We had one find a hole!

I really like the dual broadcast they have going. It allows fans to learn things about opposing teams from people who actually know that team.

Was just thinking that. Annoying to take it off Bally (never thought I'd say that), but I really have liked this broadcast

Man we've had more dribblers like that go against the past few weeks. And it costs 2 runs

I can't believe I got suckered into paying $5 to watch this.

Good lord

And another dribbler finds a hole. I'm done. Time to mow the yard

Maybe this means they start to get hot at the right time. Hopefully anyway. This last few weeks has been less than awesome.

I'm out

Mr Gigem said:

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Meneses with 2 HR all season up to this point, and now has has 4 in this series alone

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Ouch. Good thing he doesn't play for a team in the AL West

At my kids game today, doesn't sound like I am missing much today with the Ranger game.

Looking for positives.

AL ERA - Qualified
1. 2.51 Valdez, 111.0 IP (7-6)
2. 2.53 McCLanahan, 96.0 (11-1)
3. 2.83 Eovaldi, 117.2 (10-3)
4. 2.84 Dunning, 92.0 (8-1)

Glad Dunning is now Qualified (again). He'll remain there until the 2nd G after the ASB.

Looks like as he continues to pickup over 5.0 IP, he'll more-and-more stay listed.

The fact of the matter is we probably should've seen this coming, at-least from the pitching staff. There's just too much data and history with some of these pitchers to really believe that they were going to pitch out of there minds for a whole season or that they finally "figured it out", Sborz being the poster child for this. He's just too erratic and misses too often.

In last 11 series, Rangers have won 4, lost 6, and split 1. And all of their competitors except for the Rays had worse records, some especially so.

Offense went dark too often. Relief pitching has pretty much failed. Some manager decisions have been questionable at best.

Last 5 weeks have been ugly. I hold out hope the second half is better than this recent run, but expectations are very tempered. Guess the Rangers are ahead of schedule, but they have a LOT of money invested at this point, so have to start showing legit results pretty quickly.

gigem1223 said:

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Proposition Joe said:

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Dunning is a pumpkin, much like the rest of this rotation outside of Eovaldi. Not an 'if' of his ERA inflating near 4, but a 'when'.

If we are serious about contending, we need another starter and another bullpen arm.

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Dunning has given no indication of this. He wasn't great today but he also wasn't bad. I think that is a bit of an overreaction. Agree that we need another starter and more bullpen help though. IMO Heaney and Perez are trash.

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His K/9 is significantly down. Prior to today his BABIP was 0.263 -- almost 40 points below league average.

I'm sure there's some random talking-head story that can be pointed to about why suddenly he's a far more successful pitcher than his history (eg. "he's changed the way he throws his slider and now he's an ace!"), but his BABIP shows he's just been really lucky and with his K/9 being way down there's not a whole lot of great indications that he's going to have the raw stuff to overcome sliding back to the mean.

Doesn't mean it's impossible, but this isn't a situation where a historically sub-3ERA pitcher with good peripherals has hit a rough patch. This is a 4ERA guy that before today was pitching at near best in the league-ERA level.

He's a sinker ball pitcher. If he's worth a **** his BABIP is going to be low. It's been pretty well documented that his hip surgery in the off-season has definitely helped him. Hes been fantastic all year (as a starter and out of the pen). To call him a pumpkin after 1 start is silly, especially when he had only given up 2 runs prior to being pulled.

gigem1223 said:

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He's a sinker ball pitcher. If he's worth a **** his BABIP is going to be low. It's been pretty well documented that his hip surgery in the off-season has definitely helped him. Hes been fantastic all year (as a starter and out of the pen). To call him a pumpkin after 1 start his silly, especially when he had only given up 2 runs prior to him being pulled.

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In his previous full MLB season he put up a BABIP of 0.339 and 0.314 (both in years his K/9 was significantly better).

And his ground ball percentage is actually lower than either of his last two years.

He's a 4-4.5ish ERA guy pitching at a 2.6 ERA level. If we could afford to move him back to the bullpen (with a SP acquisition) then I'd feel OK about him not getting over-exposed, but if we roll him out for another 80 innings his numbers are going to skew towards a #4/#5 starter.

Dunning is 28. This is his 3rd season. You keep talking like he's an established vet. It is possible for a pitcher to improve as he gains more experience. Especially with a new coaching staff in place this season.

At the break.

Honest analysis, IMO, we're a good team that has the talent to reach the playoffs. We could finish the season with all the accolades - Cy Young, Batting Championship, MVP, AL Pennant, and World Series Champions.

There are teams that are equally talented. Not many. Most have deficiencies from injuries, much like we lost deGrom.

We don't have the grit, fight, or experience to be a Championship team.

We haven't shown a leadership to elevate the performance to win. Haven't seen it in games. Haven't seen it during the slump.

We will need to add some pieces. It may be necessary to shuffle players down and promote some.

Hopefully the break gets a reset. However, we need a vocal leader in SP, RP, and a Bat and I'm not sure we have them on the team.

Looks like Max Clark is the final popular prediction for our pick tonight. However there is some buzz around Detroit possibly taking Gonzalez at 3 which would mean one of Langford/ Skenes/ Crews falls to us.

I think there is a little to this in terms of just having not done it before, but I don't believe they don't have fight or grit. We have pros pros in that clubhouse who know how the show works and are great leaders. What they possibly haven't done is lead a division up until the All-Star break with what has been the best team in baseball for almost a decade barreling down on them and breathing down their necks. So, I will absolutely give you not having done it before/experience in this situation, but I don't believe for a second they don't have grit, fight, or leaders.

As I typed that I caught myself only thinking about the lineup, which I still believe, but if you want to apply no grit, fight, experience, leadership to the pitching staff then I think that's a much better argument. Nathan Eovaldi is the only starter who has been there and done that on a big stages, and I do think he is a leader of sorts, but he is also a career 4.0 ERA guy like rbtexan has said. That can only do so much for you. We lost our leader, horse, and spearpoint when deGrom went down and it shows in all aspects of the pitching.

We have a slew of #4-6 type of starters, but if we want to try and do this we need a dude to go at the top of the rotation or a legitimate #2 at the very least, and another Aroldis Chapman level bullpen piece. It's time to start making moves, not only trades, but up and down from AA and AAA to see if anyone else can legitimately help this baseball team.

I think there's some validity to this, however I have seen many predictions come in today that Pittsburg will go Langford at 1 to again avoid having to deal with signing Crews. This feels like something they would do as well.

Would be pretty insane if we somehow land Crews. I'd do backflips if we landed Skenes. That dude could legitimately help us in the 2nd half out of the bullpen.

Looks like we have some interest in Lynn. Only interest I'd have is if he went to the bullpen. His k/9 is high. Everything else is no bueno.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/07/rangers-interested-in-lance-lynn.html