It’s absolutely unbelievable what this sub expects from the team this year lmfao.
#THIS IS A GUY WHO WAS FACING UP AGAINST CHILDREN WHO WERE STUDYING FOR CALC II EXAMS LAST YEAR.
He is basically learning against the best pitchers in the world every day. The fact that he’s even in the daily lineup is incredible.
With a talent like that you just let him figure it out and he will spend the extra coaching and film sessions working on fixing his game. Did they expect him to bat .300 and hit 10 homers by may? Like man if he’s still struggling in July then ya I get it maybe send him back down for some reset but this dude was in college less than a year ago let’s be realistic
I don’t think the expectations are that unrealistic. Langford was recognized by more than just Rangers fans as a ROY favorite and he’s sporting an OPS of .600. That’s naturally going to generate concern and conversation. You replied as if the OP is ready to call him a bust, which isn’t really proportionate to the actual tone of the post.
For real. We win one world series and we are expected to have zero negatives all year. It’s crazy what winning does to a fan base. On one hand I get it, but come on it’s a baseball season. We were two games from not even making the postseason last year. You have to understand there will be ups and downs no matter how good the team is.
Where did I say anything remotely close to that? I also said IF he is still struggling when Jung comes back which is end of May.
Langford only had 200 professional AB’s coming into this year. This is why players don’t basically skip the minors. All the examples people are giving are of players that had 1000 or more AB’s in the minors.
That’s my theory. Maybe he feels the pressure of the rest of the team * doing well. Maybe not, but I think if the rest of the lineup starts raking it’ll be easier for him to get into a groove as well
Edit* meant to say *NOT doing well
He probably feels the most amount of pressure since he’s the DH. He has no other opportunity to help the team out other than his plate appearances. I think both of yall are spot on with the theory. If the rest of the lineup can shine then he can probably take some stress off his shoulders and not feel like it’s all on him to show out just because he’s the DH.
Yea lots of players seem to struggle in the DH spot if they’re used to playing the field too - something about being more involved in the game and not just sitting around waiting to hit. I also meant the rest of the team *not doing well but I think you understood regardless.
So yea hopefully the rest of the team gets rolling eventually and that with time helps him also figure it out. As far as rookies go I’m not too concerned, albeit and little disappointed for how hyped up he was
For sure. DH gets a ton of the spotlight. I watched the Yankees play today since it was the free game of the day and Judge went 0-4. Of course other players went 0-4 but Judge obviously stands out among their fans because he’s the DH. He needs to hit bombs, bring runners home, not go 0-4, etc. And boy were the fans pissed at Judge in particular since it was a close game going into extra innings tied at 0-0.
So to see what’s happening to a big time and experienced player, such as Judge, also be happening to a rookie (definitely not to the same extent), who we’ve all built up in our head (myself included), I think results in our fan base being a little too disappointed. Losing definitely doesn’t help because again it can come back to Langford in our eyes.
Definitely just a bad negative feedback loop we’re in.
But because Carter, Taveras and Garcia are all objectively better outfielders than he is (and it's not close), the only way Langford isn't the DH is if the team is made worse defensively on his behalf. And that will still be true in August or two years from now, so I think it makes a lot more sense to give it some time and see if he can make the DH adjustment. The idea that there will be weight off his shoulders if he's hurting the team in the field as well as at the plate doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
I think (hope) he’s just adjusting to the bigs. He’s got all the tools in the world to be a great player, but we gotta remember how relatively inexperienced he really is.
Idk man the guy is a rookie having to only DH.
Of course his performance is going to stick out more than the others because he’s only DHing and everyone has built him up to continue his previous performance in the minors but relative to the rest of the lineup he deserves the most slack right now. He’s facing a whole entire league of new pitchers who are going to out perform him at the plate.
I know we all keep saying he’ll come around and I think that’s the most we can hope for. He’ll need a lot of at bat appearances so he can hit his stride.
I’m way more concerned about everyone not named Garcia and Semien.
I really wish he would be in LF at least 50% of the time. Have we even had Carter play CF at all this year? I may have missed it but I don’t recall anyone but Taveras in CF.
