Fire Brocail and fire Iapoce. Nothing else need be said.

Well, outside of **** Kyle Seager.

I keep watching, first time to comment this year on this thread. This bullpen is a damn disgrace. Whoever thought these folks in the pen would do a good job, needs to be re-evaluated.

Yeah it's only been 32 games but I'm pretty over this season already.

Really sad part is, outside of Yu, there isn't anybody that would fetch more than a bag of balls right now in the trade market.

MSFC Aggie said:

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Really sad part is, outside of Yu, there isn't anybody that would fetch more than a bag of balls right now in the trade market.

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Certainly seems that way. This season is shifting towards rooting for tradeable players to do well so we can restock quickly

PatAg said:

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Huell Babineaux said:

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AccidentProne said:

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If Dyson isn't DFAd after this game I'm quitting my job. So ****ing pathetic

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He's ****ed up every game he's been in this year and Banister still puts him out there in high leverage situations. I really don't understand it. Makes zero sense

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I mean, that's not accurate. Since coming off the DL he has been in in low pressure situations and pitched fine. Not great, but not horrible.

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He was in a tie game today (gave up a HR), a close game in Houston earlier in the week (was hit really hard in 2 AB's, walked a guy), and 1 run game against LAA about a week ago (in which he gave up a HR to put the game out of reach)

The entire coaching staff sucks ass. I think we definitely need a change of direction. Banny included.

Ag2012 said:

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Send Brocail back to Houston's minor league system where his lousy ass belongs. Lapoce shouldn't be far behind.

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At least for Brocail you could argue that the starting pitchers are performing well overall. Literally everyone at the plate has been awful outside of essentially Elvis. No idea what the hell Iapoce is adding to the team.

jtstanley4621 said:

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Fire Brocail and fire Iapoce. Nothing else need be said.

Well, outside of **** Kyle Seager.

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Amen. To all of that.

I don't know enough about the game of baseball or hitting to recognize mechanical issues with swings or stances. But it is really nothing short of embarrassing how over-matched our hitters have looked for basically the majority of the season at the plate. For me personally I'm past the whole "well, eventually we'll all come out of our slumps" mentality.

A good hitting coach should be able to tweak swings and mechanics or work with guys on their plate approach to get guys hitting the right way. Right now we have people in our lineup who are hitting fairly substantially below the level of where they should be, or historically are as hitters. I just have no idea what Iapoce is doing with our hitters. Same thing can be said with Brocail and our bullpen. Nothing seems to be changing.

jtstanley4621 said:

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I don't know enough about the game of baseball or hitting to recognize mechanical issues with swings or stances. But it is really nothing short of embarrassing how over-matched our hitters have looked for basically the majority of the season at the plate. For me personally I'm past the whole "well, eventually we'll all come out of our slumps" mentality.

A good hitting coach should be able to tweak swings and mechanics or work with guys on their plate approach to get guys hitting the right way. Right now we have people in our lineup who are hitting fairly substantially below the level of where they should be, or historically are as hitters. I just have no idea what Iapoce is doing with our hitters. Same thing can be said with Brocail and our bullpen. Nothing seems to be changing.

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Very frustrating to watch for sure. I think a lot of the blame has to fall on pitching coach and hitting coach. I hesitate to blame Banny completely since he has built up some credibility in my eyes with back to back AL West titles (including the improbable comeback one in 2015). How long have we had Iapoce and Brocail? I think the answer is quickly becoming too long, they gots to go!

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The inability to make in-game adjustments and even adjustments game to game just shows the incompetency of the pitching and hitting coaches.

With that said, the starting pitching has actually been above average and kept us in games. The total dropoff once we get to the bullpen is just baffling.

In regards to hitting, there have been way to many wasted opportunities. We have to commit to playing more small ball. Runners on first and second with no outs should call for a bunt every single time. Sacrifice the runners over and take away the DP opportunity for the defense. We've been in this situation too many times with hitters trying to score 3 runs in one swing instead of trying manufacture runs.

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Yes, it is so frustrating seeing us not execute the basics of baseball. With how poor we are doing at the plate and how piss-poor our bullpen has been, every run matters. It was so frustrating to see Odor strikeout yesterday in the 7th with runners on 2nd and 3rd and less than 2 outs... We were up 3-0 at that point, but every run matters!

AccidentProne said:

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The inability to make in-game adjustments and even adjustments game to game just shows the incompetency of the pitching and hitting coaches.

With that said, the starting pitching has actually been above average and kept us in games. The total dropoff once we get to the bullpen is just baffling.

In regards to hitting, there have been way to many wasted opportunities. We have to commit to playing more small ball. Runners on first and second with no outs should call for a bunt every single time. Sacrifice the runners over and take away the DP opportunity for the defense. We've been in this situation too many times with hitters trying to score 3 runs in one swing instead of trying manufacture runs.

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That's awful strategy. This team needs crooked numbers in some innings. We just need hitters to start realizing singles are fine in this situation.

This team can't put the ball in play with a runner on 3rd and fewer than 2 outs anyway, so the sac bunt is going to fail.

What this really highlights is just how bad the situational hitting is. This argument doesn't matter as much if the team actually focuses on making contact instead of hitting long balls every time.

