You can teach me lots of lessons
You can bring me lots of gold
But you just can't live in Texas
If you don't have lots of soul
The Rangers didn't expect to be playing out the string, either. But here we are.
Well, they've made some very large investments in elderly starting pitchers that haven't quite worked out as planned. Max Scherzer and Jakob deGrom are both being paid more than $40 million dollars this season. They just received their first start from deGrom; Scherzer has been able to take the mound 9 times this season (2-4, 3.95.) Jon Gray makes a comparatively modest $13 million, but he's done for the year, having been plagued by groin and foot problems that limited him to 19 starts. Andrew Heaney has done a decent job, his 5-14 WL record notwithstanding and Nathan Eovaldi has been fine. They traded FA signee Michael Lorenzen at the deadline, and young Jack Leiter hasn't yet begun to live up to his pedigree.
As for the bullpen - Kirby Yates has been superb and David Robertson has been fine. Yates will be a free agent this winter and Robertson - who turns 40 next spring - has a mutual option for next year.
And yet - the pitching hasn't been the biggest problem. Overall, they've gone from a little btter than league average to a little worse. The real collapse has come from the offense. The 2023 Rangers scored 881 Runs (5.44 per Game), the most in the AL; this year's crew is averaging 4.15 per Game, which is tenth best in the league, just behind your Blue Jays. They've lost more than 200 Runs from one year to the next. What happened?
Many, many things. Obvioualy. You don't lose 200 runs of offense because one or two guys had a bad year. You lose 200 runs because pretty much everybody took a step backward. The one exception is first baseman Nathaniel Lowe, who is more or less duplicating his 2023 season.
Marcxus Semien was very, very good a year ago - this year he's been merely average.
Corey Seager, their best player, was having himself another fine year until a sports hernia ended his season. But he had the best season of his excellent career in 2023 when he was the MVP runner-up.
Josh Jung had a very nice rookie season in 2023, but he's missed more than 100 games this time around with a wrist injury.
Leody Taveras in centre field has lost 40 points in BAVG, which is the largest part of his game.
Finally, right fielder Adolis Garcia was an All-Star a year ago, and none of the Rangers has fallen harder than he has.
Wait - one more! Even Mitch Garver, so productive as their primary DH, has collapsed. Garver conveniently did his collapsing in Seattle so it didn't hurt the Rangers, but his main replacement, Robbie Grossman, hasn't come close to matching what Garver provided a year ago.
Matchups
Tue 17 Sep - Bassitt (10-13, 4.20) vs Eovaldi (11-8, 3.67)
Wed 18 Sep - Francis (8-4, 3.50) vs Bradford (5-3, 3.97)
Thu 19 Sep - Gausman (12-11, 4.02) vs Rocker (0-1, 2.25)
You can bring me lots of gold
But you just can't live in Texas
If you don't have lots of soul
The Rangers didn't expect to be playing out the string, either. But here we are.
Well, they've made some very large investments in elderly starting pitchers that haven't quite worked out as planned. Max Scherzer and Jakob deGrom are both being paid more than $40 million dollars this season. They just received their first start from deGrom; Scherzer has been able to take the mound 9 times this season (2-4, 3.95.) Jon Gray makes a comparatively modest $13 million, but he's done for the year, having been plagued by groin and foot problems that limited him to 19 starts. Andrew Heaney has done a decent job, his 5-14 WL record notwithstanding and Nathan Eovaldi has been fine. They traded FA signee Michael Lorenzen at the deadline, and young Jack Leiter hasn't yet begun to live up to his pedigree.
As for the bullpen - Kirby Yates has been superb and David Robertson has been fine. Yates will be a free agent this winter and Robertson - who turns 40 next spring - has a mutual option for next year.
And yet - the pitching hasn't been the biggest problem. Overall, they've gone from a little btter than league average to a little worse. The real collapse has come from the offense. The 2023 Rangers scored 881 Runs (5.44 per Game), the most in the AL; this year's crew is averaging 4.15 per Game, which is tenth best in the league, just behind your Blue Jays. They've lost more than 200 Runs from one year to the next. What happened?
Many, many things. Obvioualy. You don't lose 200 runs of offense because one or two guys had a bad year. You lose 200 runs because pretty much everybody took a step backward. The one exception is first baseman Nathaniel Lowe, who is more or less duplicating his 2023 season.
Marcxus Semien was very, very good a year ago - this year he's been merely average.
Corey Seager, their best player, was having himself another fine year until a sports hernia ended his season. But he had the best season of his excellent career in 2023 when he was the MVP runner-up.
Josh Jung had a very nice rookie season in 2023, but he's missed more than 100 games this time around with a wrist injury.
Leody Taveras in centre field has lost 40 points in BAVG, which is the largest part of his game.
Finally, right fielder Adolis Garcia was an All-Star a year ago, and none of the Rangers has fallen harder than he has.
Wait - one more! Even Mitch Garver, so productive as their primary DH, has collapsed. Garver conveniently did his collapsing in Seattle so it didn't hurt the Rangers, but his main replacement, Robbie Grossman, hasn't come close to matching what Garver provided a year ago.
Matchups
Tue 17 Sep - Bassitt (10-13, 4.20) vs Eovaldi (11-8, 3.67)
Wed 18 Sep - Francis (8-4, 3.50) vs Bradford (5-3, 3.97)
Thu 19 Sep - Gausman (12-11, 4.02) vs Rocker (0-1, 2.25)