Taveras is at minimum a decent CF. He’s missed one play and people don’t understand how hard it is to track a ball hit directly over you. It wasn’t an easy play.
He is a decent centerfielder, but is the long-term centerfielder for this team? Because if he's not, then I'd rather see someone else getting work there regularly.
Dude is batting 240 avg. 4th most RBIs on the team. And is a ROOKIE! he’s never played this kind of competition before and has 44 minor league games. The leap this kid is making is incredible. Give him time.
Honestly, he was having great at bats until that series against Angel Hernandez! It’s not been the same for him since. I feel like he may be under pressure and just needs some time.
I am more concerned with Seager
I’ve watched every at bat this season, and while I might be suffering from some homerism, Langford has looked great. Not striking out (today was an exception), not chasing bad pitches, showing a willingness to walk, making contact, not trying to mash that first homer that everyone is waiting for. He’s had some bad luck, and yeah, I mean I think we all had visions of him doing great things early. But I bet Bochy has all the confidence in the world in him. It would be different if he was being beat by certain pitches or parts of the zone, but he’s not. He looks comfortable. Just my two cents.
Yes but you’re not adjusting for averages. Langford has a below league average K rate, and an above league average BB rate. Adolis is above league average in K rate, and below leave average in BBs. That matters. Langford has also had a few very bad calls, which is part of the game but also is worth noting. His BABIP is .311 and his exit velocities are top 2-3 on the team. He’s having some growing pains but he’s also having some tough luck. His ABs are more professional than anyone we could replace him with anyway. I just don’t get the “send him down” chatter.
I’m not saying Langford is playing like a superstar. I’m saying his ABs have been impressive. This kid is probably having as bad a stretch as you could expect, and he’s still been a serviceable player.
Another thing to consider is that even if he was every bit the superstar we were hoping for, if these are the worst 3 weeks of his season, he'll be a remarkably consistent player. People love to throw around the phrase "small sample" when thing are going well, but when they're going badly, always assume things will never change. He had a massive spring, so a 3-week slump after that isn't exactly unprecedented among even the best players.
Why? If you can still win while your youngster is finding their footing, that’s ideal. Most young players don’t bust into the league like vlad jr or tatis.
Wyatt is watching way too many early count fastballs, and is swinging at a lot of sliders breaking away from him leaving the zone because he's always in two strike counts. He's also struggling with higher velocity.
He's just not swinging at the correct pitches, so he's not driving the ball.
Keep him up, he desperately needs to continue to see velocity over 95mph.
Some people don’t like swinging early. Some like to work the count to try and get the pitcher gassed. You probably think what Semien and Seager do is standard, but they’re the exceptions. They’re both pretty aggressive early in the count.
Sure, working the count is fine... But watching hittable fastballs go by and having to defend against soft-and-away sliders is no way to hit. He needs to be more aggressive on fastballs.
Go look at Hendersons early season numbers last year, and what he ended up doing. I have full faith that he will figure it out.
It’s absolutely unbelievable what this sub expects from the team this year lmfao. #THIS IS A GUY WHO WAS FACING UP AGAINST CHILDREN WHO WERE STUDYING FOR CALC II EXAMS LAST YEAR. He is basically learning against the best pitchers in the world every day. The fact that he’s even in the daily lineup is incredible. With a talent like that you just let him figure it out and he will spend the extra coaching and film sessions working on fixing his game. Did they expect him to bat .300 and hit 10 homers by may? Like man if he’s still struggling in July then ya I get it maybe send him back down for some reset but this dude was in college less than a year ago let’s be realistic
I don’t think the expectations are that unrealistic. Langford was recognized by more than just Rangers fans as a ROY favorite and he’s sporting an OPS of .600. That’s naturally going to generate concern and conversation. You replied as if the OP is ready to call him a bust, which isn’t really proportionate to the actual tone of the post.
I’m not worried about his OPS, it’ll go up. I’d much rather him keep his high batting average and OBP.
