Annoying, but I really don't want this team in position to give the front office stupid ideas of being buyers at the deadline so there's my silver lining.

What's the deal with the overrated chant? I know Seattle's on a win streak, but that seems a stretch for an overrated chant.

Maybe that play by Culberson is the shot in the arm this teams needs going into the bottom of the 9th

I feel like Lowe deserves a little more credit on that one. I thought for sure he'd come off the bag.

ANOTHER one run loss. I think that's like 20 now. Jesus Christ

Edit: 5-20 in one run games

It's like the antithesis of the 2016(?) team that had a stupid record the other way in one run games.

Read an article once that said, over time, one run games in MLB are a coin flip - teams regress to 50/50. So if a team wins lots of one run games one season, they will lose more the next. Who knows.

Frankly, as was stated above, I prefer our ownership not be tempted to "go for it" this year. Progress is measured in nailing down our starting rotation and seeing young players develop. Unfortunately, the only young starting pitcher to step up is Dunning. Burke has been great out of the pen. Sure would like to see one more young guy step up.

I guess we're getting a bullpen special tonight?

wbt5845 said:

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Read an article once that said, over time, one run games in MLB are a coin flip - teams regress to 50/50. So if a team wins lots of one run games one season, they will lose more the next. Who knows.

Frankly, as was stated above, I prefer our ownership not be tempted to "go for it" this year. Progress is measured in nailing down our starting rotation and seeing young players develop. Unfortunately, the only young starting pitcher to step up is Dunning. Burke has been great out of the pen. Sure would like to see one more young guy step up.

I guess we're getting a bullpen special tonight?

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i dont follow other teams close enough to know if other teams have a better track record.... but the development part seems to have been lacking with the Rangers the last large handful of years.

Most good young arms never make it. That's why the free agent market for solid starting pitchers is so insane.

Let's look at our division.

Angels
FA - Ohtani, Syndergaard
Grown - Sandoval, Suarez, Detrmers

A's
Trade - Montas, Irvin
Grown - Blackburn, Kaprielian

Mariners
FA - Ray
Trade - Gonzales, Flexen
Grown - Gilbert

Astrso
FA - Verlander, Ororizzi
Grown - Urquidy, Garcia, Javier, Valdez

You now see why the Astros are in first place.

wbt5845 said:

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Most good young arms never make it. That's why the free agent market for solid starting pitchers is so insane.

Let's look at our division.

Angels
FA - Ohtani, Syndergaard
Grown - Sandoval, Suarez, Detrmers

A's
Trade - Montas, Irvin
Grown - Blackburn, Kaprielian

Mariners
FA - Ray
Trade - Gonzales, Flexen
Grown - Gilbert

Astrso
FA - Verlander, Ororizzi
Grown - Urquidy, Garcia, Javier, Valdez

You now see why the Astros are in first place.

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pitching matters..... but so does draft and develop rest of team.... 0 on infield ( Im counting Culberson @ 3rd base til someone has played more there than him)
outfield basically a 0 also.... Taveras could count but lets see more than 20/25 games. Rangers just cant seem to draft and develop.... maybe they are MLB average in this department, I just dont follow other teams.

Quincey P. Morris said:

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It's like the antithesis of the 2016(?) team that had a stupid record the other way in one run games.

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This year is balancing that year out for sure. If the team can flip those numbers or even go .500 in those numbers in the second half it will be a fun close to the season.

We have definitely struggled these past few years at developing talent to put it mildly.

Developing pitching is the most important thing to sustaining long term success. Right now I think we have the best shot at doing that, which is why I am VERY much in the "do not trade for anybody" camp unless we can get rid of some of the guys we have in the middle infield logjam. Keep the young pitchers we have at all costs

Agreed. We need to somehow get our pitching talent to the majors. I would not mind seeing an influx of young arms into our minor leagues to boost the competition and let the best rise.

Maybe controversial but I would absolutely trade Perez if given the chance to get more young pitchers on the farm. Can never have too many of those plus I think Perez's success is more of an outlier this year than a sign he's turned a corner.

