*****Official Texas Rangers 2021 Season Thread*****

232,994 Views | 3491 Replies | Last: 2 yr ago by DeangeloVickers
Tastybrisket10
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This was forseeable
dave94
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Just checked the score, oh my. Worse than I even imagined
KT 90
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After 4 innings, it's 10-0 Dodgers. Yikes.

Do we have any position players that can pitch? Looks like a good night to do that for an inning or two to help save the pen.
AggieEP
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Soccer's popularity is largely driven from it's accessibility to the masses. Anyone on earth can find a patch of land and a ball and now you can play soccer. Kids play it from a young age and learn the beauty of what should be a boring game. They become lifelong fans.

In my opinion, select youth baseball is killing baseball here in the states. Kids play T-ball now but by U8, elite select teams are already forming and the buy in to be part of these teams is pretty steep in terms of time and money. What that means is that the number of kids who play baseball up through 8th grade is much smaller than it used to be. And kids who play baseball are the ones that grow up to appreciate it and watch it. These days if you aren't rich or very talented you are out of baseball by 3rd or 4th grade.

The fact that MLB thinks they can attract new adult fans by changing their on field product with gimmicks shows you how little they understand about the problem. They need to seriously reevaluate how they grow the game because outside of the Dominican and Latin America, we just aren't seeing kids grow up passionate about the game. If MLB wants fans, grow the game with kids.

Adults, such as Lefraud.... Not who I want MLB trying to cater to. Baseball fans as stated by another poster are still watching baseball. Making the game 15 to 30 minutes shorter won't affect my decision to watch or not watch the games.

I'll always remember the twins and Yankees playoff game from two years ago, Bob Costas complained about the length of the game the whole game. I kept thinking, why the eff are they paying this tool? Real baseball fans are here watching no matter what and are just getting annoyed by Costas. Meanwhile, any casual fans or newcomers who might be checking it out, are getting serenaded by Costas's neverending stream of negativity. I mean seriously baseball, at some point just embrace the beauty of the game we have instead of lusting to be something else.
KT 90
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KT 90 said:

After 4 innings, it's 10-0 Dodgers. Yikes.

Do we have any position players that can pitch? Looks like a good night to do that for an inning or two to help save the pen.



And..



_lefraud_
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Pretty spot on about youth baseball. Definitely agree that MLB should put on emphasis on making the game more accessible for kids.

I'll add that soccer matches last 90min, with a little break built it. Constant action with very minimal dead time. Like it or not, kids and people desire action, and baseball simply doesn't provide that like other sports.

I never claimed I wanted to see these changes take place, I watch because I love the game. Hell, I hate some of the things they've done, like putting a guy on 2B in extras....talk about a gimmick...but I also understand that a ton of people simply don't want to watch a 3 hour game with tons of plays/time with nothing happening.

I feel like today's generation wants to see action, and if you're not going to provide that, than make an out already, so that the next person can maybe provide that desired action...if that makes sense.
AggieEP
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To be honest, if we're getting gimmicky with defensive alignments I'd rather just have them reduce the number of on field players to eight and add an extra designated hitter to keep the lineup at 9 batters.

Let the teams align their players however they want, but in theory taking a fielder off the field should open up additional holes for the batters and will make for some really interesting strategy seeing how managers will deploy their defenses. Turning double plays all of a sudden gets harder, shifting becomes a real gamble because now you totally abandon the left side of the infield. Or maybe you decide to just go with a two man outfield. The truth is that all 9 players are very rarely needed on defense so this wouldn't be a radical change to the game, but we'd see some really interesting strategy and when the offense did find the hole in the defense, we'd see more triples and inside the park homeruns while the defense chases down the ball.

In any case the reduced defensive coverage of the field would definitely lead to more offense. In addition to the fact that you'd get an extra player on your team who is just a DH to run out there and mash regardless of defensive prowess.

I like this solution a bit better than some of the others because if you "ban" shifting all you're going to see is teams still placing their SS up the middle and pushing the limits of whatever rule they create. And then how do you handle situations where teams used to bring in an outfielder as an extra infielder in late inning situations? Where would they be legally positioned?
Proposition Joe
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Pace of play is the biggest issue facing the baseball viewer, and it's a difficult thing to fix without changing the strategic nature of the game. Some of the things they'd like to do, the players union won't get on board for, but ultimately the "non-action" time of the game has to be cut down if you're going to keep fans engaged.

Things that need to happen:

A pitch clock. With no one on base, pitcher has 30 seconds from the umpire's call of the previous pitch to release his next pitch, otherwise it is a ball.

No ball swap outs. Ball is scuffed? Deal with it between innings.

Batter deals with same pitch clock -- if he wants to adjust his batting gloves, look over for the signs, etc... great. Ball is coming within 30 seconds whether he is ready for it or not.

Mound visits are limited to 60 seconds from the time the manager calls for it. No more slow walks out to the mound and waiting for the umpire to slowly walk up to break up the meeting.

