2024 Texas Rangers

Hookem G said:
Don't you think A.J. Hinch would love to stick it to Jim Crane. Like all sports once you make it to the playoffs anything can happen.
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I would love to see this happen in the wild card but as hot as Detroit is I think they get the second WC and play at Baltimore while Houston likely gets a backing in Kansas City or even more backing in Minnesota and a relatively easy two game sweep.
 
Sorry, Zealots. I've been AWOL lately. I'm still watching some games and reading stats in the DMN. Yes, I'm old, but still like a daily newspaper... mostly for sports and metro sections.

Anyway, I've been so down lately with the losses, bullpen meltdowns, injuries taking key players out of the lineup that I don't feel like posting here.

I find some solace of the magical run to the 2023 World Series Championship!!!
 
WorsterMan said:
still like a daily newspaper... mostly for sports and metro sections.
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I'm with you, WM - I like a daily newspaper. I subscribe to the DMN - great sports coverage. And DMN usually gives good in-depth and behind-the-scenes insight into the Rangers.
BTW, I also like the comics in the DMN - and I print out the Sudoku and crossword puzzles each morning.
Indeed a disappointing season for our Rangers. The offense never lived up to expectations, and I suspect CY will have to make some trades to correct that. The other issue is Eovaldi - can CY persuade ownership to sign him to a long-term contract?
 
HornHuskerDad said:
The other issue is Eovaldi - can CY persuade ownership to sign him to a long-term contract?
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This will be priority one for the off season. A rotation of deGrom, Eovaldi, Mahle, Bradford, and Rocker is a playoff contender rotation particularly with a healthy Jung, Carter, and Seager to reset a lineup that with Langford in year two and Semien as always anchoring everything should be positioned for a comeback year after a down 2024. Bochy isn’t coming back to win 75-80 games next year he will come back to manage a playoff team and WS contender so get the pieces in place for him.
 
Rangers lose their last game ever in the Oakland Coliseum this afternoon 3-2 in the most 2024 Texas Ranger kind of way. The rookie pitchers Rocker and Leiter combine for 8 full giving up just the three runs and keeping Texas in the game (something that the Ranger pitching has been able to do a lot this year with way too little run support) but the offense once again just isn't there and in a game that last year was a 7-3 or 8-3 kind of nice win for a rookie, Rocker takes a second straight tough loss. Leiter was great in relief with 3 and 1/3 scoreless and both of these young pitchers have shown enough that they will be looking to play huge roles next year as starters or long relievers or both.
 
Great article on the A's last game at Coliseum and the history leading up to it.

sports.yahoo.com

'Today there is crying in baseball'

First the Warriors bailed, followed by the Raiders and now the A’s, leaving Oakland without a major professional sports franchise for the first time since 1960.
sports.yahoo.com sports.yahoo.com
 
FWHORN said:
Great article on the A's last game at Coliseum and the history leading up to it.

sports.yahoo.com

'Today there is crying in baseball'

First the Warriors bailed, followed by the Raiders and now the A’s, leaving Oakland without a major professional sports franchise for the first time since 1960.
sports.yahoo.com sports.yahoo.com
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Too bad Oakland politicians will not change their behavior to improve the city and attract a major pro sports team.
 
Rangers win deGrom's final start of the year in Anaheim though he gets a no-decision as a pitch limit keeps him from coming out for the fifth inning. deGrom threw 4 innings of 4 hit ball giving up 1 run and striking out 5. In three starts here at the end of the year, deGrom threw 10 and 2/3 innings giving up just two runs (1.69 ERA) and more importantly 14 k's to just one walk. With deGrom it will be all about staying healthy because if he stays healthy next year the Rangers have a stud number one ace to head their rotation, but that is a big IF HE STAYS HEALTHY. I have to admit seeing deGrom and Rocker these past 3 weeks as Texas went to a six-man rotation has given some real cause for optimism as we head to the off-season, I don't know if that was CY's decision to start next year now, or Ray Davis wanting to sell some extra tickets this season and push season tickets for next year, or Bochy looking ahead, but whatever it was it paid off as the Ranger blogs and websites have been full of stuff during this run about those two and Leiter that has been forward-looking versus a September that could have been surrendered to football and just drowning our sorrows with highlights of last October's run.

Meanwhile, KC and Detroit clinched the last two wild cards in the AL last night though seeding is still to be determined. The NL race looks like it will come down to the doubleheader Monday in Atlanta making up the rainouts between the Mets and Braves.

Finally, the strangest streak in baseball still has a chance to add to its run as Will Smith the KC reliever (who is on IL) has won three straight World Series and is looking for a fourth ring with a fourth different team in four straight years. I had a post very early in this thread suggesting we pool some money and put it on KC for this very reason...........
 
Good article on Rangers 2025 TV.

For 2025, Rocker needs to develop another pitch and then learn how to pitch to major league hitters as it hasn't taken very long for MLB hitters to catch up to him. He will be fine.

As for Jung, I am cautiously optimistic, but leary of the "news" that he only needs two weeks rest. He has had two weeks of rest. This appears to me to be like the metatarsal bone that I broke in my foot in 1967. Everything is fine until the weather changes when it reminds me that I broke it. Jung's injury appears to be the same way. The team and he will have to work out a "playing plan" to give him consecutive multiple days off to rest the wrist. I would assume this solidifies Josh Smith's place on the roster.
 

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ViperHorn said:
For 2025, Rocker needs to develop another pitch and then learn how to pitch to major league hitters as it hasn't taken very long for MLB hitters to catch up to him. He will be fine.
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Agree, Viper. A straight change-up would be the ideal complement to his pitch arsenal. Remember how Nolan did when he added the circle change.
 
