Jump to content

2019 Texas Rangers Thread


Vic Mackey

Recommended Posts

you have to be shtting me.  glad I had to do something when the 7th started.  these last 2 games just prove the "this is a .500 team at best" point.    the relief pitching is too abysmal to expect anything better than that.  we rolled 3 guys out there with 7+ ERA's. 

Also, why is it so hard to get a real catcher.  IKF is horribad at framing.

I know I should be happy they aren't the complete disaster I thought they'd be but christ....

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fitting that Odor would end the game striking out. Strike two was a swing at a ball shoulder-high. Batting .169. .160 in the last 7 days. .172 in last month.

He's not going to get his shit together until he gets sent down to the minors for a while. Let him get his work in down there. Seems last time he got sent down, he came back strong.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, Irish Wrist Watch said:

Fitting that Odor would end the game striking out. Strike two was a swing at a ball shoulder-high. Batting .169. .160 in the last 7 days. .172 in last month.

He's not going to get his shit together until he gets sent down to the minors for a while. Let him get his work in down there. Seems last time he got sent down, he came back strong.

I don’t know.

 

he was statistically the worst MLB player in 2017. I think he just sucks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, DougO said:

That was a fun win. Got home just in time to see all the good parts.

Missed the slam by sixty seconds.

 

5 hours ago, Knoxtnhorn said:

I was at the game.  I don't recall having ever seen or heard a ball come off the bat the way Gallo's HR did.  

Could you be a little more specific?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just that I knew it was gone before it got out of the infield.  In person, there's generally a moment when the ball is in the air and one is doing quick calculations as to the height, speed, etc.. to get over the fence.  The second Gallo hit the ball, I knew it was gone.  

Disclaimer:  This was my first Gallo HR in person, so I'm probably just being broken in.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Levi's article on Woody and Roogie.  Pretty honest from Woody.  Good read. 

How do you know when it’s time to make a change? There’s not one right answer, of course; every situation is its own puzzle. Wait too long, and you’ve done irreparable damage or missed opportunities that would have been there had you pulled the cord a little sooner. Jump too early, and you might miss out on the fulfillment of having conquered the obstacles.

Sometimes sticking with it is the right answer. For years, much of the Rangers fanbase was ready to jettison Elvis Andrus into the ether because of his tendency to make errors on routine plays. The Rangers stuck it out, and now Andrus reigns as one of the best shortstops in all of baseball. They didn’t exercise their option on Martin Pérez, and now he’s in Minnesota, having the year that everyone hoped was just around the corner for him in Arlington.

Other times, the acknowledgement of “it’s time” ends up being for the best. Ian Desmond had a great 2016, but has vastly underperformed after signing a big contract with the Rockies. The same goes for Yu Darvish and the Cubs, though injuries have played a part in his struggles in Chicago.

Unfortunately, it seems like the time to make a decision on Rougned Odor is upon the Rangers.

[Producer jumps on the line] “Uhhh hang on, Levi. Wasn’t it just Friday morning that you wrote, and I quote, “Texas has committed to Odor long-term, and if they are still in contention as June gives way to July, he’s going to have to be a part of the team. That much can also be said for Kiner-Falefa and Mathis. Texas isn’t going to start making sweeping changes right now, not for win-now moves in the middle of a rebuild, so there’s a fair amount of weight on each of those guys.“?

Great point, fictional producer. That was before we talked to Chris Woodward.

During his time with the media today, Woodward was discussing Nomar Mazara’s turnaround at the plate, how Mazara seems more in control and doesn’t look rushed. He isn’t chasing as much, and that’s a good sign. And then the topic turned to Rougned Odor. From here, I’ll just turn this over to the questions that were asked of the manager, and the very candid answers he gave:
LineBreak%403x-2.png

Q: …Am I wrong to think that (rushing, being less selective) sounds a little like what Rougned Odor is going through this season?

A: Yeah, and I know he’s off today, left-on-left. Yesterday was one of the first days I saw— he got some pretty good pitches to hit yesterday, and he didn’t do much with them. Luis and Crabbe have been talking to him a lot (and) I’ve tried to reinforce to him: keep seeking truth in your swing. In a swing, and in your swing, and how that relates. Why are things happening? Why is there failure? Why are you not hitting this pitch? Why are you pulling this pitch? You know, just try to dig in, to not be so tied into ‘Did I get a hit?’ or ‘Did I hit that ball hard?’

Would you have hit that ball hard nine out of ten times? Or did you just get lucky the one out of ten? Because bad hitters hit home runs. Bad hitters get hits. Good hitters consistently do it. They don’t miss pitches that they’re looking for in the zone. They may be a little late, they may be a little early — that’s baseball — but, consistently, good hitters put good swings on good pitches, and they do damage on them. Yesterday was the first day I saw Rougie get some pretty good pitches that he didn’t do much with, and I know that they’ve been talking to him a little bit about some mechanical adjustments that I think he needs to dig in a little deeper on.

He’s been working his butt off, man. He’s hearing, probably, things from everywhere. I’m sure people are calling him from back home. He’s probably got all his family, his brothers, everybody’s giving him advice, and I need him to really solidify what it is he’s trying to accomplish in the next little while. That’ll be better for him.

Q: That has killed more hitters…

A: Yeah, but I understand that, because you grew up for 16 years, and all these people watched you grow up. His dad, his brother, his uncle maybe, threw him BP. ‘Hey, I remember when you were good back in Little League, this is what you used to do.’ Well, it’s hard to ignore that and say, ‘Sorry, I’m past that.’ He’s such a good kid.