For real. We win one world series and we are expected to have zero negatives all year. It’s crazy what winning does to a fan base. On one hand I get it, but come on it’s a baseball season. We were two games from not even making the postseason last year. You have to understand there will be ups and downs no matter how good the team is.
It’s been real stupid around here lately
Where did I say anything remotely close to that? I also said IF he is still struggling when Jung comes back which is end of May. Langford only had 200 professional AB’s coming into this year. This is why players don’t basically skip the minors. All the examples people are giving are of players that had 1000 or more AB’s in the minors.
he's not going to get better unless he's seeing mlb heat.
When the rest of the lineup starts doing well without him. The whole team is slacking right now
That’s my theory. Maybe he feels the pressure of the rest of the team * doing well. Maybe not, but I think if the rest of the lineup starts raking it’ll be easier for him to get into a groove as well Edit* meant to say *NOT doing well
He probably feels the most amount of pressure since he’s the DH. He has no other opportunity to help the team out other than his plate appearances. I think both of yall are spot on with the theory. If the rest of the lineup can shine then he can probably take some stress off his shoulders and not feel like it’s all on him to show out just because he’s the DH.
Yea lots of players seem to struggle in the DH spot if they’re used to playing the field too - something about being more involved in the game and not just sitting around waiting to hit. I also meant the rest of the team *not doing well but I think you understood regardless. So yea hopefully the rest of the team gets rolling eventually and that with time helps him also figure it out. As far as rookies go I’m not too concerned, albeit and little disappointed for how hyped up he was
For sure. DH gets a ton of the spotlight. I watched the Yankees play today since it was the free game of the day and Judge went 0-4. Of course other players went 0-4 but Judge obviously stands out among their fans because he’s the DH. He needs to hit bombs, bring runners home, not go 0-4, etc. And boy were the fans pissed at Judge in particular since it was a close game going into extra innings tied at 0-0. So to see what’s happening to a big time and experienced player, such as Judge, also be happening to a rookie (definitely not to the same extent), who we’ve all built up in our head (myself included), I think results in our fan base being a little too disappointed. Losing definitely doesn’t help because again it can come back to Langford in our eyes. Definitely just a bad negative feedback loop we’re in.
This is why I hate the fact that he’s the DH. Rookies aren’t brought up to DH.
But because Carter, Taveras and Garcia are all objectively better outfielders than he is (and it's not close), the only way Langford isn't the DH is if the team is made worse defensively on his behalf. And that will still be true in August or two years from now, so I think it makes a lot more sense to give it some time and see if he can make the DH adjustment. The idea that there will be weight off his shoulders if he's hurting the team in the field as well as at the plate doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
Sending him down to AAA to crush the pitchers there more isn't going to help him at this point. Better for him to struggle a bit and learn from that.
Everyone outside of Bombi is struggling to some extent
Semien would like a word. Bro has already been good for 1.4 WAR this year.
"To some extent" was included for this very reason
Semien isn’t struggling at all though
That's not to any extent though.
He had a 12 pitch at bat today and like an 8 pitch AB yesterday, he'll be fine. Just not falling in right now
Plus he has been getting hosed on a regular basis by home plate ump. They should get credit for 5 of his K’s and getting behind in the count a lot.
Agreed. He doesn’t LOOK like he’s struggling. The stats just aren’t there yet.
Agreed, Compare his strike out rate to other rookies this season, like Holliday, Langford is doing fine and will get better.
I think (hope) he’s just adjusting to the bigs. He’s got all the tools in the world to be a great player, but we gotta remember how relatively inexperienced he really is.
Idk man the guy is a rookie having to only DH. Of course his performance is going to stick out more than the others because he’s only DHing and everyone has built him up to continue his previous performance in the minors but relative to the rest of the lineup he deserves the most slack right now. He’s facing a whole entire league of new pitchers who are going to out perform him at the plate. I know we all keep saying he’ll come around and I think that’s the most we can hope for. He’ll need a lot of at bat appearances so he can hit his stride. I’m way more concerned about everyone not named Garcia and Semien.
I really wish he would be in LF at least 50% of the time. Have we even had Carter play CF at all this year? I may have missed it but I don’t recall anyone but Taveras in CF.
