Do we have a British commentators?

I like the Facebook feed. And it's Ryan Roland-Smith, who's Australian.

Jesus Gallo can crank the **** outta a baseball.

free_mhayden said:

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Texas already with a 5-spot.

Post all-star break Texas offense leads the league in runs scored... by a lot.

Good to see the young guys producing, gives us a trade chip or two for some SP and allows that free agent $$$ to be spent on it exclusively.

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All while Mazara has been sidelined. Now I doubt Mazara will be dangled this offseason like Gallo/Profar/Calhoun (should), but I definitely wouldn't oppose the idea as I just don't know how all 4 of those guys can fit into a lineup when healthy, unless of course Choo is moved (still hoping the Yankees get desperate with Judge out).

We have got some serious young offense.

Freaking Gallo got jammed and accidently hits a home run into the triangle. Just damn.

Speaking of, when does Maz come back?

Serious young offense.

Serious money to spend.

Serious holes at the top of the rotation.


Not a great spot to be, but certainly not a bad one.

free_mhayden said:

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Serious young offense.

Serious money to spend.

Serious holes at the top of the rotation.


Not a great spot to be, but certainly not a bad one.

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Getting Kershaw in the offseason would be big for the direction of this team. We get Kershaw and suddenly Texas may become attractive to other FA pitchers. Really could use a solid RH bat as well.

I'm not opposed to Gallo in RF. He seems to be doing well there. Thoughts?

Calhoun - DeShields - Gallo
Profar - Andrus - Odor - Guzman

C: IKF/Chirinos

DH: Choo/Mazara

Offer up Mazara or Choo.

I wouldn't be opposed to signing Bryce Harper to play CF instead of DD. Give him 1-2 years there, then move him to LF and let Leody Taveras (19-A+ DEWDs), Bubba Thompson (20-A Hic) and Julio Martinez (22-ASh Spo) fight for CF.

That should be pretty solid for a few years.

gigem1223 said:

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free_mhayden said:

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Serious young offense.

Serious money to spend.

Serious holes at the top of the rotation.


Not a great spot to be, but certainly not a bad one.

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Getting Kershaw in the offseason would be big for the direction of this team. We get Kershaw and suddenly Texas may become attractive to other FA pitchers. Really could use a solid RH bat as well.

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I like the idea of Kershaw, but he will be 31 and has been injured each of the past 3 years. At a minimum, he has 2 years at ~$35M/yr, so that is a start. He will likely want a 5 yr deal. Probably doesn't take less than $35M for each of those 3 years.

So, 5 yr @ $35M/yr - $175M? You are paying for maybe 3 years of pitching, IMO.

gigem1223 said:

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free_mhayden said:

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Serious young offense.

Serious money to spend.

Serious holes at the top of the rotation.


Not a great spot to be, but certainly not a bad one.

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Getting Kershaw in the offseason would be big for the direction of this team. We get Kershaw and suddenly Texas may become attractive to other FA pitchers. Really could use a solid RH bat as well.

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I would have loved Kershaw 18 months ago. Would have paid any amount he asked. He's been dinged up quite a but since this time last year though. Is that really a pitcher that you throw everything at? I'd be kind of scared to do that right now.

He is 5-5 with 16 starts this year. He started 27 games last year and 21 the year before. His overall record of 149-69 with a career ERA of 2.37 and WHIP of 1.00 are intriguing. He's a hometown talent that we might be able to sign for less. I would be surprised if he is still pitching in 6 years though.

I don't think we have any aces in the pipeline for next year but maybe we can trade some good offensive talent for a low end #1 next year and continue to rebuild looking forward to 2020.

Not just any old injury either. He's got a disk problem in his back. That is an injury he'll have to deal with for the rest of his career. His #'s are still absolutely great, but there are some subtle signs of slippage in WHIP (highest in 8 years), K/9 (lowest in 5 years), HR/9 (2017-18 is twice the rate of the rest of his career), ERA (highest in 8 years), etc. How many starts can he give over 4-5 years? How long before subtle slippage turns into big slippage? All questions that I would have a lot of concerns about. That back is the biggest concern.

We aren't signing Kershaw. His injury history alone would be make hesitant to give him a 5 year deal at $35 mil or however much he is going to get. We aren't contending in 2019 anyway, so we aren't paying crazy money to get a #1 when we aren't expected to content anyway (see a page or two back on this thread for comments from Evan Grant on this).

