Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 92 | Texas Rangers | Profile & Projection

Episode Date: February 23, 2020

The Rangers made some moves this off season! Traded for Kluber. Signed Lyles, Gibson and Frazier. They're looking to entertain the folks coming to the new stadium. We're talking all about who they lost, who they gained, who their top prospects are and the rest. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Oh, yeah, welcome back to another mini episode of Talking Baseball Team Projection and Profile. And today's special guest is the Texas Rangers. Come on down. The one team in Texas not getting bad headlines this offseason. Howdy, y'all? I'm the Texas Rangers. I'm the guest today. Do you, are you a fan of the original Texas Rangers?

Like early West claiming property type shit or what are we talking about? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Deputies fighting the good fight, battling with the Indians. Big yes and no, like respect the game, but also, I don't know. You could be a bad guy and win so easily. Oh, neighbor, nice to meet you. You got your property. No, never mind, shot you.

You're dead. I haven't seen the guy. This is my property. property. Sounds like you don't like them. No, I think I laid it out there exactly what I want to say. Respect it, but not for me. Jake is anti-police. Let it be known. Don't know if those words were again uttered. We have no idea your opinion on it and we're all waiting. I respect all authority and I think they're trying their best in hard times.

Okay. Jimmy hates police officers in 2020. Got it. No, I respect. Got the, quote. We got the quote. I respect. You said our guest was the Texas Rangers. How are we going to do that? I want you to speak as the Texas Rangers. Well, our guest tonight that we're talking about. Like when they have

like Will Ferrell's the guests at the Mark Trojan Awards and they just talk about him all night. Right, but that's because he's there and he's about to speak. Sometimes. Oh, sometimes. Maybe sometimes he goes home. It doesn't talk.

This is. I'm going to wait to see that one. Where are you at with your Texas Rangers, Jim? Happy with them. I'm very happy with the Texas Rangers because they're trying to win and putting forth a good effort to win. They have the new stadium this year.

What's it called, Globe Life? Globe Life. No, that was the old stadium. The new stadium is probably something else, right? New Globe Life? New Globe Life. Glober life. Globert.

Yeah. Okay, Globert Stadium. And we, I miscalculated on the Rangers all last season because I thought they had so many pieces to trade. Pence, Minor, Lance Lynn. Santana. Santana. I thought they had so many pieces to trade.

And I was like, start the rebuild. Do it, do it. But I didn't factor in the new stadium and they don't want to open a new stadium to a rebuilding team. So instead they took their team, which was middling and said, no, let's just attack and win. in with this team, which I admire, and I think they're doing right by the people of Arlington. And I'm happy with the Rangers. I like some of the moves they made. They made trades, Jake.

They made free agent signings. They got a new stadium. Like, whole new, whole new year, whole new feel and vibe around the Texas Rangers this year. I am out. Yeah. And I think, well, and maybe there's more of a positive vibe. I mean, this team hung around for a while last year.

They were 500 on September, September 13th or September 12th. And then they kind of skidded home to the finish, 78 and 84. But yeah, I mean, they kind of got special years of Lance Lynn and Mike Minor. Gallo also got hurt at the end there. And he was kind of their only offensive player that brought it to the table. I see you, Danny Santana and Willie Calhoun. We'll get there. But yeah, man, these, these, these tech.

Texas Rangers are exciting. The old man pitching staff, you're either real jazzed up about or is a nightmare. This is, I think this is one of my bigger coin flip teams of the year. If this team finishes 70 and 90, I'm not shocked. If this team finishes 90 and 70, I also don't think I'm shocked because if, if these guys work out, they could be good. Yeah, the pitching staff is unique in that it's got five major league guys. Like, they don't have a rookie. in the top five. They're not banking on a prospect coming up and filling it. Like they have five major league pitchers.

And we can get into, like they traded for Kluber. They got Mike Miner. They got Lance Lynn. They signed Kyle Gibson and they signed Jordan Lyles. And I don't know how to put this. Like one through five, they may have one of the only one through fives in MLB where you go, yeah that guy's a major league pitcher not saying fantastic good average bad but that guy's a major league pitcher yeah i mean jordan lyles figured things out the second half of last year where

you know he's their fifth starter and as you know as fifth starter goes that's that's that's a nice dude to have there and i i kind of love it i mean you know we'll see what cluber's got everyone's kind of got a different report on cluber that he was like full on dead last year and I mean, they've got him penciled into the one spot. I guess he's kind of a giant who you're watching if you're going to Ranger's Spring training this year because is he a bona fide clue bot number one or is he a scary old man injury waiting to happen. So that's that's one of the big ones for Texas.

