This is insane. Every single hitter in their line up is locked in

So who is left in Round Rock if we send Otto back to AAA? He's getting hammered.

https://giphy.com/gifs/biglittlelies-shailene-woodley-l44QrV0bFfDkhjD8Y

It's almost like they know what's coming….

The Brazos Kid said:

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https://giphy.com/gifs/biglittlelies-shailene-woodley-l44QrV0bFfDkhjD8Y

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I don't know how to post gif's apparently.

Proposition Joe said:

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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.

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As another poster said... Prop Joe over-reacting? Couldn't be!

Games and series like these (and current trends) do make you worry or consider how far away our pitching really is. Is adding one starter and one reliever enough?

I watched every replay of that they showed and I still don't know how that ball did what it did.

I said it a few weeks ago and I still think it. I really feel like this season is similar to the 2015 Astros with the roles reversed. I think we make the playoffs, but it'll be as a wild card in the end and we probably won't go too far. I'm not sure rentals we can't sign are the way to go this year as fun as it might end up being.

94chem said:

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gigem1223 said:

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PatriotAg02 said:

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Dodgers are just on fire right now

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Yep. We seem to have caught them at a bad time. Doesn't help that our pitching can't throw strikes either.

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You can have nice ERA numbers and be really solid, but if you don't have a guy who can just go out and be nasty, it's tough to deal with a locked-in lineup.

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It's why looking at the (somewhat) advanced metrics can give you an idea of who has been good and who has been lucky.

If you aren't missing bats, and additionally your hard hit ball % is high -- which both were the case for Dunning -- then eventually it is going to catch up to you. With the nature of the game and pitching every 5th day it may take a while to do so... just like the roulette table can land on black 30 times in a row... but eventually it's going to skew towards 50%.

Rangers can make and win a World Series with Eovaldi as their #2 and Gray as their #3.

I simply don't think they can with Eovaldi as their #1 and Gray as their #2... especially when the offense is supported by 5 guys that don't have a history (Jung, Heim, Taveras, Duran, Janikowski). It's possible that a couple of those guys are legitimate 3+ WAR players, but highly unlikely 4-5 of them are, which means the offense will likely take a inevitable step back.

Proposition Joe said:

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94chem said:

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gigem1223 said:

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PatriotAg02 said:

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Dodgers are just on fire right now

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Yep. We seem to have caught them at a bad time. Doesn't help that our pitching can't throw strikes either.

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You can have nice ERA numbers and be really solid, but if you don't have a guy who can just go out and be nasty, it's tough to deal with a locked-in lineup.

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It's why looking at the (somewhat) advanced metrics can give you an idea of who has been good and who has been lucky.

If you aren't missing bats, and additionally your hard hit ball % is high -- which both were the case for Dunning -- then eventually it is going to catch up to you. With the nature of the game and pitching every 5th day it may take a while to do so... just like the roulette table can land on black 30 times in a row... but eventually it's going to skew towards 50%.

Rangers can make and win a World Series with Eovaldi as their #2 and Gray as their #3.

I simply don't think they can with Eovaldi as their #1 and Gray as their #2... especially when the offense is supported by 5 guys that don't have a history (Jung, Heim, Taveras, Duran, Janikowski). It's possible that a couple of those guys are legitimate 3+ WAR players, but highly unlikely 4-5 of them are, which means the offense will likely take a inevitable step back.

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You can say this for just about any team we're competing with right now. Several teams are battling rotation injuries/ issues. I think everyone here agrees we need another TORP and BP help (like everyone else we're competing against) but I think you're exaggerating how bad the rangers are in comparison to other playoff teams.

I do agree with your principle that bringing in rentals you can't sign is never the best idea and probably isn't for us, but with the way we've spent in FA the past few years and our complete and utter lack of ability to develop starting pitchers, I think trading for guys and trying/hoping to sign them long term may be our best bet right now.

At least Yerry has looked good. He has the stuff (like Speas, Sborz and LeClerc). Be nice to see him finally figure it out. His stuff is great.

Tksymm7 said:

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I do agree with your principle that bringing in rentals you can't sign is never the best idea and probably isn't for us, but with the way we've spent in FA the past few years and our complete and utter lack of ability to develop starting pitchers, I think trading for guys and trying/hoping to sign them long term may be our best bet right now.

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So what I would do is trade some of our assets for controllable pitching.

I don't mind taking on a guy with an expiring contract, but he needs to come cheap. Otherwise, what's the point? You have the same rotation and lineup locked up next year as well, minus Perez which doesn't hurt my feelings. The weakest spot in the lineup is LF and your top prospect and top ten overall should be ready next year.

If you can improve the team's chances to compete in the playoffs, do it. But paying up for rentals when it won't get you to the Braves and Dodgers level is just wasting assets.

gigem1223 said:

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Proposition Joe said:

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94chem said:

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gigem1223 said:

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PatriotAg02 said:

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Dodgers are just on fire right now

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Yep. We seem to have caught them at a bad time. Doesn't help that our pitching can't throw strikes either.

