I'm trying really hard to be optimistic. I really am.

rbtexan said:

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I'm trying really hard to be optimistic. I really am.

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Same here but it's hard to be anything but doubtful. On the other hand, I wasn't optimistic at any time in 2023.

This team is gonna be mid an im ready!

I hope the Rangers do well this season just so I can stay on here and talk baseball. Spring training hasn't even started and I'm not going to do this if this is how it's going to be.

Concerned about the bullpen without a lot of swing and miss out there.

Have faith gentlemen. Just need a few guys to get back on track to their career average and we'll win 86-90 games….. which should get us back in the postseason.

I'll say 94-68

I'm hoping Schumaker will light some fire in this team…. while I loved Bochy in 2023 I'm thinking he may have been resting on his laurels the last two seasons

The Texas Rangers have signed Mark Canha to a minor league deal with a Spring Training invite.

Canha turns 37 today and is coming off an injury-marred 2025 with Kansas City, where he hit .212 with a HR and 6 RBI in limited in just 46 games before being released.

If healthy, the… pic.twitter.com/TmFhAhZomp

— Rangers Nation ⚾️ (@Rangers__Nation) February 15, 2026

75-77 win team, excluding some really huge comebacks/improvements from players on the team. This is also assuming no significant additions happen.
One of those times when I hope I'm completely wrong.

If this team stays healthy and everyone has a normal year I will say this is a 90-93 win team.

The pitching staff (starters in particular) resemble a 90+ win team, the lineup to me is a .500 team, and the pen screams 70 win squad.

I'm OK with what we're going to roll out there. I'd feel better if we had landed at least a Weaver or Finnegan to close. Didn't even bring Armstrong back.

The players we have need to play better this season.

I think we are good enough to be in the race at the trade deadline. That's when you can go get a top end closer and maybe another bat to put you over the top.

I like our chances to compete for a a playoff spot if Evo and DeGrom give us 300 innings and Seager and Langford each play 130 games.

deGrom's 172 innings last year was his first time over 150 since 2019. And his ERA was really good, even coming back from Tommy John.

I'll take deGram and Evo as a 1/2 any day of the week. After that - well, that's what we still have to see.

I agree. I don't think anyone here is questioning the starting pitching much outside of deGrom giving up an alarming amount of homers on fastballs. You add McKenzie Gore to that rotation where he doesn't have to be THE guy, and you're cooking with grease imo.

It's the high leverage relievers and the lineup that is most of our sources of pessimism.

Was looking at Leiter's and Gore's numbers from last year and thought this was interesting. Their numbers across the board are pretty similar. Leiter had a better ERA but Gore had significantly more Ks. The thing that stood out was Gore's WAR was significantly higher. Make it make sense.

I am less familiar with bWAR (generally prefer fWAR) but I think it comes down to 3 main factors.

Defense, Ballpark, and K-BB

The Rangers led the league in DRS (+89) and the Nats were flat out bad at 27th (-44).

On a 100 scale, Nationals Park is 101 while Globe Life is 97.

Gore has a significant edge with a 17.8 K-BB% to Leiter's 12.5.

bWAR said a replacement level player could have done what Jack did because he was in favorable situations. What he could control, strike outs and walks, were pretty average.

You can really see this when you look at batted balls and BABIP. It's uncanny how similar it is. 90.4 vs 90.5 EV. 16.0 vs 16.1 LA. 10.6 vs 10.8 Barrel%. 44.1 vs 43.9 Hard Hit%. Yet one has a .267 BABIP and the other has a .325 BABIP

ediy: damnit. Why am I in this thread? My bad, fellas, but the data on your pitchers is there if you're interested.

bWar (Baseball Ref) adjust for Defense and Park. As stated above, GLF and the Rangers D contributed heavlily to Leiter's run prevention.

fWar (fan graphs) uses FIP, which gives Gore the edge due to K's.

