WestTexasAg said:

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What do you guys think the ceiling is for Duran? He has been fairly impressive so far. Could he end up being the answer at 3B if Jung is not?

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Not sure what his ceiling is, but I take the fact Jung is spending time at 1B as an indication Smith or Duran are likely leading for 2023.

DannyDuberstein said:

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The new park is like an ugly girlfriend with giant fake tits. She's ugly to look at and just seems unnatural, but once you get inside, you're gonna have a good time

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I'm gunna take your word for that.

I wouldn't read to much into Jung being at 1st this season. Lets him get on the field defensively without having to make all the throws he has to at 3rd. Probably more for his protection than it is an indicator of his future as a 3rd baseman.

DannyDuberstein said:

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The new park is like an ugly girlfriend with giant fake tits. She's ugly to look at and just seems unnatural, but once you get inside, you're gonna have a good time

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I think 3rd is Jung's to lose. They will give him every chance to play and be that guy. Jung is a much better and more consistent hitter than Duran, although Duran brings more athleticism to the game. I personally think Duran needs to be playing LF everyday at AAA right now. We know he can play a good 3rd base. But if Jung is who we hope he is, then he has no place in the infield. Get him outfield reps because he's athletic enough to play it. His hitting and in particular his zone control, strikeouts/walks needs to improve in my personal opinion, but there's something there.

rbtexan said:

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Matter of opinion I guess. I don't find it sterile at all. Also didn't have any issues with the sight lines when I went, they were actually great where I was.

The old Arlington Stadium was an absolute dump. The Ballpark was a good park, but the heat made it unbearable most of the time. I went to the Sunday afternoon game the year they hosted the All-Star game in Arlington. My seat was on the 3rd base line, I think gametime was about 1pm or so. Now I'm one of those people who stays for the whole game....I do it at Kyle Field, I do it when I go to see the Rangers. But that game, it was so unbelievably hot I had to give up after 3 innings. Watched the rest of the game on a TV monitor by a concession stand.

They did just about everything right in the old Ballpark with the critical exception of not having a roof on it.

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What Sections were you in? Just curious. If you look at a map... the seats are true to the map, in the Sections I've sat. With the seats perpendicular to the concrete, your natural resting direction in almost every section is the top of 2nd Base. You litterally have to turn your head 35+ degrees to see the pitching mound and about 45degrees to see home plate.

The seats are positioned as a muti-use venue where eyes are focused at the center of the field. RBiA had hard sides on the seats, so when we saw a concert, you had to rotate to the OF and it made for a very uncomfortable seat. The new park has smaller (and I think plastic) arms to the chairs which allows you to better swivel (at least compared to RBiA).

I kinda liked the bleacher seats at Arlington Stadium. I don't know that I ever got a chance to sit anywhere else. We was poor.

Agreed... their biggest failure at RBiA was not designing it with an after-market retractable roof.

I too am someone who stays for the entire game. Been to well over 300 Dallas Stars games and probably left early maybe a dozen times.

Just looked and he has been at DH (4), 3B (3), and 1B (1).

I guess he didn't work out at 1B and they abandoned it.

I've sat in 110 and 120.

I should add this disclaimer....since I live in TN, I don't get to many games in person. When I am able to make it, I pay up and get good seats. If I lived in the DFW area and was able to attend on a more regular basis, I'd go less for the less expensive options.

I think we have to start talking about Nate (I refuse to call him Nathaniel) Lowe. He's 3-4 today, batting .285, plays a good 1st base, and just hit a BOMB. He's a really under the radar guy who's having a really good season. Would like him to slug more, but he is absolutely doing it right now.

rbtexan said:

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I've sat in 110 and 120.

I should add this disclaimer....since I live in TN, I don't get to many games in person. When I am able to make it, I pay up and get good seats. If I lived in the DFW area and was able to attend on a more regular basis, I'd go less for the less expensive options.

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Figures... LOL...

Those are 2 of about 6 sections that are least noticeable.

If you look at the seat map, Secs 106-110 and 118-123 are straight lines/rows of seats.

