coolnerd
Footballguy
http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/01/14/derek-holland-required-microfracture-knee-surgery/
Well, it was way more to than normal knee surgery
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***Official Texas Rangers 2015 Thread*** - Congrats Banister! (2 Viewers)
- Thread starter Bogart
- Start date
Well, it was way more to than normal knee surgery
Eephus
Footballguy
That makes a lot more sense. I'll be shocked if he makes any meaningful contribution in 2014.
Bogart
Footballguy
7 Rangers crack the top 100 for Baseball Prospectus.
No. 39 Rougned Odor, 2B
No. 41 Jorge Alfaro, C
No. 70 Chi Chi Gonzalez, RHP
No. 72 Luis Sardinas, SS
No. 79 Michael Choice, OF
No. 88 Nick Williams, OF
No. 95 Joey Gallo, 3B
Nice variety in the players. Only a 1B and another OF away from having a full starting 9. Alfaro is the one you really want to keep an eye on.
No. 39 Rougned Odor, 2B
No. 41 Jorge Alfaro, C
No. 70 Chi Chi Gonzalez, RHP
No. 72 Luis Sardinas, SS
No. 79 Michael Choice, OF
No. 88 Nick Williams, OF
No. 95 Joey Gallo, 3B
Nice variety in the players. Only a 1B and another OF away from having a full starting 9. Alfaro is the one you really want to keep an eye on.
Prescott39
Footballguy
Alfaro, Odor, and Williams are all looking really good. Alfaro is a catching stud we haven't seen in Texas since Pudge. Crazy to think that at Alfaro's age, Pudge was entering his 2nd major league season
scoobus
Footballguy
One of my least favorite Rangers ever almost entirely because of the end, but I acknowledge and appreciate all the great things he did for the organization over his career. Rangers HOF for sure.
Also kind of surprised to see him retire. Not a horrible year at the plate last year, his defense notwithstanding. Figured he'd wanna give it one more go with the Dodgers and try to get a ring.
So Fielder has apparently lost 40 pounds.
http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2014/01/31/will-prince-fielder-be-the-most-hated-detroit-athlete/
http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2014/01/31/will-prince-fielder-be-the-most-hated-detroit-athlete/
culdeus
Footballguy
Bogart
Footballguy
culdeus
Footballguy
Idk, I'm sobered by the fact that over 1.5 seasons this team is 19 games behind the A's. The A's have not gotten 10 games worse, nor us 9 games better.
yes we play the Astros and will get 16 wins from them, but that's no major differentiation with anyone but the other AL members for the wild card battle.
Depth at pitching is a huge concern, and there still is a lack of power from DH/OF.
Just not feeling it right now.
yes we play the Astros and will get 16 wins from them, but that's no major differentiation with anyone but the other AL members for the wild card battle.
Depth at pitching is a huge concern, and there still is a lack of power from DH/OF.
Just not feeling it right now.
Bogart
Footballguy
Great stuff from Jamey today. I always like the history lessons with the Top 100. Means nothing, means something.
The Baseball America Top 100 was unveiled last night, featuring five Rangers prospects, only one of whom had been on the list before.
That’s outfielder Michael Choice, who was number 80 on the list in 2012 while with Oakland, fell off the list in 2013, and resurfaces this year at number 98, months after coming to the Rangers in the trade that sent Craig Gentry the other way.
Would you like to have seen Choice higher? Sure, but (1) while that’s also Dan Peltier (number 100 in 1991) and Ryan Dittfurth (99/2002) territory, it’s also around where Ian Kinsler (98/2005) and Matt Harrison (90/2007) made their lone appearances on the BA list, and (2) these lists don’t matter.
There’s outfielder Nick Williams at 97. He was the 33rd player taken in the second round of the 2012 draft. Nobody else in that second round shows up on the BA list (though two college lefthanders chosen, Paco Rodriguez and Alex Wood, have reached the big leagues).
That 97 slot is also where Leonys Martin landed a year ago, when he was 25. Williams is 20.
Joey Gallo is the game’s number 60 prospect, according to BA. If his career ends up like the 14-year run turned in by fellow third baseman Dean Palmer, who was number 60 himself back in 1991, that’s probably OK. Then again, (then-)third baseman Chris Davis was number 65 in 2007.
It’s also where Shin-Soo Choo (61 in 2003) was at the same age (20) that Gallo is now.
