DallasAg 94 said:

---

fc2112 said:

---

Semien getting ejected was right in front of me. Characterizing him as "calmly discussing" the K with the first base umpire was inaccurate.

He was very pissed and animated. Obviously, I have no idea what he said, but it sure looked like he was yelling "BALL FOUR - BALL FOUR" over and over again.

---

And yet you didn't video it.

You must be old.

---

Alas, true. It just caught us all by surprise.

gigem1223 said:

---

Water Boy said:

---

Perez is a different pitcher at home. Hopefully that continues tonight.

---

Agree, but there are a lot of bats in that line up that have done really well against him over the course of his career (Merrifield, Chapman, Springer, Bichette). He'll need to bring his A game tonight.

---

v Lefty this season:
Chapman: .422
Bichette: .340
Guerrrero: .351
Merrifield: .311
Springer: .213
Varsho: .262

Mr Gigem said:

---

Saturday and Sunday are SRO only at this point. If you want reserved seating, it's best to use secondary market

---

Glad families are filling up for Father's Day.

That doesn't sound good for us!

Taking my son tomorrow. We got $10 tickets at the Christmas promotion in section 101. Let's snap out of this funk.

Damn I thought about taking my wife and boys this weekend. Didn't ever think it would be SRO. I guess the times are better now for sure, but we need to start picking up the pace again soon.

DallasAg 94 said:

---

gigem1223 said:

---

Water Boy said:

---

Perez is a different pitcher at home. Hopefully that continues tonight.

---

Agree, but there are a lot of bats in that line up that have done really well against him over the course of his career (Merrifield, Chapman, Springer, Bichette). He'll need to bring his A game tonight.

---

v Lefty this season:
Chapman: .422
Bichette: .340
Guerrrero: .351
Merrifield: .311
Springer: .213
Varsho: .262

---

vs Perez for their career

Chapman: .438
Bichette: .500
Guerrrero: .100
Merrifield: .357
Springer: .296

vs Gausman

Seager: .400
Semien: .222
Lowe: .500
Garcia: .400
Heim: .250
Grossman: .222
Garver: 0/2
Taveras: 0/3

Some numbers on RP

15day Report on RP:
Smith (L): 6G, 2.57 ERA, 7.0 IP, 2 H, 1BB, 6 SO, 0.43 WHIP
Anderson: 5G, 3.86, 7.0 IP, 5 H, 3 BB, 3 SO, 1.14 WHIP
Sborz: 5G, 0.00, 8.2 IP, 1 H, 2 BB, 13 SO, 0.35 WHIP

Burke (L): 3G, 4.15, 4.1 IP, 4 H, 1 BB, 6 SO, 1.15 WHIP
King (L): 4G, 5.40 ERA, 5.0, 6 H, 1 BB, 2 SO, 1.40 WHIP
Leclerc: 3G, 5.40 ERA, 5.0, 4 H, 2 BB, 7 SO, 1.20 WHIP

Yerry and Barlow have 2 & 1 G, respectively with a 0.00 ERA

As we work through the season, it will be interesting to see who develops into reliable RP.

I think Burke, King, and Leclerc have shown historically they are able... hope they figure it out.

If all we had were Eovaldi, Gray, and Heaney in a playoff rotation, we'd be able to push Perez (L) and Dunning (R) to the BP.

But how effective would Perez be out of the pen? He is a live on the edges with fastballs and cutters, then throw a change up to get guys out, type of pitcher. Coming out of the pen in this day and age you need one of two things: a wipeout pitch to get guys out, or velo guys can't catch up to consistently. Perez has neither of those. At least Dunning has pitches that move and move a lot.

Good question. I believe he was always a pitch-to-contact guy who always got a ton of double-play grounders. Could be that the shift benefited him more?! The Grass/Turf splits could reflect that. Of course, I'm not looking at opposing teams, either.

As a SP, I'm kinda interested to see if Maddux has changed anything. Heim caught all of his games this year and 25 of his 32 GS last year, so no difference there.

