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Gallo: 10H, 1 singles, 4 doubles, 1 triples, 4 HR
Gomez: : 10H, 3 singles, 1 doubles, 0 triples, 6 HR
Chirinos: : 9H, 0 singles, 2 doubles, 0 triples, 7 HR
Napoli: 7H, 4 singles, 0 doubles, 0 triples, 3 HR

They have more HRs (21) than combined hits otherwise (16). That tells me they are playing for themselves, not the team.

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These are their June numbers, yeah? I doubt think half the lineup just had an uprising in June and decided to say screw this team.

These are all guys with histories of relying on power and struggling to hit for contact; its just what some people's skill sets are. The Rangers just happened to fill up their roster with those types. Everyone knew coming into this year these guys weren't going to be slapping singles all over the park.

p.s. I'll gladly take Chrinos' 7 home runs and 2 doubles over the 7 singles and 1 home run he hit in May.

Huell Babineaux said:

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If Iapoce isn't gone... and soon. Then JD has no balls.

This is getting ridiculous

Napoli- .188
Gallo- .192
Odor- .206

All playing every day. That's astronomically bad

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Odor the only one out of that group that I'd say you could lay any blame on Lapoce for.

Gallo has always been what we are seeing. You guys thinking he's going to be a 0.250 hitter with similar power -- it ain't gonna happen. It goes against much of what we're used to, and it's certainly hard to watch sometimes -- but there's nothing wrong with HR / K / BB being your 3 outcomes. Before it was just HR/K.

As for Napoli - what did you guys really expect? He's 35 years old and hit 0.239 last season. He'll climb back up over the Mendoza line, but the days of him being a positive contributor over the course of a season are over. He's old so his bat speed has slowed down so he's guessing at the plate. That's not going to improve.


I think there's probably a lot of reasons to dislike Lapoce, but Gallo/Napoli aren't two of them.

TXAggie2011 said:

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Quote:

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Gallo: 10H, 1 singles, 4 doubles, 1 triples, 4 HR
Gomez: : 10H, 3 singles, 1 doubles, 0 triples, 6 HR
Chirinos: : 9H, 0 singles, 2 doubles, 0 triples, 7 HR
Napoli: 7H, 4 singles, 0 doubles, 0 triples, 3 HR

They have more HRs (21) than combined hits otherwise (16). That tells me they are playing for themselves, not the team.

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These are their June numbers, yeah? I doubt think half the lineup just had an uprising in June and decided to say screw this team.

These are all guys with histories of relying on power and struggling to hit for contact; its just what some people's skill sets are. The Rangers just happened to fill up their roster with those types. Everyone knew coming into this year these guys weren't going to be slapping singles all over the park.

p.s. I'll gladly take Chrinos' 7 home runs and 2 doubles over the 7 singles and 1 home run he hit in May.

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Yes June.

Gomez and Nap are playing for 2018 money.

Gallo is playing to stay in the bigs.

MooreTrucker said:

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As much as it pains me to say, I agree. Even if they do manage to stumble into a WC, does anyone really expect them to get very far at all?

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Much like last year, in the playoffs they'll go as far as Hamels/Darvish take them. If they **** the bed like last year, we'll be done in the WC or quickly in the DS. If they find their A-game for a handful of starts, we can beat anyone.

Which is essentially where they stand in regards to winning the wildcard as well -- Nick Martinez, Austin-Bibens-Dirkx, Tyson Ross and Andrew Cashner are not getting us to the playoffs. Assuming Darvish continues to do what Darvish has done, the playoff hopes of this season boil down to what Cole Hamels does.

If he's a 6-7IP and 1-2ER guy the majority of the rest of the way then we'll take the wildcard. If he's a 5-6IP and 3-4ER guy the majority of the rest of the way, then we'll be lucky to stay above 0.500.

I don't think anyone in the front office is really considering making any significant 'buys'. If some decent bullpen arms that are under control for another season become available they'll check in on them, but they aren't going to be looking at guys like Verlander... and even if they were, it's not something they'd even check-in on until they know where they stand on Darvish.

It's a really interesting situation with the new ballpark IMO... Normally I'd say if Darvish doesn't get extended/signed then you are a definite seller. Do a minor rebuild for a year or two and then be back. But with the stadium on the horizon I just do not see a rebuild being allowed.

MooreTrucker said:

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As much as it pains me to say, I agree. Even if they do manage to stumble into a WC, does anyone really expect them to get very far at all?

