Career? No.

Likely on a significant decline (not all that unlike Hamels)? Probably.

Man I'd feel better about the Rangers wild card chances if they had been better against the crappy A's this year (6 games left against the A's).

So Odor followed that grand slam up with a 12 pitch walk.

Really would be nice if Detroit could split this 4-game series with Minnesota.

Little girl got drilled in the head with a 100mph line drive off the bat of Todd Frazier. This is NSFW, but I tend to agree. Rangers already did this I believe

Awful.

jtstanley4621 said:

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So Odor followed that grand slam up with a 12 pitch walk.

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Yeah, clearly he is just f'n with everybody now so that we'll spend the entire off-season wondering if maybe he "gets it" now and will have a better approach next year.

More amazing: that a bullpen with Kela, Diekman, Bush, and Leclerc could be so bad.

Or...that a team whose only bullpen arm is a lefty who can't touch 90 is still in contention.

Is anyone on the Rangers roster still friends with Kinsler? Would be nice to shoot him a text and tell him happy new year ask him to do us a solid.

Maybe a little intra-division rivalry where Detroit doesn't want to see Minnesota in the playoffs?

MVP for this year........Elvis or Claudio?

Quote:

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we'll spend the entire off-season wondering if maybe he "gets it" now and will have a better approach next year.

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Odor is 23
Gallo is 23
Mazara is 22

For reference, Andrus is 29. Anybody remember what we thought about him 3 years ago? Now he's on his way to becoming our Derek Jeter/Craig Biggio/George Brett.

Yes, Odor has been mostly bad. But Napoli and Lucroy made things much worse.

I've brought this up before, but Mazara's complete lack of athletic ability is a huge problem. There's no way he catches that routine liner to Rua that ended the game last night. He did make a nice throw on the double, but he simply...can't...run. Maybe he can turn into the next Edgar Martinez.

94chem said:

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Quote:

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we'll spend the entire off-season wondering if maybe he "gets it" now and will have a better approach next year.

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Odor is 23
Gallo is 23
Mazara is 22

For reference, Andrus is 29. Anybody remember what we thought about him 3 years ago? Now he's on his way to becoming our Derek Jeter/Craig Biggio/George Brett.

Yes, Odor has been mostly bad. But Napoli and Lucroy made things much worse.

I've brought this up before, but Mazara's complete lack of athletic ability is a huge problem. There's no way he catches that routine liner to Rua that ended the game last night. He did make a nice throw on the double, but he simply...can't...run. Maybe he can turn into the next Edgar Martinez.

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Mazara and Gallo have shown signs of improvement (Gallo significantly so).

Odor has regressed to be one of the worst everyday players in the big leagues.

Part of Andrus issue when he was younger is that Washington wanted him to be a leadoff-Delino-Deshields type with his bunting.

It's just insane to me that Odor has a worse batting average than Joey Gallo, and Odor has been in the MLB for multiple seasons before this.

I'm really hoping that he settles in like Elvis did. I think you can allow yourself optimism that he'll be able to make adjustments, but we shall see. Maybe he can have a good end of the season streak and use that as a starting point for next year.

Another thing: Drew Robinson is in a K-filled slump. I feel like Middlebrooks should start over him at 3rd. I guess it would depend on who the better defender is, but I feel like Middlebrooks has shown more at 3B than Robinson, plus it would give us a right handed bat in the lineup, which I feel like we could use.

The Odor situation is interesting because it harks back to the concept of "do you alter approach to try and make him a better hitter and risk losing his homerun power?"

If that's the only thing he does well, you don't want him suddenly not doing that either.

I chatted with a few of the guys who follow the lower level scouting pretty well and was surprised to find that the analytics available to them was far inferior than what is available on the major league level (though it has gotten better the last few years).

I asked that in regards to is it possible that Odor simply does not have the eye for off-speed stuff and this isn't something that is likely to improve and the response I got was that it was very possible.

I used to have a lot more faith in the due diligence that these teams did before giving out big contracts, but after the Prince fiasco I'm not really sure anymore.

There was a press conference for the new ballpark today. Sandler tweeted a lot of renderings and stuff. I'll post later

It looks a bit big and overbuilt with a bunch of seats in the upper corners. And that row of upper LF seats. I like retaining the RF HR porch concept. I guess maybe the upper LF corner section doesn't extend quite as far down as the current stadium.

Record through the final 11 games to give us a decent chance?

I'd say 9-2 and we'll be close

Quote:

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I'd say 9-2 and we'll be close

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Agree, and I know managers would never do this, but I'd Johnny Fullstaff a couple of games, e.g. start Bush and see if he can:
a) Go 3 innings
b) Get his head straight

Looks like they'll get 7 starts out of Hamels, Perez, and Cashner. Should be a good pitching matchup today.

Quote:

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I asked that in regards to is it possible that Odor simply does not have the eye for off-speed stuff and this isn't something that is likely to improve and the response I got was that it was very possible.

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We've seen Gallo take numerous breaking pitches that dropped out of the zone. Odor never lets one go. If he could only become as patient and selective as Carlos Gomez (just wanted to see myself type that once to see how stupid it looked)...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Rangers Communications
Thursday, September 21, 2017 817.273.5203

CAPITAL ONE MAKES TICKETS AVAILABLE TO ARLINGTON RESIDENTS TO
CELEBRATE GLOBE LIFE FIELD GROUNDBREAKING
Residents of Arlington can receive up to four free tickets
for Rangers-A's game on Thursday, September 28

Arlington, Texas With the official groundbreaking for the new Globe Life Field just a week away,
Capital One wants to help Arlington residents celebrate this historic milestone.