2023:
1PA: .252
2PA: .311
3PA: .355

Home: 1.40 (4)
Away: 6.50 (9)

Grass: 5.53 ERA (8G)
Turf: 3.41 (5G)

2022:
1PA: .210
2PA: .255
3PA: .273

Home: 2.92 (16)
Away: 2.86 (16)

Grass: 2.74 ERA (8G)
Turf: 3.04 (5G)

Also, wonder about the mental aspect. I believe he had a kid and got engaged mid-season last year. He seemed to be more of a leader in the rotation. It might be feeling slighted that the Rangers signed 3 pitchers to long-term deals ahead of him.

2023:
@LAAA: 3.2, 7ER
@Det: 4.2, 5ER
@TB: 3.1, 7ER

Or it's very simply that he's an average pitcher that had an anomaly year last season.

Even with the career year last season, he has a career ERA+ of 100.

He's a 4.5ish ERA, back of the rotation pitcher. There's value in that, but there's no magic approach Maddux can teach him or the like.

Angels playing royals and Astros playing reds this weekend.

We really need to figure out a way to go 2 / 3 against Toronto.

Proposition Joe said:

---

Or it's very simply that he's an average pitcher that had an anomaly year last season.

Even with the career year last season, he has a career ERA+ of 100.

He's a 4.5ish ERA, back of the rotation pitcher. There's value in that, but there's no magic approach Maddux can teach him or the like.

---

Perez has the stuff to be a 2/3. His issue was always falling apart when he got negativity rolling. An error, or a bad pitch for a HR would become 5+ runs in a game. I think we all saw his ability to limit the damage last year and there were comments about it (if only by me. )

I think 2022 was more along the lines of what he is capable. You look at those 3 games in 2023 and that's 19ER in 11.2 IP. The other 10 games he is 18ER in 59.2 IP which is a 2.72 ERA. 77% of his outings (10/13) were really good.

We'll see where he is tonight and how he does. If his splits continue, maybe you look at him as a Home SP.

Grapesoda2525 said:

---

Angels playing royals and Astros playing reds this weekend.

We really need to figure out a way to go 2 / 3 against Toronto.

---

Thank gawd the Astros play the Reds. Looking for the Reds to help us out.

Tksymm7 said:

---

The Reds are pretty hot right now. They've won 8/10 and some of their young guys are really starting to go. 34-35 on the season and it feels like they are right there in the Central. They are not to be taken lightly. The Royals are the worst team in baseball, however, and the Angels feel as big a threat as I can remember with the way Ohtani is playing.

---

I hope you're right about the reds. If some of our hitters still have "hack away and pop out" trends, we might need the help again.

At least the Angels won't see the royals after this weekend. The main reason I'm still not worried about the Angels is they give up way too many runs overall. We left like 50 guys on base against them over the course of the series. They also benefitted from the umpire's tremendously. Ohtani killed us with 4 home runs. I just wouldn't pitch to him anymore.

It reminds me of the series where Jeff banister said we would "go right after" trout and he tore us up badly. Banny was a bad manager tho.

DallasAg 94 said:

---

Proposition Joe said:

---

Or it's very simply that he's an average pitcher that had an anomaly year last season.

Even with the career year last season, he has a career ERA+ of 100.

He's a 4.5ish ERA, back of the rotation pitcher. There's value in that, but there's no magic approach Maddux can teach him or the like.

---

Perez has the stuff to be a 2/3. His issue was always falling apart when he got negativity rolling. An error, or a bad pitch for a HR would become 5+ runs in a game. I think we all saw his ability to limit the damage last year and there were comments about it (if only by me. )

I think 2022 was more along the lines of what he is capable. You look at those 3 games in 2023 and that's 19ER in 11.2 IP. The other 10 games he is 18ER in 59.2 IP which is a 2.72 ERA. 77% of his outings (10/13) were really good.

We'll see where he is tonight and how he does. If his splits continue, maybe you look at him as a Home SP.

---

A lot of pitchers show the stuff to be a 2/3 but can't ever consistently harness it. That's Perez.

He's pitched almost 1400 big league innings as a 4.5ish ERA pitcher.

He pitched hundreds of AA/AAA innings as mostly a 4.5ish ERA pitcher.