But yeah, man, I love it. They're bringing in the new stadium. They've got a pitching staff. And the other thing that I can't speak well enough, but I'm sure our Ranger fans, could reach out is, you know, they're doing something pitching-wise in Texas. Everyone's focused on what are that other team in Texas, what are they putting on their hands instead of Pintar. The Rangers have figured something out because Lance Lynn and Mike Minor had kind of crazy

years last year. And it looks like from their free agent signings, they believe they can work some of that magic with Kyle Gibson, with Jordan Lyles, with Kluber, which I kind of love. you and I were excited for the Rangers to do a big signing like the Donaldson or could they sweep in on Garrett Cole or Rendon. They ended up not going that way. But with their pitching staff, they assembled, if they believe in their system and it works, like they're going to have, you're going to see a good texting, a good texting staff and pitches is what I was going to say. Good, good texting staff and pitches.

Good texting staff and pitches, baby. who do you are on the same side of the coin man like cluber can be very hurt and have no velocity anymore right lancelin can be very middling mediocre

easily yep Kyle Gibson same thing he could throw a four three ERA and you're like yeah that's that's not shocking Kyle Gibson yeah Liles could so

So, when you said coin flip, I do like that they went out and got a bunch of major league dudes. I think they'll have the innings there. And you won't have to worry, like, a bad start's not going to go searching for the new guy immediately, you know? Yeah. He's like, well, he'll figure it out he'll eat innings. He'll keep us in games, even if he's not a stud.

That's kind of the vibe they have. You know, you know, and anyone that listens knows that I like Major League arms, that at least they can go out there and they can keep you in the game for five, six innings every time they start. They might not have a three ERA. It might be a four ERA by the end because some starts are bad, but a majority of the starts, you get a quality start. You can win with pitchers like that.

And this rotation, Minor, Lynn, Gibson, Lyles is full of it. Minor was better last year, and Kluber when right is better. But I'm very iffy on Kluber. I think we might see a lesser velocity guy. And they made a big trade to get him. Yeah, I mean, he's one of the radar gun will matter this spring with Kluber. Man, Lance Lynn's last year was nuts, 208.1. Him and Mike Miner, 208.1 innings pitch.

How about that? Lance Lynn had 246 punchies last year. That's insane. So, hey, again, if what they're doing with the pitchers works, then they're going to have a nice starting rotation. If injuries or last year they walked into some fluky stuff, the starting pitching could could get old and broken pretty quick and the bullpen man i mean no household names are going to jump out jose leclerc had an okay year um high strikeouts uh but you know

he was their closer it'll be interesting to see if um you know they've got the young guy a manual class class say they traded him he's the one they traded so i and and that's where i start to get nervous because we haven't talked about the lineup yet which doesn't get you excited like a Texas lineup used to. And the bullpen, I mean, I'm curious to see what's going on down there this year. I think there are lineups to grab bag. I don't know if it's... I think a Texas fan can be excited about some of this.

First off, though, can we talk about how long Elvis Andrews has been with the Rangers? I think he's going on his 12th year. This dude just spent his entire 20s with the Rangers. Yeah. At shortstop. Like, that's more impressive than you think. You hear Elvis Andrews and you probably don't put them at the top of your list anymore. But the longevity of that to be the starting shortstop for a decade for one team is really kind of rare and cool.

Yeah. No, it's, I mean, it just doesn't happen. And I think it's, you know, I think there's some mixed feelings about Elvis when I was down in Texas because he kind of got paid, paid. and then he wasn't necessarily putting up the big numbers, but outside of 2018, I mean, he's, he's been at shortstop for the Texas Rangers for 145 plus games for the past 11 seasons. He's never put up, like, big offensive numbers, though. So.

No, I mean, he's, he's got a couple 800 OPS seasons, 2016, 2017, which from the shortstop position, that's, that's a pretty strong year. But that's recent. Yeah. Right. Yeah. What would I say? 16, 17.

When did he get paid? So he got paid paid. I mean, starting in 2015. But he's going to continue to get paid through 2023. So it'll be interesting to see how the rest of this contract figured out. Yeah, I think, you know, net net, he's racked up some decent war through the years. But yeah, I don't know. You don't bank on him.

I mean, he's got a lifetime OPS of 704. So, you know. Didn't you and him share a girlfriend once? No, we, um, there was a, uh, a gal I knew, uh, in Dallas who, it, it's a long story for another time. That'll be some Patreon stuff. But, um, she, uh, yeah, she, like casually dropped the fact that her and Elvis, uh, dated for a little while. And I was like, oh, cool. So maybe.