Tksymm7 said:

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I agree. I don't think anyone here is questioning the starting pitching much outside of deGrom giving up an alarming amount of homers on fastballs. You add McKenzie Gore to that rotation where he doesn't have to be THE guy, and you're cooking with grease imo.

It's the high leverage relievers and the lineup that is most of our sources of pessimism.

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I think that he will make the adjustment to mitigate that as well.

Well no wonder the players and the owners can't come to a new agreement. Clark from the MLBPA has been at little busy

MLBPA executive director Tony Clark resigned after an internal investigation revealed he had an inappropriate relationship with his sister-in-law, who had been hired by the union in 2023, sources tell me and @DVNJr.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) February 17, 2026

Bo was a real peacemaker in that situation.

I remember an interview with someone that told about Bo protecting Nolan as it devolved into the scrum melee.

Pretty sure Nolan has talked about getting pulled out from under the pile by Bo.

Sborz was nails that day. The 1-1 and 2-2 pitches to the last batter look almost identical.

GrapevineAg said:

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Sborz was nails that day. The 1-1 and 2-2 pitches to the last batter look almost identical.

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Yeah, he just buried those things. Both borderline strikes that Marte had no chance of touching, even if he did swing.

What do we make of the recent news coming about regarding Semien and Seager's relationship?

1. Seager was asked about it in a media availability within the last week and said they had a "fine" relationship. I think all of us marrieds know what can be behind the word "fine".
2. Jayson Stark published a piece where Semien's departure was second only to Castellanos leaving Philly in the "best offseason subtraction" category.
3. Newberg published a piece this morning about this topic; nothing really new, more of a summary of events with hints that the had been hearing of issues behind the scenes but didn't want to say anything.

Personally, I would not have figured Semien to be a clubhouse problem, but I have been wrong once before. It's also interesting to me that Seager is speaking publicly, perhaps he's been pushed by Schumaker to assume more of a visible leadership role?

I guess my main question is, could watching this team not feel like homework if the clubhouse dynamic is "fixed"?

MattAg06 said:

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What do we make of the recent news coming about regarding Semien and Seager's relationship?

1. Seager was asked about it in a media availability within the last week and said they had a "fine" relationship. I think all of us marrieds know what can be behind the word "fine".
2. Jayson Stark published a piece where Semien's departure was second only to Castellanos leaving Philly in the "best offseason subtraction" category.
3. Newberg published a piece this morning about this topic; nothing really new, more of a summary of events with hints that the had been hearing of issues behind the scenes but didn't want to say anything.

Personally, I would not have figured Semien to be a clubhouse problem, but I have been wrong once before. It's also interesting to me that Seager is speaking publicly, perhaps he's been pushed by Schumaker to assume more of a visible leadership role?

I guess my main question is, could watching this team not feel like homework if the clubhouse dynamic is "fixed"?

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Whatever the details are between Seager/Semein, they will leak out eventually.

BTW: the first spring training game is today, playing the Royals I believe.

MattAg06 said:

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What do we make of the recent news coming about regarding Semien and Seager's relationship?

1. Seager was asked about it in a media availability within the last week and said they had a "fine" relationship. I think all of us marrieds know what can be behind the word "fine".
2. Jayson Stark published a piece where Semien's departure was second only to Castellanos leaving Philly in the "best offseason subtraction" category.
3. Newberg published a piece this morning about this topic; nothing really new, more of a summary of events with hints that the had been hearing of issues behind the scenes but didn't want to say anything.

Personally, I would not have figured Semien to be a clubhouse problem, but I have been wrong once before. It's also interesting to me that Seager is speaking publicly, perhaps he's been pushed by Schumaker to assume more of a visible leadership role?

I guess my main question is, could watching this team not feel like homework if the clubhouse dynamic is "fixed"?

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I read the Newberg piece as well, pretty interesting.

As a sidebar, I greatly appreciate what Newberg provides informationally, but man….that dude loves to hear/read himself talk/type.