Unfortunately, for some of us like myself a Texas Rangers fan the offseason is already upon us and its time to start thinking about next year. I figure I gave Greeeear a good week to get over the embarassment that was the Tigers home stretch this season, so hopefully he's ready to start thinking about the offseason as well. (yeah, the Rangers weren't so hot themselves down the stretch either)

Speaking of the Rangers, I think its pretty clear we need another right handed bat in our lineup. Another Andruw Jones type we can pick up off the scrap heap and hopefully he turns into a useable part for the '10 campaign. Does anyone have any suggestions? We obviously don't have the money to sign Jason Bay or Matt Holiday or Jermaine Dye for that matter. We's broke! So you're going to have to think bottom of the barrel.

On a side note, there are starting to be some rumblings here in Dallas that Nelson Cruz isn't well liked by either the organization or the clubhouse or both and that the Rangers are going to try and get rid of him this offseason. I think I'll shoot myself or Jon Daniels if they do, but I'm curious what people outside of Dallas think of him.

Lastly, I'm hoping this can be a thread where people can come to learn about baseball and ask intelligent questions and give intelligent answers. Not to say that all questions aren't welcome, just hopefully the questions are ones without obvious answers.

Here's one that I'm trying to do a little research on right now. Tim Lincecum was on my fantasy baseball team this season. The day before his last start in Philadelphia I read a note on him that he was 10-2 on 5 days rest with something like a 1.67 ERA. Based on that information I decided to start him and he went out and threw 8 IP giving up 2 ER in a Loss to Pedro who only allowed 1 ER (to an inferior offense I might add), but the thought arose... Could pitchers be more effective on 5 days rest and what might the long term benefits be for their careers?

Twins could use Nelson Cruz. Can I interest you in a Delmon Young?

giants could use nelson cruz. can i interest you in a angel villalona?

Vernon Wells for Nelson Cruz one time please.

yeah this is what Rangers fans don't realize. fyi, if you are ever in need of entertainment next summer tune into Rangers Replay on krld.com after games. The night the Rangers were eliminated from the playoffs some drunk lady named Susan called in exclaiming "I still believe! I refuse to give up on this team"

Listening to drunken hillbillies talk baseball = fun in my book

Have so many ideas percolating right now, we'll see how much I can share with 2+2, probably will be able to do more than before, at least for a little while. Gotta learn some coding and advance querying first though

Oh yeah and a scott hairston for nelson cruz ldo

Tigers add Crawford and hand RF/2B/C over to the kids. Sizemore/Wilkin Ramirez/Avila respectively. Magglio goes to fulltime DH

Verlander/Porcello become the best 1-2 in all of baseball with both being in the Cy Young race.

Lincecum/Cain/Bumgartner is hawt

no more Jim Hendry fail plz

poasting in an eventually extremely long thread

Posey also is hawt for san fran, now only if they had more then one mlb slugger in their lineup. It will probably take posey a year or two to mash at his future potential.

I'm trying to find where the Rangers rank among the Major League teams in pitches seen per plate appearance. Stats LLC is the only group I've come across that keeps track of this info. I've tried google, fangraphs, and prospectus. Stats LLC wants you to buy a membership. Does anyone know an alternative source I can use? Thanks.

from Chris Ruddick's brillant mind at the Sports Network

http://www.kansascity.com/485/story/1504020.html

"PAPELBON DONE IN BOSTON?

While I feel fairly certain in saying that Holliday cost the St. Louis Cardinals their NLDS series, I don't think it's fair to hang the goat label on Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon, who imploded on Sunday, as the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim completed a three-game sweep of Boston in their ALDS matchup.

Boston had an uphill battle anyway, not to mention the runs were the first Papelbon had ever allowed in the postseason. Geez, cut the guy some slack. Even Mariano Rivera blew a few playoff games.

No matter what would have happened for the Red Sox here this postseason, Papelbon was going to be the guy I pegged as the most surprising name you will hear at the Winter Meetings in December.

Boston believes hard-throwing righty Daniel Bard is a closer in waiting. The Red Sox want to get younger in their lineup and a messy contract situation with Papelbon is on the horizon.

Don't be shocked if he is shopped for a young bat this winter. Crazy prediction here. He goes to Texas for first base prospect Justin Smoak and the Rangers turn Papelbon back into a starter."

Seriously if the Rangers do that I'll dye my back hair bleach blonde so it reads the Rangers ****ing Suck!

I don't need to buy a membership to tell you this. They sucked. Probably bottom 5 in the league, and potentially last.

Individual players are done on just about any site. Even ESPN has it listed. Team wise, not sure.

Their arms are hawt. The rest of them, not so much...

And PAPELBON!!!! is still awesome. But it appears the Sox don't want to pay a closer, even one as awesome as Paps, $10M in arbitration. Sad they didn't get him locked long term at an affordable price, but I'd bet the difference between market price and value for closers is greater than any other position, and he knows he's gonna get $50M+ when he's free.

I'm so glad Papelbon blew up after what he did to Adam Lind.

ESPN is the only site I've been able to find to list individual player pitches seen per PA, which is great, but they don't list the Team stats unless I'm just missing it.

I think you're right though I think I heard Buster Olney or someone like that say they were last on ESPN radio last week.

And I say you and I drive out to the Ballpark chain ourselves to the front gate and go on a hunger strike if they make a trade that stupid this offseason, lol.

We should trade them Nelson Cruz obv.

Boston is ok if they let him go, they got Bard who is the predecessor, who already has better stuff then Papelbon. They can ship him for some lf, ss, in the offseason if they want.

i dont think predecessor means what you think it does

thundercat,

while it's not exactly what you wanted, here's some plate discipline stats

http://www.fangraphs.com/teams.aspx?...n=2009&month=0

shockingly, texas swung at a higher percentage of pitches than anyone else

lol @ Texas in every category

lol yes!

being at the bottom in both percentage of pitches outside the zone swung at AND contact percentage on pitches outside the zone is not a good combination

I didn't look closely, but they ranked effectively last in every category right? lol