Langford got extended?

That makes sense lol

I think they absolutely nail this. We're a starter and an elite bullpen piece from being a 90 win team, imo. Health, bullpen and starting pitching is the question for this team. The lineup is ridiculous as long as we can keep Seager, Jung and Carter healthy.

Tksymm7 said:

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I think they absolutely nail this. We're a starter and an elite bullpen piece from being a 90 win team, imo. Health, bullpen and starting pitching is the question for this team. The lineup is ridiculous as long as we can keep Seager, Jung and Carter healthy.

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I think the bullpen piece comes from Teodo or Church. What about the starting pitching is questionable? It's at minimum a top 10 rotation in the league as it stands today and that's with Leiter and Rocker not in it.

Health, and what is Mahle going to be? We know we're getting around a 3.00 ERA, and i think we know more or less what we're getting from Gray and Bradford. But what deGrom and Mahle? Degrom is supposed to be your ace, the man hasn't pitched in 15 or more games since 2019, and Mahle got shut down last year.

Read Jeff Wilson's recent piece about Teodo. Doesn't sound like the Rangers are keen on the idea of him making the opening day roster, which kind of makes sense. He's never pitched about AA, hasn't pitched a lot of innings, etc.

I suspect he'll be among the first call-ups if needed though. Special talent.

I get the feeling they want to load up the AAA roster with Rocker and Teodo, and just have them pitch more before making that call.

I agree. I also believe they feel they can better manage their innings early.

deGrom's GS last night was canceled due to weather. I would expect him to have a start today, so I'm watching for that.

I'll be keeping an eye on AAA. I'd expect you will see them go:

4-5 GS with 2.0 IP
3-4 GS with 3.0 IP
3-4 GS with 4.0 IP

Service time is another consideration.

Great outing!

Rangers getting pummeled today 14-1, but my hot take of the day (probably more like room temp) is that I wouldn't be at all surprised if Evan Carter starts the season in AAA. Tavares & Pillar probably split time in CF until Carter either heats up in the minors, or one of the other two play themselves out of regular playing time. JMO

Yea. Not sure if Carter is going to be anything other than a platoon OF with + defense. He just looks overmatched against big league lefties.

I wouldn't mind him baking at AAA at all. He has issues that you just need to solve before you eat at the big boy table.

How do we not know if he is working on some things with his swing? With this logic maybe we should worry about Semien and Ssager.

Jimtim1216 said:

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How do we not know if he is working on some things with his swing? With this logic maybe we should worry about Semien and Ssager.

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For his pay, Semien was an issue last yr

Jimtim1216 said:

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How do we not know if he is working on some things with his swing? With this logic maybe we should worry about Semien and Ssager.

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Are we really comparing Evan Carter to Corey Seager and Marcus Semien? 2 of the best at their respective positions. Carter was great for a WS run but other than that he still has a lot to prove. I hope he can fix it but he's never shown he can hit left hand pitching.

Point is that at this point of Spring Training you really can't really tell what is going on. About a week away before each one will be locking it in for the season. That was my point with the Semien and Seager comparison.

gigem1223 said:

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Yea. Not sure if Carter is going to be anything other than a platoon OF with + defense. He just looks overmatched against big league lefties.

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Pretty ridiculous to draw that conclusion at this point of his career. He's 22, and missed the better part of 2 seasons. He only had around 900 minor league at bats, and is still learning. Now he absolutely may never be able to hit lefthand pitching and wind up a platoon OF, but we don't have enough data to know that yet. I would remind you that pretty much everyone on here 2 seasons ago was b*tching about what a bum and bad hitter Josh Smith was - and all he did last year was win a Silver Slugger award.

Players figure it out at different times. He may just not be there yet. But writing him off now is just absurdly premature. If you guys remember, I worried about rushing Carter to the majors too soon. We caught lightning in a bottle in '23 with Evan, and maybe we paid for it last season. He's still a very young and relatively inexperienced player.

What conclusion am I drawing? I said I'm not sure if he's ever going to be able to hit left handed pitching. I think he needs to spend time in round rock to work things out and get consistent PT. With how this team is positioned, I don't think they can afford to play him full time to figure it out. They'd need to platoon him and that does him no favors for his development.

gigem1223 said:

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Yea. Not sure if Carter is going to be anything other than a platoon OF with + defense. He just looks overmatched against big league lefties.

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You literally said that you doubt he is going to be anything other than a platoon OF. Now maybe you were speaking only about for the '25 season, but if that's what you meant it wasn't clear in your post.

Maybe you need to re-read my post again. I never said I doubt, I said I was not sure. I'm not sure how you could have any other conclusion at this point in his career.

I guess it's interpretation but is there anyone on this board the has no "doubt" that Carter is going to figure out left handed pitching? This seems silly.