Some parts of it are teammates! I’m not saying anybody here, but some of the worst advice I got was from my teammates because they didn’t know shit about hitting. They knew about how they hit, but it didn’t pertain to me. And there’s such a deeper understanding of the swing nowadays, it’s not about using your hands, it’s not about getting your foot down. That’s nonsense, anybody who says that.

So it’s hard. He’s probably hearing a lot of different things, but I want him to have the truth staring him right in the face saying, ‘You’ve got to get better at these things; you’ve got to get better at this.’ There’s some scap-load issues, there’s some things that he’s always done that, once he understands those on a deeper level, he’ll give himself a better chance.

Q: Willie is getting back on the field tomorrow. We’re heading into June and Rougie is — I know, process, process, but we’re still talking about .160 at this point. At what point in time do you guys have to sit down and say ‘Can we continue with this, at this point?’

A: Yeah, and obviously, if a guy is hitting .160 in July or August, typically they don’t have a spot on a big-league roster. But in his case, I just need to see — and I think as an organization — that’s why I’m saying, I need to know that there’s a deep understanding of how he’s going to get out of this. He needs to understand that. And I need to hear it from him: what it is he needs to fix, at this point.

Because what’s going on right now, it’s not getting it done. It’s not working. But I haven’t given up on him, obviously. I keep playing him. I believe in him more than any player on our roster, because I love who the kid is and what he represents. But at some point, he has to… dig in. A little bit deeper. And there’s some ‘uncomfortableness’ to that. Maybe try some things that maybe he’s not accustomed to. (Just) because you did it three years ago doesn’t mean it’s magically just going to come back. I don’t want to do the hope thing of, ‘Oh, I hope this works out.’ We’re past that.

Q: If you do something uncomfortable, you’re liable to have some initial rough results.

A: Maybe, yeah. But I’d rather see that than do the same thing over and over and over. You know? I want to see some push, a little bit, towards a solution. And an understanding of what the solution is. That’s all.

Q: This sounds different than the conversations from two, three weeks ago where you were saying ‘I’d be a fraud as a leader if (I take him out) when he’s doing the things we’ve asked him to do.’

A: Yeah, and he’s always done the things we’ve asked him to do. It’s just, we’re starting to get to (the point that) if there’s a flaw there that we haven’t dug in enough on, that’s on us as a staff to present to him, ‘This is what’s happening.’ And he has to meet halfway.

Q: You said the other day that he was more open to (suggestions)…

A: Yeah, yeah. He has been. And I think in the last week, it’s been probably the most open he’s been.

Q: You’ve been very candid… How difficult is it for you to say the things you’re saying?

A: Yeah, it’s tough. I love the kid dearly, and I know he’s been working hard. I know he’s been doing pretty much everything we’ve asked up to this point. But like I said, part of being successful in this game is realizing that, ‘Maybe what I’m doing today and what I’m going to do tomorrow and the rest of my career may not work the rest of my career’ and maybe being open to some slightly different ideas. Because I guess the last couple — and I know he hit a double off the wall the other day — but in early BP I was watching in Seattle and I saw Luis (Ortiz) addressing some new things to him. He was a little bit open, but he was also like, ‘That’s tough. That’s tough for me to do. I’ve never done it that way.’

So that’s kind of where I’m at. I need to see a little— that’s why I felt today, like get him off today, we can get him out there, we can do some early stuff with him, maybe he can… I need him to talk through this thing and not just go out and hope that things change. That’s why I’m saying that I need to see some significant (changes)  — whether he goes 0 for his next 50 or not. If I see that there’s some deeper understanding going on, it gives me hope that we’re going to get out of it at some point.

I just don’t like going down the same road over and over. Taking the same BP, doing the same things. Let’s change something up; let’s try to get a different result, that’s all.

But his work has been phenomenal. He puts more work in than anybody. That’s never been an issue. It’s just now what is the work that he’s doing?

Q: So at some point you have to be willing to admit that your swing has some flaws?

A: Well every swing has flaws. I don’t want guys to feel like they’re not good enough to go out and compete on a big-league field. There’s flawed swings everywhere. I can break down every single player’s swing and tell you something that’s flawed. That’s why they get out. Not every guy hits the ball hard every pitch. There’s only a couple of Barry Bondses in the history of the game, where you can’t throw him a strike. Every single player has flaws. But every player has to seek that: How do I clean those up as much as I can to give myself the best chance possible to be successful? That’s what I want to see. That’s all.

And I think he’s doing it. It’s just, how deeply is he willing to dive to fix it? We’ll see.
LineBreak%403x-2.png

Analysis: I don’t really have any, other than to admit that I was wrong this morning. The numbers are what they are. The manager can’t say it much more clearly or candidly than this. The Rangers are facing a decision on whether it’s time to stick with Odor or move on, and it sounds like that decision has a lot to do with how Odor responds over the coming weeks.

(Photo Credit: Ray Carlin-USA TODAY Sports)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just that I knew it was gone before it got out of the infield.  In person, there's generally a moment when the ball is in the air and one is doing quick calculations as to the height, speed, etc.. to get over the fence.  The second Gallo hit the ball, I knew it was gone.  
Disclaimer:  This was my first Gallo HR in person, so I'm probably just being broken in.
Where were you sitting?
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Vic Mackey said:
2 hours ago, Knoxtnhorn said:
Just that I knew it was gone before it got out of the infield.  In person, there's generally a moment when the ball is in the air and one is doing quick calculations as to the height, speed, etc.. to get over the fence.  The second Gallo hit the ball, I knew it was gone.  
Disclaimer:  This was my first Gallo HR in person, so I'm probably just being broken in.

Where were you sitting?

Freakin' Denver.  Section 338; 19th row.  My hands are sore from gripping the seats the entire time.

When we walked in, some guy offered us his tickets behind home plate; however we were there with Garland ISD.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.



×
×
  • Create New...