Jorge Alfaro’s debut on the list (at number 54) won’t be his final entry. He may not ascend as high as Pudge’s number 7 ranking (1991) before getting to the big leagues — but he might. And there’s so much development as far as catchers go that doesn’t show up in the numbers, and it may be the position at which rankings can be the most misleading. Taylor Teagarden made the BA list twice (number 80 and 73). J.P. Arencibia (43) and Geovany Soto (47) each showed up once, but so did Max Ramirez (84) and the unforgettable Cesar King (31 in 1998, seven spots ahead of Roy Halladay).
And Yadier Molina never made a Top 100 list.
Rougned Odor leads the Rangers contingent with the number 42 spot on BA’s 2014 list, at the same age (20) that Elvis Andrus was when he was BA’s number 37 prospect. That was Andrus’s final year on the farm (he’d been number 61, 65, and 19 on the list the previous three years), and though nobody thinks Odor is going to get the 130 big league plate appearances this year that would make him ineligible for next year’s list, nobody thinks he’s going to drop off the list on merit, like the similarly positioned Donald Harris (43 in 1990) and Brian Bohanon (45 in 1990) did before unremarkable big league careers.
Yu Darvish was a number 4 (2012), and so was Tommy Hanson (2009). Ruben Mateo got as high as number 6 (2000), and so did Alex Rios (2004). Braves-Rangers lefthander prospect Ben Kozlowski (80 in 2003) was ranked higher the one time he made the list than fellow Braves-Rangers lefthander prospect Harrison was in his one appearance.
Hank Blalock was the number 3 prospect in the game in 2002.
Adrian Beltre was the number 3 prospect in the game in 1998.
You never know.
Mitch Moreland never made the list, and neither did Neal Cotts or Joakim Soria.
But Benji Gil made it four times, and he’d probably have traded places.
Julio Borbon never made the list, either, and he needed fewer than 200 minor league games before he made it to Arlington, turning in an exceptional rookie effort (.312/.414/.790 in 179 plate appearances, and 19 steals in 23 tries over 46 games in 2009) and giving rise to long-term expectations that were nearly as high as Martin’s.
Four years later, Borbon was chosen in the Rule 5 Draft.
In the minor league phase.
Borbon celebrates his 28th birthday today, a note that allows me to dig out my buried lead.
Today is also Jurickson Profar’s birthday. He’s 21. He’s younger than nine of the top 12 players on the Top 100 list that Baseball America rolled out last night.
Profar was number 74 on the list after his debut in the minor leagues, around the same area that Prince Fielder was (78 in 2003).
Fielder was number 10 after his first full season on the farm. Profar was number 7.
Fielder was number 15 and number 11 his final two years as a minor leaguer.
Profar was number 1 last year. There won’t be another year in the minors.
There are some who are down on Profar right now and upset he wasn’t traded sometime the last two years, all because his arm is barking right now and the team is taking precautions with him as camp gets going. The Venn diagram showing that set of fans and the set who expects a Mike Trout or Bryce Harper to arrive every year or two probably has a pretty decent overlap.
This shoulder tendinitis thing isn’t something to ignore, and you’d much rather have Profar fully ready to go as he settles in as a first-time everyday player.
But when I hear Ron Washington cliché us with his comment about a player who is “in the best shape I’ve ever seen him in,” I’m happier that he’s talking about Neftali Feliz than I would be if it were Profar.
Given that the reason for the Fielder trade was largely to get Profar into the lineup, this is going to be among the headline stories in camp, as we’re a week away from games that don’t count but whose results — the individual performances, that is — will be overanalyzed. But don’t overreact. Not yet, at least.
Chances are that when the Rangers and Royals play next Thursday and next Friday, Profar won’t be in the box score. Texas is going to handle him with extreme care, not because he was Baseball America’s number one prospect in the game a year ago, but because he’s the team’s starting second baseman and one of its most important player assets, for all kinds of reasons.
Happy Birthday, Jurick. Take it easy tonight.
That’s outfielder Michael Choice, who was number 80 on the list in 2012 while with Oakland, fell off the list in 2013, and resurfaces this year at number 98, months after coming to the Rangers in the trade that sent Craig Gentry the other way.
Would you like to have seen Choice higher? Sure, but (1) while that’s also Dan Peltier (number 100 in 1991) and Ryan Dittfurth (99/2002) territory, it’s also around where Ian Kinsler (98/2005) and Matt Harrison (90/2007) made their lone appearances on the BA list, and (2) these lists don’t matter.