108 you are facing 2B
107 the dirst aboe 2B
106 grass of the OF behind 2B


If you are on the Home Plate side of any straight line of seats... you are probably going to be ok, but the further you get down the line, the worse your site line. I have found the site lines to be very consistent with what you'd see in the seat map.

Tksymm7 said:

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I think we have to start talking about Nate (I refuse to call him Nathaniel) Lowe. He's 3-4 today, batting .285, plays a good 1st base, and just hit a BOMB. He's a really under the radar guy who's having a really good season. Would like him to slug more, but he is absolutely doing it right now.

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I agree. Coming in to this season, the main thing we needed to see from him was more power. We have seen that. He's been pretty damn solid.

rbtexan said:

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Tksymm7 said:

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I think we have to start talking about Nate (I refuse to call him Nathaniel) Lowe. He's 3-4 today, batting .285, plays a good 1st base, and just hit a BOMB. He's a really under the radar guy who's having a really good season. Would like him to slug more, but he is absolutely doing it right now.

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I agree with all of this except the part I bolded. IMO he hasn't played a "good" 1st base, he's been adequate defensively. He's not a great defensive player, but we can live with that if he hits like he has this season. It's not that he makes a lot of errors, but there are a lot of plays a solid 1st baseman should make that he doesn't, more often than not.

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Rotation thoughts from today's Scott Lucas email down below. I think Hearn has pretty well proven that he is more of a bullpen piece than a starting pitcher, so I'd rather not move him back to the rotation. But the other options aren't all that great either. I think we will see Keuchel soon, and hopefully Gray can get back pretty soon as well.

Quote:

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SP Dallas Keuchel: 6 IP, 2 H (1 HR), 3 R, 3 BB, 5 SO, 94 P / 49 S, 3.48 ERA

Changes in pitching use lately include acknowledgement of the third-time-through-the-order penalty and more one-and-done relievers. Unchanged and in conflict with industry trends are the number of innings per game. Texas still has to find roughly 548 innings including 270 from the starters in 2022.

The current rotation is Dunning, Perez, Otto, Howard, Ragans. Ragans had a promising debut but is already 14 innings beyond last year, so he could be shut down with fewer than the 10-11 additional starts he'd accrue as a permanent rotation member. Otto has reached at least four innings in seven straight starts but is hovering around replacement level. Howard has been enticing, annoying, and ultimately sub-replacement since rejoining the rotation. Can Texas get 270 innings from them (and Jon Gray when he returns)?

All that to say: Is Dallas Keuchel going to throw some innings for the Texas Rangers? He's allowed only five hits in ten AAA innings, but the opposing exit velocity is elevated, as are the walks. Last night's fastball topped at 88. But the other options include re-stretching out Taylor Hearn, calling up Kolby Allard, putting AJ Alexy back in the rotation, putting John King in the rotation, adding Kohei Arihara... this exercise careened off the rails in a hurry, didn't it?

Outfielders Steele Walker and Steven Duggar were lost on waivers to the Giants and Dodgers, respectively. Walker will join ex-Ranger Willie Calhoun (traded for Duggar) in AAA Sacramento. I've not seen a placement for Duggar, but he might join the Angels to replace injured OF Mickey Moniak. Duggar took the 40 spot of Dillon Thomas, whose version of not going gentle into the good night entails six organizations in the last six years.

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Looks like Evan Carter has taken over as the top Rangers prospect in the mid-season Baseball America rankings. He checks in at #43, Jung at #44, Duran at #57, Leiter at #67 (down significantly), Owen White at #89 and I believe Luisangel Acuña is at #100.

Nice to see some new guys getting recognized, and it proves the depth of our system. However, we really really need some guys to hit and become stars, we're desperate.

Thanks for the updates.

Keuchel would be a nice reclammation project. I'd like to see some success and maybe a role in 2023.

Been looking at Evan Carter over the past couple weeks, as I've dug into the trade options.

Looks like he'll be a nice prospect.

It'll be nice when we don't have to see the likes of Brad Miller, Kole Calhoun and Charlie Culberson in the line up anymore

Damn Bubba is fast

Talk about the wheels falling off tonight for Perez.

