Texas Rangers 2018 Thread

They got one Top 10 in the system talent. But depth does help. Not just for development, but for future trades. Deep farm systems are important.
 
After watching the O's in the last series with them, and now 2 games this week, we can be glad we don't live in Mary Land.
 
Gallo hit number 29 last night as Rangers beat a terrible Orioles team for third straight night and Gallo homered for third straight night. Barring a collapse he will hit 40 plus dingers for second straight season. Yet he is still batting a paltry .194. He has 65 RBI's and is slugging .479 with an OPS of .786. Compare that to Odor who has only 13 home runs but a slugging percentage of .474 and an OPS of .828. Gallo is now completely a feast or famine hitter and that is not sustainable.

Its the K's that still make everything about him seem glass half full. I cant see a scenario where the Rangers get rid of him absent a Herschel Walker like trade which just doesnt happen in MLB so Vipers thought of getting him instructional help whether it be with a hitting coach who has dealt with someone his size, a psychiatrist, or hell a navajo faith healer, whatever it takes to get him right with ball and get that hitting average up and drop the K figure into something Pujols like is desperately needed.

Lone Star Ball has theory that Gallo is just a second half player arguing:

"...in 2017, Gallo finally became a full time, everyday regular in the big leagues and though it took some adjusting, he finally broke out with a .229/.357/.572 slash line with 20 dingers in just 62 games in the second half. That had us seeing 50 dongs and and easy All-Star appearance dancing in our heads for this season.

Instead, Gallo came out this year and trudged along to a first half slash line and pretty much had half the fanbase ready to just give up on him. So far, in this year’s second half, Gallo is going off to the tune of a .244/.392/.707 slash with seven of his 29 dingers coming since the break."

https://www.lonestarball.com/2018/8...s-victory-baltimore-orioles-vladimir-guerrero
 
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FWHORN said:
in 2017, Gallo finally became a full time, everyday regular in the big leagues and though it took some adjusting, he finally broke out with a .229/.357/.572 slash line with 20 dingers in just 62 games in the second half.
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FWHORN, I like the line of thinking. Gallo is never going to be a .300 hitter. If I could dream up something like .240-.250, 35-45 HRs, and 110-120 RBI year after year, I'd declare that a major victory. If the Ranger zealots remember, we used to bemoan the fact that Juan Gonzales was a sucker for the slider low and away and struck out a lot - but we really remember the homers and RBIs.
 
Big Sexy finally gets win number 246 to be Latin America's all time winningest pitcher all by himself as the Rangers beat Seattle 11-4. Big sexy is three years younger than me, I am speechless that he is still an effective pitcher at that age and with that body.

Way to go Bartolo!:texasflag:
 
Big Sexy got win number 247 last night but big news is Beltre pulled up lame and is likely headed back to DL. Rangers sit on 53 wins and have real shot at 70 wins which is above the 67 win mark I had them pegged at. The youngsters are getting a lot of playing time and hopefully that pays off next year and in 2020.

Adrian Beltre leaves game with hamstring injury
 
FWHORN said:
big news is Beltre pulled up lame and is likely headed back to DL
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How shocking! Put Profar there as the permanent regular Ranger 3B. Kiner-Falefa can be the infield relief; get rid of a pitcher on the backend of the bullpen; and bring an infielder up now. If that doesn't work, find two experienced infielders over the winter as the infield back-ups. Need at least 10 more wins in 2019 than what they are going to end up with this season.
 
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The lineup is potent. Gallo for all his batting average failings has a decent on base percentage to go with home run and RBI numbers like elite major leaguers.
 
After last night Gallo is sitting on 32 home runs and 75 RBIs and with 38 games to play his average has crossed the Mendoza line up to .203. He has been hot for over a month (hitting .314 in last 30 days) and is outpacing his second half run last year which as noted in article in one of my posts above was pretty strong. Question is can he do this over a season long stretch and not just 60 game stretches where the other 100 games are putrid. Rangers are on 55 wins and its more and more likely that they will get to 70. I agree with Viper that next year they should be a .500 team and if they can do that and get some pitching then 2020 in new stadium may be start of another run.
 
The growing concern is the rise of the A's and Mainers. With 19 games with each team in the division, it is going to be tough.
 
FWHORN said:
After last night Gallo is sitting on 32 home runs and 75 RBIs and with 38 games to play his average has crossed the Mendoza line up to .203. He has been hot for over a month (hitting .314 in last 30 days) and is outpacing his second half run last year which as noted in article in one of my posts above was pretty strong. Question is can he do this over a season long stretch and not just 60 game stretches where the other 100 games are putrid. Rangers are on 55 wins and its more and more likely that they will get to 70. I agree with Viper that next year they should be a .500 team and if they can do that and get some pitching then 2020 in new stadium may be start of another run.
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I have fears we'll get frustrated and trade him undervalue and he'll become CDavis for a few years. He is frustrating, but has value.
 
Gallo was hitting .323 in the Carolina League and .314 in Frisco before selling out all contact for power in AAA and with the Rangers. I'm not sure who got into his head, but it's the same advisors that seem to be with all the big names in MLB. Sacrifice HRs for Ks. There are going to be more strikeouts in league history this year than any other.
 
