AgBQ-00 said:

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Alternate channel. The stars pregame is upcoming and they didn't have enough time for.postgame evidently

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No there either

With three stolen bases today, we are up to 9 for the season with 4 caught stealing. That gets us up to a tie for #24 in MLB. Seems like Jankowski should have 9 himself.

Maybe we are starting to wake up to how easy it is to steal bases. Cleveland already has 28 on the season with 5 caught stealing.

fc2112 said:

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With three stolen bases today, we are up to 9 for the season with 4 caught stealing. That gets us up to a tie for #24 in MLB. Seems like Jankowski should have 9 himself.

Maybe we are starting to wake up to how easy it is to steal bases. Cleveland already has 28 on the season with 5 caught stealing.

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We are winning, so I'm not complaining. But I do agree we should have more stolen bases. With Taveras/Thompson/Jankowski and then add in Semien, we should be accumulating more SB's... you would think anyway.

Need to sweep the Reds.

I don't think they are as bad as their record indicates. They've faced a bunch of good teams. They are 6-6 @home and 1-9 on the road.

Game1
Lodolo (4GS, 4.98, 23.0 IP, 30 K, 8 BB)
Eovaldi (4GS, 5.40, 21.2 IP, 24 K, 4 BB)

Game2
Weaver (1GS, 6.00, 6.0 IP, 8 K, 2 BB)
Perez (4GS, 3.38, 21.1 IP, 19 K, 7 BB)

Game3
Ashcraft (4GS, 1.88, 24.0 IP, 21 K, 11 BB)
Gray (4GS, 3.72, 19.1 IP, 15 K, 11 BB)

Having said that... I like our odds.

Tksymm7 said:

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Totally agree on Garver. He needs to be the primary DH and that's about it. I don't trust him to stay healthy behind the plate. The issue then is are you going to carry Leon as well? Because someone has to let Jonah have some games off.

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Imagine a catcher/DH rotation of Heim, Garver, and Huff.. if Huff can continue to develop just a little more consistency. I wanna say he's had a pretty decent start to the year.

Huff, like many young hitters in today's game, needs to make contact more and whiff less. That's his single biggest issue. You don't need to hit .275 anymore, but you need to be able to put the ball in play and put it in play hard. I hope he can put it together. That being said, I think they really like Leon catching Eovaldi because of their time in Boston together. We'll see how far that gets Leon this season.

Just looked at his average on the MiLB app, he's at .192 as of last night. Idk why I thought he was doing better. Seemed like I've gotten a lot of updates over the last couple of days from him driving in runs. But, on the brighter side, Foscue is still improving from his very slow start to the season.

Quote:

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I wanna say he's had a pretty decent start to the year.

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Not sure where you're getting this, because Huff has had a really poor start to the season. He's hitting .192 with 20 Ks in 52 ABs (.283 OBP, .346 SLG).

He's going to be a Joey Gallo-type hitter. Loads of power and a big "wow" factor when he gets hold of one, but he's not going to hit .250, that would be his high water mark. That would be OK if he were a stellar defensive catcher, but he isn't. I don't think Huff is going to be a long-term solution at the position. JMO

I think it's rbtexan who isn't a huge fan of Foscue, and I totally understand why. He's a poor defender who quite honestly doesn't really have a position to play at the MLB level, but man do I hope we can flip him for an outfielder or pitcher with some level of upside because I think his bat really plays. He started the year cold but is getting back to doing what he's done at every level of baseball; hit the ball for extra bases and have an OPS of .800+. I don't think he'll make it to the Rangers, but I do think he'll be in a lineup for someone later this year.

I'm critical of Foscue and have been since they drafted him. He is that Calhoun 2B-to-LF type that can hit, but only DH because his D is so poor.

We had Odor, Calhoun, and bunch others when we drafted him.

It's not that I dislike Foscue, I just think he's a bust as a #1 draft pick.

Not saying he won't make it to the majors, because I believe he will. But he's not an all-star type player, and using your #1 pick to select a guy who is effectively a DH was a poor decision IMO. His bat has some pop, but that's really the only thing in his tool kit.

