do we have to be civil to the Mariners on this thread? All hail king neris

I did a dive Monday based on the 4 teams records at home, on the road, vs over .500 teams, and under .500 teams in the case of the Rangers and Blue Jays.

Here are the results with 7 games remaining for TX and Seattle and 6 for Houston and Toronto:

Texas - 3.94 wins. 91 wins total
Houston - 3.22 wins. 88 wins total
Toronto - 3.22 wins. 90 wins total
Seattle - 3.39 wins. 89 wins total

Toronto is going to struggle to get their 3 wins unless TB puts it on cruise control, which they may of Baltimore clinches tonight.

Tx, Houston, and Sea are looking about right.

Fuzzy Dunlop said:

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I did a dive Monday based on the 4 teams records at home, on the road, vs over .500 teams, and under .500 teams in the case of the Rangers and Blue Jays.

Here are the results with 7 games remaining for TX and Seattle and 6 for Houston and Toronto:

Texas - 3.94 wins. 91 wins total
Houston - 3.22 wins. 88 wins total
Toronto - 3.22 wins. 90 wins total
Seattle - 3.39 wins. 89 wins total

Toronto is going to struggle to get their 3 wins unless TB puts it on cruise control, which they may of Baltimore clinches tonight.

Tx, Houston, and Sea are looking about right.

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Don't want to overstate it, but a potentially huge loss for the D-Backs today against White Sox. HOU doesn't need ARI in must-win mode, but that's what they're gonna get, at least for 2 games.

Meanwhile, TOR hasn't scored a run in 2 days. This definitely makes HOU happy, but maybe the Rangers aren't so sure...it depends.

Keeper of The Spirits said:

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do we have to be civil to the Mariners on this thread? All hail king neris

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I think if you combine the gifs of Neris bouncing on the top of his head while fielding a bunt (wth?) and Rodriguez turning a 398 foot fly ball into a 402 foot HR (difference in the game against TEX), maybe both of them should just go to timeout for a few minutes.

Rangers, who y'all throwing the next two? Is Gray done for the year?

Farmer1906 said:

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Rangers, who y'all throwing the next two? Is Gray done for the year?

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Gray is on the 15 Day IL so barring a late run, most likely done. I think tomorrow we throw a combo of Perez / Heaney and go for it all cause Sunday will have to be a BP game

bmac_aggie18 said:

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Farmer1906 said:

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Rangers, who y'all throwing the next two? Is Gray done for the year?

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Gray is on the 15 Day IL so barring a late run, most likely done. I think tomorrow we throw a combo of Perez / Heaney and go for it all cause Sunday will have to be a BP game

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I wonder if there is a point tomorrow where you call off the dogs and save everything for Sunday with pitching being so limited. Say you're down 3 in the 7th, do you throw high leverage arms or save it all for Sunday

This could get wild.

Farmer1906 said:

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bmac_aggie18 said:

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Farmer1906 said:

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Rangers, who y'all throwing the next two? Is Gray done for the year?

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Gray is on the 15 Day IL so barring a late run, most likely done. I think tomorrow we throw a combo of Perez / Heaney and go for it all cause Sunday will have to be a BP game

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I wonder if there is a point tomorrow where you call off the dogs and save everything for Sunday with pitching being so limited. Say you're down 3 in the 7th, do you throw high leverage arms or save it all for Sunday

This could get wild.

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Man who knows but truth be told we really don't have any high leverage arms given our 47% save rate. Who knows though haha been as streaky of a team as I've ever seen

For the Ranger fans lamenting the D-Backs near HR in the 9th inning last night, this two run double by Jose Abreu was determined by Statcast to be a HR in all 30 MLB parks.

They updated it to 29.

Well of course they did,

jkag89 said:

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Well of course they did,

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the fact they are allowed to have that line back there is crazy, you have to hit 440 to hit it out in AZ lol

Big congrats to Rangers for making playoffs. We'll deserved.

Rangers can't win on the road, Astros can't win at home. Would have worked out better for both teams if their situations were reversed (other than the rest for the Astros).

Should be interesting how it shakes out.

Rangers fans -- no hate on this -- but how are you feeling about the matchup with the Rays? I saw on MLB Network that the Rangers had a .220ish BA against the Rays this year.

I think if your pitching can compete, your bats will come around.

agproducer said:

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Rangers fans -- no hate on this -- but how are you feeling about the matchup with the Rays? I saw on MLB Network that the Rangers had a .220ish BA against the Rays this year.

I think if your pitching can compete, your bats will come around.

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If Texas had a bullpen, we'd have 105+ wins. But we don't have a bullpen. Makes no difference to me who we play. Our bullpen isn't going to change between today and tomorrow. That weakness is going to present itself in whatever ballpark vs. whatever team.

We're going to have to slug our way through series and hope the opponent swings and misses when Chapman and friends groove fastballs and hang sliders.

Jon Gray is now hurt, so we can barely field a rotation. Going to be difficult, even if we were playing the Pirates.

agproducer said:

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Rangers fans -- no hate on this -- but how are you feeling about the matchup with the Rays? I saw on MLB Network that the Rangers had a .220ish BA against the Rays this year.

