5-5 road trip. Would have preferred 6-4 but will take it after the O's sweep. We have 11 more home games than away games left and the schedule gets a little easier. Take care of business at home the rest of the way and maintain .500 on the road and we'll be one of the final wild card teams.

gigem1223 said:

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5-5 road trip. Would have preferred 6-4 but will take it after the O's sweep. We have 11 more hole games than away games left and the schedule gets a little easier. Take care of business at home the rest of the way and maintain .500 on the road and we'll be one of the final wild card teams.

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OR... get rid of Tyson Ross and "we'll be one of the final wild card teams."

Having said that... THIS is also baseball.

With a 3.44 ERA Darvish is 6-8 and the Rangers are 9-12 in games he starts.
With a 7.52 ERA Ross is 2-2 and the Rangers are 4-3 in games he starts.

That is brutal.

DallasAg 94 said:

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DallasAg 94 said:

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free_mhayden said:

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Way too many years of being 10+ games out of a playoff spot in July for me to be OK with punting the season while still within 5 as August approaches.

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Only 2.5 GB.

Up to date right now:
NYY: WC +0.5 - Beating @Seattle 2-0 (T4)
Tampa: WC - Lost
Minn: 0.5 GB - Losing @Home 4-3 to the Tigers (B7)
KC: 0.5 GB - Tied 4-4 at home with CWS (M9)
Seattle: 2.0 GB - Losing @home to NYY 2-0 (T4)
Texas: 2.5 GB - Won
LAAA: 3.0 GB - Tied 2-2 with Boston in Anaheim (M7)

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A little scoreboard watching:

NYY: WC +0.5 - Beating @Seattle 6-4 (E7)
Tampa: Tied for WC - Lost
KC: Tied for WC - Won

Minn: 1.0 GB - Lost
Seattle: 2.0 GB - Losing @home to NYY 6-4 (E7)

Texas: 2.5 GB - Won
LAAA: 2.5 GB - Won

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I agree, we need to sell on guys like Darvish while we can. This team isn't in need of a total rebuild, but definitely needs an influx of young talent.

gigem1223 said:

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5-5 road trip. Would have preferred 6-4 but will take it after the O's sweep. We have 11 more home games than away games left and the schedule gets a little easier. Take care of business at home the rest of the way and maintain .500 on the road and we'll be one of the final wild card teams.

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Love your optimism

MSFC Aggie said:

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gigem1223 said:

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How is Mazara still batting in the 3 spot? He's been terrible at the plate for 2 months now.

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What other options are there? You could go DeShields, Choo, and Elvis I suppose. But then what do you do with Nap, Nomar, and Gallo? Meaning, you could DH Choo, and then platoon Nap and Gallo at first?

Way too many liabilities with this team.

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I argued against Mazara continuing to hit 3rd a few days ago.

Adrian Beltre is perhaps the answer for now.

And/or you let Carlos Gomez play a part of the answer hitting somewhere in the top 4, he can do everything Mazara can do. And/or your lineup is part of the solution.

At least against left handers, you've got to put something better in the 3rd spot.

Mazara's .186 average and .544 OPS just doesn't cut it. Despite its problems, this team has a lot of options better than that.

TheAngelFlight said:

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DallasAg 94 said:

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Buster Olney has an article that indicates the Rangers announcing Darvish might be available, has now muddied the trade deadline for SP. Sonny Gray, is one example given.

The Rangers have also thrown out Hamels, and certainly by deduction, everyone would expect Cashner to be available if the Rangers are sellers. Cashner is 3 IP from being "qualified" in Stats. That should happen within his next 2 GS. His 3.64 ERA would currently be 13 in AL ERA. Darvish is 8th 3.44. Hamels is at 3.78, but his career 3.33 (including NL) is proven.

Quesion... would Daniels have floated out their names, just to affect other teams buying? For example, the Yankees might be interested in Gray, but the thought of getting Darvish keeps them from moving forward. Two weeks (3GS) go by, so, even if they eventually get Gray, they didn't have him for those 3 GS, which then helps Texas remain closer?!

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Your grade school grammar teachers should be ashamed.

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Blah blah blah... too many commas... you write like you talk... blah blah blah. I heard missing a period is far worse.

And, I don't do grammar. I was too busy learning alge-Brah! Now leave me alone so I can finish up my presentation for Tuesday.