The problem with Foscue (and why I don't think he'll be with the Rangers this season barring some injuries) is that he's not good enough to come up to MLB and start, so you'd be bringing him up as a bat off of the bench. So what value does he have other than as a pinch hitter? He's not that fast, so not a pinch runner. Terrible defensively, so not a late inning replacement. Basically a two-position guys (2b/3b) and below average at both. Even if we were to release Garver, why would you want a DH on the team that really can't do anything else? The modern era of baseball requires roster flexibility - you need guys who can play multiple positions. Foscue would eat up a slot on the 26 man and leave a defensive hole on the roster.

I agree 100% with everything being said about Foscue. I'd like to find a team like the Reds^, Tigers, Royals, Nationals etc. who have poor lineups and try to pry a pitcher away from them with a 24 year old MLB quality hitter. I think we've got to start flipping some of our infield prospect depth for pitchers and outfielders.

Yeah I've definitely lost faith in Huff. I'm super high on Foscue though. And I agree with all of his deficiencies in the field, but he has shown to have a very effective bat and be pretty darn consistent. If it were me I'd rather have a Foscue soak up about 95% of the DH ABs than have Garver who is almost certain to miss time every season. But to me it speaks of the quality of Foscue's bat.

Tksymm7 said:

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I agree 100% with everything being said about Foscue. I'd like to find a team like the Reds^, Tigers, Royals, Nationals etc. who have poor lineups and try to pry a pitcher away from them with a 24 year old MLB quality hitter. I think we've got to start flipping some of our infield prospect depth for pitchers and outfielders.

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Foscue reminds me of Willie Calhoun. Just hopefully without the attitude.

MrCoachEricTaylor said:

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Yeah I've definitely lost faith in Huff. I'm super high on Foscue though. And I agree with all of his deficiencies in the field, but he has shown to have a very effective bat and be pretty darn consistent. If it were me I'd rather have a Foscue soak up about 95% of the DH ABs than have Garver who is almost certain to miss time every season. But to me it speaks of the quality of Foscue's bat.

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Not to be a contrarian, but I honestly don't see why you're so high on Foscue.

He's a career .279 hitter in the minors and a complete liability on the field. Josh Jung, by comparison, was a career .311 hitter in the minors. He has NOT been consistent as a hitter, he's actually been very streaky. I do like the fact that he doesn't strike out a ton, but the Willie Calhoun comparison is actually pretty spot on.

The bottom line is, you don't bring up a player to the bigs knowing he's nothing but a DH unless the bat is elite. Foscue's bat isn't elite. Good to very good, but not great or elite. He's hurt at the moment, but IMO Aaron Zavala has much more upside and is more projectable as a hitter than Foscue, in addition to being 2 years younger. Not to mention that he's a decent corner outfielder.

I think Foscue's greatest value is a trade piece, as someone alluded to earlier. I just wouldn't burn up a spot on the 40 man roster for him at this point.

I guess I'm just the odd man out. But I just believe that even if the hit tool is the only thing Foscue has then he ought to be able to keep improving. I know that's a big "ought to". Jung was definitely my favorite draft prospect that we've had since Joey Gallo's all star year. I really like Zavala as well but I'm just not as high on his Power tool being much more than average.

Really want to see Eovaldi pick his game up and shut this bad Reds line up down tonight. He's probably been our worst starter to date.

I think Eovaldi has been pretty solid tbh. He's second amongst pitchers with 0.8 WAR only behind deGrom. If you look at his ERA (5.40) then yeah, it's not great, but he's got a stupid high BABIP at .422, and his FIP is 2.26. This means that one, we play terrible defense behind him and two, he's been pretty unlucky to begin the season.

Lodolo gives me major Andrew Heaney vibes.

Update: he absolutely mowed through us in that half inning.

Dang the crowd at this ballpark is thinnnnnn. I know it's an early start on a Monday but still…

Doesn't seem we are seeing Lodolo well in that 1st inning

There goes the defense behind Eovaldi.

And there it is again....

Lowe should have had that one.

God damn. That's got to infuriate Eovaldi.

Come on Rangers.

Team missed the flight

Come on Jung. You gotta make that throw

I'd be pulling my hair out if I were Eovaldi. That's three defensive plays that MUST get made. Instead, they've scored a run and now have runner on first and second.

Alright. Bats let's make up for the fielding.