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Texas Rangers 2023 - They're Still Shitty?


ztejas

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1 minute ago, Constant said:

Going to the parade tomorrow. 

I think I am too. We were invited by Berkeley One, one of our HNW carrier partners. They have some setup at Texas Live. When I mentioned the invite to my wife, she said: "Well, you're going, right?" So, yes, probably going.

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2 hours ago, tokamak said:

So appropriate that this pic includes someone dropping a 5 spot on the Rangers in the top of the 2nd. We've all sat through a bunch of long ass nights like that. They probably lost this game like 13-7.

And the wind knocked three Jeff Burroughs home runs back into the LF's glove.

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10 minutes ago, mdmost said:

So many high school weeknights when I was finally able to drive were spent sitting out in those crappy outfield bleachers eating ballpark nachos and yelling things at the visiting outfielders. 16 year old mdmost never thought we'd be at this point today. It feels nice.

Arlington_-_Outfield_V2T.jpg

Damn, I might be in that pick.  We used to go after school.  Loved me some $4 tickets.

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1 hour ago, Herbie Hancock said:

I'm not gonna calm down, and I'm probably not gonna sober up for at least another 48 hours.

cc09e60b8fff54432d04cf494d974465.jpg


Nate fuckin Eovaldi. I think at one point last night he was 1 for 11 on first pitch strike/batters faced. SRV would have been proud because that motherfucker walked the tightrope. Dude eats concertina wire and pisses napalm.

Big. Game. Nate.

Career 2.84 FIP in 79.2 postseason innings.

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19 minutes ago, gofuckyourself said:

Once upon a time, when I still lived in Dallas in fact, I used to do video editing.

So I decided to dust off the skills and really slow down one of Seager's home run swings.

Confirmed that yeah, it's outta here ...

seager-curse-bomb.gif.66477300d70b1c6fe5b8fc491b467eda.gif

His swing is a thing of beauty. No wasted motion.

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I was reading the CY article in The Athletic this morning and it was talking about they started hot but then struggled the next 40 or so games. He called a meeting of his personnel folks and went around the room to find out what everyone thought. Did they think it was smart to go all in or not.  

CY said ultimately that during the meeting he just kept thinking that he believed in the locker room and that these guys would keep fighting, he just needed to get them some help.

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9 minutes ago, CowtownHorn said:

Man, how I wish my dad could have been here to see this. Biggest Rangers fan ever. I was on the phone with him in 2011 when we needed one more strike. I’ve never heard such a crushed, disappointed reaction from my dad. All he ever wanted was to see one title. He passed away in 2019. Well, yesterday was my birthday and we won it on that particular day. Somehow, I feel like he had a part in that. And by the way…that’s my daughter with him…keep the comments clean assholes. 

IMG_0934.jpeg

Got any current pics of the daughter?

You know, just for comparison.

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45 minutes ago, Beau Vine said:
Dad took me to my first Rangers game in their inaugural season in 1972; I was 5.  I don't remember the date or the opponent, but looking at b-ref, I'm pretty sure it had to be May 21st against the Twins because that was a doubleheader and dad was insanely cheap and if he was going to spend $2/ticket for a MLB game, he was going to get two games for it.  The Rangers swept the Twins that day behind pitching from guys named Jim Panther and Jim Shellenback.  WHO?  Exactly.   Anyways, there were a lot more doubleheaders back in those days, and we'd always go to doubleheaders, especially on the annual Farm and Ranch Night.  Farm and Ranch Night featured sponsorship and advertising from farming businesses, and -- this sounds too absurd to believe, but -- between games, players from both teams would compete in "ranch games" -- there was a cow-milking contest, a hog-calling contest, an egg toss, and a couple of more I can't remember.  The Rangers were an extremely inept and dismal franchise back then, so winning the Farm and Ranch Night games thanks to the hog-calling skills of pitcher Jackie Brown seemed like kind of a big deal.  And when the Rangers traded for Gaylord Perry in 1975, the thing that no  analysts evaluating the trade picked up on was that Perry was not only a future Hall of Fame pitcher, but he also ran a farm in NC, which allowed him to absolutely dominate Farm and Ranch Night for three glorious years.  That's how shitty it was being a Rangers fan when I was a kid.