Could see a scenario where he signs multiple years here or somewhere else and then deviates back to what he was for the majority of his career

There's no way we trade Perez and get anything significant in return. At least not anyone that we would see in the next 2-3 years. It's more likely we sign him to an extension

It's not so much a controversial opinion as it is one that is extremely unlikely to happen. Primarily because Perez is on a 1 yr contract (no control going forward), so he would be nothing but a rental. That's not going to give you much in return....you wouldn't get a handful of prospects, you would maybe get one halfway decent one. So I don't see how trading him would make any sense. You're not going to get a high impact return - think Dane Dunning for Lance Lynn. That's pretty much the best you'd get for him.

Martin Perez has indicated he feels at home in Arlington. Why we haven't locked him up is bizarre.

When you say revert back... He has a 4.38 career era in 146 GS playing for Texas. Playing in a hitter friend park.

Even if he is a 4.00 ERA SP and an innings eater, you take that reliability.

Perez' mindset is totally different than I've seen him before. I really do think he has turned a corner. Last night is a prime example. Previously when he was off he just started grooving stuff over the plate and getting shelled. But he realizes he has to fight and keep putting competitive pitches out there.

Part of it is just statistics. You take a huge number and ride that.

The Astros 4 SP contributors were all Int'l signings from 2015 and 2017.

The Rangers problem is that JD just doesn't seem to understand pitching.

Four Blunders he has made:

• 1) Drafting too many HS SPs in the early rounds.
• 2) Telling Cole Hamels that the Rangers are looking at going with a 6 man rotation and demonstrating that he doesn't know pitching.
• 3) Hiring Brocail as a Pitching Coach.
• 4) Deciding to have HS pitchers drafted in June not pitch until the next Spring.

You just can't afford to repeatedly miss on 1st Rounders.

Your highest probability to add SP is college players. HS may project to a higher ceiling but are less likely to reach it.

In 2015, we took a known broken Dillon Tate (UCSB) whom the Rangers thought projected as a ToTR guy with a floor of Closer. He became anything but a SP. That same year, we took a broken Michael Matuella (Duke) in the 3rd Round (3.78). This was a guy who many believed was a Top 10 pick who was a risk because he was injured. Those were our 1st two SPs. Both known to be broken with injury.

If they recovered, we'd have two SPs. Even if they had TJ and it took a few years, that was ok because we didn't need them quickly.

In 2014, we signed (1.30) Luis Ortiz out of HS.
In 2016, we signed Cole Ragans (1.30) and Alex Speas (2.63) with our 1st two picks. Both out of HS.
In 2017, we signed Hans Crouse (2.66) and Ryan Dease (4.134) as our two highest pitchers. Both out of HS.
In 2018, we signed Cole Winn (1.15) and Owen White (2.55) with our 1st two picks. Both out of HS.

Seven SPs out of HS and our highest pitchers in those drafts and we've got nothing to show for it.

It took JD until 2019 to figure out what he was doing. Took our 1st HS P in the 7th Round. Brandon Sproat who did NOT sign. We did take Ryan Garcia (2.50- UCLA) and Justin Slaten (3.86- UNM) as our 1st two Ps.

I believe 2018 was the year when JD implemented the "HS pitchers won't pitch after being drafted so we can build their core so they don't have to have TJ." And that didn't work.


JD has and always was a pretty average and a follower of gimmicks. Toying with "Openers" was another gimmick he has tinkered with.

AgBQ-00 said:

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Perez' mindset is totally different than I've seen him before. I really do think he has turned a corner. Last night is a prime example. Previously when he was off he just started grooving stuff over the plate and getting shelled. But he realizes he has to fight and keep putting competitive pitches out there.

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Don't forget the mental games of sign stealing and how it affect a SP.

Perez went to Brocail and said he thought he was tipping his pitches. Brocail said, "Maybe you just need to throw better pitches." Pretty crappy approach by your pitching coach.

I don't know much about our current pitching coach, but he seems to have a little better results.

