Grapesoda2525 said:

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Jonah Heim appreciation for an off day:
Among MLB catchers:
- 3rd in hard hit % (49.2)
- 5th in barrel/PA (8.5)
- 5th in exit velo (91.9)
- 1st in OPS (.978)
- 1st in SLG (.592)
- 3rd in OBP (.386)
- 2nd in AVG (.321)
- 2nd in BABIP (.310)

and the best pitch framer in the business. so glad Oakland traded us this guy.

Astro fans should be jealous because they crap on Maldonado in their thread on a daily basis.

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Good to see him doing well. We have several more years of team control before he come become a free agent. So we are in a good spot with him for the time being.

In a good spot with a lot of position players. Most players in the lineup on a regular basis will be back next year. The only free agents will be Miller, Leon, Garver, Grossman and Jankowski - only 1-2 every day players, and probably our weakest ones at that.

Perez is they only free agent out of the rotation - hopefully we can get him locked up for a few years. Heaney also has a player option after this year, but currently no reason to expect him to use it.

The bullpen could see a decent amount of turnover - Kennedy and Smith are free agents and the club has an option on Leclerc.

This means players that will be back next year, pending unforeseen circumstances:

Pitchers:
Jacob deGrom
Nate Eovaldi
Jon Gray
Andrew Heaney (player option)
Brett Martin
Jonathan Hernandez
Dane Dunning
Brock Burke
Josh Sborz
Cole Ragans
Jose Leclerc (club option)

Position Players:
Marcus Semien
Corey Seager
Nathaniel Lowe
Adolis Garcia
Josh Jung
Jonah Heim
Leody Taveras
Zeke Duran
Bubba Thompson
Evan Carter

Depending on who re-signs, my offseason wish list would be a closer, a DH, and an outfielder, in that order. But if one or both of Perez and Heaney go elsewhere, starting pitching would go to the top of that list.

I could make the argument that if he continues his level of play and trajectory, that we should buy out the rest of his arb years and try to sign him to a 5 year deal (or similar) this offseason. He's 27 years old, in the prime of his career, and has a game that I think will age very well with the impending automated strike zone system because he's a plus hitting catcher. Let's pay him for his prime years and then let him walk when he's 34 or so, and I don't think we'd really have to beak the bank to lock him down either.

My City Connect hat and Peagle shirt got here today. Really like them!!

Maybe we can get Fat Lance Lynn back from CWS for a song since their year is tanking. Looks like they have a club option next year with a $1MM buyout. He hasn't performed well this year but something is wrong on the south side of Chicago. Wouldn't mind having him back if we need him for a stretch run.

Should've called it The Vandergriffin

During the interview they did during the 1st game they were worn, the designer loved that idea. He said that they started saying that the species was a Vandergriffen, and the name of the Rangers one was Peagle. It made me laugh a little that they acknowledged the genius that the fans came up with.

rbtexan said:

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Should've called it The Vandergriffin

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Luis Garcia leaves the Astros game with no outs in the first.

fc2112 said:

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Luis Garcia leaves the Astros game with no outs in the first.

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Their deal with the devil is catching up to them

fc2112 said:

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Luis Garcia leaves the Astros game with no outs in the first.

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Urquidy went on the IL today too.

And McCullers is on IL too. So that's their 2-4 starters possibly on IL.

Rotation looking pretty ordinary pretty quickly.

beagle2009 said:

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fc2112 said:

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And McCullers is on IL too. So that's their 2-4 starters possibly on IL.

Rotation looking pretty ordinary pretty quickly.

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I had 3 texts from Astros fans yesterday celebrating DeGrom's injury. Karma is a biotch!

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Sounds like typical Astro fans, unfortunately.

beagle2009 said:

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fc2112 said:

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And McCullers is on IL too. So that's their 2-4 starters possibly on IL.

Rotation looking pretty ordinary pretty quickly.

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I had 3 texts from Astros fans yesterday celebrating DeGrom's injury. Karma is a biotch!

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*******s

Return of Jeff Banister today.

I thought he was a great guy, but his hiring as our manager came out of nowhere. JD definitely reached when he hired banny or maybe banny just killed a lunch time conversation with JD and somehow got the gig.

Despite winning a manager of the year, I thought he wasn't a good manager. Had no feel for a bullpen or clutch pinch hitting. Would often win 2 games in a series, then in the getaway game play a bunch of reserves almost conceding the game to give players rest.

His assistant coach connections were bad. I wasn't impressed with the hitting or pitching coaches. Especially Doug brocail who would constantly say that the strategy is good and it's on the players to execute.

He also seemed to embrace "hero ball" where swinging for the fences is totally ok and striking out isn't a big deal. It led to an offense where we would see lots of solo home runs and nobody getting on base really.