And my biggest issue with that is that these aren't rookies! Rougie, Elvis, All of them have been around for awhile. Why suddenly do they suck so bad? What happened between last year and this year?

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Runners on first and second with no outs should call for a bunt every single time.

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The offense has some real problems, but thank the lord we're not asking you to fix them. Geez, this is garbage.

MooreTrucker said:

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And my biggest issue with that is that these aren't rookies! Rougie, Elvis, All of them have been around for awhile. Why suddenly do they suck so bad? What happened between last year and this year?

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Elvis is batting .285/.323/.480. Don't complain about him, he's been really good. The problem is he's our most consistent hitter.

Squirrel Master said:

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MooreTrucker said:

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And my biggest issue with that is that these aren't rookies! Rougie, Elvis, All of them have been around for awhile. Why suddenly do they suck so bad? What happened between last year and this year?

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Elvis is batting .285/.323/.480. Don't complain about him, he's been really good. The problem is he's our most consistent hitter.

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Yeah, true. He just has no one around him. And no one can hit with RISP.

Bases loaded, no outs. Sac fly to get the runner in, but then Rougie K's and E hits a grounder to the pitcher. We get a SINGLE RUN out of that scenario. Odor especially has it rough with RISP. He may be "trying too hard" or something, but it needs to get fixed.

Another 9:05 game tonight and a Tuesday day game tomorrow. At least I'll have an excuse not to watch

Deshields is honestly probably our second best hitter right now. He's the only guy that did his job with the bases loaded and no outs. Sacrifice fly of course isn't amazing in that situation, but it was a low-drama execution of situational hitting.

Deshields has also had quite a few longer than 3 pitch plate appearances. He seems like the only hitter we have that can go up there and actually make a pitcher have to pitch to him.

Squirrel Master said:

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MooreTrucker said:

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And my biggest issue with that is that these aren't rookies! Rougie, Elvis, All of them have been around for awhile. Why suddenly do they suck so bad? What happened between last year and this year?

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Elvis is batting .285/.323/.480. Don't complain about him, he's been really good. The problem is he's our most consistent hitter.

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Elvis is most definitely not the problem.

So how else are they going to manufacture runs??? Because what they're doing right now definitely ain't working

AccidentProne said:

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So how else are they going to manufacture runs??? Because what they're doing right now definitely ain't working

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They just need to have better approaches at the plate. We don't need to bunt each time and concede an out, because the odds are that they guy coming up behind the sacrifice bunter ain't gonna get the job done either. And this is the job of the hitting coach. We aren't seeing any real improvements

I'd like to see Lapoce and Brocail fired mid-season. I think you would see instant improvement

Huell Babineaux said:

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I'd like to see Lapoce and Brocail fired mid-season. I think you would see instant improvement

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Pretty much. If nothing else it would probably breathe some fresh air into the team, and guys might be a little more receptive to being coached up. I miss Mike Maddox a lot.

I still can't understand the thought process that went into letting Maddux walk and hiring the current nitwit. Maddux wasn't enough of a badass for Banny? All I know is the team produced its 6 lowest ERA seasons in the entire TBIA era under Maddux. It was mind-boggling at the time, and still is 18 months later.

By all accounts Texas wanted Maddux back, but he wanted to test the waters and shop his services and Texas didn't want to wait and/or get into a bidding war.

They offered him a contract and he turned down the first (and would turn out to be only) offer.

But the problem was the next week (still October), they announced to the world they wouldn't be brining Maddux back before they had hired a replacement. And before Maddux taken another job. And before Maddux had said he didn't want to come back to Texas.

I believe JD said that when Maddux declined the offer, they had internal discussions and decided they could be better with someone else at pitching coach.

On bunting more, or "small ball", I think if you're doing that to supplement a poor lineup wide approach at the plate, that's not a great plan IMO.

Run expectancy and all that.

They need to stop striking out so much. Getting below a record breaking pace would be my first goal if I were Banny/Iapoce.

Generally speaking, I think when you're striking out a lot, run expectancy is going to go down and bunting starts to make more sense. Productive vs unproductive outs.

Rangers propensity to hit home runs/XBH complicates it, though.

It always depends on the actual unique hitter at the plate. I wouldn't bunt Gallo too often but I'd be OK with Napoli laying down a solid sac bunt down the first base line.

TXAggie2011 said:

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I believe JD said that when Maddux declined the offer, they had internal discussions and decided they could be better with someone else at pitching coach.

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I think that's JD just doing his usual "everything is going according to plan".

Reading between the lines:

* He was on a 1-year-deal (extension)

* The Rangers starting pitching had been significantly better during his tenure

* The Nationals reportedly made him the highest paid pitching coach in baseball

* Texas ended up with cast-off Doug Brocail


All those signs point to either A) there was not a good relationship between Maddux/Bannister, or B) Maddux shopped his services and got a great offer from Washington and brought it back Texas and they weren't willing to match it.

Also probably worth noting that Dusty Baker will turn 68 next month and has one less year on his contract than Bannister... Maddux has floated his name for managerial jobs before, so maybe that entered into the equation as well.