My wife bought tickets for the game tonight, which also happens to be A&M Night - getting one of these badass hats, lol. Hopefully, the new place exceeds my expectations.

Baseball is a study in the law of averages and performance returning to mean. Teams will be expecting that with Perez in H2. They are also probably chalking some of it up to being back "home". I wouldn't expect much for him and instead would look to work out extending him another 1-2 years at a decent rate. Kind of a "we seem good for each other,
let's work out something fair" deal

Don't get me wrong, I understand the lack of control on him hurt the return for sure. If he is actually this guy locking him up for a few more years would be fine by me. I just want the rotation to slowly but surely upgrade with young arms. That is our only path to success

GrapevineAg said:

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My wife bought tickets for the game tonight, which also happens to be A&M Night - getting one of these badass hats, lol. Hopefully, the new place exceeds my expectations.

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Hope you bought tickets through the University Days link, not just regular tickets!

Yeah, she made sure she got the vouchers or whatever.

Mock drafts seem to be all over the place with the Rangers this year. At #3 I've seen Holliday, Green and Paradas mostly. From what I've read, seems Green may have the highest ceiling but has some swing and miss, Holliday has rocketed up the draft boards this year and is the son of Matt Holliday. Paradas seems like the safest pick as he's the most established and a + bat. Anyone have any more insight or opinions?

The unknown is what the Orioles will do at #1. There's a lot of rumors that they'll pick Termarr Johnson, because they could sign him under slot and use the money on their other draft picks....which would be a very Orioles thing to do.

If they do that, one of either Jones or Holliday will be available, and I would imagine you would take whichever one that wound up being. If the O's pick Jones or Holliday, the Diamondbacks will take the other. Then you get into a lot of question marks. Do you go with a college bat like Brooks Lee or Kevin Parada, or go with Green?

I don't think any of those players are sure-fire, can't-miss prospects, but what do I know. I don't like all the swing & miss in Jones and Green - a lot of scouts say that players who K a lot don't typically change.

Here's my total off-the-wall wild card. The Rangers shock the world and pick Kumar Rocker at 3.

(that'll never happen, but after all this is the team that took Donald Harris and Dillon Tate in the 1st.)

I think Elijah Green (OF-IMG) was slated as a Top-3. He seems to be slipping. His father, IIRC, was an NFL MLB. I had him as a potential Rangers pick. He graduated HS early and has played 2 yrs of JuCo at one of the hot JuCos for Dev. He is listed as IMG, but he has played JuCo, IIRC.

Druw Jones (OF-HS) is Andrew Jones son. He is basically the #1. If the Orioles don't take him it is presumed they plan to take another higher player with their 2nd pick and have an agreement in place for that other person to sign for less.

Holliday (SS-HS) has jumped up some.

Parada (C-GaTech) has jumped the most I've seen. He does seem like a sure thing and seems like the safe pick.

Obviously Jones and Holliday are my Top 2 and I think they will go 1-2 or 2-1.

Elijah Green seems like they are trying to circumvent the process and rush him along. Maybe he is there, but I could see him by a Kyler Murray type where Daddy is all in the business.

Justin Crawford is Carl's son. I believe he is another Top 10.

I think 7 of the Top 10 or so are the sons of Pro Athletes.

Cam Collier is Lou Collier's

Our first pick will be Holliday, Jones, or Green

Quote:

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I think Elijah Green (OF-IMG) was slated as a Top-3. He seems to be slipping. His father, IIRC, was an NFL MLB. I had him as a potential Rangers pick. He graduated HS early and has played 2 yrs of JuCo at one of the hot JuCos for Dev. He is listed as IMG, but he has played JuCo, IIRC.

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At the time of the draft, Green will be 18 yrs 7 months. Even graduating early, I don't see how he could've played two years of JC ball. Not sure that's accurate.

It feels like I'm at the mall. There's a pretty good amount of natural light in here though.

They probably had the safety laser on that garage door out of alignment. Darn thing won't shut

Druw Jones had a 1.702 OPS his senior year LOL. I don't get the love for Green. Way too many K's at that level. That just screams wash-out to me.