Texas Rangers Thread

[DIAF]

 

[bobtheflob]

I wonder what the Rays rotation will look like. With Price pitching (and getting bombed) in their last game, it'll be a few days until he can go again, the Rangers will only see him once.

My guess is they'll go with Shields, Hellickson, then Price, with Shields and Hellickson pitching on short rest.

Man I wish they'd had to play that one game playoff. Even so, their pitching won't be nearly as fresh as the Rangers.

 

[YosemiteSam]

Holland named game two starter. Washington said he hasn't decided on the game three starter yet.

 

[DIAF]

Holland named game two starter. Washington said he hasn't decided on the game three starter yet.

Told ya

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

Bring on the Rays. Much rather seen the Sox since they are in a tail spin, but **** it. This is for a championship. We (Rangers fans) should be happy, that we don't have to face the Tigers. If we do? The Yankees blow ***. (completely true anyhow) if it happens.

Yankees don't get dollar value anyhow obviously. Even if they won, dollar value wouldn't be there. Of course idiot Yankee fans would think it would because they won. Idiots, of course. It isn't their money. Win at all cost except theirs.

It's not your money either NYC. Why sweating it? If the Yankees win a championship, I'm sure that they will think it's well worth the money spent. Of course, you can continue to think that it is not. That's why I love this country.

 

[YosemiteSam]

It's not your money either NYC. Why sweating it? If the Yankees win a championship, I'm sure that they will think it's well worth the money spent. Of course, you can continue to think that it is not. That's why I love this country.

I was sick as a dog last night when I wrote that. I'm still sick, but last night I was in really bad shape. :laugh2:

 

[Stautner]

Hey DAIF, are you still waiting for Harrison to fall into the abyss? As I recall, 4 months ago it was inevitable that both Harrison and Ogando were on the verge of collapse, and you claimed to have stats that proved that to be a certainty. Seems like they both had pretty strong seasons, and seems like your stats weren't so infallible after all.

I also recall you were absolutely certain the Rangers just weren't as good a team as last year and were incapable of keeping the pace or accomplishing what they did last year. Of course, your claims that they weren't playing as well as last year wasn't supported by the facts, and as it turns out the Rangers actually ended with a better record than last year despite getting more of a challange from the Angels this year.

Al that certain doom ... spending all season moaning and groaning about the certainty that things just can't happen and that anything positive was coming to a certain end ... and none of it proved to be so certain after all.

All's good though. We made the playoffs in great shape, and are hot at the moment. No guarantees, but I like the positioin we are in.

 

[DIAF]

Hey DAIF, are you still waiting for Harrison to fall into the abyss? As I recall, 4 months ago it was inevitable that both Harrison and Ogando were on the verge of collapse, and you claimed to have stats that proved that to be a certainty. Seems like they both had pretty strong seasons, and seems like your stats weren't so infallible after all.

I also recall you were absolutely certain the Rangers just weren't as good a team as last year and were incapable of keeping the pace or accomplishing what they did last year. Of course, your claims that they weren't playing as well as last year wasn't supported by the facts, and as it turns out the Rangers actually ended with a better record than last year despite getting more of a challange from the Angels this year.

Al that certain doom ... spending all season moaning and groaning about the certainty that things just can't happen and that anything positive was coming to a certain end ... and none of it proved to be so certain after all.

All's good though. We made the playoffs in great shape, and are hot at the moment. No guarantees, but I like the positioin we are in.

Harrison and Ogando did fall back down to earth in the 2nd half. Especially Ogando, his ERA in the 2nd half was something like 4.60 and his k/bb ratio, opponents batting average against, and WHIP soared.

And I did say that I thought we would still win the West, because the Angels weren't good enough to catch this team. I still don't feel good about the playoffs or next season. Hopefully the team can continue to keep mashing its way through into October, but pitching wins in the post-season and the Rangers don't have enough of it. Colby Lewis, Ogando - based on their 2nd half performances you can't really trust them. Heck, Wash is sticking Ogando back in the pen for the playoffs, so I guess we see what he thinks of all this. We have to hope for some gargantuan efforts from CJ and Dutch. Who would have thought that out of Colbyashi, Ogando, and Harrison that Harrison would have been the most dependable out of those three, yikes.

 

[cowboyeric8]

I'm nervous for my boys tomorrow. Being a life long Rangers fan, it still seems weird to me to watch the Rangers in the playoffs. Lol.

I hope the bats stay hot, and CJ can pitch how he has lately. It should be fun.

 

[Rogah]

I'm nervous for my boys tomorrow. Being a life long Rangers fan, it still seems weird to me to watch the Rangers in the playoffs. Lol.

I hope the bats stay hot, and CJ can pitch how he has lately. It should be fun.