We need to look at some trade possibilities for younger starting pitchers. I know Archer got traded from Tampa to Pittsburgh, but maybe there is another Archer-type out there. The Braves have several good starters, maybe we can throw a package together to get one of them. Tampa always has good young starters.

Package up Mazara and Profar? Or add in one of Gallo or Guzman (the one that stays can play 1B for us). We aren't getting anything of value for Choo, and recent articles have mentioned him taking ownership of the "mentor" role to the younger players, so maybe we just ride out his bad contract. But we have an abundance of LH bats, have to move somebody, and hopefully it nets a starting pitcher in return.


**And if Elvis opts out, obviously we'd hang onto Profar. But I think Elvis stays.

DannyDuberstein said:

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Not just any old injury either. He's got a disk problem in his back. That is an injury he'll have to deal with for the rest of his career. His #'s are still absolutely great, but there are some subtle signs of slippage in WHIP (highest in 8 years), K/9 (lowest in 5 years), HR/9 (2017-18 is twice the rate of the rest of his career), ERA (highest in 8 years), etc. How many starts can he give over 4-5 years? How long before subtle slippage turns into big slippage? All questions that I would have a lot of concerns about. That back is the biggest concern.

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Good points here. Adds to why we aren't signing Kershaw, doesn't matter that he's from Dallas. Can't take a chance on a potential albatross contract with a guy with a bad back, especially when we aren't expected to contend for a couple seasons at least.

I think Elvis stays too. His injury this year was the best thing that could've happened to use on that front. Doubtful it pays to opt out after missing so much of the season.

Didn't get to watch the game today but everyone in the lineup got at least one hit and as a poster above stated, Gallo is finally back above .200. Outstanding!

This season is a bummer but the improvement shown is promising.

What's the deal with this Facebook live broadcast? MLB.TV will only give me the option to watch the Facebook feed. I don't want Facebook on my roku.

I assume the game is still on fox sports back in Texas.

TV Casualty said:

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What's the deal with this Facebook live broadcast? MLB.TV will only give me the option to watch the Facebook feed. I don't want Facebook on my roku.

I assume the game is still on fox sports back in Texas.

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Facebook paid for exclusivity on these broadcasts.

TV Casualty said:

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What's the deal with this Facebook live broadcast? MLB.TV will only give me the option to watch the Facebook feed. I don't want Facebook on my roku.

I assume the game is still on fox sports back in Texas.

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You would assume wrong.

I hate facebook, but (and because) they just intrude...

No, Facebook exclusive.

Can we hop in a time machine and trade Gallo and Mazara for Chris Sale?

The offense is playing well enough that you really have to start discussing the logjam we're going to have and who has to go.

Sure Andrus could opt-out and Beltre could retire and Guzman could use a little more AAA seasoning, but I'd say the first two would certainly seem unlikely right at the present time.


Odor - 2B
Andrus - SS
Profar - 2B/3B/OF
Gallo - 1B/3B/OF
Beltre - 3B/DH
Guzman - 1B
Chirinos- C
Kiner-Falefa - C/UT
Mazara - RF/DH
Choo - RF/DH
DeShields - OF
Calhoun - LF/DH


So at best with just looking at overall production and not righty/lefty matchups:

C - Chirinos
1B - Gallo
2B - Odor
SS - Andrus
3B - Beltre
LF - Calhoun
CF - DeShields
RF - Mazara
DH - Choo
UTL1 - Profar (can likely get in almost every game keeping guys fresh)
C2/UTL2 - Kiner-Falefa
AAA: Guzman


With potentially packaging Choo (and $$$) or Profar for pitching.

IKF is batting .333 in the 15 games he has caught

_lefraud_ said:

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Can we hop in a time machine and trade Gallo and Mazara for Chris Sale?

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So we could finish 18 games out in 2017 and 2018 instead of 23?

Right now that deal would leave us with Chris Sale for 2019 or Gallo for 2019-2022 and Mazara for 2019-2021.

From an overall player value yeah that trade would have been good. But for the value to team of 2017-2022 that would have been terrible.

Well in my time machine I would make sure Sam Dyson never made it to Arlington in 2017.

But seriously, with a rotation of Sale, Darvish and Hamels, surely 2017 could have gone different. Of course it's all captain hindsight, but I never liked the idea of Mazara being "untouchable" .

Interesting discussion on the fan with Sandler about Machado. If we're not gonna throw stupid money at Kershaw, how about Machado? Would bring a huge need with a RH bat in the middle of the line up. I would think you move Andrus to 3rd if this happens. This is also gonna hinge on what Beltre decides to do next season as well.

gigem1223 said:

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Interesting discussion on the fan with Sandler about Machado. If we're not gonna throw stupid money at Kershaw, how about Machado? Would bring a huge need with a RH bat in the middle of the line up. I would think you move Andrus to 3rd if this happens. This is also gonna hinge on what Beltre decides to do next season as well.