Both Elvis is. She was crazy. When you're looking at me, what are you thinking? She saw you more as a Huffnet O'Dor. And he's been there for a while too. Yeah, it's, uh, O'Dor is kind of a double entendre there. And yeah, man, I think Texas fans are kind of, they love the intensity.

They love the punch. He's still young. But I mean, dude, he's got some hitting seasons that are just, And maybe it's tough to get over positionally because we always picture second baseman as slappy contact guys. The dude hit 30 homers last year. He had a 721 OPS, but he had a 205 batting average. And like a 283 on base percentage. He had a negative war.

I mean, it's just you wonder how he can have these seasons of fluctuation. 2016, he hit 271 with 33 homers, a 790s. 98 OPS. He's never been an on-base guy. I mean, 2018, 253 batting average, a 326 OVP. The power was down a little bit, 751 OPS. I mean, the stat line is always going to freak you out. If you're into OPS, it's going to make you feel a little more stable. But there's something to be said, man. In 2017 and 2019, this batting average was 204 and 205. And unless you're doing crazy Adam Dunn power, and walk things. Those numbers in a lineup are just tough, man. I mean, it feels like you go a week without getting anything from that guy. And that hurts in baseball. It's the balance, man.

You need, like, everyday production and then the big, the big breakout. You can't have, like, no everyday production and a sprinkling of home runs. It's the old Chris Carter, uh, 2016 season with the Brewers. Dude hit like 45 home runs, but in between did absolutely nothing. so they DFA'd him or whatever, you know. It's like the home runs are cool, but you need to put some doubles and singles between them every now and then. Yeah, and I, there is some optimistic stuff about this lineup.

They got nothing last year from the catcher position. They bring in Robinson Torino's who, you know, he's not a special hitter or anything, but for the average MLB catcher, he's going to give you a good performance. And he'll be working with that veteran pitching staff. I know you and I that secretly makes. us light up a little bit. They bring in Todd Frazier, who's, I mean, going to be Todd Frazier. Can he get a

little Texas boost? We'll see what the hitting stats look like in this stadium. And then it's how much do you believe in Joey Gallo? I mean, he's kind of the only star star on this team. Maybe Willie Calhoun can carry it over from last season. And Shinsu Chu is just going to get on base, which is kind of cool for them. But yeah, it would have been nice if they got one more impact bat for this season. And when I say impact bad, dude, I mean, even someone like Yassil Pueg, I feel like he's a guy that would be a nice addition on this team because he's a threat. I appreciate you bringing up Pueg and it's going to derail me because I love him so much. But I want to go back to Shinsu Chu. Yes.

He's another guy. His numbers are more impressive than people think of him. Yeah, it's true. His career numbers and he's been in the, been in the MLB for 15 years. Probably 10 years as an everyday player. And his career OPS plus is 122. His career batting average is 275, 377 on base percentage, 826 OPS. Those are good numbers for 10 year career numbers.

Yeah, and man, timing is everything in life. Write that one down, kids. Because he got his big contract from Texas. And his first year, he kind of struggled. I think it was his worst year in the bigs more or less. And then his second year, he bounced back pretty good. But his third year, he was basically hurt the whole time. And so that was after age 33.

So now your first two out of three seasons, you got a bad year and a hurt year with big money still coming. And dude, he's bounced back and he just does what he does. He gets on base. He's going to give you 20 plus homers. And, yeah, not bad. He had some fun hair last year. You remember that? Fun guy

It's like dyed bright blonde Do you think he carries the The momentum from parasite cleaning up this year Yes is that from where he's from Yeah it's South Korea Who else is from South Korea that we talked about on this Oh heavy question Ryu

Ryu Ryu Last episode of Baby Jays Maybe once we get to G Man Choi and some other guys yeah Do you think that the Rangers deserve this ranking from our fan base that voted? I'm glad you brought that up, Jim.

So I started scrolling down the list and because the fans, again, they did a pretty good job. I think we're heading into a tricky area. You know, I see some teams that I feel like could easily swap place with the Texas Rangers. I don't want to give them away. But, you know, I'm seeing teams as high as like 12, 13,

I mean, even 10 that I feel like the Texas Rangers, If everything clicks, Joey Gallo is a star and the pitching staff is getting at it, you know, this team could be up there. If things go awry, Joey Gallo maybe gets hurt again. The old man pitching staff isn't what we think it is. The bullpen is what we think it is. You know, this season could not be that pretty for Texas. But yeah, and I'm trying to think if there's a bigger coin flip, because I mean, even a team like the Blue Jays we just did, I mean, we know. we kind of know their best case and their worst case.

