DallasAg 94 said:

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KT 90 said:

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Kela back on the DL.

Saw this in a writeup on R. Rodriguez:

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Rodriguez was eligible to be a minor league free agent after this season if he was not added to the 40 man roster, so this is probably at least in part a move to get a look at a guy the team was going to have to make a decision on in a couple of months anyway. Calling Rodriguez up at this point gives the major league staff an opportunity to evaluate him and make a better determination if he is worth keeping on the 40 man this offseason, and with the current state of the bullpen, he would appear to have an opportunity right away to show if he can contribute.

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So... Rule V eligible.

Who gets moved off the 40, to make room? Tyson Ross had a recent rehab, so he won't get moved to the DL60. Rangers have 11 guys on their 40 who are in the minors. With Kela to the DL10, I presume...

Also, I've posted recently (or maybe I never posted it) a list of Rule V guys. I don't recall if I even mentioned RicRod. I think I had. Seemed like there were 12-15 legit concerns, although only 3-4 teams might gamble on.

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From another part of the article, apparently there are only 38 at the moment. So nobody has to get moved off:

"Replacing Kela on the 25 man roster is relief pitcher Ricardo Rodriguez. Rodriguez was not on the 40 man roster prior to having his contract purchased today, and the 40 man roster now is at 38."

Griffin....ugh

Following a watched 3rd strike with a 4-pitch walk and a home run is not a good look.

Was this discussed? I'm not a fan of Joe West but it seemed clear that comment was a joke. These guys make s*** calls all year long and nothing happens but he makes a joke and he's suspended three games. That's weird.

https://sportsday.dallasnews.com/texas-rangers/rangers/2017/08/08/umpire-joe-west-suspended-calling-texas-rangers-adrian-beltre-biggest-complainer-baseball

Joe West can kick rocks. Don't really have any sympathy for him. It is weird that it's coming now though, feels like it happened a while ago

I don't feel bad for him but that just seems moronic given what guys get away with. Hell, has that dips*** Angel Hernandez ever been suspended for all the bulls*** he pulls?

West and Hernandez should be permanently suspended for sucking at their job.

Gallo sure is fun to watch. One of the few emerging bright spots this year.

Agreed. He seems more comfortable. If he can just continue to tick up that batting average just a little bit, he's going to be a constant threat

Tonight's loss was so emblematic of the season. Griffin doesn't bunt a leadoff double to 3rd. Choo gets a tough hop that allows the 5th run to score. Griffin walks a guy ahead of a HR. Grilli walks a guy ahead of an RBI double. Chirinos hits a HR that's meaningless. They find a new way to lose each day, but it's almost always a little thing. It's been that way since the first game of the season.

What a difference a year makes. All those little things went the other way last year.

And reading the Houston board makes me laugh. You'd think they had the same record we did with their attitude.

I don't go over there much. I guess they are pissing and moaning? Eh, we'd be doing the same thing.

Houston really let their fans down at the trade deadline. They had the assets, but chickened out. I can see why they are upset. They went from WS front-runners to 3rd in the AL. They've put together a nice record by beating up the backend of rotations. They could of course still win it all, but they should have gotten more from management.

94chem said:

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Houston really let their fans down at the trade deadline. They had the assets, but chickened out. I can see why they are upset. They went from WS front-runners to 3rd in the AL. They've put together a nice record by beating up the backend of rotations. They could of course still win it all, but they should have gotten more from management.

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They were yukking it up about not wanting Darvish but I bet they would kill for him now. They should have put together a package of top prospects for Yu and Claudio, instead they just crapped their pants and now their last hope is trading for a washed up Verlander.

KT 90 said:

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From another part of the article, apparently there are only 38 at the moment. So nobody has to get moved off:

"Replacing Kela on the 25 man roster is relief pitcher Ricardo Rodriguez. Rodriguez was not on the 40 man roster prior to having his contract purchased today, and the 40 man roster now is at 38."

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I was trying to figure out why they were under the 40. Looking at the count of minor leaguers and 1 DL10, didn't add up.

Thanks.

Another note on Kela... on the radio they indicated apparently he isn't always available. He sometimes pulls himself from being available, and that was likely the reason he was made available at the deadline. I'll have to go back and look, but they said sometimes he isn't available for back-to-backs. If he has a little ache, he isn't available. They weren't sure if he was just afraid of injuring himself trying to push through, or just has a low threshold of pain.

Ag2012 said:

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They were yukking it up about not wanting Darvish but I bet they would kill for him now. They should have put together a package of top prospects for Yu and Claudio, instead they just crapped their pants and now their last hope is trading for a washed up Verlander.

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We were against Yu when the asking price was elite prospects. No one wanted to give up elite talent to a division rival for a rental arm. However, once the Gray trade went down and therefore the asking price for Yu tanked we were all for it. Yes when he was first shopped we were all saying 'No thanks', but most of us wanted Yu after the market was set low.

No one was giving a load of top prospects for a rental of Yu once the As gave away Gray like they did.

You all should be cursing Billy Beane.

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No one wanted to give up elite talent to a division rival for a rental arm.

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...because this year, you know, doesn't really matter. The Astros want to win NEXT year, when they'll be REALLY good.

free_mhayden said:

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Texas got what they could for Yu and improved their team for next season.

Dodgers got much better, Yankees got much better, Houston got Francisco Liriano.

You all should be cursing Jeff Lunhow.