Bregman advanced to 2B on a foul ball. And then scored. Never mind. I guess it was a balk.

Tksymm7 said:

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Talk about the wheels falling off tonight for Perez.

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I blame CJ. He just had to start talking about Perez "having a look in his eye" tonight and then bam.

gigem1223 said:

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Wow. Bubba robbed of his first big league home run

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Yeah, that was a terrible call.

CampingAg said:

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rbtexan said:

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CampingAg said:

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wbt5845 said:

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Announced attendence last night was over 38,000. Great atmosphere with the place so full.

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I've been as down about the new ballpark as anyone but I was there last night and that was fun.

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I don't understand what all the hate towards the new ballpark is about. I think it's great.

Maybe I just spent too many nights sweating my a$$ off at the last two, but simply having a retractable roof makes it a winner in my book.

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It's not that it's bad. I just look at the turf and what it looks like from the outside and my thought is "really, that's what we came up with?"

There's lots of good looking retractable roof parks (with…gasp…grass!) . And ours ain't near the top in my opinion.

I think aesthetically underwhelming is my term for it.

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And those stadium have to have their roof open all day for the grass to get proper sunlight, and then close the roof shortly before first pitch. Imagine going to Minute Maid right now. The stadium won't cool down until late in the game. It's miserable. The same would happen at GLF

Instead, GLF can stay cool all day long and then a decision can be made whether to open or keep closed the roof

I think I heard the crew say that the Rangers are now 3-26 in the last 29 games at Minute Maid. Woof

Mr Gigem said:

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CampingAg said:

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rbtexan said:

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CampingAg said:

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wbt5845 said:

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Announced attendence last night was over 38,000. Great atmosphere with the place so full.

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I've been as down about the new ballpark as anyone but I was there last night and that was fun.

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I don't understand what all the hate towards the new ballpark is about. I think it's great.

Maybe I just spent too many nights sweating my a$$ off at the last two, but simply having a retractable roof makes it a winner in my book.

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It's not that it's bad. I just look at the turf and what it looks like from the outside and my thought is "really, that's what we came up with?"

There's lots of good looking retractable roof parks (with…gasp…grass!) . And ours ain't near the top in my opinion.

I think aesthetically underwhelming is my term for it.

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And those stadium have to have their roof open all day for the grass to get proper sunlight, and then close the roof shortly before first pitch. Imagine going to Minute Maid right now. The stadium won't cool down until late in the game. It's miserable. The same would happen at GLF

Instead, GLF can stay cool all day long and then a decision can be made whether to open or keep closed the roof

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I've been to night games at MMP and have never been miserable. Never even noticed it being warm. Hopefully I'm just still young enough the heat doesn't bother me as much yet.

ryanhnc10 said:

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I think I heard the crew say that the Rangers are now 3-26 in the last 29 games at Minute Maid. Woof

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That's hard to believe. That was fun when they used to be absolutely unable to beat us.

I would just like to point out that the climates of Dallas and Houston are vastly different, and growing the same grass in Dallas that Houston has probably isn't apples to apples. That being said having a grass field would be preferred, but I also completely understand why they did what they did.

DallasAg 94 said:

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Thanks for the updates.

Keuchel would be a nice reclammation project. I'd like to see some success and maybe a role in 2023.

Been looking at Evan Carter over the past couple weeks, as I've dug into the trade options.

Looks like he'll be a nice prospect.

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I think Evan Carter is going to be a beast.
This season @ Hickory:

327 AB
66 R
91 H
17 2B
10 3B
9 HR
56 RBI
47 BB
62 SO
21 SB
.278
.372 OBP
.474 SLG
.846 OPS

All of that as a 19 yr old in high A. Good defender as well.

The Rangers got absolutely torched when they draft him because nobody knew who he was. I'll give them credit on this one, he could absolutely be a stud. My favorite thing about him is that he is a plus athlete with great strike zone awareness. I do love that the Rangers made a complete 180 on their draft philosophy. They used to take way too many high risk high reward guys who never panned out, but they have started going with more polished guys and it looks like a wave of talent could be on the way.