He is at $19M in '24, IIRC. So, Arb likely gets him more. Dunning and Lowe might save $10M, or so. Move Adolis in the off-season for the rest. LoL

We'll pay out of all the B2B and 3Peat merch. LoL.

2.5 GB.

4 game sweeps are nice. Gotta keep feasting on the bad teams to give us breathing room when playing the teams >0.500

Next series is against the Blue Jays (46-55). Need to take 2/3 there.

Astros get the Dodgers at home.
Seattle plays @ the CWS.

Sounds like a broken record, but these next few series are critical. Probably need 0.600 ball through them.

@TOR (46-55)
@STL (53-49)
v BOS (54-47)
v Hou (53-49)
@NYY (60-44)

I wonder if Rooker would be cheaper to acquire. More team control and could take Adolis spot. Vlady would be a clear upgrade over Lowe but not sure I want to trade a .270 hitter in our lineup considering that's tied for second best on the team.

Imagine Langford, Rooker, and Carter in the outfield next year.

At 2.5 GB with Houston...

Texas @ Toronto
LA Dodgers @ Houston
Seattle @ CWS

I think we just need to pick up one more game on Houston within the next Series.

Seattle gets to face both Fedde and Crochet, so, we could pass them in the standings during this series.

Personally I'd take a pass on Rooker. Guys who come out of nowhere in their late 20s tend to go right back where they came from. This is where everyone brings up Nelson Cruz, but do some research and you'l find a heck of a lot more flash in the pans than guys who sustain it for very long.

I'd love to have Vlad though.

With how concerned our front office is with tv money, I highly doubt we have the funds necessary to get vlad. That's not taking into account the massive amount of prospects it would take.

I would love to have vlady but I don't think that's the best use of our money/prospects. Getting vlady would ultimately mean trading Lowe. Vlady is a clear upgrade from Lowe but looking at batting average, OPS, and RBIs, Lowe is the same offensive tier as Seager and Smith. Just don't think it's the best idea to get rid of our current 3rd best offensive player for a costly guy when there's plenty of other holes to fill what would could less. And I know we shouldn't be buyers. This is all hypothetical fun and my opinion.

I just have several issues with Rooker.

Swing and miss: 150 SO in 89Games. That's 4 SO every 3Games.

Age: He was 28 before his 1st full season. This is only his 2nd.

Same could be said about Adolis... it'd be like trading for Adolis 2 years younger, without the HR heroics against Houston.

And then we'd have him for more years than we'd want.

I know it is a moot point, but Toronto plans to compete in 2025, but they need SP. Dunning would give them a rotation piece.

I see your point. I'm not sure what the trade market is for those two but I would guess vlady would take more and definitely cost more. Sure Rooker is more risky but if you get vlad you are basically banking on him playing at an elite level to get your moneys worth.

I'm surprised none of yall are talking about Vladdy's weight, I mean he is absurdly overweight. Don't know his metrics on baserunning and fielding but they've got to be near bottom of the league and that has to factor into what we could get out of his offense.

Yes he's 25 this whole season but I just do not seeing him aging any way except bad and expect it to start before he's 30. Unless he can find a way to lose 30 lbs, I'm pretty bullish on him and he's a guy I love right now but if possible, would just extend on 1 year contracts

6'2" and "245" *wink wink* ain't that big.

He is in his final Arb in '25. Not saying we'd extend him... but then, Prince Fielder seemed ok, and he was a vegetarian.

My overall point is, I wouldn't mind seeing us add a bat. If we get to add Jung, and Adolis starts to settle into a more productive role, it'd be crazy adding Vlady.

Lowe is starting to pick it back up, and he may be just enough and for cheap"er."

They need to play .600 ball the rest of the season to get to 86 wins.

After we play TOR, our next 8 series are against teams over .500.

I think 88 wins the division.

I am right there with you

rbtexan said:

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Personally I'd take a pass on Rooker. Guys who come out of nowhere in their late 20s tend to go right back where they came from. This is where everyone brings up Nelson Cruz, but do some research and you'l find a heck of a lot more flash in the pans than guys who sustain it for very long.

I'd love to have Vlad though.

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I wouldn't call Rooker an out of no where prospect. He has an OPS+ of 127 and 169 the past 2 seasons.

For comparison Vlad Jr's OPS+ the past 2 seasons are 116 and 141.


Personally, I don't want to break the bank on Vlad with a solid option in Lowe already. Rooker, however, I'd do. Simply cuz he'll be way cheaper and fills an immediate need.

According to Ken Rosenthal, candidates being brought up to be traded from the pitching staff are Lorenzen and Jon Gray.

I think when you're looking a moving MLB pieces, the focus/reporting is on teams for the current year playoffs. Lorenzen and Gray would both be in that camp.

Lorenzen was the focus of this article and goes into depth:
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/07/rangers-trade-rumors-michael-lorenzen-jon-gray.html

I'm cool with that. I really like him and wish him well. Some don't like his peripherals, like FIP. I think he is a hit-to-contact type pitcher which I think doesn't score well with FIP. But a low salary rental has to be worth something.