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Absolutely not. And at this point given the trajectory of the Astros, it is way more important to hold on to future pieces than trade them for some bullpen help.

I am starting to lose faith in Banister. He has been nothing short of idiotically stubborn this year in regards to a LOT of baseball decisions (ending Dyson's tenure here by running him out there constantly, batting Odor 5th all the damn time, seemingly a shaky bullpen decision every game). I get that our bullpen is not great. But the way the game has changed now, you need a progressive manager willing to try a lot of different bullpen and lineup tweaks. He does not seem to be doing that.

At this point in the season, it feels like the only guys having success at the plate are guys who would have success regardless of the hitting coach, because they just generally are good batters (Beltre, Andrus, Choo, Mazara to a certain extent). The younger guys are struggling big time, and to me that's a very damning piece of evidence against Iapoce.

free_mhayden said:

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Huell Babineaux said:

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If Iapoce isn't gone... and soon. Then JD has no balls.

This is getting ridiculous

Napoli- .188
Gallo- .192
Odor- .206

All playing every day. That's astronomically bad

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Odor the only one out of that group that I'd say you could lay any blame on Lapoce for.

Gallo has always been what we are seeing. You guys thinking he's going to be a 0.250 hitter with similar power -- it ain't gonna happen. It goes against much of what we're used to, and it's certainly hard to watch sometimes -- but there's nothing wrong with HR / K / BB being your 3 outcomes. Before it was just HR/K.

As for Napoli - what did you guys really expect? He's 35 years old and hit 0.239 last season. He'll climb back up over the Mendoza line, but the days of him being a positive contributor over the course of a season are over. He's old so his bat speed has slowed down so he's guessing at the plate. That's not going to improve.


I think there's probably a lot of reasons to dislike Lapoce, but Gallo/Napoli aren't two of them.

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I agree on Napoli. And I know that Gallo is never going to be a guy who hits for a high average, but he can for damn certain walk at a higher rate than he is now. It's a hitting coach's job to sit a guy down and figure this stuff out with them. Right now Gallo is willing to expand the strike zone in a big way. Pitchers would be more than happy to walk him if he just kept the bat on his shoulder more often, especially when he's just swinging through fastballs at his eyes.

Gallo is 1 walk away from being Top 20 in AL Walks.

DannyDuberstein said:

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It's going to take more than just showing up. We gon need to see dem titays.

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Don't they have a sex tape??

jtstanley4621 said:

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MooreTrucker said:

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As much as it pains me to say, I agree. Even if they do manage to stumble into a WC, does anyone really expect them to get very far at all?

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I am starting to lose faith in:
Doug Rader
Bobby V
Kevin Kennedy
Johnny Oats
Jerry Narron
Buck Showalter
Ron Washington
Jeff Banister

He has been nothing short of idiotically stubborn this year in regards to a LOT of baseball decisions .... I get that our bullpen is not great. But the way the game has changed now, you need a progressive manager willing to try a lot of different bullpen and lineup tweaks. He does not seem to be doing that.

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If I had a World Series ring every time I heard that about a Rangers manager, I'd have more World Series Rings than the NY Yankees.

But they have no World Series rings, so maybe there is something to it.

What I say a few days back about Gallo...walks going down, strikeouts going up, BA down, OPS down each consecutive month of this season. Something like that.

If that keeps up, or he doesn't bounce back well from a June in which he's currently hitting about .159 with a .708 OPS, then I think you've got to start wondering about Iapoce in the context of Joey Gallo.

Maybe Iapoce is not to blame for where Gallo is right now, but it sure is starting to look like Gallo isn't progressing much now that he's not out working on his own like he did much of in the off-season.

I don't think anyone was expecting greatness out of Napoli. I was thinking we'd get a guy that would hit .230 and 25-30 HR's. The 40-50 point dip in average has been the killer, and no one expected that far of a dropoff.

For a guy not hitting .200, I'd still say I'm happy with Gallo so far. I think that as he develops, he can grind himself up to a .230ish guy that walks a ton and hits 40-50 HR's. I'd be fine with that. But yeah, the trend lately is concerning.

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there's nothing wrong with HR / K / BB being your 3 outcomes. Before it was just HR/K.

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No, it was not.

Gallo's walk rate is virtually unchanged from his first season.

12.2% in 2015.
16.7% in 2016.
12.0% in 2017.

I'm not saying he's not progressed as a player in some regards, but it's actually home runs and strikeouts that he's shown the improvement.

It's just weird that I kind of celebrate to myself in my head when he makes a non-strikeout out....

