When they're bad, they're really bad. Hopefully their next super streak starts tomorrow in Baltimore.
Charlie, just now, mentioned the Rangers' current record in 1-run games. Then said, "there's virtually ZERO chance they duplicate it next season". Nobody in their right mind would suggest Rangers are all luck, but to say there isn't some element of it is simply a lack of understanding baseball.
What you really don't ever want to do is have 2 hours worth of cocktails at the Roll-N sitting next to Palillo. Bring earplugs. I did get to buy Jeff Skilling a scotch and then call him a ********er, so it wasn't a total loss.
I'm not disagreeing with you...I just HATE seeing it as an excuse for the season...and I'm reading Astros bloggers writing that the Astros are really the superior team because the Rangers are just lucky. I'm sorry, but that's ridiculous.
If the Rangers don't win it all this season as I predicted way earlier in this season (and applies even more now with recent moves they made to acquire Beltran and others), then that team is a total failure in my book. They have a stacked lineup on a team with a bloated payroll and a "win now" mentality. Or, at least they need to get to the World Series. You have to give them props for going after it because they've done everything seemingly possible to win now. There's a reason they continually destroy the Astros. They are just the better stacked team and it shows every time we play them.
They're definitely going for it now, but this year isn't the end of the window by any means. Mazara/Odor/Profar form an excellent young core. Combined with having a no-doubt #1 starter in Cole Hamels for three years, they at least have a window for the foreseeable future. The only big FA they have coming up is Ian Desmond. Lucroy and Darvish still have another year on their contracts so they'll be WS contenders next year too. They've also overcome significant performance and injury set-backs to key players, something the Astros have been unable to do. We complain about key veterans like Rasmus, Gomez and Keuchel underperforming but Fielder and Choo were terrible and the Rangers had 60% of their rotation on the DL at times. I hate to say it but they're just a much better run team. Keeping all our prospects didn't significantly increase our chances of being better in the next 3-4 years like Astros fans would like to think.
This is the point that i think so many on here don't understand. When I read that Luhnow made a smart decision to not "mortgage the future" at the trade deadline, I can't help but think that so much of the true fan base is still greatly impacted by the total rebuild I bet no fan base in baseball is more worried about their prospects than ours. I get it, and I know that prospects is a very important part of sustaining success...but dang
If we are to guess the mindset of the fan base, I am pretty sure they are much like us here in that we suffered through those 50 win teams and are ready to win now. It would be the worst possible P.R. for management to be accused of holding back prospects in trades that would make us better now. No, no one thinks we should mortgage our future for bad trades now. But management has to make their case. And in the lack of movement at this years trade deadline, they haven't given a satisfactory explanation as to why. Sure, their maybe good baseball reasons why we didn't. But the John H. Public is probably even less patient than this forum. They better have an outstanding winter. Otherwise, if the team is still struggling next spring, I predict some of the fans that have started to come back will stay home instead.
To be fair, I doubt trading our top prospects for LuCroy and Beltran would have salvaged this season anyways. We simply do not have the starting pitching, with Kuechel's struggles, LMJ's absence, and the inconsistent results from the rest of the rotation. 4 ERA post ASB won't cut it, and the price for mediocure pitching was irrationally high this season.
Solid post. I agree with everything. Once I heard Nook's narrative about what happened leading up to the deadline, I softened my stance somewhat. It seems like every intent was there to add, but once they didn't get the ace they then decided to let the team play out as it was. Arguably/probably a bad choice, but they were gunning for a big fish and failed. Luhnow and Co are basically a developing youngster when it comes to successfully GM'ing a playoff contender. They'll either learn what it takes to make a deal and make the team better or be fired. Trading a big fish usually costs more than the fans think. To take a page out of the Rangers book, if the 5-9 lineup spots were bolstered enough maybe the holes in the rotation could be overlooked. Who knows.
I've said this previously but the Rangers' inexplicable tumble into last place in '14 coincided with the first signs of life from the Astros in three years, which, I'm sure, brought a lot of fans back to life, too; fan who probably hadn't paid much attention to baseball in years. Then the Rangers got off to a terrible start in '15 and then, suddenly, there was this idea that the Rangers = Astros, if not Astros > Rangers... And that simply wasn't true. The Rangers are a better team. I wouldn't argue 24-8 better - but they're a better team. They have been lucky in a way that's (probably) not sustainable. But better, nonetheless.
Rangers are a failure if they don't win it all? Seems to that the Mariners and the Astros were picked ahead of them. I seem to remember some publication picking the Astros to win the WS Mouth in your mind the Rangers will be a failure?
