Texas Ranger announcers apparently have no idea why we traded Rios

 

Just like any hometown announcers, they won't talk bad about their guy until he leaves town.

You also complained when Konerko came back saying he would play too much and take ABs away from Abreu. Now you are complaining the 25th man on the roster isn't in the Opening Day line up. Obviously complaining is your hobby, but make up your mind what you are going to complain about.

 

Irony.

Texas Ranger announcers apparently have no idea why we traded Rios

 

Jose Abreu. That's the reason.

Just like any hometown announcers, they won't talk bad about their guy until he leaves town.

 

I just found it amusing when they said "he hits well and plays good outfield...I dont know what we're missing here".

I just found it amusing when they said "he hits well and plays good outfield...I dont know what we're missing here".

 

Thus proving that either they have never seen the guy play before, or that Hawk isn't the only Homer in baseball.

Thus proving that either they have never seen the guy play before, or that Hawk isn't the only Homer in baseball.

 

The Rangers announcers are massive homers .

Wind blowing out HARD to LF. Wouldn't be surprised to see Abreu's first bomb today with his plate coverage. Here's to hoping!

 

Last year Nolasco gave up two on opening day to Bryce Harper.

 

4 would be nice. Abreu, Dunn, Garcia, and Flowers. Get off to a nice start.

Anybody going to make a game thread?

I have no idea what a versatile hitter is but I'd prefer the #3 slot to be a good hitter.

 

A versatile hitter is a guy who isn't automatically wrong for most situations he might come up to the plate. You don't want a powerless guy, a pull-only guy, an only-homer guy, a no-walk guy, a high-strikeout guy, etc. He needs to be good enough to drive in your good hitters that are in front of him but also not so good that he's wasted by coming up with 2 outs and nobody on in the first all the time. He's versatile because he is a jack of all trades at the plate, at least against righties, which is when he will be batting third.

 

Of the players in this lineup, Gillaspie had the second highest BB% last year. Paulie had a tenth of a percentage point better, but they aren't competing with one another for time anyway (and the guy who PK would replace had a much higher BB rate than PK). In this lineup, only two players had low K rates than Gillaspie, one of whom is Eaton who had almost the exact same K rate and the other is Alexei. He also had the third best isolated power in this lineup, after Dunn and Flowers. His overall production is middling in the context of this lineup, but...

 

only Dunn and Avisail had a better wRC+ against righties and I'm not sure if I believe Avisail is going to rip righties like he did in the majors last year. If you like OBP, he's second to Dunn by only .003. And this is all despite significantly lower than career norms in BABIP despite good LD%, GB% relative to career averages.

 

And we are learning more and more that the 3 hitter isn't supposed to be the kind of player that we always thought. They come up with empty bases more of than not and when they do come up with men on, they're often your base stealer types who need a well-rounded hitter at the plate to do their thing. One of the most statistically justified parts of lineup building is alternating righties and lefties, and he does that too for this lineup.

 

Cliffs:

-he actually is one of the better hitters in the lineup, at least by track record, and definitely against RHP

-he does a variety of things well, especially against righties

-the 3 hitter isn't as important as you think it is

-it is very nice for our lineup that we can have it alternate lefty-righty without putting our only fearsome hitter (Dunn) in front of Abreu in the order

 

Thus proving that either they have never seen the guy play before, or that Hawk isn't the only Homer in baseball.

 

The thing is that we didn't necessarily trade Rios because we thought he wasn't that good or because he was a bad guy -- he was just expensive, getting older, and we had just gotten a guy who could fathomably replace him for 6+ years at a much lower price

 

Dunn gets booed

Oh hi, Oberon. I love you.

 

Go Sox!

Got off work early! Let's do this boys

Anybody going to make a game thread?

 

This is it.

Let's do this!

Listening in on my phone

One up, one down.

 

This is it.

 

Alright wasnt sure if we were using this as the general thread

Kurt Suzuki really hurt us when he played for the A's.

Wind looks nasty already.

Gameday has Sale at 95, 95, 95, 95.

Wait all this time for baseball season and the f***ing Cubs are playing extras on my stream

3 up, 3 down.

Marcus decided not to soft toss the ball that time

Oh hi, Oberon. I love you.

 

Go Sox!

 

If it didn't look like mid-February Chicago out in Bismarck right now, I'd be right with you. But it still feels like winter, so no Oberon for me yet.

 

Next week.

123 baby. Let f*** this team up today. Chew em a new asshole