Texas Rangers in the First Ever Beyond the Boxscore Chat Wrap
by philkid3 on Feb 4, 2009 1:21 AM CST
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Print[Comment From Jeff]
Team surprises and disappointments for the upcoming season. 2:30 Graham (iamawesomer): Surprise: I think the Rangers will be quite competitive and finish maybe 2-3 games back in the AL West
2:30 Sky Kalkman: Surprise: Rangers
2:30 Graham (iamawesomer): How original Sky
2:30 Chris Quick (xanthan): Mariners defending like crazy and being respectable.
2:34 [Comment From Ryan]
I would suspect that if the Rangers are the surprise, then we see Sheets there and maybe a Holland sighting?
2:34 Sky Kalkman: The Rangers and Sheets are an obvious fit. Too obvious.
2:34 Chris Quick (xanthan): Sheets would do wonders for the Rangers. 2:34 Graham (iamawesomer): I expect to see Sheets there mainly because I still haven't heard anything from anyone else yet.
2:32 [Comment From Dave]
Are the A's ready to contend this year, or should they still be thinking a year or two down the road? Should they keep Holliday?
2:33 Chris Quick (xanthan): I'd like the A's better if they didn't have Bobby Crosby at shortstop.2:33 Graham (iamawesomer): The problem with Holliday is he's going to cost eleventy billion dollars.
2:33 Sky Kalkman: I think the A's can compete. The Angels were not that good last year, and the A's main challenge will be getting a young starter or two to step up and a young hitter or two to step up. With as many young players as they have, that's a real possibility.
2:38 [Comment From Phildo]
if you don't count david price, do the orioles currently have the best farm system in baseball?
2:39 Chris Quick (xanthan): I still think the Rangers are hard to beat.
2:39 Harry Pavlidis: I can hear Sky typing
2:39 R.J. Anderson: Eh, Rangers and A's?
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That's nice
I guess. Without Sheets I don’t see any chance at all, unless several key players get injured on the other teams. With Sheets it becomes more possible. It almost seems like the A’s smell blood with some of the moves they’ve made. Hoping to get lucky while rebuilding for the long haul.
G G G E-flat_______ F F F D__________....
Yep
That’s a pretty good way of summing things up in a nutshell. We’ve got the talent in the system, no doubt about that, but right this moment we’re not contending for anything unless we get a 100% healthy Sheets and some pretty serious luck on our side.
Seems to me people are picking us as dark horses now just so they’ll be able to say they where among the first to see us coming when we finally see this talent pool bear it’s fruit – the way I look at it, 2009 is still for positioning the troops and waiting for the heavy artillery support to arrive. The assault doesn’t begin until 2010.
That Gold Glove for Young was the worst thing that could have happened to Texas - now the guy really believes he's good at short. - Keith Law
by LSJ on Feb 4, 2009 4:42 AM CST up reply actions
In one of his best years, Sheets wasn't even worth 5 WAR last year.
Not that 4.6 isn’t a lot, but I don’t think we’ll be getting so many below replacement innings without him that Sheets makes or breaks or chances.
He sure does make it a whole lot easier, but let’s take that number at face value and say we’d win the division with him by one game, would losing it by 4 games not be contending? That’s well within the range of good luck. And with him, we’re still well within the range of typical bad luck making a difference.
I want Sheets (for a good price) and he absolutely would make a surprise season easier, but if we’re going to contend, we can do it without him, and if we’re not going to contend we could still not contend with him.
All I said
was that it was more possible with him than without him. I tend to think that either way the Rangers are a looong shot with so many young players and such an unpredictable pitching staff. Even with Sheets the rotation is hardly awe-inspiring. I think Sheets is about a 3-4 win player, but his presence might mean a better chance the bullpen isn’t overworked and does well, too. Is that kind of indirect effect measured in WAR?
G G G E-flat_______ F F F D__________....
I meant to reply to LSJ, anyway.
I do think there are a few other things, like overwoking the bullpen you mention, that signing one good pitcher can make beyond just the directly measurable, but I was just taking it at face value for the moment.
That was my point too
If we have someone that can go deep into games every now and then, maybe the Electrician doesn’t make 75 appearances, meaning not only would he probably not tire out at the end of the season and thus would have a higher WAR, but also, those extra innings would be pitched by someone who is better and has a WAR to match.
Is it 4 wins or more?
A four win improvement implies the person who gets bumped from the rotation is worth 0 WAR. Is that reality? Is our current #5 starter even at replacement level?
by NorCalRangersFan on Feb 4, 2009 6:13 PM CST up reply actions
gabbard or harrison were our #5s last year
sheets WARP vs what is the WARP for those two guys is WARR heh
Scout: He was a first-round pick right? Got a huge bonus?
KG: Oh yeah.
Scout: Well, he spent a lot of it on milkshakes.
by knockoutking on Feb 5, 2009 10:20 AM CST up reply actions
I think they can be better, even without Sheets.
Even if Padz and Millwood deliver similarly bad seasons to last year’s, assuming we get a full season of BMac and Harrison in the rotation, the pitching should be better than last year. The thing to remember is that, even with that godawful pitching mess last season, this team still won 79 games. With a healthy Sheets added to the mix, they almost can’t help but be significantly better.
Of course, this is still the Rangers, so probably whatever can happen to negatively affect the pitching situation probably will.
we will need sheets
Padz and Millwood are likely to be worse next year than last, and who knows what we’ll get from BMac or Harrison. or from Hurley or Mendoza or Loe or whatever. That’s why we need sheets. Because either he’ll give us 180 innings with an era below 4.20 or less than 30 innings.
Milwood and Padz could combine for 400 innings of 5.00 ERA. THAT would kill us
Milwood and Padz could combine for 400 innings of 5.00 ERA. THAT would kill us
But that won’t make us any worse, assuming our ability to score runs hasn’t disappeared. Sheets, if healthy, makes us better, but improvement is not contingent on whether or not he ends up here.
Yep...
the 400 IP would be great from Millwood and Padilla.
And lower that ERA from 5 to 4.50 and I’d gladly take that from ’em.
"The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance."-Socrates
200 innings and an era of 4.50
makes you an ace on this team
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