Texas Rangers 2017 Thread

[FWHORN]

Rangers close this season with 5-2 loss to the A’s and end year 78-84. Highlights include 41 home runs for Gallo and 100 RBI’s for Mazara. The top three starters Hamels, Perez and Cashner go 11-6, 13-12, and 11-11 respectively. Beltre blew past 3000 hits with ease and led the team in hitting. Sadly the lowlights far exceeded the highlights and included Rougie barely hitting over .200 and a team record for strikeouts. Above I gave my thoughts on focus for the offseason, the Rangers need to find two starters, shore up the bullpen and solidifying the outfield would sure be nice. See you in February unless the hot stove league provides any excitement.

 

[HornHuskerDad]

FWHORN, I have to agree - it was a very disappointing season. JD will have a lot of retooling to do in the off-season - there are at least two holes to plug in the rotation, and the bullpen has to be upgraded. IMO, Napoli is gone, and probably Gomez also (it would be nice to keep him, but the budget priority has to be pitching). So far I'm impressed with Calhoun - if they can work with him to get average (or better) defense, he's a keeper. Odor has to get the average up - .240 would be OK if he keeps driving in runs. Also need to assess 3B - is Beltre good for another year or two defensively? If so, Gallo needs a place to play every day. Choo to 1B? That would be a way to keep his bat in the lineup and minimize the wear-and-tear on his legs - and I can't imagine that he has any trade value at all. If that happens, where does Gallo play?

Lots of decisions to be made - should be an interesting off-season.

 

[ViperHorn]

Two SP's; a closer; and two bats - seems like this is what we have been saying for the past couple of off season's. Plus now you have to find an everyday home for Galo, and beef up an infield that really only has one championship caliber player (Andrus-and that is a stretch).

Everyone who knows anything about the minor leagues is saying all of the Rangers' talent is below AA with Calhoun being the only one above AA that has a good chance of making it in the majors.

Then, even if Houston loses 10% more games next season, they will still be over 90 games so that is the target. Can tinkering bring this team back to 90+ wins?

Add to the above coaching (hitting and pitching coaches should have already been let go) and management issues, and a real mess unfolds. What all of this means is spending a ton of money which I doubt ownership will do.

We can all hope some of Harman's pixie dust somehow finds its way to the Ballpark.

 

[HornHuskerDad]

JD has to walk a very fine line - the Rangers need o be top-level contenders when the new ballpark opens, yet there will not be a lot of interest in season tickets if the team is not competitive in the meantime. He could trade every veteran with any value for prospects in order to build for the future, but that would make the team bottom-feeders in the short run. There is money to spend from the new TV deal, but it has to go for pitching (rotation and bullpen). To complicate the situation, the farm system has been depleted of top prospects in the last few major trades; the players on the farm are not yet ready to step up to the big club.

JD has his work cut out for him.

 

[ViperHorn]

So now we know the bullpen issue was the coach; not the lack o talent. Wow!

 

[HornHuskerDad]

^Changes in the coaching staff were expected - the traditional sacrificial goat. However, that does not override the fact that the players have to perform - and they didn't this season. Possible solutions - (a) get the current players to perform better or (b) get better players. I expect we'll see some of both of these approaches.