You also have to understand that a Wednesday or Thursday night wildcard game between a Texas and a Tampa Bay doesn't actually draw better than whatever channel's normal 7-10pm time slot.

NBA's ratings have been able to stay somewhat floated due to gambling interest -- MLB doesn't have near the gambling draw NBA does so you don't get near as many "casual" fans interesting in tuning in.

Those are good points. I can understand ABC normal programming drawing higher. But in the past, like TBS, what's on? Big Bang Theory re-runs? I hope we're not to the point as a country where that would draw higher than MLB playoffs. Oh well. Get to the LCS and play at night. Frustrating regardless though.

CampingAg said:

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Those are good points. I can understand ABC normal programming drawing higher. But in the past, like TBS, what's on? Big Bang Theory re-runs? I hope we're not to the point as a country where that would draw higher than MLB playoffs. Oh well. Get to the LCS and play at night. Frustrating regardless though.

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"MLB Playoffs".

It's a 3 game series to make the divisional series.

vander54 said:

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beagle2009 said:

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Rangers vs Rays wild card matchup is set for Tue, Wed, Thu all at 2:08pm CT. Absolute dog*****

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Doesn't bother me. I work from home and I can finally watch a ****ing game.

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With my luck, this will be the busiest 3 days of my year

sburg2007 said:

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Here lies my issue with last night. I know just "getting in" is a HUGE accomplishment but, with a single game left and a bye to the next round riding on it the excessive celebration kills me. I'm glad they made postseason but it is a massive disappointment to me after leading all summer.

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They improved nearly 30 games over last year

We lost Degrom, Scherzer, Eovaldi, heim, and Jung for extended periods of time. It seemed like whenever this team was ready to hit its stride, another injury always struck. We still were able to carve out a wildcard tho.

Next year expectations should be higher with Degrom / scherzer back and hopefully a better bullpen / bench.

Hopefully they get to Tampa as fast as possible because they weren't ready to play today at all.

When would degrom even return hypothetically? June or august?

Player To Be Named Later said:

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I think we'll be lucky to ever see Degrom pitch meaningful innings here

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Agreed. Anything we get from him will just be a bonus

I read the other day expect deGrom healthy August 2024

Quote:

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Future is definitely bright, but there is some work that is going to need to be done in the offseason. Reference Seattle or even a San Diego for how "oh we didn't get there this year but we're in great shape for the future" doesn't always pan out.

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This is my concern. Judging the future off this season, we should be competing for the playoffs for the next few years. As bad as the injury bug was this year, it could always strike again next year. Every team deals with injuries and obstacles. This year's team responded well by winning 90 games. Barring our bullpen issues, it would have been 100+ in my opinion.

Nothing is guaranteed next year. Just because we performed well this year, we could fall short next year. This is why I am disappointed we couldn't hang on to the division.

Fuzzy Dunlop said:

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Quote:

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Future is definitely bright, but there is some work that is going to need to be done in the offseason. Reference Seattle or even a San Diego for how "oh we didn't get there this year but we're in great shape for the future" doesn't always pan out.

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This is my concern. Judging the future of this season, we should be competing for the playoffs for the next few years. As bad as the injury bug was this year, it could always strike again next year. Every team deals with injuries and obstacles. This year's team responded well by winning 90 games. Barring our bullpen issues, it would have been 100+ in my opinion.

Nothing is guaranteed next year. Just because we performed well this year, we could fall short next year. This is why I am disappointed we couldn't hang on to the division.

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Injuries are part of the game. The problem was everytime we suffered a major or notable injury it seemed to be a star player. Nothing seemed to happen to the Robbie grossmans or Josh smiths of the world. Nothing against those guys, but their loss can be handled better by the team than losing a star.

Remember the quote or tweet by Evan grant during the second half of the season, we sent 6 guys to the all star game and 4 or 5 were on the DL at the same time.

South Platte said:

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Let's get this done. We were 4-2 vs. Tampa and 3-3 vs. Baltimore. As opposed to 4-9 vs. Houston and 2-5 vs. Minnesota. Maybe we are right where we need to be.

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I wanted the Rays / orioles side of the bracket.

The Astros just had our number.

The Twinkies just wore us out. They averaged 10 runs a game against us seemingly by just walking and crushing home runs. Kind of what the A's used to do to us when they were good. Very frustrating way to lose. I wanted no part of the twins or the Astros honestly.

If we lose, can say oh well both teams are 100 win quality teams.

South Platte said:

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Let's get this done. We were 4-2 vs. Tampa and 3-3 vs. Baltimore. As opposed to 4-9 vs. Houston and 2-5 vs. Minnesota. Maybe we are right where we need to be.