The Rangers trailed 7-1 through 3 innings last night but had the good fortune of playing an Angel team that is probably the worst in baseball right now (just got swept by the White Sox for crying out loud) and Texas scores 4 in the ninth to win 9-8 and get to 77 wins—one more today to close out 2024. Nathan Eovaldi is getting a somewhat surprising start and I have to wonder if this is incentive in his contract based and is an effort by Texas to show him some love and get to the front of the FA line with him or if he just wanted to end the season on a better note than his last outing in Oakland.

In contract-related stuff, yesterday the Rangers got Heaney 3 innings which got him past the 160-innings pitch threshold to earn an additional $1.5 million on the way out the door so no Pittsburgh Pirate-type move to shaft a player. Heaney was the workhorse this year as the only starter not to hit the IL this season and to start 31 games so it was a nice thank-you present for that. Plus he will always have those five scoreless innings and the win in Game Four of the World Series.
 
The AL playoff bracket is set:

Detroit at Houston, winner plays Cleveland;

Kansas City at Baltimore, winner plays the Yankees.

My gut says Houston and Baltimore win wild cards then Houston and the Yankees win the division series and then Houston wins AL pennant. Astros have best record in baseball since May when they were 13 games under .500 and they just have a pitching rotation and lineup built for playoff runs. It’s not a coincidence they have been in seven straight ALCS’, their squad is built for October and only an effort like the Rangers got last year from one of these other five will keep Houston from a fifth World Series appearance in 8 years.

National League isn’t yet set as a doubleheader tomorrow in Atlanta will determine the last two wild cards. Let’s see who goes where before I make my NL predictions.
 
Absolutely insane final two innings in game one of the ATL/NYM double header as Atlanta leads 3-0 through 7 followed by 6 in the top of the 8th for the Mets, 4 in the bottom of the 8th for the Braves, and then 2 more in the top of the ninth for the Mets culminating in an 8-7 New York Mets win.

Mets are in the playoffs and still one more game to decide if Atlanta gets in or if Arizona does. Interesting to see how the Mets play this next one, do they lay down or do they try and eliminate Atlanta. you know they wont use any pitcher that they might use in the playoffs so it will be bottom of the bullpen game for them.

Either way San Diego is loving it because both New York and Atlanta have used up their top line bullpen here in game one and Atlanta now has to use Sale in game two and basically doesn't have a starter that will be on regular rest if they play tomorrow.
 
^Given the way the doubleheader was set up, leading almost immediately into the playoffs, it almost guarantees a split of the DH. The team that wins Game 1 (Mets) is in - no reason for them to fret over Game 2. So Arizona gets left out in the cold.
 
The Mets put up almost no resistance in game two and the Braves win three to nothing to absolutely no one’s shock. The Braves head to San Diego and the Mets had to Milwaukee.

Atlanta’s pitching is toast and I have San Diego beating Atlanta in the wildcard and Milwaukee beating the Mets though that is a close call. Then I have the Dodgers beating the Padres (but will not be shocked at all if San Diego wins ) and the Phillies beating the Brewers. My pick then is the Dodgers to beat the Phillies to win the NL pennant.

If this plays out we will have a Dodgers/Astros World Series. Of course after the craziness of last year we should all expect KC-Milwaukee. 😀
 
Detroit takes game one 3-1 after Houston leaves the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth. Detroit had the AL pitching triple crown winner and likely Cy Young winner on the mound so this was the one game Detroit had the advantage in. Houston has distinct advantage for tomorrow and a likely third game Thursday so this one is far from over. KC leads 1-0 in the seventh and Milwaukee/NYM is just underway. With four games in 10 hours this really is the October madness MLB wanted with these wild cards.

It is truly weird seeing Pat Murphy manage the Brewers as all I see is him in an ASU jersey and the Horns getting two home runs in the bottom of the ninth in Omaha in 2009 or that really weird catcher interference on ball four in the 2011 super regional.
 
FWHORN said:
Poor Jordan Montgomery, thrown under the bus big time.
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If I heard correctly (not a cinch), Montgomery has a $20M player option for next year. That gives him a real dilemma - he almost certainly won't command that kind of money as a Free Agent, but the only way he can get $20M next year is to go back to the Diamondbacks after they have declared him "a mistake." Not a good situation for him.
 
KC wins game one of their wild card in Baltimore 1-0 and if Chapman had not been so important to last year and winning the ultimate prize, it would have been that much more painful watching Cole Ragans dominate today and show that he is going to be a force for several years to come. As it is we will be thinking about that trade for a while but any long term pain of watching Ragans be so good has to be measured against the Rangers probably don’t win the World Series if they don’t make that move and that is the cost of going all in as they did last year and thankfully it paid off.
 
Yesterday baseball showed again that it is the sport with the least home-field advantage in the playoffs as three of the four games go to the visitors. Last postseason, the team with the home-field advantage in the series only won 4 of the 11 series and one of those was the World Series where Texas had the home-field advantage but won 3 in Arizona—another full day today of wild card madness.
 
From a report in the DMN Bochy and CY feel that the lack of offense in 2024 revolved around the inability to hit a four-seamer fastball. This will be a focus over the winter.
 
O fer two on my wild card picks so far but can’t say I’m disappointed with being wrong on either one. KC beats Baltimore and now we are all Royals fans as they take on the Yankees. The Will Smith dream of four straight World Series wins is still alive.
 
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