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If Keuchel and McCullers can't throw strikes and continue pitching at a 5+ ERA pace, it isn't going to matter who we did or didn't get, we aren't winning the WS

Prospects are valuable, but when you're in a position like the Astros are, in my mind you pull the trigger if you feel the need to upgrade at a position of need and there is good talent out there. That was certainly out there with Gray and Darvish. Sure they're division rivals, but with the addition of either of those guys, they probably pass the Dodgers in terms of WS favorites.

Now the Dodgers with Darvish are way out in front, as easily the most loaded team in baseball top to bottom. The Astros haven't fully fallen off, but are certainly on their way towards falling maybe a tier below a team like the Dodgers, and mostly because they didn't upgrade when they could have at the deadline. Especially because Gray and Darvish ended up not going for back breaking prospect hauls.

Take it to the trash talking thread.

gougler08 said:

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free_mhayden said:

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Texas got what they could for Yu and improved their team for next season.

Dodgers got much better, Yankees got much better, Houston got Francisco Liriano.

You all should be cursing Jeff Lunhow.

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If Keuchel and McCullers can't throw strikes and continue pitching at a 5+ ERA pace, it isn't going to matter who we did or didn't get, we aren't winning the WS

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Which would certainly make me question my GM. If the idea is "well some of our guys are faltering and there's another team out there that looks better so no sense in trading our prospects to improve the club" then what exactly is the end goal? I feel like if Houston SP wasn't faltering the excuse then would have been "why go and trade prospects when we are already the best team?".

It's just baffling. This is the team that you tanked 4 years to construct. 2015 they were still a year away (and the playoff appearance was a bonus), 2016 they faltered... but 2017 was going to be the year and even the record was backing that up.

A frontline rental pitcher in Darvish was available for cheap.

A frontline multi-year control pitcher in Gray was available for cheap.

Houston was flush with prospects and needed a starting pitcher to reinforce the rotation.

What an absolutely perfect situation -- a buyer's market, you're needing to buy, and you're flush with cash (prospects)... And your GM goes out and renovates the basement with the Liriano addition.

free_mhayden said:

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Texas got what they could for Yu and improved their team for next season. - Agree. Just saying that if not for Beane taking such a weak deal for Gray I think Daniels gets much more for Yu.

Dodgers got much better, Yankees got much better, Houston got Francisco Liriano. - Agree

You all should be cursing Jeff Lunhow. - Agree. And there's been so much of this it's gotten extremely old. Most of us have moved on.

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free_mhayden said:

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gougler08 said:

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free_mhayden said:

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Texas got what they could for Yu and improved their team for next season.

Dodgers got much better, Yankees got much better, Houston got Francisco Liriano.

You all should be cursing Jeff Lunhow.

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If Keuchel and McCullers can't throw strikes and continue pitching at a 5+ ERA pace, it isn't going to matter who we did or didn't get, we aren't winning the WS

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Which would certainly make me question my GM. If the idea is "well some of our guys are faltering and there's another team out there that looks better so no sense in trading our prospects to improve the club" then what exactly is the end goal? I feel like if Houston SP wasn't faltering the excuse then would have been "why go and trade prospects when we are already the best team?".

It's just baffling. This is the team that you tanked 4 years to construct. 2015 they were still a year away (and the playoff appearance was a bonus), 2016 they faltered... but 2017 was going to be the year and even the record was backing that up.

A frontline rental pitcher in Darvish was available for cheap.

A frontline multi-year control pitcher in Gray was available for cheap.

Houston was flush with prospects and needed a starting pitcher to reinforce the rotation.

What an absolutely perfect situation -- a buyer's market, you're needing to buy, and you're flush with cash (prospects)... And your GM goes out and renovates the basement with the Liriano addition.

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I agree, they should have done more...but it is what it is now. Just saying that if our top 2 starters can't pitch worth a damn in the playoffs due to lingering injuries or whatever, it really isn't going to matter if we did get Gray or Darvish.

If we lost a series where McHugh/Morton/Fiers blows a game or two, then yes, that should be viewed at Luhnow's fault

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Just saying that if our top 2 starters can't pitch worth a damn in the playoffs due to lingering injuries or whatever, it really isn't going to matter if we did get Gray or Darvish.

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Yep. See Hamels /Darvish/Lewis last year.

Gallo since AS Break...

.272 BA
.333 OBP
.757 SLG
1.091 OPS

6/26 BB/K Ratio :/

His RBI/AB Ratio is 18/66 which is a great but maybe a little low considering his SLG is at .757. He needs to move up in the order. Push Nomar down and let JG go 3rd.

I would be afraid that the Ks would increase even more if he were hitting 3rd. I'd hit Gallo 5th or 6th.

Yeah, when a young guy is finding some success like this, I'd be very hesitant to move him much. He doesn't have a 3-hole toolset, so I wouldn't want to put him in there and have him thinking about needing to be one simply because the rest of my lineup sucks.

all three of those pitches to Beltre were outside

forgot the game had already started..... Freaking Gallo

Baseball prospecting is just a tough thing to do...

Almost all of us a few months ago would have said we would have preferred to give up Gallo than Brinson. Right now one 23 year old is sinking during his first taste of major league pitching, and the other 23 year old is potentially going to have a 3+ WAR year.

However many years ago Texas was given the option of Arias or Cano, and NY at the time preferred us to take the less-heralded/established Cano. We took Arias.

Joey Gallo. Grown man