I'm not sure if you have an engineering degree, but if you were in the A&M engineering school when I was, you'd have taken several writing courses due to, in the words of our Dean, "consistent comments from industry regarding A&M engineers' struggle to write and communicate effectively."

Quote:

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And, I don't do grammar. I was too busy learning alge-Brah! Now leave me alone so I can finish up my presentation for Tuesday.

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You didn't test out of algebra and get on to the good stuff like calculus and "diff-e-q?"

bigcat22 said:

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I agree, we need to sell on guys like Darvish while we can. This team isn't in need of a total rebuild, but definitely needs an influx of young talent.

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A question of curiosity from this Royals fan: what kind of post-season success this season would be required for some of you to approve of neither trading or re-signing him?

TXAggie2011 said:

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I'm not sure if you have an engineering degree, but if you were in the A&M engineering school when I was, you'd have taken several writing courses due to, in the words of our Dean, "consistent comments from industry regarding A&M engineers' struggle to write and communicate effectively."

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By moniker names, I'm class of '90, '91, '92, '93, '94. You being class of '11?! So, we likely weren't there together. I'm probably the reason you have to take writing courses. ChemE.

I write technical documents from time to time, but the audience isn't nearly as fickle or judgmental as this site. And most people send their docs to me for editing.

TheAngelFlight said:

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Quote:

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And, I don't do grammar. I was too busy learning alge-Brah! Now leave me alone so I can finish up my presentation for Tuesday.

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You didn't test out of algebra and get on to the good stuff like calculus and "diff-e-q?"

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Yes, I skipped Algebra. I actually started as Pre-Med at an A&M satellite school. When they got my placement score, my Undergrad Advisor called up the Math Dept because he didn't think the scores went as high as I got. That isn't as impressive as it sounds. They must have been a bunch or morons.

I enjoyed DiffEq so much I took it 3 times. The 1st time the guy started on Chapter 6 or 7 of the book. The 2nd time, the prof started on Ch 1, so they were completely different classes. The 3rd time, the guy used a different book and I don't think I had seen any of the stuff he taught.

My Intro to Lit prof had been in Playboy like 20 years earlier. I can't recall her name, so no Rule #1. It was legit, though.

jtstanley4621 said:

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I'm imagining Dallasag taking an algebra exam and instead of just giving the answer, he gives the minor league stats of all the involved numbers, along with inflated returns that they would bring from other systems if traded. Professors probably passed him just so they didn't have to read the whole thing.

I kid, I kid of course. Just thought that needed to be stated.

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I emphasized "showing my work."

TheAngelFlight said:

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Quote:

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I also imagine him not caring how bad his test scores were because he thought the Astros were taking ownership of his grades in the off-season.

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Insert laugh/cry emoticon here.

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I don't get it.

And no... I didn't have to compete with kids taking Adderall, but there were a couple I suspected were cheating.

DallasAg 94 said:

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TheAngelFlight said:

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Quote:

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I also imagine him not caring how bad his test scores were because he thought the Astros were taking ownership of his grades in the off-season.

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Insert laugh/cry emoticon here.

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I don't get it.

And no... I didn't have to compete with kids taking Adderall, but there were a couple I suspected were cheating.

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Adderall isn't cheating. If you don't use it, you're putting yourself at a disadvantage. At least that's how it is now.

TheAngelFlight said:

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bigcat22 said:

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I agree, we need to sell on guys like Darvish while we can. This team isn't in need of a total rebuild, but definitely needs an influx of young talent.

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A question of curiosity from this Royals fan: what kind of post-season success this season would be required for some of you to approve of neither trading or re-signing him?

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Most understand that the bulk of his value on whether to trade Darvish this season doesn't come in how far this team goes this year, but rather what edge it gives (if any) to Texas of re-signing him with another 2 months to negotiate exclusively.

Ultimately this isn't a normal armchair GM situation where you can say "Player A is going to be better than Player B so trade Player B". It's a situation where you have to assume that the Ivy League GM that is the greatest GM this franchise has ever had is going to make the best move possible with the information he has. Some fans seem to have this idea that Daniels doesn't realize that if we don't trade Yu and he walks in free agency that we missed out on a huge opportunity -- I'm fairly certain he understands that nuance of the situation.

It's incredible to me how much a local paper can influence the mindset of the common fan. There's a "Lunch with the GM" event coming up on Aug 1, and there's about 30 facebook comments on it, almost all along the lines of "If we can see him get replaced as GM during the lunch - i'm in!"