There’s outfielder Nick Williams at 97. He was the 33rd player taken in the second round of the 2012 draft. Nobody else in that second round shows up on the BA list (though two college lefthanders chosen, Paco Rodriguez and Alex Wood, have reached the big leagues).
That 97 slot is also where Leonys Martin landed a year ago, when he was 25. Williams is 20.
Joey Gallo is the game’s number 60 prospect, according to BA. If his career ends up like the 14-year run turned in by fellow third baseman Dean Palmer, who was number 60 himself back in 1991, that’s probably OK. Then again, (then-)third baseman Chris Davis was number 65 in 2007.
It’s also where Shin-Soo Choo (61 in 2003) was at the same age (20) that Gallo is now.
Jorge Alfaro’s debut on the list (at number 54) won’t be his final entry. He may not ascend as high as Pudge’s number 7 ranking (1991) before getting to the big leagues — but he might. And there’s so much development as far as catchers go that doesn’t show up in the numbers, and it may be the position at which rankings can be the most misleading. Taylor Teagarden made the BA list twice (number 80 and 73). J.P. Arencibia (43) and Geovany Soto (47) each showed up once, but so did Max Ramirez (84) and the unforgettable Cesar King (31 in 1998, seven spots ahead of Roy Halladay).
And Yadier Molina never made a Top 100 list.
Rougned Odor leads the Rangers contingent with the number 42 spot on BA’s 2014 list, at the same age (20) that Elvis Andrus was when he was BA’s number 37 prospect. That was Andrus’s final year on the farm (he’d been number 61, 65, and 19 on the list the previous three years), and though nobody thinks Odor is going to get the 130 big league plate appearances this year that would make him ineligible for next year’s list, nobody thinks he’s going to drop off the list on merit, like the similarly positioned Donald Harris (43 in 1990) and Brian Bohanon (45 in 1990) did before unremarkable big league careers.
Yu Darvish was a number 4 (2012), and so was Tommy Hanson (2009). Ruben Mateo got as high as number 6 (2000), and so did Alex Rios (2004). Braves-Rangers lefthander prospect Ben Kozlowski (80 in 2003) was ranked higher the one time he made the list than fellow Braves-Rangers lefthander prospect Harrison was in his one appearance.
Hank Blalock was the number 3 prospect in the game in 2002.
Adrian Beltre was the number 3 prospect in the game in 1998.
You never know.
Mitch Moreland never made the list, and neither did Neal Cotts or Joakim Soria.
But Benji Gil made it four times, and he’d probably have traded places.
Julio Borbon never made the list, either, and he needed fewer than 200 minor league games before he made it to Arlington, turning in an exceptional rookie effort (.312/.414/.790 in 179 plate appearances, and 19 steals in 23 tries over 46 games in 2009) and giving rise to long-term expectations that were nearly as high as Martin’s.
Four years later, Borbon was chosen in the Rule 5 Draft.
In the minor league phase.
Borbon celebrates his 28th birthday today, a note that allows me to dig out my buried lead.
Today is also Jurickson Profar’s birthday. He’s 21. He’s younger than nine of the top 12 players on the Top 100 list that Baseball America rolled out last night.
Profar was number 74 on the list after his debut in the minor leagues, around the same area that Prince Fielder was (78 in 2003).
Fielder was number 10 after his first full season on the farm. Profar was number 7.
Fielder was number 15 and number 11 his final two years as a minor leaguer.
Profar was number 1 last year. There won’t be another year in the minors.
There are some who are down on Profar right now and upset he wasn’t traded sometime the last two years, all because his arm is barking right now and the team is taking precautions with him as camp gets going. The Venn diagram showing that set of fans and the set who expects a Mike Trout or Bryce Harper to arrive every year or two probably has a pretty decent overlap.
This shoulder tendinitis thing isn’t something to ignore, and you’d much rather have Profar fully ready to go as he settles in as a first-time everyday player.
But when I hear Ron Washington cliché us with his comment about a player who is “in the best shape I’ve ever seen him in,” I’m happier that he’s talking about Neftali Feliz than I would be if it were Profar.
Given that the reason for the Fielder trade was largely to get Profar into the lineup, this is going to be among the headline stories in camp, as we’re a week away from games that don’t count but whose results — the individual performances, that is — will be overanalyzed. But don’t overreact. Not yet, at least.
Chances are that when the Rangers and Royals play next Thursday and next Friday, Profar won’t be in the box score. Texas is going to handle him with extreme care, not because he was Baseball America’s number one prospect in the game a year ago, but because he’s the team’s starting second baseman and one of its most important player assets, for all kinds of reasons.
