Water Boy said:

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Can't understand it. How can he hit all his spots but as soon as he makes a mistake the ball is out of the park. It was equally as frustrating when the opposing pitcher would make mistake after mistake and we would get 0 runs.

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To quote Tommy Lasorda, "we couldn't hit water if we fell out of a ****in' boat"

There was a long form article on ESPN during spring training last year that also reported deGrom was planning on intentionally taking some velo off his fastball in order to stay healthy.

It was apparent on a pitch-to-pitch basis when watching his starts. He was consistently 96-98. He would only very occasionally reach triple digits, exclusively in the biggest circumstances.

That's fine to do, and it helped him stay as healthy as he's been in a while. Now, he just has to realize you have to mix in offspeed pitches more, specifically his changeup, to keep batters on their heels a little. Gotta keep them thinking about something other than the heater when you aren't throwing it triple digits with insane spin rates anymore.

Vessel said:

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There was a long form article on ESPN during spring training last year that also reported deGrom was planning on intentionally taking some velo off his fastball in order to stay healthy.

It was apparent on a pitch-to-pitch basis when watching his starts. He was consistently 96-98. He would only very occasionally reach triple digits, exclusively in the biggest circumstances.

That's fine to do, and it helped him stay as healthy as he's been in a while. Now, he just has to realize you have to mix in offspeed pitches more, specifically his changeup, to keep batters on their heels a little. Gotta keep them thinking about something other than the heater when you aren't throwing it triple digits with insane spin rates anymore.

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Attakid Rook. Sign up as a Varsity subscriber right out of the gate. Welcome to the board.

What's our payroll now

Fangraphs is projecting $176 million right now.

Yikes

Regarding payroll... COTS has the following:

Payroll: $176M (26) / $178M (40) - Projected payroll includes Serfs and Arbs*.
CBT: $197M - $47M under threshold

*All Arbs are signed/agreed (Jung, Burger, Duran, Haggerty, Smith, etc)

That gives us:
SP: deGrom, Eovaldi, Leiter
RP: Martin, Garcia, Winn, Rocker, Latz

C: Higgy, Jansen
IF: Burger, Smith, Jung, Seager; Duran
OF: Haggerty Langford, Nimmo; Carter
DH: Joc

That's 20 of the 40 we have on the 40.

There are 22 Ps. The others are:
Davalillo (22), Lopez (23), Teodo (24), Santos (23), Corniell (22)
Baumler (23) Kent (27), Church (24), Hamel (26), Curvelo (24)
Bradford (27), Alexander, Otanez, Diaz

There are 18 position players. The others are:
Osuna (22), Ortiz (23), Foscue (26), Freeman (24), MacIver (28), Helman (29)

If the positions are as I have them, there will be 1 more added from the 6.

If the teams projects to stay under the CBT... we have some room to sign some guys. I hope we add a SP under $10M that's desperate, like we've done the past few years (Corbin, Urena, Lorenzen) Rocker could move to rotation, among others. Bradford will return mid-season?!

We need another starter, and a closer. Assuming we sign a starter, then you can put one of Rocker/Latz into the rotation for the 5th starter.

With Bradford not being available until mid-season or so, I'd just keep him in the bullpen for 2026 and keep him there. If all goes well, then let him compete for a rotation spot in 2027.

Not feeling great about here this team is.

sburg2007 said:

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Not feeling great about here this team is.

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I'm not expecting anything out of these guys this year. I'll watch on Victory and may attend a few games but I'm not getting my hopes up.

We're going to waste one of the greatest collective pitching staffs in Rangers' history, scoring 2 runs per game.

I do think they are trying to build something that lasts, but this feels like 2021 and 2022 all over again.