Bullpen swap outs are allowed 60 seconds before pitch clock starts. Your guy better be ready to go before you make the call. Otherwise he's going to start amassing ball counts.

Do the above and you'll shave 45 minutes off of your gametime, but more importantly you'll keep the action constant.


Will it save baseball viewership? No. Sporting viewership simply for "the game" has been declining across all major sports -- it's simply propped up in football and basketball by gambling interest supplanting it (fantasy football, vanilla sports wagering, etc...). Baseball is at a disadvantage because it's game simply isn't structured to be gambler-friendly.
Tastybrisket10
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Average poster age of this thread has to be like 55.
DallasAg 94
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TDub
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Wayyyyyy under
Trucker 96
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The pitcher might be the best hitter in the bottom 4 of tonight's lineup
Trucker 96
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Hmmm. Pretty ticky tacky there. Think they got ****ed
Chipotlemonger
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Yea that was a weird little play. Meh
Trucker 96
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This team that is losing a ****load of games gave away 1 run and nearly a 2nd by braindead, half-assed baseball. Not a good look.
Trucker 96
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Bush league spiking there. Looked like he went pretty far out of his way with that foot
jtstanley4621
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Wonder how many times in MLB history a team has lost 12-1 then turned around and won 12-1
DallasAg 94
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KT 90
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A not insignificant update from today's Scott Lucas email:

The Rangers announced 3B Josh Jung played his final Arizona game Saturday and is expected to be assigned to Frisco early this week. Frisco is off tomorrow and travels to Corpus on Tuesday.

Trucker 96
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Good news. Hopefully he'll rake. I worry about how spending basically 2 years not playing is going to impact his development. And I don't just mean delayed (which is obvious), but more permanent impacts
Quincey P. Morris
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Bauer's issue all stemmed from when he sliced his hand in the playoffs and they wouldn't allow his to use liquid bandage on his fingers because it was a foreign substance. He got irritated because everybody was using foreign substances and they said nothing about it. The Astros were, based on bumps in spin rate, at the forefront of doing it effectively.
wbt5845
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Just saw Odor hit a double, then have a brain aneurism and get caught halfway between 2nd and 3rd on a ground ball to the left hand side of the infield. Got pickled and was out.

It really was almost a metaphor for his whole career - great promising play interspersed with idiotic choices.
DallasAg 94
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jtstanley4621
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Ranger #007 said:

Bauer's issue all stemmed from when he sliced his hand in the playoffs and they wouldn't allow his to use liquid bandage on his fingers because it was a foreign substance. He got irritated because everybody was using foreign substances and they said nothing about it. The Astros were, based on bumps in spin rate, at the forefront of doing it effectively.

Astros were at the forefront of cheating. I'm sure their fans are being mature and taking it in stride
Grapesoda2525
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wbt5845 said:

Just saw Odor hit a double, then have a brain aneurism and get caught halfway between 2nd and 3rd on a ground ball to the left hand side of the infield. Got pickled and was out.

It really was almost a metaphor for his whole career - great promising play interspersed with idiotic choices.
At least he's doing it in another teams jersey now. I think most ranger fans probably didn't care for his style of play.
KT 90
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Maybe they might be interested in sending us a few prospects for Gibson?
KT 90
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And oddly enough, Glasnow is blaming his injury on sunscreen... or lack thereof



KT 90
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He's batting 1.000! (lets ignore the pickoff )


Trucker 96
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KT 90 said:




Maybe they might be interested in sending us a few prospects for Gibson?


As a side note, does this diagnosis ever NOT result in TJ surgery? Feels like they are always postponing the inevitable with this kind of plan
KT 90
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Fore Left! said:

KT 90 said:




Maybe they might be interested in sending us a few prospects for Gibson?


As a side note, does this diagnosis ever NOT result in TJ surgery? Feels like they are always postponing the inevitable with this kind of plan

Not that I recall, but there must be a few out there or else they wouldn't give it a shot. You are right, they might as well go ahead with the surgery and start the rehab process.

Is this the situation where they try to inject blood platelets (sp?) to help heal the partially torn ligament? Maybe they measure the severity of the tear (10% vs 40% vs 80%) of the ligament and decide to give it a try or not. But I can't dial up an example off the top of my head where it has been successful.
DallasAg 94
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DallasAg 94
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KT 90
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DallasAg 94 said:

KT 90 said:

He's batting 1.000! (lets ignore the pickoff )



So... Odor playing 3B?!

Or Altuve

KT 90
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DallasAg 94 said:

KT 90 said:

And oddly enough, Glasnow is blaming his injury on sunscreen... or lack thereof




So he admits he was using sunscreen to help aid his pitching... putting a foreign substance on the ball, and quit using it and got injured because he wasn't using it?!

Correct. There have actually been several pitchers complaining about this. Pretty Astro-esque with the "but everybody is doing it" complaints. Maybe this will be the fix for mlb to help deal with all the strikeouts and fewer balls being put into play issues.



DallasAg 94
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