Happy Birthday, Jurick. Take it easy tonight.
Disco Stu
Confirmed FBGal
Bogart
Footballguy
oso diablo
Footballguy
why do they need Cruz?
Bogart
Footballguy
Upgrade over Moreland at DH. Will need to win more 10-8 games if these arms keep going down.
culdeus
Footballguy
Precisely my thought process here. Cruz would be a monster upgrade as a DH and you have enough options that he is legitimately your 5th option in OF if you have to lean that way.
oso diablo
Footballguy
i'd rather have the $ and the draft pick, especially if it saddles another AL team with a bloated multi-year deal.
culdeus
Footballguy
at best he gets a 3 year now. I think he looks for 1/10 and then tries again for 4/$$$$$ next year. Only Seattle and Philly have shown any long term interest at all but not at his current price.
oso diablo
Footballguy
Cruz signs with the Orioles... for $6 million less than the Rangers offered him. 1/8
culdeus
Footballguy
Bogart
Footballguy
culdeus
Footballguy
Dude takes 6 less than the qualifying offer, pays state sales tax, and we get a 1st. I'm trying to come to acceptance on this. I don't think it will be that hard.
oso diablo
Footballguy
think i saw that it will be pick #30 for the Rangers. Orioles give up their 2nd rounder.
Bogart
Footballguy
Cruz vs. Moreland stats this year will be fun to watch. And then you get that puzzle piece to plug into the system.
Buck Bradcanon
Footballguy
oso diablo
Footballguy
Mimo's wife spouting off nonsense on twitter today. Saying Ian "took" a $75 million deal from the rangers so he could stay in Texas and he easily would have got $100 million if he hit free agency. I'll have some of what she's smoking.
Bogart
Footballguy
Doctor Detroit
Please remove your headgear
It's all about him being loyal to Nolan Ryan, and almost nothing to do with leadership. Don't teams have coaches to lead? Being a leader is a nice quality in a professional athlete but in baseball it probably means very little, it's you out there by yourself a lot of the time. As long as you lead by example in baseball, show initiative, hustle, work on your craft, then that is plenty. Many of the greatest players were never considered leaders, because they don't need to be. There are always guys there to fill that role, sometimes those players are just average skill guys.
That said Kinsler didn't handle this well, no reason at all to say all this stuff. He could have joked around about it, told non-baseball friends, etc. Why would you say this in the media? Makes him look bad, whether what he says has some merit or not. Nolan Ryan can speak for himself, he doesn't need Kinsler throwing a fit for him.
Bogart
Footballguy
This had absolutely nothing to do with being loyal to Nolan Ryan and everything about him being butthurt about being traded and the way it happened. He makes the Nolan statement because that is the easiest way to rile up the fans and media who still want it to be about Jon Daniels vs. Nolan Ryan where someone has to pick a side.
Kinsler is and always will be a ########, but he was our ########. You put up with the stupid rejections during games, the idiot pickoffs at first and the long streaks of pop-ups because the guy will also win you games with his bat, legs and glove all by himself. Kinsler first showed his ### last year refusing to move position in order to make the team better, and now he's showing it again with the weak comments. Every person from JD to Wash to the players have taken the high road with rebuttals here locally.
I loved Kinsler when he was here, could look past all the flaws, but now he gets to join Hamilton as public enemy number one when their teams come into town.
Yup. This is all about Kinsler being upset about the trade and the way things ended in Texas. I'm not mad at him though, those are natural feelings. He probably should have kept his mouth shut, but oh well. I'm still a huge fan of his, he was a huge part of the 2 trips to the World Series, but his attitude was probably a big reason for the spirals the last 2 years as well. I hope he has a great couple of years in Detroit, just not against Texas, I'll always be a fan of IKPU.
Doctor Detroit
Please remove your headgear
Ok, if you say so. This is the second premier player in as many years that you wanted gone, and had nothing nice to say about the organization. It's becoming a pattern, just sayin'. 
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Bogart
Footballguy
I didn't want Kinsler gone. Like I said, he's a ######## but our ########. But if you can improve your team, that's the job of your GM, and Daniels did his job.Ok, if you say so. This is the second premier player in as many years that you wanted gone, and had nothing nice to say about the organization. It's becoming a pattern, just sayin'.
Good article from Mac Engel in the Star Telegram
http://www.star-telegram.com/2014/03/05/5625135/jon-daniels-is-a-gm-not-a-sleazeball.html