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Why would you move a natural SS to 3B, in order to move a 3B to play SS?

I've always seen Machado as a 3B, who only likes SS because his productivity would get him more money as a SS.

I could be wrong... just my thought.

Machado made it clear he wanted to play SS this offseason with the Orioles. He believes it his natural position. Would assume whoever signs him will have to play him there.

free_mhayden said:

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The offense is playing well enough that you really have to start discussing the logjam we're going to have and who has to go.

Sure Andrus could opt-out and Beltre could retire and Guzman could use a little more AAA seasoning, but I'd say the first two would certainly seem unlikely right at the present time.


Odor - 2B
Andrus - SS
Profar - 2B/3B/OF
Gallo - 1B/3B/OF
Beltre - 3B/DH
Guzman - 1B
Chirinos- C
Kiner-Falefa - C/UT
Mazara - RF/DH
Choo - RF/DH
DeShields - OF
Calhoun - LF/DH


So at best with just looking at overall production and not righty/lefty matchups:

C - Chirinos
1B - Gallo
2B - Odor
SS - Andrus
3B - Beltre
LF - Calhoun
CF - DeShields
RF - Mazara
DH - Choo
UTL1 - Profar (can likely get in almost every game keeping guys fresh)
C2/UTL2 - Kiner-Falefa
AAA: Guzman


With potentially packaging Choo (and $$$) or Profar for pitching.

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My wish list lineup for 2019

C - Chirinos
1B - Guzman
2B - Odor
SS - Machado
3B - Andrus
LF - Calhoun
CF - Gallo (Taveras 2020)
RF - Mazara
DH - Choo
UTL - IKF

Trade Profar in offseason for pitching.

I don't see anyway around not having a bad defense in the outfield. I think Gallo is capable of handling CF for a season, certainly believe him in CF brings more value to the team than throwing DD out there as your everyday.

_lefraud_ said:

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Well in my time machine I would make sure Sam Dyson never made it to Arlington in 2017.

But seriously, with a rotation of Sale, Darvish and Hamels, surely 2017 could have gone different. Of course it's all captain hindsight, but I never liked the idea of Mazara being "untouchable" .

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I definitely agree with you. Like I said based on production alone it would have been a great trade for Texas -- but I think that is part of what goes into the long-term front office planning. I think we all knew Houston was going to be an absolute beast in 2017, and while Sale would have helped our chances the loss of Mazara and Gallo would have left two more holes in the offense to fill.

It just didn't look like the right time to trade away top prospects for an ace, and seeing what we've seen now I think we should be glad we didn't.

And yeah I agree a rotation of Sale/Darvish/Hamels would have been pretty stout, but it wasn't like Houston squeaked by in the division -- they were stacked because of the tankjob. And I think we all remember how Darvish/Hamels did in a short-series just 1 year prior.

free_mhayden said:

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I'd like Machado but that just seems like a Rangers-of-old type move... Offense is fine, pitching sucks... so lets go get more offense.

Free agent crop sucks.

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Yea....so because our offense is good and we need pitching let's just not even try to get better on offense? No offense, but that makes zero sense. Pitching is coming in a few years. May as well stack a young line up for when they get here.

Sure this offense has been great since the AS but let's give it a season before we crown them good enough to compete. Once Beltre retires, they have no RH bats with pop and only 2 RH bats that can hit for a decent avg. It probably won't happen, but Machado absolutely makes sense for this team. Especially considering the needs, financial situation and new stadium coming.

I like Machado, particularly his age. I think he'll be steady as a rock for most if not all of the contract he signs. I'd be interested in signing him, then looking to flip young, controllable bats for young, controllable arms.

With a FA pitcher, you are buying about 100 starts. Then likely wasting a big chunk of them in 2019.

And let's not forget that this is a team that after 2010 let Cliff Lee walk but signed Beltre - a move that paid for the long haul. Lee started 115 more games before his career ended.

Then after 2019, which gives me a year to see how my young pitchers are coming along, maybe I go spring big for a FA pitcher. Then I'm at least getting those 100 starts aligned with when I think I'll be better. So in that scenario, 2 big FA's acquired over 2 years - one lineup and one SP, the rest of the team built on youth, and the FA moves better aligned to peak with my youth.