The 2023 Running Baseball Thread

Those late 90s teams were pretty good. They just had the misfortune of running into some even better Yankees teams. Three of the Yankees' four World Series titles included ALDS wins over the Rangers in which they went a combined 9-1.
I remember some MLB video game from that era where the Rangers were my team. They could absolutely mash and were fun as hell to play with.

 

Buddy Bell may not have spent 50% of his career in Texas, but his best years came there for sure. Beltre also amassed more of his WAR with the Rangers than any other club. There's not a single batter listed that I wouldn't associate with that franchise first (Howard's best coming in Washington before the move to Arlington, of course.)

Without doubt, Charlie Hough's best years were in Texas too. Past that? I'd associate all of those non-bolded pitchers with other clubs, to the degree I associate Darvish or Brown with a single club, but I wouldn't say any of them were Texas-best first. Jenkins (Cubs), Perry (Giants/Indians), Ryan (Angels/Astros) and Matlack (Mets) all have better legacies with other teams.

 

I got 16 players into a Joe Posnanski-esque breakdown of the Rangers' top 24 a/t players in WAR and then I saw this. You suck UPChip!!! Mostly b/c you summarized it much more succinctly than I would have.

The Rangers are just a weird mishmosh of guys who won rings elsewhere or were nomads who stopped (often multiple times) in Texas. Can't get much more mishmoshy or nomadic than Julio Franco & Ruben Sierra, who fell just outside the top 10 position players. It'll be really cool if the Rangers can win it all over the next week and change, but even then, you're not looking at any "oh yeah they're RANGERS" guys winning it all. The team is another mishmosh (not in a bad way, just the way it happened) of big-ticket free agents and draftees/small pickups.

 

Texas is just a strange franchise. It’s been around for almost 50 years and no real cornerstone players. Maybe that’s just free agency?

 

Garcia could be that cornerstone guy.

 

Are there any active managers aside from Bochy and Baker who have a shot at the HoF? and I realize Baker retired, is Francona getting in at some point? Joe Maddon? And while we're at it - is there a current GM who has a shot? Will Theo Epstein get in?

 

They always seemed to specialize in grabbing FAs just past their peak - the MLS of MLB.

 

Dave Roberts has a shot if he can win another World Series. His teams have had a ton of regular season success.

 

The Overmanagers Wing?

 

And a Jays prospect - who would kill them for years - traded for Esteban Loaiza. Kinsler was another guy who was rough on the Jays.

 

Loaiza was a perfect weird Rangers player. Classic million dollar arm and 10 cent head. Bounced around b/c he was always good enough to take a flier on and too weird to keep around for too long. He shacked up with Ivan Rodriguez's nanny two weeks before MARRYING SOMEONE ELSE and had a son w/the nanny. Juan Gonzalez, another weirdo, once accused him of stealing a valuable coat. Scott Miller had a great story about Loaiza's rise and fall (ended up doing hard time for distributing coke).

Esteban Loaiza's Wrong Turn