Banny is a nice guy and a good baseball person. I just don't think he's manager material.

Fangraphs has ranked the Rangers #3 in their power rankings amongst the "best of the best" despite being one of the most unlucky teams in baseball when it comes to win/loss record.

Article on tonight's pitcher for Arizona:
https://www.mlb.com/news/zac-gallen-scoreless-streak-2023-key-numbers?partnerId=zh-20230502-897473-mlb-1-A&qid=1026&utm_id=zh-20230502-897473-mlb-1-A&bt_ee=yuNFGpzHMgfrMU%2BsGJvcaX8v2L5lnrDU4yx6zyQDjxxvQgGEQ2Noil8wmsKnl%2FWa&bt_ts=1683036368419

Definitely going to be a challenge to score runs tonight. Need to work the PC and get to their BP. Hopefully we can get Gray's best tonight.

Legal Custodian said:

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He was the one with the hot daughter, right?

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https://www.instagram.com/alexxbanister/?hl=en

A nice bikini / butt pic on the first page there.

Daddy must be proud

Grapesoda2525 said:

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Legal Custodian said:

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He was the one with the hot daughter, right?

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https://www.instagram.com/alexxbanister/?hl=en

A nice bikini / butt pic on the first page there.

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To me, she looks like a ****ty Meg Reily.

First, tonight's' game in particular will be super interesting because of the Gallen v. Rangers lineup matchup. The Rangers are the second best offense in baseball behind the Rays, and it's not particularly close. It would be nice to touch up Gallen for 4 or 5 runs to show we can do it against elite pitchers. Also, I'd like to give Zach Gallen some shout here. The dude is the best pitcher in baseball no one talks about. He's probably the NL Cy Young winner right now and has been pitching like this for damn near three years. Dude is a stud. Sucks we won't get to see Corbin Carroll tonight as well.

Second, I have been meaning to ask this for a while; but what do the Rangers do in this coming draft? With how some of the minor league pitching has gone do they lean towards taking ANOTHER college pitcher? Or because they haven't really panned out yet, do they lean towards a position player or go towards the high school ranks again? This will be the Rangers last time drafting in the top five for quite some time, so whoever they pick it would be nice to get another sure fire guy.

Here are the top 10 prospects (generally):

1 Dylan Crews
OF Louisiana State - - 21 6' 0" / 203 lbs R R

2 Paul Skenes
RHP Louisiana State - - 20 6' 6" / 235 lbs R R

3 Wyatt Langford
OF Florida - - 21 6' 1" / 225 lbs R R

4 Walker Jenkins
OF South Brunswick (NC) - - 18 6' 3" / 205 lbs L R

5 Max Clark
OF Franklin (IN) - - 18 6' 1" / 190 lbs L L

6 Chase Dollander
RHP Tennessee - - 21 6' 2" / 200 lbs R R

7Jacob Wilson
SS Grand Canyon - - 21 6' 3" / 190 lbs R R

8 Jacob Gonzalez
SS Mississippi - - 20 6' 2" / 200 lbs L R

9 Rhett Lowder
RHP Wake Forest - - 21 6' 2" / 200 lbs R R

10 Enrique Bradfield Jr.
OF Vanderbilt - - 21 6' 1" / 170 lbs L L

I'm been look at mock drafts for months too. Last year shows we aren't afraid to go outside of the box in these drafts.

Definitely agree, I just think the Rangers really needed/wanted another high level pitching prospect (they got two in Porter and Rocker), so they did something REALLY outside the box. Are we still that desperate for pitchers? Or are we scared off of that with what's gone in with Leiter and Winn? I personally would take Dylan Crews tomorrow because I think he's special, but there's a 0.0% chance he makes it to 4.

I'm guessing either high school bat or college pitcher.

Looking forward to seeing Gallen tonight. I'll be there. Look for me on TV.

I like some of the OFers speculated to go in the 3-5 range.

Some really nice players projected there, a position of some organizational need, and regardless of HS or college, a position where the speed to the majors can be pretty quick if they really are that talented

Take an outfielder and if we're really worried about the progress of our young pitchers than extend Perez for 3-4 more years.

personally I'd go Skenes, Dollander….. then either Clark or Langford. As far as resigning FA pitchers already here, at some point the Rangers have to make a path for their high draft pick pitchers to get to Arlington.

The issue with this is that I would bet they really wanted to let Perez walk after this year and begin to filter in some of their own guys, but that's not exactly working at the moment. I don't think they want to pay another pitcher for multiple years at 15-20/year.

Over last 4 games, Gallen has pitched 28 innings, 0 earned runs, 8 hits, 0 walks and 40 Ks.

Just. Damn.