Taveras is at minimum a decent CF. He’s missed one play and people don’t understand how hard it is to track a ball hit directly over you. It wasn’t an easy play.
He is a decent centerfielder, but is the long-term centerfielder for this team? Because if he's not, then I'd rather see someone else getting work there regularly.
Dude is batting 240 avg. 4th most RBIs on the team. And is a ROOKIE! he’s never played this kind of competition before and has 44 minor league games. The leap this kid is making is incredible. Give him time.
My only complaint is that we keep hiding Carter from lefties. Let the kid take his lumps now when he's young and get better.
More worried about Evan right now.
[удалено]
Yeah, Carter’s whiff/k rate is what alarmed me but they’re both rookies I hope they’ll turn it around
What’s Holliday doing for the Os?
Honestly, he was having great at bats until that series against Angel Hernandez! It’s not been the same for him since. I feel like he may be under pressure and just needs some time. I am more concerned with Seager
I’ve watched every at bat this season, and while I might be suffering from some homerism, Langford has looked great. Not striking out (today was an exception), not chasing bad pitches, showing a willingness to walk, making contact, not trying to mash that first homer that everyone is waiting for. He’s had some bad luck, and yeah, I mean I think we all had visions of him doing great things early. But I bet Bochy has all the confidence in the world in him. It would be different if he was being beat by certain pitches or parts of the zone, but he’s not. He looks comfortable. Just my two cents.
He’s second on the team in Strikeouts behind Adolis so saying he isn’t striking out is not accurate.
Yes but you’re not adjusting for averages. Langford has a below league average K rate, and an above league average BB rate. Adolis is above league average in K rate, and below leave average in BBs. That matters. Langford has also had a few very bad calls, which is part of the game but also is worth noting. His BABIP is .311 and his exit velocities are top 2-3 on the team. He’s having some growing pains but he’s also having some tough luck. His ABs are more professional than anyone we could replace him with anyway. I just don’t get the “send him down” chatter. I’m not saying Langford is playing like a superstar. I’m saying his ABs have been impressive. This kid is probably having as bad a stretch as you could expect, and he’s still been a serviceable player.
Another thing to consider is that even if he was every bit the superstar we were hoping for, if these are the worst 3 weeks of his season, he'll be a remarkably consistent player. People love to throw around the phrase "small sample" when thing are going well, but when they're going badly, always assume things will never change. He had a massive spring, so a 3-week slump after that isn't exactly unprecedented among even the best players.
It's been more than a few bad calls, even calls at 1b.
He's absolutely swinging at bad pitches and is letting good pitches go. It's an adjustment, but he is struggling with higher velocity so far.
What about Carter’s? Lmao
Through the same number of games in 2022 Julio Rodriguez had a .544 ops and finished that year with an .854 ops. It’s nowhere near time to worry yet
Julio also had 1400 plate appearance in the minors prior to being called up. Expecting someone to figure it out in the majors is asking a lot.
It's almost like he should be playing every day to get reps.
Why? If you can still win while your youngster is finding their footing, that’s ideal. Most young players don’t bust into the league like vlad jr or tatis.
Wyatt is watching way too many early count fastballs, and is swinging at a lot of sliders breaking away from him leaving the zone because he's always in two strike counts. He's also struggling with higher velocity. He's just not swinging at the correct pitches, so he's not driving the ball. Keep him up, he desperately needs to continue to see velocity over 95mph.
No. He doesn't. He needs to play every day and work on his defense so he can actually play every day when Taveres leaves.
"No. He doesn't." No what? I said he needs to stay up in the majors and continue to see velocity? Not sure what you're freaking out about.
Some people don’t like swinging early. Some like to work the count to try and get the pitcher gassed. You probably think what Semien and Seager do is standard, but they’re the exceptions. They’re both pretty aggressive early in the count.
Sure, working the count is fine... But watching hittable fastballs go by and having to defend against soft-and-away sliders is no way to hit. He needs to be more aggressive on fastballs.
Langford is at least having productive at-bats. Carter is really struggling though.
After we talk about carter still hitless against lefties