Any of y'all at the game? The wind is really weird tonight. Not excusing Max's defense, but the wind played a huge factor on that play

Did Maz lose that in the cell phone lights? Ton of people were doing that stupid phone light blinking thing

So that's what defense looks like...?

It's a long season, but this sure feels like a team that will stay at the bottom of the west so far.

Feels that way. Very sloppy defense from everyone and bad pitching...not a good recipe for wins.

I'm holding out hope based on the trash start we saw in 2015. But this thing has been frigging ugly so far.

AccidentProne said:

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Any of y'all at the game? The wind is really weird tonight. Not excusing Max's defense, but the wind played a huge factor on that play

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I was right behind the Rangers dugout, so didn't see the Maz play. As far as the wind goes, there were three or four balls that were tagged by Oakland that would've been homers in June-September. Nice start on paper for Yu, but four walks, and 3-4 "could've been" homers that got knocked down by the wind.

DannyDuberstein said:

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I'm holding out hope based on the trash start we saw in 2015. But this thing has been frigging ugly so far.

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That's the "fingers crossed" hope of our household, too.

AllThings12thMan said:

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AccidentProne said:

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Any of y'all at the game? The wind is really weird tonight. Not excusing Max's defense, but the wind played a huge factor on that play

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I was right behind the Rangers dugout, so didn't see the Maz play. As far as the wind goes, there were three or four balls that were tagged by Oakland that would've been homers in June-September. Nice start on paper for Yu, but four walks, and 3-4 "could've been" homers that got knocked down by the wind.

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I stood in about 10 different locations last night and felt like the wind was blowing a different direction each time.

Yu had an okay outing. Better than opening day. Felt like he was robbed quite a bit by the homeplate ump. Regardless, Yu needs to pitch better, especially if he is looking ahead to the offseason and a shiny new contract. If he doesn't start pitching like ace he could be, then he won't get the dollars he'll be seeking

I'm really torn on Yu. His stuff is electric. But there just always seems to be something that keeps him from all of that talent translating into the bottom line -> wins. Sometimes it's been injury. Other times I think it's been a lack of focus. He pitched better last night while the defense failed him, but he was still inefficient enough to have the leave the game fairly early. Not sure how I'm going to feel if they decide to give him $30 mill. Not sure how I'll feel if they don't. I probably just go ahead and pay him, but I want to see more bottom line impact.

Agreed. The bottom line benefit has not been there. The Rangers' records when Darvush starts:

2017: 0-2
2016: 10-7
2014: 13-9
2013: 17-15
2012: 19-10

I think it's safe to say for the most part, Darvish starts haven't translated into fantastic win totals for the Rangers.

2012 at 19-10 is pretty good, but ironically Darvish himself wasn't all that great. It certainly has been his worst season since he arrived.

And even 19-10 isn't all that you'd want from a $30 million man---the Rangers went 24-8 when Hamels started last season.

In 2015, the Rangers went 10-2 with Hamels. And even the ****ty ass Phillies went 10-10 when Hamels started.

That's more like you ought to be getting for $30 million.

Darvish can't control what the Rangers do with their bats, so trying to compare win totals with him on the mound doesn't tell you much.

Is he an ace? No.

Is he a bonafide #2 guy with #1 ceiling? Yes.

Assuming he stays healthy, he'll get paid what that demands.

Large enough, multi-year samples of a team's win-loss records with a pitcher absolutely can tell you something about whether having him on the roster and on the field is paying off for you.

You certainly have to understand the context of the overall record and how other pitchers are fairing with the same lineup around them...which is why comparing W/L across teams or across eras is pretty unproductive...

Opening Day was one thing but pitch fx shows pretty clearly that Meals was squeezing the hell out of Yu last night. His stuff was better and so was fastball command.

He'll be fine.

Gallo 3 run blast

Gallo is a modern day Rob Deer

corleoneAg99 said:

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Opening Day was one thing but pitch fx shows pretty clearly that Meals was squeezing the hell out of Yu last night. His stuff was better and so was fastball command.

He'll be fine.

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Also saw several balls clearly outside called for strikes.

I was thinking Dave Kingman.

Hope I'm wrong.

I drove bus said:

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corleoneAg99 said:

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Opening Day was one thing but pitch fx shows pretty clearly that Meals was squeezing the hell out of Yu last night. His stuff was better and so was fastball command.

He'll be fine.

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Also saw several balls clearly outside called for strikes.

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Cool.

Gallo has impressed me. He seems far less lost at the plate. I think I piled on him too soon

Just my opinion that he was clearly getting squeezed is not totally valid. Dude has to stop walking people.

That being said I think he'll be okay. But first two starts are not good.

These certainly show a pretty good amount of squeezing done to Yu

Need Beltre back..
Can't strike out back to back with runners on 2nd and 3rd

Napoli is ****ing garbage. As soon as Beltre comes back, Nap need to ride the bench. Move Gallo to DH/1B

Only one pitch in that AB was in the strike zone for Napoli, and he swung right through it. Jeez

I drove bus said:

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Just my opinion that he was clearly getting squeezed is not totally valid. Dude has to stop walking people.

That being said I think he'll be okay. But first two starts are not good.

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What other data do you need? Pitch fx is pretty widely accepted as factual information when it comes to pitch location. He gave up one earned in 6 IP and that was with a terrible strike zone from the ump.

Complain about Opening Day all you want but the actual data, and not just how you feel, says he was more than fine last night.

Bottom line is 1 run in 6 innings. That is more than fine so I'll stop arguing.

Please keep swinging at the same garbage

I seem to recall this guy carving is up last year too.

Wait, I thought we were winning this game. Are y'all still talking about last night?

Gallo with the bomb, but he is still hitting just .176 for the year. If he can just get that to stay up around .240 then he could be a usable player.

Wind just saved that one

TXAggie2011 said:

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Large enough, multi-year samples of a team's win-loss records with a pitcher absolutely can tell you something about whether having him on the roster and on the field is paying off for you.

You certainly have to understand the context of the overall record and how other pitchers are fairing with the same lineup around them...which is why comparing W/L across teams or across eras is pretty unproductive...

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Sure, if you are going to assume that the team will give the pitcher similar run support throughout then it's a relevant statistic.

But unless you are going to start signing or not signing guys because "our team typically doesn't like to score runs with him on the mound" then it really just shows what happened and shouldn't be used to evaluate future performance.

I'm not saying that Yu is or isn't worth whatever his price will be on the open market, but there's a reason Wins and Losses aren't paid much attention to in pitcher evals -- and a large sample size doesn't change that.