I think if your pitching can compete, your bats will come around.

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I think there is more pressure on TB. They have lost twice to us in the divisional round so they will want to break that.

Our pitching is completely out of whack. We have two good starters now (Montgomery/Dunning), one that is still working back (Eovaldi) and then just a big pile of mush that can be molded anyway based on the outcome of game 1.

Lots of teams are suffering to just a matter of who can overcome.

I think we will do better against TB/BAL than the other side (MINN/TOR/HOU). We are playing on house money so I will be happy with a divisional win.

How does Houston feel about Toronto?

Carlo4 said:

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How does Houston feel about Toronto?

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I feel like they won't be getting past the Twins.

Carlo4 said:

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How does Houston feel about Toronto?

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I'd rather play the Twins over Toronto. The Blue Jays offense can be potent. I'm still not sold on their starting pitching. Their bullpen seems pretty decent.

Now for the Twins -- they scream "average" to me. Royce Lewis has had a nice year, and Buxton is still a threat. But there is nothing scary about that team.

Farmer1906 said:

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Carlo4 said:

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How does Houston feel about Toronto?

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I feel like they won't be getting past the Twins.

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LOL my bad. Brain fart to the extreme. Guess the bigger question is who would you want to face/not want to face.

Twins were very HR dependent when we played them. They seem to have excellent SP. I just don't think that SP is experienced for playoffs like Houston is obviously overqualified for that.

Twins has a very good 1-2 punch and underrated bullpen. The have plenty of lineup depth without someone you fear in the middle. They also are into match-ups/platoons. Their best players have all been rookies which is kind of wild. Can they keep it going? Their offense has been nasty in Sept/Oct.

Farmer1906 said:

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Carlo4 said:

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How does Houston feel about Toronto?

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I feel like they won't be getting past the Twins.

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I'm rooting for the Twins. That franchise and fanbase shouldn't have to suffer through another series loss. They need to do more than simply break a 19 year sweep streak.

agproducer said:

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Rangers fans -- no hate on this -- but how are you feeling about the matchup with the Rays? I saw on MLB Network that the Rangers had a .220ish BA against the Rays this year.

I think if your pitching can compete, your bats will come around.

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Not a Rangers fan, obviously, but I can't get past the Texas pitching. A year ago J-Mo was a piece that wouldn't make the Yankees postseason rotation so he was dealt for Badar. He's been solid but is a step or two down from Glasnow. Eovaldi has been there in the postseason, but... since he came back he's been bad. Like real bad. 6 starts, 9.30 ERA, only made 5 IP twice, 13% Barrel%, 53% Hard Hit%, & BB% of 13.3%. Then we all know about the bullpen.

I'm not trying to be a hater. This is how I see it. The offense will have to go wild. I am leaning toward that not happening with Glasnow, Eflin, & Civale starting and Fairbanks, Poche, Stephenson, Kelly, Diekman, & Armstrong in the arm barn. Not everyone will recognize all those names, but they have been killers.

Farmer1906 said:

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agproducer said:

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Rangers fans -- no hate on this -- but how are you feeling about the matchup with the Rays? I saw on MLB Network that the Rangers had a .220ish BA against the Rays this year.

I think if your pitching can compete, your bats will come around.

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Not a Rangers fan, obviously, but I can't get past the Texas pitching. A year ago J-Mo was a piece that wouldn't make the Yankees postseason rotation so he was dealt for Badar. He's been solid but is a step or two down from Glasnow. Eovaldi has been there in the postseason, but... since he came back he's been bad. Like real bad. 6 starts, 9.30 ERA, only made 5 IP twice, 13% Barrel%, 53% Hard Hit%, & BB% of 13.3%. Then we all know about the bullpen.

I'm not trying to be a hater. This is how I see it. The offense will have to go wild. I am leaning toward that not happening with Glasnow, Eflin, & Civale starting and Fairbanks, Poche, Stephenson, Kelly, Diekman, & Armstrong. Not everyone will recognize all those names, but they have been killers.

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Sure, it's why they have 99 wins. Good thing for us this is baseball, not the NFL where the best teams usually win in the playoffs.

Exactly. You could take the top 8 MLB teams vs. the bottom 8 MLB teams and match them up and I wouldn't be shocked if 1 or 2 teams upset the top dogs in a 3 game series.

Farmer1906 said:

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Exactly. You could take the top 8 MLB teams vs. the bottom 8 MLB teams and match them up and I wouldn't be shocked if 1 or 2 teams upset the top dogs in a 3 game series.

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It's not quite as dramatic as hockey, which sometimes goes completely off the rails starting in the 1st round. Wild card teams seem to do fine in the MLB playoffs.

A fun little video. The part dealing with the top three teams in the AL West stumbling to the finish line starts at the 19:00 minute mark.

Really hoping for a Rangers / Astros ALCS.

T&Ps to the baseball board moderators if it happens

Down here in enemy territory in the woodlands. Watching the game at Mahoneys. Wanted to go to Hearsay but it was closed for a private event