2025 Game Thread

[fish16]

I liked his approach at the plate. The 9 pitch walk he took told me more about him than anything.

it's also nice to have some young guys with pure power. Felt like we went about 6-7 years from the stanton/yelich/ozuna era to this year without any real pure power bats outside of the one Soler year and Burger. Had a bunch of guys who could obviously hit some homers, but no real 30+ hr pure slugging potential. Got a few now with Conine, Stowers, Ramirez, DDLS, mack has some power, norby has power, mervis. Very early on a lot of those guys so it remains to be seen if they pan out, but the type of player is different than what they have had in recent years. Less guys like Corey dickerson, Aguilar, Cooper, DLC, Bell, anderson, etc.

[Nick]

the literal first words of my post are "obviously just a game". I was also referring to his body type. He's a big bodied dude.

I liked his approach at the plate. The 9 pitch walk he took told me more about him than anything.

[fish16]

And you took exception to my 22 game sample size for Jake Burger! Pure gold! Hahahaha I love it keep it coming!

the literal first words of my post are "obviously just a game". I was also referring to his body type. He's a big bodied dude. he's listed at 6'1 210 lbs and he will gain weight as he gets older and stronger. Reggie Abercrombie and Jeremy hermida also looked the part.

[fish16]

I agree 100% but Bendix’s hands will be tied by Broke Bruce forcing Bendix to use spare parts at that position until Caba is ready.

this. If they had any intention of signing an actual significant free agent SS at any point, they would have done so by now. Which im weirdly actually fine with so long as they actually start to spend in the fringes to complement the home grown core. The issue is they have no intention of doing so, and as a result will need every single thing to hit and have injury luck to ever compete. They can spend 20 million dollars annually to fill in pieces and accrue an extra 5 wins or so and have a real shot in a few years, but they almost assuredly will not do that.

[Namaste]

I know it's a pipe dream, but if we could go out and get one of the SS Free Agents (Bo Bichette, Trevor Story, Ha-Seong Kim) it could be an interesting lineup in 2026.

C - Mack/Ramirez
1B - Mervis/De Los Santos
2B- Edwards
3B - Norby
SS - FA SS
LF - Conine
CF - Sanoja
RF - Stowers
DH - Ramirez/Myers

Bench - Ronny Simon UTIL, You could have Fortes come back, since Ramirez would be mainly a DH, or could keep another righty bat like Wagaman.

Deal Otto and Sanchez at the deadline.

Rotation:

1. Sandy
2. Max
3. Eury
4. Weathers
5. Mazur/Snelling/Braxton/Cabrera

White waiting in the wings.

Spend some money on the bullpen.

I agree 100% but Bendix’s hands will be tied by Broke Bruce forcing Bendix to use spare parts at that position until Caba is ready.

[Namaste]

but ramirez absolutely looks the part. .

And you took exception to my 22 game sample size for Jake Burger! Pure gold! Hahahaha I love it keep it coming!

[Nick]

I know it's a pipe dream, but if we could go out and get one of the SS Free Agents (Bo Bichette, Trevor Story, Ha-Seong Kim) it could be an interesting lineup in 2026.

C - Mack/Ramirez
1B - Mervis/De Los Santos
2B- Edwards
3B - Norby
SS - FA SS
LF - Conine
CF - Sanoja
RF - Stowers
DH - Ramirez/Myers

Bench - Ronny Simon UTIL, You could have Fortes come back, since Ramirez would be mainly a DH, or could keep another righty bat like Wagaman.

Deal Otto and Sanchez at the deadline.

Rotation:

1. Sandy
2. Max
3. Eury
4. Weathers
5. Mazur/Snelling/Braxton/Cabrera

White waiting in the wings.

Spend some money on the bullpen.

[Nick]

obviously just a game and this cliche means pretty much nothing, but ramirez absolutely looks the part. His body type reminds me a lot of wilson contreras. Im super interested to see how they handle the C position the rest of the year. Fortes should be back soon, Hicks cant go down because he was a rule 5 pick and theyve already invested time into him, but Ramirez seems to be a piece. If there is service time implications of sending him down a little bit, i'd imagine that's what they do and then maybe deal fortes closer to the deadline when they gain an extra year.

I'm also super interested to see what they do between mack and Ramirez at C in the future. Both look like good pieces moving forward, and both should be ready by next year. Ramirez i believe has played some 1b, but then what do you do with Mervis if he keeps hitting, not to mention DDLS if he becomes an option. DDLS plays 3b (not well), but then you also have Norby at 3b. Going to be a lot of moving parts.

I think the obvious thing to do is play Mack at Catcher vs. RHP, Ramirez against LHP and DH or 1B Ramirez when he's not catching. Honestly, I think that could be incredible catching combo.

[fish16]

Max meyer is also a stud. on pace for over 300 strikeouts which is obviously not sustainable but he's been tremendous. Hope he can stay healthy all year.

[fish16]

obviously just a game and this cliche means pretty much nothing, but ramirez absolutely looks the part. His body type reminds me a lot of wilson contreras. Im super interested to see how they handle the C position the rest of the year. Fortes should be back soon, Hicks cant go down because he was a rule 5 pick and theyve already invested time into him, but Ramirez seems to be a piece. If there is service time implications of sending him down a little bit, i'd imagine that's what they do and then maybe deal fortes closer to the deadline when they gain an extra year.

I'm also super interested to see what they do between mack and Ramirez at C in the future. Both look like good pieces moving forward, and both should be ready by next year. Ramirez i believe has played some 1b, but then what do you do with Mervis if he keeps hitting, not to mention DDLS if he becomes an option. DDLS plays 3b (not well), but then you also have Norby at 3b. Going to be a lot of moving parts.

[Todd]

I think my issue with your being so mad about Burger is he didn't and still doesn't have much of a track record one way or the other and he's almost 30 on top of it.

[fish16]

triston mckenzie was DFA'd. Given who we are throwing out there, probably worth a claim to see if they can get him back to where he was a few years ago.

[fish16]

Jake Burgers wRC+ his last year as a Marlin: 106

Jake Burgers wRC+ on the Rangers this year: 46

Nice work, Bendix!

you know you're truly making a point you actually believe in when you're using a 20 game sample as proof of something! especially when that 20 game sample comes on the heels of an offseason where he was focusing on his daughters open heart surgery in spring training. definitely something you truly believe and not arguing for the sake of sticking up for a horrific front office.

Also not sure what that has to do with him being dealt when his value was at it's lowest in his tenure here.

[Nick]

Jake Burgers wRC+ his last year as a Marlin: 106

Jake Burgers wRC+ on the Rangers this year: 46

Nice work, Bendix!

To be fair, Burger was terrible in the first half last year too, and then was fantastic in July and August.

[Namaste]

They traded burger at his lowest value during his tenure here. His wrc+ was the lowest in his career last year.

Jake Burgers wRC+ his last year as a Marlin: 106

Jake Burgers wRC+ on the Rangers this year: 46

Nice work, Bendix!