Anyways, about the time I started counting outs remaining last night, Farm and Ranch Night memories got stuck in my head and I spent most of the last few innings trying to make sense of this and trying to imagine Max Scherzer milking a cow between games, and Seager and Semien tossing an egg in the outfield, and Nate Lowe screaming into a microphone to attract pigs.  And it hit me how absurd all that would be and how much life had changed.  Though I did decide that Evan Carter would somehow either be good at the Farm and Ranch games or at least try 10 times harder than anyone else to win.

I was at the Twins doubleheader in '72, sitting in the right-center bleachers.  I was 12.  We gave the Twins CF Bobby Darwin all kinds of shit.  A just-turned 21 Bert Blyleven started one of the games for Minnesota.

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Official 12 minute highlights. I like the way they mix the audio from different broadcasts.

I don't think it's been said yet but seriously hat tip to Gallen. He fucking dominated us for 6 innings. Even Seager's and Garver's hits in the 7th were just grounders that found holes.

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13 minutes ago, CowtownHorn said:

Man, how I wish my dad could have been here to see this. Biggest Rangers fan ever. I was on the phone with him in 2011 when we needed one more strike. I’ve never heard such a crushed, disappointed reaction from my dad. All he ever wanted was to see one title. He passed away in 2019. Well, yesterday was my birthday and we won it on that particular day. Somehow, I feel like he had a part in that. And by the way…that’s my daughter with him…keep the comments clean assholes. 

IMG_0934.jpeg

Happy birthday! Mine's today. Mentioned it yesterday but the Texas Rangers and I both came Into existence the same year so I felt like it was kismet. If we'd gotten into an extended, extra-inning game it could've made it past midnight to my actual birthday. It looked like we were headed there as Eovaldi and Gallen traded zeroes. I did stay up watching Fox Sports 1 and MLB Network and reading all you assholes' comments on here well past midnight, though.

 

7 minutes ago, Post Oak said:

I was reading the CY article in The Athletic this morning and it was talking about they started hot but then struggled the next 40 or so games. He called a meeting of his personnel folks and went around the room to find out what everyone thought. Did they think it was smart to go all in or not.  

CY said ultimately that during the meeting he just kept thinking that he believed in the locker room and that these guys would keep fighting, he just needed to get them some help.

Dave Raymond was recounting a Jankowski story on The Ticket this AM. Said he asked Janks when he felt this team could do something special like win it all. He said he had a moment when he first walked into the clubhouse during the first day of Spring Training. He said everybody was so loose and welcoming and it just built from there. These guys really and truly love each other, it appears. Jankowski was told at the end of spring that there wasn't room for him on the 26-man. They came back to Arlington and played a couple exhibitions and still no room for Janks. But they ultimately decided to start the year with Leody on the DL, which opened up a spot for Jankowski. He stayed on the active roster all season. His clip that was shared yesterday about being ready for when you get the call was incredible. It was from before Adolis got hurt. Be ready. Boy, was he? He delivered a couple big blows in the Game 4 win, which gave the Rangers a 3-1 lead.

It's really amazing the amount of adversity this team overcame. I'm on a text thread with two good buddies and it's very Rangers/Golf centric. At one point, I was bemoaning the amount of injuries this team endured -- deGrom goes down early, then Seager misses a big chunk, Jonah Heim got hurt, then Eovaldi and Jung and then Max. (I'm sure I'm missing some stuff too.) None of it ultimately mattered and these guys saw it across the finish line. What an amazing group of guys.

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2 minutes ago, tokamak said:

Official 12 minute highlights. I like the way they mix the audio from different broadcasts.

I don't think it's been said yet but seriously hat tip to Gallen. He fucking dominated us for 6 innings. Even Seager's and Garver's hits in the 7th were just grounders that found holes.

The aforementioned Raymond was on The Ticket yesterday and he was talking about Gallen. He noted that he was up to 230 total innings for the season going into Game 4. Remarked that he felt Gallen was simply out of gas at this point. He was as good as he could be for six innings. Luckily Eovaldi didn't blink and kept us in the game long enough for us to finally get to Gallen.

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1 minute ago, C-Man said:

Happy birthday! Mine's today. Mentioned it yesterday but the Texas Rangers and I both came Into existence the same year so I felt like it was kismet. If we'd gotten into an extended, extra-inning game it could've made it past midnight to my actual birthday. It looked like we were headed there as Eovaldi and Gallen traded zeroes. I did stay up watching Fox Sports 1 and MLB Network and reading all you assholes' comments on here well past midnight, though.

