Good morning. Are you #TeamThad tonight or rooting for the villain to end the upstart?
T.R. Sullivan writes that the Rangers were a real rickety old roller coaster in 2017 with a lot of ups and downs where you felt unsafe and probably vomited a couple of times.
Jeff Wilson takes on the arduous task of pinning blame for why we’ll see the lowly Minnesota Twins play beyond 162 but not the Rangers (Hint: The bullpen and Rougie, mostly).
Sullivan writes that the Rangers will have to address their sparse rotation this offseason because they aren’t planning on a full rebuild any time soon.
Shohei Ohtani is the main target of Texas‘ anti-rebuild efforts and Dylan Hernandez has a nifty profile of the Japanese star for the LA Times.
Delino DeShields ranks third on Paul Swydan’s list of the best part-time players in 2017 which is probably why he’s not going to be a part-time player in 2018.
Evan Grant talked prospects in a recent chat over at the DMN and while naming his top prospect in the system stated the Rangers will need to trade Jurickson Profar this offseason as that bridge has been nuked into oblivion.
And, lastly, you can vote for Cole Hamels for the 2017 Roberto Clemente Award over at MLB dot com to recognize Cole’s “philanthropic spirit” this year.
Have a nice day.