($5.7M) comes off the roster. That's $13.7M. Gallo plays 1st at $510K. Colby comes off making $6M.

There you go.

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Don't make me put DeShields in there.

How about Ian Desmond @ 4yr/$82M?

He turns 31 in Sept.

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If we could offload the Fielder or Choo contracts that would be perfectly fine with me.

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And I just looked up Choo. He has 4yrs / $82M remaining. LOL.