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This. We got the best playoff matchup possible. Baseball is a weird game and anything can happen. If our bats come alive and our bullpen holds up we can make a run. We haven't been in the playoffs since 16 so I'm going to enjoy this regardless

Yup, every season something new happens. This year proved there's 3 legitimate contenders in the ALW, which means any one of them could have some standout next season that jettisons them ahead of the pack. Seattle was eliminated from the division in Game 161 and has a payroll $110M less than Texas and Houston and a catcher who just called out the front office.

Yeah it's doubtful Ohtani ends up there (but not out of the question)... But if Seattle decides to go for it on some other FA's this offseason then Texas with all of its youth could very easily find itself the with a preseason prediction of 3rd in the division next year.

I think not near enough was made about the differences between Texas "making the playoffs" and "winning the division" partially because it's been so long but also because of the restructured playoffs and the way the standings shook out.

This wasn't a scenario where a wildcard instead of division meant you just had to play on the road in the ALDS instead of at home. Dropping from #2 to #5 meant we have to play one more series than everyone else, all on the road, against a 99 win team on one day rest. And IF we survive that, we play on the road in ALDS and ALCS meaning the few games we get in our home stadium (where we had 2nd most wins in the league this year) will be weeknight games and not the lively weekend crowd.

I'd go so far as to say that loss yesterday impacted our title chances as much losing the first game of a 3 game series would impact our series chances.

And yeah, the chances of us winning the title wasn't great, but as mentioned -- you don't know what you're going to have from year-to-year so when you have the opportunity you have to maximize your chances.

I'm definitely enjoying the season.

I likened the season yesterday to a tv series that I've watched all year and yesterday was the season finale.

It was like the series finale for Game of Thrones. I'm glad I watched the whole season but the finale left me disappointed.

On to Season 2. Playoffs. I hope this one ends better.

In all honesty, I had us pegged at about 78 wins. This season was much greater than I expected. And the poster earlier was right. Every game was either score in bunches or maybe no hit. At least we didn't see an immaculate inning or two against us this year.

Weeknight/afternoon games are going to suck. I have tickets for the first ALDS game at Globe Life (if we make it that far.) I was looking forward to a Saturday afternoon/night game if we won the division.

Oh well, I guess the kids are just going to have to miss a day of school!

I've said this repeatedly and it was why I have a problem with Tanking.

Injuries. It is part of baseball and success at the end depends on how you are impacted by injury. Have you lost key players? Do you have the depth to overcome.

ETA... because of injuries, a team's season can change on a dime.

I don't use it as an excuse, "We would have won the division if we didn't have an injury." But, more about how you build the team.

One of JD's issue with signing guys like deGrom and Scherzer to long-term $40M/yr contracts is, we'll pay deGrom for 6 GS this year and maybe 6GS at the end of next season. JD's philosophy was to sign 2 guys @ $20M, or 4 guys @ $10M, but to spread out the injury risk.

CY had the payroll to have guys like deGrom injured and a depth build by JD to have guys behind them. Kinda.

Enough props about JD, just relating that.

The future looks bright. We'll bring back most of our rotation, for better-or-for-worse.

Scherzer (38): 8GS, 45.0 IP, 3.20 ERA
Dunning (28): 26GS, 172.2 IP, 3.70 ERA
Gray (31): 29 GS, 157.1 IP, 4.12 ERA
Heaney (32): 28GS, 147.1 IP, 4.15 ERA <- Asssume he takes the Option
Eovaldi (33): 25GS, 144.0 IP, 3.62 ERA

Bradford (5.30) is 25 and looks ready to contribute.

I'd like to see about getting Montgomery (30) back (11GS, 2.79 ERA with the Rangers). My guess is he'll be to expensive, and want 4-5yrs.

Maybe Perez is willing to come back as a BP guy ala Matt Moore.

The BP will turn over: Leclerc, Smith, Chapman, Stratton, Hedges are all FAs.

Voice Of Reason 11 said:

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I wanted the division but I'm not convinced the "bye" is a great thing in baseball since the sport is about routine. You play great and then suddenly you have most time off that you've had since the all star break. Your bullpen arms get some rest but your bats could go cold in that amount of time. Meanwhile in the wildcard round. Whatever team you face is picking up momentum and confidence from their series to come into your ballpark. The Phillies just last year made it to the World Series as a 6 seed.

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Reality is there's never been any data that really backs up hot streaks and cold streaks and the like it's more or less just talking head chatter to fill airtime.

Team comes out not hitting after long break? "Cold, out of routine. The time off may have not have done them good!"

