I want to like Gomez in Centerfield so badly, but it's a work in progress.

TV Casualty said:

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I don't know how fair it is or not to blame Brocail for the pitching this year, but I was never on board with letting Maddox go.

I do hope that the Rangers reevaluate the pitching coach after the season.

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I was mixed about Maddux. I really liked him and hated for him to go. However, IIRC, I think he started losing his effectiveness with some of the players like Holland.

I also know he passed up at least 2 opportunities to become a Manager (once with the Cubs), to stay with the Rangers. So, I expected him to go at some point.

Maddux always used his visits wisely. He seemed to be able to settle pitchers and get a necessary response.

For Brocail, it is more like a guy from King of the Hill walking out with his beer to chum it up.

TV Casualty said:

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I don't know how fair it is or not to blame Brocail for the pitching this year, but I was never on board with letting Maddox go.

I do hope that the Rangers reevaluate the pitching coach after the season.

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I know it would have cost a lot of money to keep Maddux in Texas but you have to think his salary would've damn near paid for itself in terms of $/WAR of the pitching staff, especially compared to Brocail.

This bullpen of 1 decent lefty and a bunch of ******s. Having to pitch Claudio vs 3 straight righties. How did it come to this? A lefty specialist is a multi-inning reliever now because everyone else is garbage.

DannyDuberstein said:

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This bullpen of 1 decent lefty and a bunch of ******s. Having to pitch Claudio vs 3 straight righties. How did it come to this?

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To be fair, Claudio has been much better than decent. He's one of the best LH relievers in baseball this season.

Boom

Steeeeeeeeeeriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiikkkkkkeeeee 3

I'm a big believer that you don't pinch pennies with the manager, hitting, or pitching coaches on a $150 million roster. I'm sure it was more than that with Maddux, but Brocail is a joke.

Wayyy too stressful at the end...

Just an FYI on some minor league pitchers

RR: Blackburn - 3.2 IP, 10 H, 6 ER, 2 BB, 3 SO
Frisco: YoMen - 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 SO <- Coming back from DL
----- Pedro Payano - 5.0 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 3 SO
Down East: Steven Bruce - 7.2 IP, 5 H, 4 ER, 0 BB, 6 SO
Hickory: AJ Alexy - 4.0 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 3 BB, 5 SO <- Darvish return from Dodgers
Spokane: Bueno - 3.1 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 3 SO <- Still pitching
AZL: Adrian Sampson - 4.0 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 SO <- Still pitching

We have such a hard time closing out games against these
b itches

Huell Babineaux said:

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We have such a hard time closing out games against these
b itches

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Against any b itches. My beer league softball team might be able to spark a late inning rally.

Ag2012 said:

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Y'all we just won a game despite not hitting a single home run

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Sequencing

Sometimes I say things I don't mean when I get emotional

Just 3 back

Wooo

gigem1223 said:

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Just 3 back

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I'm going to laugh if 4 teams tie for the final WC spots.

Astros fans whining about analytics.

Just one little run from being right in this thing with a month left in the season. We've got muliple games left with both seatttle and LAA.

The astros are wearing throwbacks tonight. Are we wearing something from the pudge days?

Brocail missed both Darvish and Perez telegraphing their pitches. He missed:
- telling Kela to throw his curve more, and stop worrying about location
- getting Leclerc's walk #'s down
- getting a guy with a 97 mph sinker to get outs (Dyson)
- getting Bush to elevate his fastball
- trying out Barnette as a starter. How many bullpen guys have 3 pitches they can throw for a strike in any count?
- Getting our entire staff to be more aggressive when up in the count. Sure, you may give up a hit, but we must lead the league in turning 0-2 counts into walks.

The Martin Perez pitch-tipping provides an eye-opening look at what a lousy pitching coach that Brocail is, and it implicates Banny too. Martin Perez watched his own video and diagnosed himself. Sees how his hands are in a completely different spot for some pitches - very obvious. Then when he raises it as a problem, Brocail's response is "that's a copout amd i don't care if he's tipping. He needs to locate better. He needs to work hard in his next bullpen session and that better not be a reason not to" And Banny backs that up. Wtf? This is the **** those sessions should be used to identify and work out. It's bizarre.

I think there is a cluless tough guy dynamic from the coaching staff. Meatheads.

Brocail just needs to pack his bags. Been sick of his **** all season

I truly believe that if he had a competent pitching coach here, we'd stop talking about Banny's bullpen mismanagement

There's no question that having a bunch of sloppy pitchers makes it impossible to look like a good bulllpen manager. But he's also responsible for the job Brocail is doing.