I don't think there's that much variance. Yeah, and I kind of don't want to give away the teams coming up. But what are your thoughts on that? Initially, I was like, oh, the Rangers aren't that low. Like, come on, they're like trying to win. And then I looked at the rest of the list. And I was like, oh, wait, maybe they are. There's a lot of teams that are trying to win this season.

It's different than last year. So, but the results, like the bottom 10 or the bottom 7 were very obvious. The top seven were very obvious in this middle area in the polling. And if anyone doesn't know what we're talking about, we put out a poll to rank all 30 teams and we're doing them in reverse order. And the middle, the middle, like the 10 through 20 area was like very just like, you know, if you got 10% of the vote, you want it. It's all over the point.

Yeah. And I mean, I'm trying to give a good example. And I, dude, I almost my example, you just can't do it with baseball. I was going to say the Mets. I was going to say like the Mets have such. good pitching and they've made additions that, you know, yes, they could have a really good season. It's tough to see their season like fully falling apart. Yet again, it's the Mets. So I get nervous saying that. But I don't know. This Texas team, it feels like, oh, what are those variants

bubbles that came out today? Maybe I need to check out theirs because it feels like Texas should have the largest variance bubble. Hmm, variance bubble. I like that. I like that. Yeah. I don't know if you are ready for this conversation, Jake, but there's a guy I'm rooting really hard for for the Rangers this year. My number one route, and it's not Todd Frazier, even though he's a dear friend. Right. And I watched his son play flag football. He was a beast. It's a guy called, uh, his name is Taylor Hearn.

Do you know who that is? You familiar with that guy? No. So he's a pitching prospect, okay? Um, he's ranked 10. in the organization. In 2019, he was ranked 10th in the organization, which is nothing to clap your hands about. In my opinion, there's 30 teams to be ranked 10 on 1 means you potentially could be 300th in MLB. But good for him. He got called up last year, Jake. Well, first, they traded for him. They traded for him from Pittsburgh. I forget what the deal was.

he got called up last year to start a game, okay, against Seattle. Walked Mitch Hanager, walked Domingo Santana, walked Edwin and Carnaccio, walked the three batters he saw in his debut. And he gave up a single, one run scored. Then he gives up a sack fly. No, no sack fly, just an out. So he gets one out. then Ryan Healy hits a double off him, then another walk, then E3 on a foul ball, then a single,

and that's his career line as a big league pitcher. He got one start. He did absolutely awful. He walked five. He pitched 0.1 innings. No, he walked four, gave up four earned runs and three hits. So he is my biggest route. He needs to make it back to the Biggs and have at least another outing.

Even if the next outing is shitty, you can't leave Major League Baseball or go back down to the prospects and never make it back and have that be your one experience as a Major Leagueer. So I am rooting for Taylor Hearn to make it back to the Bigs and right his wrong. I disagree a little bit. Made it to the Bigs and got an out. I think that's all you need on the buckle. But if you're rooting for him, I can root for him too. Yeah, I am.

They have no prospects that are supposed to really come up this year, which is why they probably went out and traded a lot if they wanted to be good. They have like a lot of their top prospects aren't expected up until 2021 and 2022. Man, this is a funky team. So the the graphs I was referencing before, the bubble graphs are the Pocoda standards. findings, Pocoda, which is like a baseball simulation thing where they get the projected, you know, your projected final win loss. Dude, they have the Texas Rangers 73 and 89. And for me, that just feels off.

And, you know, maybe I'm underestimating it. Yes, the Angels got better. Houston's still really, really good. Oakland's going to be really good. But, I mean, this Texas team, they went 78 and 84 last. year. They were 500 in mid-September and they got better, right? Yeah, I think they got better. They lost Hunter Pence, who was huge for them last year. He was good. Gallo missed half a season. Yes. I mean, Penn, dude, Pence's numbers, I remember at one point his numbers during the first half

for like old man Pence on a one-year contract and he's gone back to wherever he is now. I mean, he ended with a 9-10 OPS. And at one point had a 9-60. It was pretty good. He was doing well. I think he got hurt at some point. He did. Sure. In August.

Or he just didn't play anymore. I think got hurt. We did the pitching staff. We kind of did the hitters. Is there any other hitters when you talk about? I mean, Gallo, he's like, does he make or break their season offensively? Does this offense revolve around Joey Gallo having a good season? I mean, a little bit.

You know, his numbers are actually more impressive than I thought once I got back in there. I mean, he, in 70 games last year, 70 games, he had 22 homers, 49 RBIs, a 389 on base, and a 986 OPS. I mean, that's, that's elite. Is the stadium built for him? It is called Globe Life Field. Okay, so they're keeping the Globe Life going. I like that. Yeah, I don't know.