Hacks like Mac Engel with their sensationalist and borderline "fake news" clickbait articles have actually got a large percentage of the uneducated masses thinking Daniels has done a poor job in Texas. It's crazy.

Totally agree, I don't understand the JD hate at all. The guy inherited a much worse situation that we have now, both at the major and minor league level, and within 5 years put a winner on the field and stocked the entire farm system. It just amazes me how people forgot the earlier front office regimes who agreed to the A-rod contract and the Harold Baines trade. I have full faith that JD is going to do what's best for the Rangers both in the short, and long term.

Galloway essentially convinced the masses that all the good that happened here the last decade was due to Nolan Ryan.

TheAngelFlight said:

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bigcat22 said:

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I agree, we need to sell on guys like Darvish while we can. This team isn't in need of a total rebuild, but definitely needs an influx of young talent.

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A question of curiosity from this Royals fan: what kind of post-season success this season would be required for some of you to approve of neither trading or re-signing him?

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A World Series win would probably soothe some folks.

Otherwise, I think people could fairly say he took too large a risk by not trading him (if Darvish signs somewhere else.)

There is an idea keeping him will improve the Rangers' position this winter. That, uh...calculus...is still about weighing benefit and risk. It is the benefit of keeping him (i.e. better chance at success this season and better chance to re-sign him) vs the risk that he walks away.

If the Rangers keep him and he walks away, perhaps they didn't do their calculations right.

(Edit-the risk can be defined as getting no young talent in return.)

free_mhayden said:

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Galloway essentially convinced the masses that all the good that happened here the last decade was due to Nolan Ryan.

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Nolan is a Texas legend and did great things in a Rangers uniform, but in the front office, he was better used as a "face" than an actual decision maker. If you actually look at the "Nolan moves", they were terrible. He brought in Berkman and Oswalt, both sucked as Rangers, was against signing Yu, and was behind the Josh Lewin firing. All bad decisions in my book.

TXAggie2011 said:

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TheAngelFlight said:

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bigcat22 said:

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I agree, we need to sell on guys like Darvish while we can. This team isn't in need of a total rebuild, but definitely needs an influx of young talent.

---

A question of curiosity from this Royals fan: what kind of post-season success this season would be required for some of you to approve of neither trading or re-signing him?

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A World Series win would probably soothe some folks.

Otherwise, I think people could fairly say he took too large a risk by not trading him (if Darvish signs somewhere else.)

There is an idea keeping him will improve the Rangers' position this winter. That, uh...calculus...is still about weighing benefit and risk. It is the benefit of keeping him (i.e. better chance at success this season and better chance to re-sign him) vs the risk that he walks away.

If the Rangers keep him and he walks away, perhaps they didn't do their calculations right.

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And I would certainly blame DallasAg94

AccidentProne said:

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Most people forget that this team has been in the playoffs in some form or fashion 7 out of the last 8 years. There's something to be said for that. This FO has the ability to make the moves to keep fielding a competitive team without having a complete rebuild. I'm confident this year will be no different.

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I don't think trading or even not re-signing Darvish necessitates bringing forth a complete rebuild period on the Rangers. It shouldn't require that, at least.

(It is 5 of 7 years in the playoffs, but certainly it's been a very nice period for the club.)

Or, like with all things sports, you can do the calculations and there is still no sure thing.

It's interesting that the same people that think Jon Daniels doesn't know the best way to handle the Darvish situation seem to have forgotten that Jon Daniels and Co. determined he was worth the $51.7 posting fee when all of the other big team front offices didn't.

Quote:

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Or, like with all things sports, you can do the calculations and there is still no sure thing.

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If there was a sure thing here there wouldn't be a risk-benefit analysis.

You can define your acceptable risk in certain terms (within the context of whatever technical system you use to quantify such things) and obviously folks will have different opinions as to what the acceptable risk is here and that of course will be the source of analysis and talk come the off-season if Darvish leaves Texas.

Agreed.

Which means they could do all of their calculations correctly and he could still walk.

I just think if you let Yu walk, then who are going to get to replace him that isn't going to cost just as it would to just re-sign him?

free_mhayden said:

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Agreed.

Which means they could do all of their calculations correctly and he could still walk.

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Yes, of course that's possible.