Texas Rangers 2020 Thread

With 6 weeks or so left in the "season" things are beginning to shake out in the American League:


The first two in each division plus the next two make the playoff's so as of the end of the day yesterday the Yankees and Rays lead in the East with Boston and Toronto almost out of it, but the Orioles holding the best 3rd place slot.

In the Central Twins and Indians are ruling with the White Sox fighting for the second third-place slot.

Which brings us to the West. The A's are trying to run-off with the division with the Astros and Texas fighting for second and the second third-place slot. The Angels and Mariners appear to be non-factors (like most recent years). Texas and Houston play each other seven times between 15 September and the end of the season (27 September). In all likelihood that stretch will determine the 2nd automatic team, but hand the second third-place slot to the Tigers or White Sox.

 

with the Astros and Texas fighting for second and the second third-place slot.

Now are the Rangers fighting for the slot or are the Astros just going to cheat their way in again?......

 

I had forgotten the Prince Fielder "dead" money, but according to an article in the Dallas News, this is the last year of those payments (which are a part of $67 million in contracts that expire at the end of this season).

 

Rangers have now last four straight.

 

Not the season everyone wanted. Great pitching staff on paper loses one started to injury and has one underperforming. No offense is the killer (which should not be news when the organization didn't make any substantial moves in the offseason).

Woodward is not the problem.

 

Couldn't agree more, Viper. All Chris can do is make a lineup card with the players available to him. Want better results? Get better players!

 

Giving up 4 grand slams in the series .....what is that now 5 or 6 given up in the month of August?

 

7 straight losses and no break until Sep 14....we need a couple of days off.

 

Well, all it took was one lost week to make all my Ranger excitement go straight over a cliff. 8 straight losses and in a shortened season that really is all she wrote. At least the Stars and Mavs are making things exciting for DFW sports fans. I am giving the whole organization a mulligan on this season but I want to see some real lineup changes this off season.

Its time for Rougie to move on and even if it means eating a ton of cash the same goes for Choo. They need to find some solid not necessarily great arms for bullpen and get some bats into this lineup to support what is otherwise a pretty good starting rotation. Pitchers and catcher reporting for spring training for 2021 is just 5 and 1/2 short months away.

 

FWHORN, I reluctantly have to agree with you. I'm throwing in the towel on this season. And I totally agree - changes are essential. The Rangers have stood by Odor long enough - time to admit the mistake and move on. Frazier is a band-aid at 3B - they need to find a top-notch defender/hitter to take that spot. Have they given up on Guman at 1B? If so, what's the plan?
And unfortunately, with no minor league baseball thiis season, they have had limited opportunities to develop the prospects. Maybe Leody should play CF every day for the rest of this season - let him learn on the job. They can cycle the pitchers through the major league season to give them some chance to learn and grow.
This is no fault of the manager - he gets a mulligan. All he can do is fill out a line-up card with the players that are available.

 

FW, Choo is gone in a month, but your point is well taken. Lynn will be gone before the Rangers are contenders again, and Gallo had psyched himself out. Get what you can.

 

A win tonight against the A's! Nice game - now if they can win 7 more in a row, they'l be back where they were before the losing streak started.

 

Rangers need to at least split with the A's. The next 7 (Dodgers and Astro's) are going to be tough (2-5 will be a "good" result for that stretch). The positive for the LA Series is the Rangers will not see Buehler (scheduled to pitch against SF on Thursday) and probably not Kershaw (scheduled to pitch Wednesday against SF). Unfortunately, all of the LA hitters are well.

The Rangers are playing for the last AL playoff spot and will need to be north of .520 to be in contention for that. In other words, slim to none chance and slim is on the train at the station. Time to throw in every player that they "think" would ever have a solid chance of making an MLB roster.

 

Well, I'll be! A very nice win over the Dodgers last night. Sure would be nice to get a series win against them. Rangers have climbed back into third in the AL West by 1/2 game over Seattle. The effects of the long losing streak will be very difficult (if not impossible) to overcome, but it's a start. And so far, I really like Tavaras in CF.

 

A nice win. If Tavaras stays generally healthy he will be a force for many seasons. Same with Trevino and Solak

 

^Viper, I agree on both Solak and Trevino. One question - what's the defensive plan for Solak? Where does he play on defense?

 

I believe 2B is his natural position. He did well in CF, but Tavaras' play has taken CF out of the equation.

IK-F seems to be at home at SS, so the infield spots left open are 3B and 1B. 1B is a seems to be a "Fill-In-Here" with who has a hot bat.

 

If Allard pitches consistently like he did last night the Rangers have something.

 

Really wish the Ranger bats would reward outings like last night. I agree if Allard can consistently pitch like last night, the Rangers will have a very solid starter for next year.

 

^I'm aboard with that. The young man pitched extremely well and got no reward for it because the offense couldn't give him run suport. I like his prospects as a starter going forward.

 

Almost unbelievable but if the season were to end today, the Yankees and the Nationals would join the Rangers in calling it a season when 1/2 of the teams in MLB make the postseason.

 

Wouldnt the Yankees be in with the expanded 8 team playoffs as one of the W/C's?

 

They have fallen to the third best third place record. Only the top two third place teams make it.

 

Yankees are battling the Blue Jays and Orioles for second and third in the AL East. Looks like the O's are starting slip (although they did beat the Yankees on Saturday). Looks like there will be 3 from the AL Central and only 2 from the West. So Yankees/Orioles are fighting Detroit for the last 3rd place advancer.

 

From 10-9 the Rangers are on a stellar 3-16 run. Talk about driving off a cliff into an active volcano.

 

^^^^^From a team who thought they could make a run at the playoffs before the pandemic. I guess they slept through the last half of the 2019 just like the rest of us.

 

3-17.

 

3-18 and Rangers now have worst record in MLB, percentage points behind the Pirates who also have just 13 wins but less losses.

 

Thanks, FW. I was going to post the same thing but decided to wait a week so there would be no way to climb out of the dig to China that they seem to be on.

 

We have to be close to some record on GIVING up grand slams in 1 season........