I'd be fine with Gray, as well. He'd save us on CBT this year and next. He was central to the "re-allocate" resources frenzy a week or so ago.

Quote:

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I wouldn't call Rooker an out of no where prospect. He has an OPS+ of 127 and 169 the past 2 seasons.

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Sorry but I'm going to have to disagree, and here's why.

Rooker turns 30 in November. Yes, he's had two pretty decent seasons back to back - at age 28 and 29. Prior to that? Mostly in the minors - the only other season where he saw a decent amount of action at the MLB level was in 2021 with the Twins, and he hit .201 in 189 ABs with 70 Ks. Last season he hit .241 with 172 Ks in only 463 ABs, and this season he's struck out 115 times in 369 ABs.

A player who suddenly emerges at age 28 is absolutely a text-book example of an out of nowhere player. He's knocked around in the minor leagues since 2017.

Strikes out too much, doesn't walk a ton, didn't have a productive major league season until age 28. Those are all big time red flags for me. That's also why I'm of the opinion that the Rangers should try to move Garcia this off-season, because I think he's poised to fall off a cliff long-term like he has the 1st part of this season.

I've been a stats nerd since I was a kid, and if you look at enough of them, you'll start to see the trends and patterns. I think Rooker is more of a Dave Hostetler than a long term star. As always, JMO.

No high K guys please. That was the team's main problem for too long.

DallasAg 94 said:

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I think when you're looking a moving MLB pieces, the focus/reporting is on teams for the current year playoffs. Lorenzen and Gray would both be in that camp.

Lorenzen was the focus of this article and goes into depth:
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/07/rangers-trade-rumors-michael-lorenzen-jon-gray.html

I'm cool with that. I really like him and wish him well. Some don't like his peripherals, like FIP. I think he is a hit-to-contact type pitcher which I think doesn't score well with FIP. But a low salary rental has to be worth something.

I'd be fine with Gray, as well. He'd save us on CBT this year and next. He was central to the "re-allocate" resources frenzy a week or so ago.

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Interesting read. I was hinting in a post a day or two ago at the potential "excess" pitching problem we may soon have with our returning pitchers. It all starts tonight with Mahle's outing. If he does well, maybe CY pulls the trigger on a trade to create room for Mahle, knowing that Bradford and deGrom will both also likely be available soon (deGrom not until late August).

If we do that, I will guess that it would be Gray for salary reasons rather than Lorenzen, but who knows. I also assume we'd be receiving in return mostly (or all) minor league prospects. We (hopefully) will have Jung and Carter available soon, those are your position player supplements IMO.

Next prediction is once Bradford is ready and heads to the pen, we send Latz down. He hasn't been as effective lately it seems, and spots on the pitching staff will be getting pretty tight here soon.

Absolutely no way I'm sending Bradford to the pen. Especially if we're looking to deal Lorenzen/ Gray. And I don't think there's anyway we move Latz with him being the lone lefty out of the pen.

gigem1223 said:

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Absolutely no way I'm sending Bradford to the pen. Especially if we're looking to deal Lorenzen/ Gray. And I don't think there's anyway we move Latz with him being the lone lefty out of the pen.

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They said recently that Bradford will be pitching out of the pen to finish the season. Maybe injury concerns? But they already put that out there.

Mahle off to a rough-rider start:

1.0 IP, 3H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 0 SO

Hope he settles in.

KT 90 said:

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gigem1223 said:

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Absolutely no way I'm sending Bradford to the pen. Especially if we're looking to deal Lorenzen/ Gray. And I don't think there's anyway we move Latz with him being the lone lefty out of the pen.

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They said recently that Bradford will be pitching out of the pen to finish the season. Maybe injury concerns? But they already put that out there.

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Over a broken rib? That makes no sense to me. Too many questions marks on this staff to not have Bradford coming back fighting for a spot in the rotation. Mahle, deGrom are both unknowns and Gray, Heaney, Scherzer can be just as questionable at this point. Bradford was a legit ace for the first month of the season. I would hope Boch and co would give him that chance.

Was this on the his fair territory episode? I just watched some of it and I heard him say we were thinking about trading those guys but with the division being so close we are not going to sell.

Looks like despite the poor start, Mahle battled...

4.0 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 3 K

PC: 55-34

After the all star break I said we needed to go 8-5 minimum before the deadline. Go 3-3 the rest of the way and we hit that goal. At that rate I don't think we lose any ground. If anything we may gain ground.

I think it is a numbers thing... and I think it is an opportunity to see what he can do out of the BP. I love the way Bradford opened the season, but he only got 3GS.

Playoff Rotation
#1 Eovaldi
#2 Scherzer
#3 Heaney: 3.60 ERA
--- This might not be a final 3, but I think if those 3 are healthy and available... they are my Top3

Gray (3.73) has shown he can (and will) play either role in the playoffs.

Dunning is probably in the BP
Urena has already moved, but I'd be fine with him in any playoff situation. Open a BP day, or be 1st in long-relief.
ETA: Forgot Lorenzen.

Then mix in Mahle and deGrom.

Bradford just doesn't have the skins on the wall to be "that guy" in the playoffs.