DallasAg 94 said:

---

Proposition Joe said:

---

Or it's very simply that he's an average pitcher that had an anomaly year last season.

Even with the career year last season, he has a career ERA+ of 100.

He's a 4.5ish ERA, back of the rotation pitcher. There's value in that, but there's no magic approach Maddux can teach him or the like.

---

Perez has the stuff to be a 2/3. His issue was always falling apart when he got negativity rolling. An error, or a bad pitch for a HR would become 5+ runs in a game. I think we all saw his ability to limit the damage last year and there were comments about it (if only by me. )

I think 2022 was more along the lines of what he is capable. You look at those 3 games in 2023 and that's 19ER in 11.2 IP. The other 10 games he is 18ER in 59.2 IP which is a 2.72 ERA. 77% of his outings (10/13) were really good.

We'll see where he is tonight and how he does. If his splits continue, maybe you look at him as a Home SP.

---

I'm actually more in agreement with Proposition Joe on this.

Years & years ago, I bought a giant book (probably 4 inches thick or better) that had the stats of every player who ever made the major leagues...Baseball Almanac I think it was called. At any rate, I went through the entire book and discovered players I had never heard of who had either really great seasons or careers. Hal Trosky for example looked like he was going to be a superstar and then faded - I found out later it was because of severe migraine headaches.

In looking at the historical stats, you'd be amazed how many players you never heard of who had one great season, maybe two - usually either their first couple of seasons, or later in their career. But almost everyone of them slid back to their statistical norms. A couple of Rangers examples are George Wright and Kevin Elster. Wright started out like gangbusters and faded quickly. Elster came over late in his career and had one magical season that he never replicated.

What I did NOT find was many players who put up mediocre stats for the majority of their career, and then somehow found themselves in their 30s and elevated their game substantially. There are, of course, exceptions - knuckleball pitchers for one, and former Ranger Jamie Moyer was another. But for the most part, historically speaking, what a player does is what he is.

That's why I'm inclined to believe last season was an anomaly and the Perez we're seeing this year is who he is. Hopefully he'll prove me wrong, but the preponderance of historical stats lead me to think otherwise.

At the same time, you get a guy that can consistently put up a 4.5 ERA and occasionally toss you a gem? That's a valuable #4/#5 starter.

Just like you need a guy at the top of the rotation that can be a "slump stopper", you need a guy at the back of the rotation that isn't going to put your offense behind the 8-ball.

This also from MLB Pipeline:

Quote:

---

"If the Pirates do pass on Crews, the Nationals likely would do the same because they're deep in outfield prospects and light on the mound. And Skenes is the Draft's best pitching prospect since Stephen Strasburg, who was the best ever and helped bring Washington a World Series title."

That would mean one of the top 3 hitting prospects for the Rangers, as long as they don't try to get cute.

---

Need to nail this draft pick. We need either a star or solid everyday contributor. This will hopefully be our last time at the front of the draft for awhile.

Gausman has been hit or miss this season. Really on or really off.

What did we do to upset the baseball Gods? Good grief. So many hard hit balls for outs.

LEODY

gigem1223 said:

---

LEODY

---

Beautiful.

A bunch of low pitches that really shouldn't have been called.

And some more hot garbage from behind the plate.

This ump is unreal.

After these last few nights, I've decided there are two camps.

Those who think balls/strikes should be called by a robot.
Those who are wrong.

We're going on five days of saying that, too. Do these guys just not want to call strikes? How can you be that bad at your profession?

I guess it doesn't help that there's basically no repercussions for doing poorly.

Quincey P. Morris said:

---

We're going on five days of saying that, too. Do these guys just not want to call strikes? How can you be that bad at your profession?

I guess it doesn't help that there's basically no repercussions for doing poorly.

---

Wut? This guy is calling way too many strikes. Not the other way around

All of the umpires are bad/inconsistent (one way or the other). It's in their job description, so I don't even bother anymore. Just get automated strike zones here in the next few years.

Josh Jung

I meant call balls/strikes. As in do they want machines to take that job?

Well s***. That pitch was grooved.