I agree dead weight was cut on the offensive side. However, will there be enough offense generated to make up for defensive runs saved if that is needed? Is the club truly better at second and right field? Will they get any production out of the catcher's spot? DH? How do we feel about the bullpen? Yes last year was good but, I feel like there is no "shutdown" guy. I don't think they will lose 100 games or even 90 but I don't see this as a division contending team right now. Would love to be wrong! I will still watch on victory and take my kids to games so long as the tickets are given to me!

One other mini-rant. A while back someone posted on here something to the effect of, the Rangers have an obligation to the community/fans to win the WS, and so they should spend whatever it takes to make that happen. I'm paraphrasing, I may be misremembering a bit, but that was absolutely the gist of the opinion expressed.

Well, no. They don't have an 'obligation' to spend whatever it takes to win the WS. That in itself implies that they should be willing to bankrupt themselves financially, or in terms of the organization's future re: prospects, etc., because the fans demand WS appearances on a regular basis, a majority of which they win.

The obligation the Rangers have is to field a competitive team with a potentially competitive roster….period. Maybe the breaks go your way, maybe they don't. Last year's roster fits that definition, so does this years, even as it currently stands. IMO, there are only a few teams in MLB who you could argue aren't really even trying. The White Sox the past 3 seasons for example. Not trying would be losing 100+ games in multiple recent seasons, or losing that many on a fairly regular basis. The Rangers have lost 100+ exactly 3 times in their history in Arlington, two of those being their first two seasons after relocating from Washington.

You can't look at what the Dodgers/Yankees/arguably Red Sox are spending, or willing to spend, and say "well the Rangers should be doing that too." Those franchises not only are in massive markets, they have the added benefit of being long-time established historical franchises, with generations of fans. The Rangers, even if you include the expansion Senators that they were originally, have only existed since 1961. The Red Sox, by comparison, played their first season in 1901, 125 years ago.

I hate to sound like our d*psh*t former A&M AD, but there's an element of managing expectations to this stuff.

I saw a post recently that showed team payrolls compared to their revenue last year. If I remember correctly the Rangers were in the top 5 range meaning they were willing to spend more of their revenue on payroll compared to the other teams in the league. To me that is a great metric. Spending 250 million on a payroll isn't that impressive if you generate 800 million in revenue vs a team spending 250 on payroll and only having 500 million in revenue. Not sure how that percentage will work out this year though.

I thought Latz did an amazing job in spot starts and as the long man last season. Can he start 30 games? No idea.

I don't hate this roster. Not signing a closer . . . ugh, I guess we're going with Garcia or Martin. Maybe Cole Winn gets a chance?

I think our lineup could be really good!

Smith
Seager
Nimmo
Langford
Burger
Freeman
Carter
Jung
Higgy

Keep in mind Diaz has been a closer. If he's healthy, he's a very good one.

Just my personal feelings, but professional baseball has really lost some luster for me. Idk if it's the absolutely preposterous and out of touch with reality nature of 10-15 year contracts (for guys over 30), paying guys 50+ million a year, the shear pitching dominance and lack of offensive adjustment in todays game, injuries or what, but it's just not the same. I don't romanticize about it like I did when I was 12 years old waiting to watch opening day or whatever.

Tksymm7 said:

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Just my personal feelings, but professional baseball has really lost some luster for me. Idk if it's the absolutely preposterous and out of touch with reality nature of 10-15 year contracts (for guys over 30), paying guys 50+ million a year, the shear pitching dominance and lack of offensive adjustment in todays game, injuries or what, but it's just not the same. I don't romanticize about it like I did when I was 12 years old waiting to watch opening day or whatever.

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Same. I also feel like a lot of the strategy has gone out of the game, in regards to how pitchers pitch and how hitters hit. It's become a game of throwing it as hard as you can to a guy trying to hit it as far as he can. Players like Greg Maddox and Tony Gwynn would have no place in today's MLB. Sad. It was a much more entertaining and interesting game to watch back then.

Growing up opens your eyes to all of it. When you're 12 you don't care about any of those things. I will say not having pitchers hit and the NL strategy ISNT AS FUN.