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You can have nice ERA numbers and be really solid, but if you don't have a guy who can just go out and be nasty, it's tough to deal with a locked-in lineup.

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It's why looking at the (somewhat) advanced metrics can give you an idea of who has been good and who has been lucky.

If you aren't missing bats, and additionally your hard hit ball % is high -- which both were the case for Dunning -- then eventually it is going to catch up to you. With the nature of the game and pitching every 5th day it may take a while to do so... just like the roulette table can land on black 30 times in a row... but eventually it's going to skew towards 50%.

Rangers can make and win a World Series with Eovaldi as their #2 and Gray as their #3.

I simply don't think they can with Eovaldi as their #1 and Gray as their #2... especially when the offense is supported by 5 guys that don't have a history (Jung, Heim, Taveras, Duran, Janikowski). It's possible that a couple of those guys are legitimate 3+ WAR players, but highly unlikely 4-5 of them are, which means the offense will likely take a inevitable step back.

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You can say this for just about any team we're competing with right now. Several teams are battling rotation injuries/ issues. I think everyone here agrees we need another TORP and BP help (like everyone else we're competing against) but I think you're exaggerating how bad the rangers are in comparison to other playoff teams.

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I wouldn't say so bad in comparison, I'm just saying that the odds of making it through a 5 game series, 7 game series and 7 game series with this rotation (and bullpen) is miniscule. Too many coin-flips.

Additionally, many of the other teams that are battling rotation injuries/issues are doing so from the stance of "guy is good historically but he's struggling" or "good arm could be back by the playoffs". Those are legitimate "bounce back" candidates.

Those are different odds than continually leaning on guys with A) Not significant historical success and/or B) Metrics that point to a lot of luck. Those aren't "bounce back" candidates, those are "how long can these guys hold up" candidates. We saw it with Perez, we saw it with Heaney, we're seeing it with Dunning. Guys without significant historical success - especially those who don't miss bats - are unlikely to produce at a high clip over a large sample size. DallasAg can fill everyone's heads with "well <Player X> is different because thrives pitching away from home" or "<Player Y> mentioned changing up his mechanics so that explains his success compared to his history" but it's all just a confirmation bias of ignoring the bad stats and instead focusing on the some reason why the stats could all be unreliable.

You're absolutely right, no doubt about it, but how much are you willing to pay to acquire controllable pitching? Because most of the controllable pitching out there that can really help this team will probably cost through the teeth. I'm not saying I wouldn't pay it, but what does that look like to you?

I wouldn't be overly concerned with finding the controllable pitching at the deadline. That needs to be done in the off-season and I think it will.

Outside of Ohtani, there isn't anyone I would consider giving up anything higher than Saggesse, Foscue or Harris for. Bullpen help tends to be cheap and it will be available. I can see the Rangers improving themselves enough to win the division and make some noise in the playoffs, but this team just doesn't look ready to win a World Series. That starts next season. I look at this as the warmup.

Today was supposed to be a reset from yesterday, but it was exponentially worse. Zero confidence taking the game tomorrow.

This is not the way to go into spewston to face the a$$turds.

Can the triple A's not go 0-13 against the astros? Tonight would be the perfect time for them to do us a solid.

gigem1223 said:

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Flush that one and find a way to get 1 tomorrow. 4-2 against the Rays/ Dodgers would be nice either way you look at it.

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It all depends on tomorrow. I would've been more than happy with a 7-2 homestand coming into this series, but the dodgers will totally ruin this homestand and make it a massive disappointment if we get swept tomorrow.

Important big game.

At the roughriders game - Zavala dove for a line drive and left the game with an injury in the first inning. Hope it isn't serious especially with trade deadline looming

Any news on Adolis?

Quote:

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3 hours agoX-rays came back clean on Garcia's right hand after he was hit by a pitch Saturday, Kennedi Landry of MLB.com reports.

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White was bumped from his start tonight. I bet he gets the call tomorrow.

Apparently Acosta was pulled tonight too. LSB conspiracy theorists think a trade could be brewing. Of course they think Zavala was pulled early just because and don't realize it was due to injury.

No hitter going on in Oakland tonight. Someone go post about it in there thread

Has Oakland beaten Houston at all this year?

Nope 9-0. They're pretty much a .500 ball club against everyone else

A's lead 3-1 in the 7th

KT 90 said:

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A's lead 3-1 in the 7th

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Don't jinx it

The AL is getting crazy.

I'll be honest, I was a bit skeptical that MLB would be able to keep so many teams close at the Trade Deadline. Seattle beating Toronto has been huge. If Seattle wins again tomorrow the whole league gets even tighter.

There are really only 4 teams that are out.

Detroit
CWS
KC
Oak

I really thought some teams would extend their distance but it just doesn't seem to be happening.