I mean, I think they expected Nomar Mazarra to be a bigger hitter for them, and they kind of punted on him this year, training him to the White Sox. I mean, if the Rangers are in wild card contention, I think you have to be saying Joey Gall is a star and this pitching staff is making it work. Yeah. Oh, so the old place, Jake, was called Globe Life Park in Arlington. This one's called Globe Life Field.

Ah. They've, I don't know how you rank parks and fields. I think they've downgraded. I think I have parks above fields. That's tough for me. I'd have to deep dive because I love fields. I mean, those are a signature of sports field where parks sometimes aren't, but in baseball world, they are.

I have to go, I have to think about that. Okay, okay. And I was trying to find the dimensions. It should be easy to find. Oh, didn't they do something really cool with the dimensions? They did it after, like, old players. That was cool. Like down the right field line is three,

26 and that 26 represents Juan Gonzalez, I think. Johnny Oates. Johnny Oates, excuse me. Three hundred and twenty-nine to left field. That's 29 for Beltray, 372. The center field's deep. 4-10 in center.

326 down the line. It's very the, it plays similar for both righties and lefties. It's three feet closer for lefties in that porch at 326. Cool. Huge. Good for them. One foot deeper than the old one. Still kind of a short porch, right?

Yeah. Yeah. We talked a lot, Jake. We did a lot. Do they have anyone playing that could be traded if things go south? Last question conversation had before we end this one. I mean, if things go south, Todd Frazier. Shinsu Chu.

Shinsu maybe. Mike Minor. People could be begging for Rough Ned to get out of there. Corey Klobber. He has a vesting option for 2021. We were, I mean, we were trying to trade all those pitchers last year. So I guess if things went south, yeah. Yeah.

I don't know. Jimmy, I'm going to kick it to your schedule. How are they kicking off? the season. That could be big for them. Well, they're going to have extra already because they have a brand new stadium. And opening day at the Texas Rangers Stadium is

one of the bigger parties in MLB baseball. Bigger than Detroit? People hate when you say MLB baseball. I think it's up there. I think Texas can give anyone a run for their money. It's a shit show. Okay. They open up on the road.

What a bummer. Four games set versus the Seattle. Mariner. Huge, huge. I mean, they should beat them. Oh, the first game at Globe Live Field is the Rangers versus Rangers' futures.

So they're playing their own prospects. That'll be the soft opening. Soft opening. Make sure all the vendors are up to par. You don't want one vendor. You put him out for game day, opening day, the real deal. And he's just tripping up and down the steps, you know, spilling peanuts. So you've got to do the soft opening against the future players.

And then they host the Angels at home. Then the rays. And then they go on the road to face the Rockies. then Houston, New York, White Sox, Phillies. And that's going to be their first, like, tough, tough stretch, it seems. Kind of a mixed bag there, kind of a coin flip, just like them. I like it. Get it going against the MNERS.

Bring it home. Keep that momentum rolling, baby. I don't know. I guess the more I look at it and the more I think about it, it's going to be tough. Hey, again, we're recording these in the future or the past, however you look at it. Go get Pueek, and I'll honestly like this team a lot more without much reasoning. What have they trade for Jock? Jock would be cool.

I mean, Jock would be cool. I mean, you're starting to get a little lefty, you know, Gallo, Chew, if they were to get someone like Jock, Willie Calhoun. Yeah, and I mean, Danny Santana is the switch hitter. I'd like to see one more righty impact bat in this lineup. What if Greg Bird cracks the roster, our old Yankee friend Greg Bird? He could. I mean, right now they have Ronald Guzman bat in ninth playing first base,

which is always a baseball oddity, it feels like. We've always liked Greg Bird, spoiler, partially because we met him, and he has a pretty swing. If he could stay healthy, I think you and I would not necessarily go to war, but we think he could be a better player than Ronald Guzman. I don't think you and I can deep dive into Greg Bird. No. No.

So they finished 2019 with 78 wins. The per over under, Vegas over under for the Texas Rangers is 75 and a half. Hmm. This is a brutal one, man. The instinct is to say over, but that division, that division's strong. I am saying over. I think they will be rewarded for going and doing it. Rewarded for going and doing it.

They took the leap. No rebuild. We're going to go get some guys. I think they're going to be rewarded and win 82 games. 82. Joey Gallo. Hell, I'll go over with you. How about that?

Hey, oh, two friends, both taking the over, having a great time. talking baseball every day, a little mini episodes, and that's going to do it for us. Thank you very much for listening. See you later.