Just saw the link about Perez tipping his pitches.

Perez then goes out, after self identifying his problem, self-correcting and throws 8.0 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 SO on 89-63 PC. The only run he gives up is a HR.

Brocail distances himself as if to say, "Perez doesn't know what he is talking about."

You ask yourself... what is Brocail doing? What is his job?

I heard Banny on the radio say Perez was getting skipped and was not pitching in NY, in order to work on better deception on his pitches. Banny also said he talked to Perez about his mental ability to bounce back after throwing a bad pitch.

I guess we'll see what happens next outing.

Who made the decision on Maddox?

Was it JD and other management not wanting to pay him or was it Bannister wanting to bring in his own guy?

TV Casualty said:

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Who made the decision on Maddox?

Was it JD and other management not wanting to pay him or was it Bannister wanting to bring in his own guy?

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JD technically owns it. They were actually starting to negotiate a new deal for Maddux, then said they met internally and decided to go in a different direction. I would imagine Banny played a sizeable part in it. Maddux was sort of the low key cerebral type, while Brocail seems to fit Banny's tough guy meathead style more.

So if I had to guess, Banny was interested in someone more his style (although he may not have necessarily been completely chomping at the bit to dump Maddux),
and the opportunity to save a few bucks and also try something different was enough for JD to go along with it.

I was a big Maddox fan, but he's not exactly tearing it up in Washington this year. Bullpens just vary year by year for whatever reason

Brocail may be a good, great, terrible pitching coach... All I have are the stats...

Here is some perspective:
Brocail was hired in Nov 2015.

Perez: Career 103 GS, 4.47, 1.44
2016: 33 GS, 198.2 IP, 4.39 ERA, 1.41 WHIP
2017: 22 GS, 125.0 IP, 5.18 ERA, 1.58 WHIP

Hamels: Career 352 GS, 3.31, 1.16 WHIP
2016: 32 GS, 200.2 IP, 3.32 ERA, 1.31 WHIP
2017: 14 GS, 92.1 IP, 3.31 ERA, 1.04 WHIP

Darvish: Career 124 GS, 3.39, 1.18
2016: 17 GS, 100.1 IP, 3.41 ERA, 1.12 WHIP
2017: 22 GS, 137.0 IP, 4.01 ERA, 1.17 WHIP

AJG hasn't been healthy enough to evaluate.

Holland:
2016 (Tex): 20 GS, 107.1 IP, 4.95 ERA, 1.41 WHIP
2017 (CWS): 22 GS, 118.1 IP, 5.25 ERA, 1.58 WHIP

Team ERA:
2013: 3.62 ( 4th) - 11
2014: 4.49 (14th) - 15
2015: 4.24 (13th) - 12
--------------------------------
2016: 4.37 (13th) - 11
2017: 4.48 ( 9th) - 10 Starters


Hamels is Hamels. Talk about consistency. It is hard judge because he transitioned from the NL, but it would appear as a veteran... he has things figured out.

2014 was a bad year for the Rangers. Colby Lewis missed 2013 with hip replacement and he was the horse (29GS) of the 2014 season and Nick Martinez was 2nd (24GS). Darvish and Perez both went down with TJ surgery. So, clearly the ERA jump was certainly about injuries.

With both Darvish and Perez recovering from TJ... 2016 was still recovery and 2017 should have been a return to quality performance. Both got worse.

Here is what I think about Brocail. Brocail is the type of pitching coach you want if you have established veteran pitches who require very little more than just a slap on the butt and a visit to get them a breather and find out how they are.

In terms of developing young pitchers? I don't see it.

In terms of in-game adjustments? I don't see it.

In terms of encouraging a young pitcher? Nope.

Getting a pitcher to amp up for a batter to get out of the game? Nope.

I don't even see him visit the mound to slow the game down. Leclerc walked 3 guys last night. Brocail never settled him.

As far as bullpen
Claudio: 2.79 dropped to 2.47
Bush: 2.48 jumped to 3.05
Jeffress 2.70 jumped to 5.31 <- Doubled... 3.60 @ Mil since trade
Leclerc: 1.80 jumped to 3.60 <- Doubled
Kela: 6.09 dropped to 2.36
Barnette 2.09 jumped to 5.40 <- more than Doubled
Dyson: 2.43 jumped to 10.80 <- more than Doubled... 2.22 @ SF since release

Claudio and Kela are the only 2 bright spots. I get the BP is volatile, but even with small samples after leaving Texas, Jeffress and Dyson clearly illustrate something.