 

Dave Raymond was recounting a Jankowski story on The Ticket this AM. Said he asked Janks when he felt this team could do something special like win it all. He said he had a moment when he first walked into the clubhouse during the first day of Spring Training. He said everybody was so loose and welcoming and it just built from there. These guys really and truly love each other, it appears. Jankowski was told at the end of spring that there wasn't room for him on the 26-man. They came back to Arlington and played a couple exhibitions and still no room for Janks. But they ultimately decided to start the year with Leody on the DL, which opened up a spot for Jankowski. He stayed on the active roster all season. His clip that was shared yesterday about being ready for when you get the call was incredible. It was from before Adolis got hurt. Be ready. Boy, was he? He delivered a couple big blows in the Game 4 win, which gave the Rangers a 3-1 lead.

It's really amazing the amount of adversity this team overcame. I'm on a text thread with two good buddies and it's very Rangers/Golf centric. At one point, I was bemoaning the amount of injuries this team endured -- deGrom goes down early, then Seager misses a big chunk, Jonah Heim got hurt, then Eovaldi and Jung and then Max. (I'm sure I'm missing some stuff too.) None of it ultimately mattered and these guys saw it across the finish line. What an amazing group of guys.

Happy Birthday to you as well. Holy crap…I’m one day older than you. 1972 was a good year. 

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10 minutes ago, Surly Bevo said:


Really didn’t see him much in all the post game. And it looked like he was ticked when he got pulled. That said good on him for holding it together this post season.

I didn't really notice that about him not being around for the postgame. I saw him on the stage but that's about it. I definitely did notice he was very upset in the dugout. But he should be used to that by now. Bochy doesn't have that absolute confidence that he can get himself out of jams. And he will get pulled at the slightest sense of adversity happened. The move to go get Sborz was awesome. Chapman can unravel way too easily out there. 

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Chapman was front and center in one of the champagne soaked speeches I saw last night, can't remember if it was Bochy or CY.

What a night. What a feeling. I watched the Mavs close in 2011 at the AAC watch party and last night at the Globe Life watch party and the atmosphere was incredible. I can't describe the vibration of 20,000 people collectively healing and rejoicing 

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6 minutes ago, cmontexas said:

Chapman was front and center in one of the champagne soaked speeches I saw last night, can't remember if it was Bochy or CY.

What a night. What a feeling. I watched the Mavs close in 2011 at the AAC watch party and last night at the Globe Life watch party and the atmosphere was incredible. I can't describe the vibration of 20,000 people collectively healing and rejoicing 

He was standing front and center for some of the trophy stuff out on the field too. He seemed happy like the rest. He did a good job this post season. 

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17 minutes ago, Vic Mackey said:

I didn't really notice that about him not being around for the postgame. I saw him on the stage but that's about it. I definitely did notice he was very upset in the dugout. But he should be used to that by now. Bochy doesn't have that absolute confidence that he can get himself out of jams. And he will get pulled at the slightest sense of adversity happened. The move to go get Sborz was awesome. Chapman can unravel way too easily out there. 

Cameras caught Chapman all smiles and happy next to his bestie Garcia. I didn't get any vibes of discontent or angst-- he was thrilled with winning it all.

That said, I don't want to bring him back next year.

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1 minute ago, BeardIP said:

Cameras caught Chapman all smiles and happy next to his bestie Garcia. I didn't get any vibes of discontent or angst-- he was thrilled with winning it all.

That said, I don't want to bring him back next year.


51 seasons without chappy: 0 World Series trophies

 

1 season with chappy: 1 World Series trophy

 

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4 minutes ago, BeardIP said:

Cameras caught Chapman all smiles and happy next to his bestie Garcia. I didn't get any vibes of discontent or angst-- he was thrilled with winning it all.

That said, I don't want to bring him back next year.

Ahhh ok. I was watching with sound off (fuck you Smoltz) and was already well into my bottle of Woodford by that point. I thought I saw Chapman kind of upset in the dugout right after he was pulled. Maybe not. 

And absolutely agree. I want no part of the Chapman adventure any longer. He just isn't that same dominant force he was with the Cubs. Guys like that, who really only have one trick, once that is picked up on and you have nothing left to fall back onto, see a sharp decline in how effective they are. No one fears Chapman anymore. Seems he just winds up, throws as hard as he can and hopes for the best. He made me nervous as fuck last night. But he did a good job to get those 2 outs and also did a good job getting out of that jam he put himself in during game 3. He was apart of this ride for the good and the bad. Thankfully, the rails never came all the way for him in the playoffs. Believe the only game the bullpen blew was game 5 Houston, right? 