DannyDuberstein said:

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I don't think anyone was expecting greatness out of Napoli. I was thinking we'd get a guy that would hit .230 and 25-30 HR's. The 40-50 point dip in average has been the killer, and no one expected that far of a dropoff.

For a guy not hitting .200, I'd still say I'm happy with Gallo so far. I think that as he develops, he can grind himself up to a .230ish guy that walks a ton and hits 40-50 HR's. I'd be fine with that. But yeah, the trend lately is concerning.

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Absolutely. And that needs to start with him keeping the bat on his shoulders. I feel like the ABs are at the point where he could go up and just pick a pitch and a zone, and not swing at anything else and end up walking an absolute ton.

As far as Napoli goes, I'm not surprised that his bat speed seems to have left him. It's natural with age. He's swinging right through fastballs elevated in the zone.

Quote:

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Absolutely. And that needs to start with him keeping the bat on his shoulders. I feel like the ABs are at the point where he could go up and just pick a pitch and a zone, and not swing at anything else and end up walking an absolute ton.

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This can apply to Odor also

Nick Williams gets The Call

Yeah, it would be interesting to see Gallo and Odor go up there with the old Julio Franco approach of taking the first pitch no matter what. Let the pitcher get behind in the count, then zone in on something to drive. At some point, maybe you have to modify. But it would be interesting to see them do this exclusively for at least a week or two. When pitchers are conditioned to throw you jack **** in the zone, it will take them a little time to break that conditioning, and in the meantime, you may get some juicy pitches to hit after they get behind. Pitches you are rarely seeing now.

free_mhayden said:

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Gallo has always been what we are seeing. You guys thinking he's going to be a 0.250 hitter with similar power -- it ain't gonna happen.

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Has anyone here said that they think he's going to be a .250 hitter?

Napoli finished last season with an .800 OPS. I didn't expect it to drop off 130 points with a 50 point drop in BA.

The question right now ought to be not whether Gallo should hit .250, but whether Gallo should hit .200.

Current batting average: .192

Odor still hitting 5th.

Huell Babineaux said:

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Odor still hitting 5th.

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Par for the course with Banister. Really losing faith in him rapidly. Odor should rightfully be hitting 9th, and have to dig his way out of there to hit higher in the order. It's not like Odor is a 10 year vet or anything. A spot in the lineup at this point in the year should be earned, not given.

I've held this belief for three years: Bannister puts guys where he wishes they fit, not where their performance suggests they should play.

Sometimes they play great and the team wins games. But dang, they've sure been capable of playing bad baseball this way.

I don't think managers should be inventive for the sake of being inventive, but damn I wish Bannister could find some imagination in his lineup making and handling of the bullpen.

Well, I reckon he's using some imagination hitting Odor 5th. :-/

After Beltre, you have Odor, Gomez, Lucroy, Nap, and Gallo........other than maybe hitting Gomez 5th, does it really matter where you stick any of them?

MSFC Aggie said:

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After Beltre, you have Odor, Gomez, Lucroy, Nap, and Gallo........other than maybe hitting Gomez 5th, does it really matter where you stick any of them?

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Yes. Take out Gomez and you still have an OPS range of 190 points among those guys.

Ya....based on OPS, Odor should be at the bottom.

Good grief, here are the folks with OPS's less than Odor (.614):

Hoying .544
Kozma .464
Profar .416

Crazy to think Rua (.619) and Napoli (.669) are higher than Odor. It really is unbelievable how much Nap and Odor have sucked this year.

And to not just be a critic without ideas, I'd try Gallo, Napoli, Odor 8th with Lucroy 9th.

Briefly:

Gallo and Nap's walks help Odor get some RBI, but Gallo and Napoli's power gets Gomez and friends around the bases.

Lucroy's OBP sets up some RBI chances for the top of the lineup.

Elvis just had a fantastic AB

**** you Odor.

I'd be okay with him being DFAd

beltre K
Odor double play.

Bases loaded nobody out

I drove bus said:

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Elvis just had a fantastic AB

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And Odor wasted it with 2 pitches.... swinging at a 1-0 breaking ball he wasn't waiting for with a control problem pitcher serving up the ending inning double play

He's been totally worthless ever since he's been extended

Pitiful AB from Odor, very selfish trying to pull an off speed pitch on the outer half of the plate

You can blame Iapoce and Banister all you want for Odor's struggles at the plate, but in the end it's in the player to WANT to change their approach at the plate

That was an incredibly selfish AB by Odor

ABD coming down to earth I guess