Tampa Bay is a tired team. They are starting a pitcher with 1 career start in his career (seriously, I can't ever think of an example in baseball history where that has happened in the playoffs, let alone happened in a game 1). Rangers at home with one of the best offenses against one of the worst ones in the AL.

All signs point to a Texas win! And that scares the daylights out of me.

 

[YosemiteSam]

Welp, time to get this party started.

Stupid thing is, the game starts right as I leave work and my commute is 1 1/2 hours. :bang2:

 

[StanleySpadowski]

Tampa Bay is a tired team. They are starting a pitcher with 1 career start in his career (seriously, I can't ever think of an example in baseball history where that has happened in the playoffs, let alone happened in a game 1). Rangers at home with one of the best offenses against one of the worst ones in the AL.

All signs point to a Texas win! And that scares the daylights out of me.

It's happened several times in MLB history that a pitcher with just a few previous starts has started a playoff game.

And don't sleep on Moore. Saw him last week in New York and he has some of the best "stuff" I've seen this year.

 

[YosemiteSam]

It's the playoffs. All bets are off. You've got to take each game one at a time. I've seen rookies come in and own and I've seen seasoned vets implode.

I don't expect to win nor to I expect to lose. I just expect the games to be played. If the dice roll the Rangers way, then I'm good.

If you look at the Rays, they are following a similar path that the Giants did last year. Basically backed into the playoffs and one thing they have right now is pitching. I wouldn't count them out at all. They could easily go all the way.

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

It's happened several times in MLB history that a pitcher with just a few previous starts has started a playoff game.

And don't sleep on Moore. Saw him last week in New York and he has some of the best "stuff" I've seen this year.

Exactly right Stan. A lot of very smart Baseball people say that he might have better stuff then Strasburg. Don't be fooled by his experience level. He has electric stuff.

 

[DIAF]

Matt Moore is a super-prospect. He's not some fill-in scrub career minorleaguer.

 

[YosemiteSam]

Matt Moore is a super-prospect. He's not some fill-in scrub career minorleaguer.

The Cowboys should have traded him to the Rangers instead of cutting him! :

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

It's the playoffs. All bets are off. You've got to take each game one at a time. I've seen rookies come in and own and I've seen seasoned vets implode.

I don't expect to win nor to I expect to lose. I just expect the games to be played. If the dice roll the Rangers way, then I'm good.

If you look at the Rays, they are following a similar path that the Giants did last year. Basically backed into the playoffs and one thing they have right now is pitching. I wouldn't count them out at all. They could easily go all the way.

I would not say they backed into the playoffs. In September, they won 17 games. They went 8-2 in their last 10 games. That's better then the Yankees who won 16 games in Sept. and 5-5 over the last 10. Better then the Rangers who went 15 games and went 9-1 over their last ten. The only team that was better was Detroit who won 20 games in Sept. and went 7-3 over their last 10.

I think they had the longer road but I think they played some good baseball in September to play their way in. Might just be semantics here.

I do agree, however, that they are heavily relying on pitching. They have three decent pitchers. Game 1 is Moore 1-0 with a 2.89 ERA, Game 2 is Shields 16-12 with a 2.82 ERA, Game 3 will probably be Hellickson 13-10 2.95 ERA, Game 4 will probably be Price who is not great but OK. He was 12-13 with a 3.49 ERA but he did have 218 SOs so if he can stay away from the big innings, he could be tough. I expect they will probably come back with Moore if he pitches well and assuming no sweep in game 5.

Rays could be tough. I can see why you compare them to the Giants. They could be getting hot at the right time.

 

[YosemiteSam]

I would not say they backed into the playoffs. In September, they won 17 games.

You're right. They had a great September, but it also took a collapse of epic proportions for them to make the playoffs on the final day of the season. By epic proportions, I mean the Rays had to win 17 games in September, but only only that; the Redsox had to lose 20 games in that same month for them to get the wildcard!

If the Redsox won a single of those 20 games they lost, the Rays would be at home right now.

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

You're right. They had a great September, but it also took a collapse of epic proportions for them to make the playoffs on the final day of the season. By epic proportions, I mean the Rays had to win 17 games in September, but only only that; the Redsox had to lose 20 games in that same month for them to get the wildcard!

If the Redsox won a single of those 20 games they lost, the Rays would be at home right now.

I think it's fair to say that the Sox collapsed but I don't think that this equates to the Rays backing in. They played great Baseball. To me, backing in is losing games but somebody else losing more games in order to allow you to back in. In this case, I would say that the Sox collapsed and the Rays played their way in by taking advantage of an opportunity.


That's just me.

 

[StylisticS]

Matt Moore is a great prospect and it should be a very interesting game. However, his first start was against a watered down Yankee lineup. No Cano, no A-Rod, no Granderson. Tex and Jeter only had 2 ABs and was taken out of the game after Tampa beat up Colon early. But the Rangers are still going into a game where they simply don't know. Well at least that's what we assume.