Team comes out hitting well after long break? "Team had time to rest up and get healthy".

Team comes out not hitting after no break? "Team is worn down playing XX games in XX days. They've hit a wall."

Team comes out hitting well after no break? "Team is hot!".


It's just talk, no real data to back it up -- and in baseball there's a LOT of data.

The proven things it does give you is extra time for your players to get healthy (Is Seager impacted by his hand? Could Scherzer make it back?) and home games. Tampa is 53-28 at home. Texas is 40-41 on the road. Tampa is 46-35 on the road. Texas is 50-31 at home.

Sure there are teams that overcome it, but that doesn't mean it was beneficial to them. The Phillies probably would have made the World Series last year as a 1 seed too... and maybe playing that 1 extra game at home instead of on the road in the World Series would have meant a title.

There's a million different things that impact a baseball game, so home/away or extra games is never going to be the reason... But just like any other sports, you put the odds in your favor and maybe it helps you overcome a mistake or two.

Grapesoda2525 said:

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Proposition Joe said:

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Yup, every season something new happens. This year proved there's 3 legitimate contenders in the ALW, which means any one of them could have some standout next season that jettisons them ahead of the pack. Seattle was eliminated from the division in Game 161 and has a payroll $110M less than Texas and Houston and a catcher who just called out the front office.

Yeah it's doubtful Ohtani ends up there (but not out of the question)... But if Seattle decides to go for it on some other FA's this offseason then Texas with all of its youth could very easily find itself the with a preseason prediction of 3rd in the division next year.

I think not near enough was made about the differences between Texas "making the playoffs" and "winning the division" partially because it's been so long but also because of the restructured playoffs and the way the standings shook out.

This wasn't a scenario where a wildcard instead of division meant you just had to play on the road in the ALDS instead of at home. Dropping from #2 to #5 meant we have to play one more series than everyone else, all on the road, against a 99 win team on one day rest. And IF we survive that, we play on the road in ALDS and ALCS meaning the few games we get in our home stadium (where we had 2nd most wins in the league this year) will be weeknight games and not the lively weekend crowd.

I'd go so far as to say that loss yesterday impacted our title chances as much losing the first game of a 3 game series would impact our series chances.

And yeah, the chances of us winning the title wasn't great, but as mentioned -- you don't know what you're going to have from year-to-year so when you have the opportunity you have to maximize your chances.

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World Series odds went down to 0% when Scherzer went down probably. We already needed first half Eovaldi to come back ( he hasn't) and Scherzer to stay healthy with Montgomery / Dunning to potentially make a run, but the pitching doesn't look strong enough now.

Just enjoy whatever playoff time we do get.

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That's just defeatist logic. You play to win a title.

If the stance is "we should just be happy to be in the playoffs, we weren't going to win a title" then you could just as easily say "we should just be happy to be above 0.500, we weren't going to win a title".

If you want a chance, you want that chance to be the best possible chance.

Reading comments from Perez makes me think coming back as a reliever won't be an option. He said something to the effect of "I'm a starter and the Rangers know I'm a starter, but I'll do whatever to help the team." Now that's fine when you're under contract and don't really have an options, but that doesn't at all sound like a guy who wants to come back in a long relief role. Just throwing that out there.

Texas isn't going to sign Perez to a multi-year bullpen deal.

Perez will get a deal as a starter somewhere. Only way it is in Texas is if we strikeout with Montgomery and don't feel great about our chances of filling out a rotation and bite the bullet on Perez being our #5.

I'm just relieved this AL West race is over. The past 2 months have been annoying as hell. Maybe it's only been hard on the fans. It will be nice to worry about somebody other than Houston and Seattle.

So I guess we will throw Montgomery, Perez, Eovaldi.

Proposition Joe said:

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Voice Of Reason 11 said:

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I wanted the division but I'm not convinced the "bye" is a great thing in baseball since the sport is about routine. You play great and then suddenly you have most time off that you've had since the all star break. Your bullpen arms get some rest but your bats could go cold in that amount of time. Meanwhile in the wildcard round. Whatever team you face is picking up momentum and confidence from their series to come into your ballpark. The Phillies just last year made it to the World Series as a 6 seed.

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Reality is there's never been any data that really backs up hot streaks and cold streaks and the like it's more or less just talking head chatter to fill airtime.

Team comes out not hitting after long break? "Cold, out of routine. The time off may have not have done them good!"

Team comes out hitting well after long break? "Team had time to rest up and get healthy".

Team comes out not hitting after no break? "Team is worn down playing XX games in XX days. They've hit a wall."

Team comes out hitting well after no break? "Team is hot!".