The in-laws had tickets for the Rangers so I made it out to Globe Life last night for my second and probably last game of year. The stadium had to be 40% Dodger fans and the eruption when Puig hit a triple made it feel like Dodger stadium. The Rangers offense was putrid though some of that is because the Dodger pitcher Wood was pretty dominant. Minor has been the best Ranger pitcher all season and he was hard luck loser going six full and giving up just two runs on two hits (both solo HR's). The Rangers are on track to win between 67 and 72 games. The only real questions for September are if Rangers will have Colon pitch or transition to younger pitchers to give them a taste of MLB hitters and whether Gallo can keep pushing his batting average up to the 220 range while hitting 40 HR's and somewhere just south of 100 RBI's.
 
No reason not to use September as one long tryout. Rangers have to come to grips with all of their pitching and hitting issues. Minor needs to be shutdown as he and Leclerec should be the only two pitchers to carry over to 2019. Profar Guzman and Andrus are the infielders to keep. Nomar is the only outfielder worth keeping.

Everyone else on the 40 man should be moved for the right price (which should not be very high). Gallo is borderline, but really hasn't improved year over year. 2019 could be worse than 2018 as they have to field competitive teams after 2019.
 
Viper I agree with all your sentiments except on Gallo, if he ends year in 220 range with 40 HR’s and close to 100 RBI’s then I can not only live with that but see him as piece for future. I don’t see any takers for Odor or Choo but who knows and Beltre is not going anywhere but I don’t mind another year with him he has earned it.
 
FWHORN said:
Viper I agree with all your sentiments except on Gallo, if he ends year in 220 range with 40 HR’s and close to 100 RBI’s then I can not only live with that but see him as piece for future. I don’t see any takers for Odor or Choo but who knows and Beltre is not going anywhere but I don’t mind another year with him he has earned it.
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Agree on Beltre, Odor and Choo. The biggest issue with Gallo is his inability to come through with a clutch hit on a consistent basis. All of the good pitchers in the league know how to get a K from him in those situations. I am sure they will keep him, but 2019 should be his last season with the Rangers unless he can show consistent improvement. He will be a liability in the new stadium without the consistency.
 
Texas is 61-82 with 19 left to play so the probability is they will just miss the 100 loss stigma. This is worse than the 71-84 of 2017, but that has been obvious since the second week of the season.

The real issue is that they will have no hope of a vast improvement in 2019 or 2020 (on the filed - not attendance as the new ballpark will bring in more money) unless they spend big bucks in retooling with young but good prospects and critical position free agents. Their current "good" prospects are in lower than AA so who knows.
 
ViperHorn said:
unless they spend big bucks in retooling with young but good prospects and critical position free agents.
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Viper, you're absolutely correct. Then Rangers are in reasonable shape for position players, but the future pitchers are a ways off - if there is money to spend on Free Agents, it will need to go to starting pitchers. If they don't upgrade the rotation a whole bunch, they will open the new ballpark with a middle-of-the-pack team at best.
 
With 87 losses and 11 games remaining the Rangers will escape the 100 loss season. Banister has made a few errors, but IMHO not enough to get canned. The season's failure rests squarely on JD's and the owner's shoulders. (The owners because they permitted the club to go through a season with very little major league quality pitching.)
The Rangers will end the season with 2 pitchers that belong on a Major League Roster - Minor and LeClerc. I don't see them signing 4 starters and 7 or 8 relievers in the off season. But that is a discussion for the Hot Stove League. At least the post season appears to be very competitive.
 
I am not sure they even get to my mid season prediction of 67 wins as they stumble to the finish line. Gallo continues to have a good though not great second half. Viper is right about the pitching, this team has to retool everything from the starting lineup to basically the entire bullpen. I tend to think that management told JD if we are going to be mediocre just don't spend anything and lets go be full time suck for a couple of years with eye on 2020 and the new stadium, So while this season in a vacuum isn't JD's fault I do hold JD accountable for getting us to point where management could go that way. I don't hold Banni responsible for this at all, he is doing best he can with crap he was given. I think he gets pass on next year too if they give him similar garbage pitching and team but they may want fresh manager to go with new stadium so we will see.
 
ViperHorn said:
Banister out.
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Viper, I'm very disappointed in this firing. Banister did the very best job possible with the limited resources he was provided. He was given virtually no pitching staff at all. He was given young prospects who were brought up ahead of their time (Guzman, Kiner-Falefa, for a couple). I don't see how anyone could have expected more than Banister and the patchwork lineup delivered.
But I suppose there had to be a human sacrifice, and Banister was the nominee. Now the next question is this - who can the Rangers hire to manage next year (with little improvement in the roster) and into the next ballpark?
 
I agree with you HHD, but whether it was now or at the end of next season he was going to get canned before moving into the new ballpark.
The story that I read had quotes from JD saying the younger players were not responding to his coaching. Whatever. JD now has to make a splash hire, but who worthy of a splash hire is going to step in this mess? They will be close to 100 losses next year so why bother?
 
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