Edited by Vic Mackey
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Cameras caught Chapman all smiles and happy next to his bestie Garcia. I didn't get any vibes of discontent or angst-- he was thrilled with winning it all.
That said, I don't want to bring him back next year.

Seattle, Tampa, Colorado, San Diego or Milwaukee should sign him up since while he is a wild ride between the 2016 Cubs and the 2023 Rangers he seems to be on teams that break long WS winless streaks.
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It's still surreal to me. Game 6 of the 2011 World Series was a gut punch to me as a fan. For the longest time I thought my team would only be known as the team that was one strike away from winning it all but couldn't get the job done. To see a team like this that no one thought could do it win a world championship, it's pure joy.

I was in Arizona for spring training and had a good feeling. Sandy Leon walked off the Royals and we slapped Clayton Kershaw around in a win. I didn't think we'd win it all but I knew we wouldn't lose 100 games this year. Bruce Bochy was just the man for the job. 

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55 minutes ago, tokamak said:

Official 12 minute highlights. I like the way they mix the audio from different broadcasts.

I don't think it's been said yet but seriously hat tip to Gallen. He fucking dominated us for 6 innings. Even Seager's and Garver's hits in the 7th were just grounders that found holes.

You cannot convince me the home ump didn't yell "FOUL!" on Lowe's AB in the 7th.

F'n crook.

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Just now, Pato del Muerto said:

Will smith will be popular in FA as well as a lucky totem that can also sometimes get outs. Sadly I think he has to change teams for this to work. 

This is another guy I want no part of in 2024. You can argue Chapman at least helped us out from time to time, I think Will Smith was automatic baseball aids from second half and playoffs.

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1 hour ago, Beau Vine said:

Pulled this off the shelf and will be re-reading it this afternoon:

beece3f16a554bde33b0ef1b7a21dc1f28fa94ec

That was a good one. This one wasn't quite as good but still worth a read (https://www.amazon.com/Impossible-Takes-Little-Longer-Pretenders/dp/0878336303).

 

Haven't been active in this thread since a couple boards and a decade ago but it's super cool to see this group of people enjoying redemption. It's been the same with all the Twitter friends from way back then who I still follow.

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Coincidence or nah? https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10095863-nelson-cruz-retires-from-mlb-after-19-seasons-won-2011-alcs-mvp-with-rangers

Quote

Nelson Cruz is hanging up his cleats.

The veteran slugger announced Thursday on the Adam Jones Podcast that he is officially retiring from Major League Baseball after 19 seasons.

Cruz told Jones he would be playing this winter in the Dominican Professional Baseball League in what will be a farewell tour for the slugger. He intends to play one game for the Gigantes del Cibao at each of LIDOM's six ballparks this month, per MLB.com's Nathalie Alonso.

"So this is the last we're seeing of Nelson Cruz?" Jones asked.

Cruz responded: "I think so, yeah."

Over the last few seasons of his career, Cruz's play had declined. While he joined the San Diego Padres for the 2023 campaign, the club ultimately released him after he appeared in just 49 games.

Still, the 43-year-old had a phenomenal 19-year MLB career that spanned 2005-2023. He primarily played for the Texas Rangers and Seattle Mariners, but he also suited up for the Minnesota Twins, Tampa Bay Rays, Washington Nationals, Baltimore Orioles and Milwaukee Brewers in that span.

Cruz is one of the most prolific power bats in baseball history, having slashed .274/.343/.513 with 464 home runs and 1,325 RBI in 2,055 games across 19 seasons. His 464 blasts rank 37th on MLB's all-time home run list.

Although he never won a World Series title, Cruz was a seven-time All-Star, four-time Silver Slugger and the 2011 American League Championship Series MVP. In 50 playoff games during his career, he slashed .278/.348/.631 with 18 home runs and 38 RBI.

Cruz put together one of the best seasons of his career with the Mariners in 2015, slashing .302/.369/.566 with 44 home runs and 93 RBI in 152 games. He finished sixth in AL MVP voting that season, earned an All-Star selection and a Silver Slugger award.

Now that Cruz is officially retired, his Hall of Fame candidacy will surely be explored.

 

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