It's just talk, no real data to back it up -- and in baseball there's a LOT of data.

The proven things it does give you is extra time for your players to get healthy (Is Seager impacted by his hand? Could Scherzer make it back?) and home games. Tampa is 53-28 at home. Texas is 40-41 on the road. Tampa is 46-35 on the road. Texas is 50-31 at home.

Sure there are teams that overcome it, but that doesn't mean it was beneficial to them. The Phillies probably would have made the World Series last year as a 1 seed too... and maybe playing that 1 extra game at home instead of on the road in the World Series would have meant a title.

There's a million different things that impact a baseball game, so home/away or extra games is never going to be the reason... But just like any other sports, you put the odds in your favor and maybe it helps you overcome a mistake or two.

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Well no duh the Phillies could've made it as a 1 seed. The point is being in the wild card isn't a death sentence like some people acted yesterday. At the same time the Rangers could've easily won yesterday and gotten swept in the ALDS. We are who we are at this point and I don't think the extra rest would've altered this team's chances. We're either going to score a ton of runs against in TB or score nothing like we did yesterday. We've been like this all year even when we were red hot. The only thing left to do now is hope we play like we did in the 1st half of the season all of sudden and that would've been true even if we had won yesterday.

What's the latest on Leiter?

South Platte said:

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I'm just relieved this AL West race is over. The past 2 months have been annoying as hell. Maybe it's only been hard on the fans. It will be nice to worry about somebody other than Houston and Seattle.

So I guess we will throw Montgomery, Perez, Eovaldi.

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CBS Sports app has: Montgomery, Eovalidi, Heaney listed as the projected starters. But that is subject to change.

Any word yet on Scherzer's availability, even if just out of the pen?

Voice Of Reason 11 said:

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Proposition Joe said:

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Voice Of Reason 11 said:

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I wanted the division but I'm not convinced the "bye" is a great thing in baseball since the sport is about routine. You play great and then suddenly you have most time off that you've had since the all star break. Your bullpen arms get some rest but your bats could go cold in that amount of time. Meanwhile in the wildcard round. Whatever team you face is picking up momentum and confidence from their series to come into your ballpark. The Phillies just last year made it to the World Series as a 6 seed.

---

Reality is there's never been any data that really backs up hot streaks and cold streaks and the like it's more or less just talking head chatter to fill airtime.

Team comes out not hitting after long break? "Cold, out of routine. The time off may have not have done them good!"

Team comes out hitting well after long break? "Team had time to rest up and get healthy".

Team comes out not hitting after no break? "Team is worn down playing XX games in XX days. They've hit a wall."

Team comes out hitting well after no break? "Team is hot!".


It's just talk, no real data to back it up -- and in baseball there's a LOT of data.

The proven things it does give you is extra time for your players to get healthy (Is Seager impacted by his hand? Could Scherzer make it back?) and home games. Tampa is 53-28 at home. Texas is 40-41 on the road. Tampa is 46-35 on the road. Texas is 50-31 at home.

Sure there are teams that overcome it, but that doesn't mean it was beneficial to them. The Phillies probably would have made the World Series last year as a 1 seed too... and maybe playing that 1 extra game at home instead of on the road in the World Series would have meant a title.

There's a million different things that impact a baseball game, so home/away or extra games is never going to be the reason... But just like any other sports, you put the odds in your favor and maybe it helps you overcome a mistake or two.

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Well no duh the Phillies could've made it as a 1 seed. The point is being in the wild card isn't a death sentence like some people acted yesterday. At the same time the Rangers could've easily won yesterday and gotten swept in the ALDS. We are who we are at this point and I don't think the extra rest would've altered this team's chances. We're either going to score a ton of runs against in TB or score nothing like we did yesterday. We've been like this all year even when we were red hot. The only thing left to do now is hope we play like we did in the 1st half of the season all of sudden and that would've been true even if we had won yesterday.

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Absolutely not a death sentence.

You can win a hand of poker with a pair of sevens.

I'd much rather be holding a full house though.

Jimmy McNulty said:

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What's the latest on Leiter?

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he pitched much better after going to Arizona for 5 or 6 weeks to "work on things". I think we will have to adjust any eta's for his arrival in Arlington and just hope he keeps progressing and can be more consistent.

Jimmy McNulty said:

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What's the latest on Leiter?

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He was much more effective after that last stint on the development list. Got bumped to AAA and started one game, looks like he went 3.1 IP 3ER 8H 4K 2BB and gave up 2 HRs.

Looks like he played in 5 games after coming back from the development list starting with the highlighted game and going down. Looks like a nice step in the right direction from where he was.