Capital One is offering all Arlington residents up to four (4) free tickets for the Rangers game with the
Oakland A's on Thursday, September 28 at 7:05 p.m. The groundbreaking for Globe Life Field takes
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More information is available at texasrangers.com/Arlington.

RANGERS

That's a pretty cool deal

FOX Sports Southwest and the Texas Rangers Baseball Foundation announced today they will host a special benefit on September 26 during the Houston Astros vs. Texas Rangers telecast on FOX Sports Southwest to raise funds to support victims of Hurricane Harvey.

The hurricane relief benefit will feature a live online auction during the telecast where fans will have an opportunity to bid on several one-of-a-kind sports and entertainment packages provided by FOX Sports Southwest and participating sponsors.

Cash donations also will be accepted.

Net proceeds will benefit the American Red Cross disaster relief efforts following Hurricane Harvey.

Fans Can Bid on Sports and Entertainment Packages, Make Cash Donations

During Live Auction on September 26 Astros vs. Rangers Telecast

"We're delighted to join forces with the Texas Rangers Baseball Foundation to help those affected by the devastating hurricane during this difficult time of need," said FOX Sports Southwest Senior Vice President/General Manager Steve Simpson. "The outpouring of support since the storms has been encouraging, but there still so much that needs to be done. We hope that through this benefit we'll be able to provide a vehicle for fans who want to help communities in their recovery and rebuilding efforts.

"We're appreciative of our FOX business partners, team partners and sponsors for their generosity donating remarkable packages that will help raise funds to aide those affected by the devastating hurricane."

Packages to be bid on during the live telecast will include unique entertainment packages from 21st Century FOX business entities and game day experiences from Dallas-Fort Worth professional sports teams. A list of packages will be announced prior to the auction.

Bidding on VIP packages and cash donations will be accepted during the September 26 Rangers game broadcast. RANGERS LIVE host John Rhadigan will provide updates throughout the game from the Rebecca Creek Saloon at Globe Life Park in Arlington. Fans can link to the online auction by visiting www.FoxSportsSouthwest.com

but we apparently don't care enough about hurricane victims

Huell Babineaux said:

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Record through the final 11 games to give us a decent chance?

I'd say 9-2 and we'll be close

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10-1 and we'll take it.

9-2 and we have a coin-flip chance.

8-3 and it's still possible, though would be tough and would likely require tiebreaker game.

Before we just write Odor off, let's look at some numbers...

Odor was born Feb 3, '94 (23-230d)
Gallo was born Nov 19, '93 (23-306d)

So, Gallo is 76 days older than Odor.

Odor: 535 G, 1995 AB, .249 BA, 88 HR, .288 OBP
Gallo: 187 G, 553 AB, .201 BA, 45 HR, .321 OBP

The Rangers have gotten far more out of Odor than they have Gallo.

I still believe Odor is trying too hard to earn his new contract and will be fine. It wouldn't surprise me if Napoli going away improves Odor's approach.

Having said that. Gallo was on the radio, the other day. He said some really cool things.

He mentioned that Beltre is really the voice to the young players. He said when you are coming up, you tend to baby injuries. He said when you see Beltre play hurt, you realize you can actually play through injuries. He said it wasn't uncommon to take a day off here and there, if you had a bump or bruise. He said "Beltre has shown us, you can't get to 3,000 hits unless you are willing to play through injuries."

When asked about position next year... "Obviously I won't be playing 3rd if AB is back." He said the obvious that he would prefer to play a single position. The tone and things he said were basically about his willingness to play wherever he was asked. I don't think he quite knows if he'll be in OF or 1B, next year. I suppose that will be revealed during exit interviews.

He also said that he had grown to accept that he struck out too much, because that was all he heard. He also said he doesn't really follow social media because it isn't productive mentally. Said some other good things as well.

Detroit sucks ass. We'll be lucky if they're able to take one from the Twins.

Just gotta keep winning. That's the only thing they can do. The rest will sort itself out. I hope Hamels isn't bad and Paxton doesn't quite the bats. Seattle is so annoying

Graphic:

Career HRs by 2B:
Kent: 377 (351 HRs as a 2B)
Hornsby: 301
Cano: 299
Biggio: 291 <wasn't in the graphic> Only 226 as a 2B
*Odor: 88

Kent: 17 Seasons, debut @24. By age 30 season, he had 130 HRs.
Odor: 4 Seasons, debut @20. At age 23 season, he has 88 HRs.

He needs 42 HRs in the next 6 seasons, to be on pace with Kent.

Odor has 9, 16, 33 & 30 HRs in his 4 seasons.

Say, he averages 30 HRs/Season, he'll reach Kent at 33.

And he got two awesome horses.

Ray Davis is giving him a couple miniature donkeys too

Tied with the Angels. I've gotta say, it is pretty damn impressive that we are where we are despite the bullpen woes, injuries, and losing Darvish. The bad news is the Twins do not have a challenging remaining schedule, but I think this race is far from over.

Dont they have 3 with the Indians? I thought the graphic said that.

Yes they do.

Got to take care of business against the A's for once.

Too bad we don't have a series against Minnesota remaining. Seems like every other day they're playing the Tigers or white sox.