Bill Pritchard

@McFarland_Shawn This has got to be disheartening to the players that put together good at bats to get on base, only to have Jake do his usual strikeout thing.

Jake Burger has struck out with the bases loaded for the third time in two games. This one, in a tied game in the ninth inning, might've been the most costly.

@McFarland_Shawn Did you know that the Rangers could have drafted Dingler in the first round of the 2020 draft instead of Justin Foscue.

Dillon Dingler just hit a three-run home run off of Kumar Rocker to really kill the vibes of this play. It's 3-0.

@RightOnRangers This was the first inning. Had he done the same thing in the ninth the Rangers would have won. All of the Rangers need to do better with RISP, not just with bases empty and 2 outs.

Green grass is hard to come by today with elite OF play from both squads, but Corey Seager finds it with a 109.3 mph down the line for the Rangers first hit of the ballgame.

@eurofounder Medical are in Germany is not free. It’s paid for by high taxes.

My wife collapsed in our hotel room in New York today “Call an ambulance, I can’t breathe” she was screaming My heart dropped If she ends up in an American hospital we are financially ruined I went on the Lufthansa app to book a flight back to Frankfurt, but unfortunately pilots are on strike today “Please I’m begging you” she was lying on the floor I sighed and called 911 She is now in surgery as apparently her appendix “almost burst” I am extremely scared This is going to cost us at least $100,000 She could have received much better care, for free, in Germany I will never visit this barbaric country ever again

@McFarland_Shawn Carter’s walk was not as good as a hit. Single moves Nimmo to third where Seager could have hit one to outfield to score Nimmo. Carter had at least one good pitch he let go by trying to get a walk

Brandon Nimmo: single Evan Carter: walk Corey Seager: strikeout swinging Jake Burger: strikeout swinging Joc Pederson: strikeout swinging

@McFarland_Shawn Hit more line drives!

We’re talking about a great start from Jack Leiter, a late-game bullpen mishap, struggles with runners and a curious ballpark. What year is it, again? “I think we hit some balls hard in this ballpark that would be hits elsewhere.” dallasnews.com/sports/rangers…

@JeffWilsonTXR The good year in AZ in 1924 got him the big contract with Rangers. Fenstermaker and CY must have only looked at the numbers, as there is no way he passes the eye test if they had looked at his swing. Release him now, call up Osuna and total cost is not much more.

Jake Burger takes a leadoff walk in the ninth, but is erased as Joc Pederson bounces into a double play. Joc is 0 for 14 this season.

@RangersFanCave Any logic in putting Eovaldi in the Bull Pen as closer? Starting rotation of DeGrom, Gore, Leiter, Latz and Rocker. Bradford when he’s ready and needed. Opposing teams batters would probably not like to see Eovaldi in that role.

The Rangers bullpen is a problem! And Chris Martin is the most glaring issue. The front office needs to hear this loud and clear right now, before we're 20 games in and already digging out of a hole. Here are Martin’s numbers: 13.50 ERA through the first 7 games. A 7.68 FIP and xERA of 12.33. That xERA number is not a typo. It means the contact quality Martin is allowing is historically bad. His hard hit rate allowed is sitting at 50%. His CSW% is 17.5%, which is well below the league average of around 29-30%. He's a 109 Stuff+ guy, meaning the raw stuff is still there, but his Location+ is 101 and his results are a disaster. The pitch is fine. The location is getting him killed. He threw a 93 mph sinker with no movement over the heart of the plate to Tyler Stephenson last night and watched it leave the building. That's who we're trotting out in high leverage spots right now. And the leverage index data backs up how bad the timing has been. Baseball Reference has Martin averaging a 1.14 leverage index this season. He's being used in meaningful situations. And he's costing us games. His -0.4 WAR through 2.2 innings is one of the worst rates in all of baseball right now. I want to be fair here. Martin posted a 2.98 ERA in 42.1 innings last year with a 1.55 average leverage index. The career ERA is 3.40 over 400+ innings. This is a veteran who has earned trust. But what we're seeing right now is not a blip. The contact quality numbers, the xERA, the hard hit rate, these aren't bad luck metrics. Hitters are squaring him up at an alarming rate. Until something changes mechanically, we cannot keep putting him in close games. Now let's zoom out, because Martin isn't the only issue in this pen. Carter Baumler is walking 25% of batters he faces. His FIP is 8.33. His xFIP is 7.44. His Location+ is 64, which ranks 304th out of 305 qualified pitchers in baseball. He has a negative K-BB% of -4.2%, meaning he's walking more guys than he's striking out. Every time Baumler enters a game, a free baserunner is almost guaranteed. His SIERA is 6.62. There is no metric that says Carter Baumler should be pitching in a major league game right now. Cole Winn has a 11.8% K-BB%, a 4.53 xFIP, and a 4.00 SIERA. He's been surviving on a LOB% that ranks in the top 7% of baseball, which means he's been incredibly lucky stranding runners. That luck is going to run out. Robert Garcia has a 20% walk rate. One in five batters he faces gets a free pass. His xFIP is 4.29 and his SIERA is 4.50. He's shown flashes of swing-and-miss stuff with a 30% K% and 115 Stuff+, but the command is nowhere near where it needs to be to be trusted in close situations. Now here's where it gets interesting, because there ARE bright spots in this pen. Jakob Junis is pitching like a shutdown reliever right now. 0.00 ERA, 1.58 FIP, 2.17 SIERA. His Location+ ranks 3rd in ALL of baseball among pitchers with qualified innings. His WHIP is 0.20, which ranks 4th in the league. His called strike rate is 32.8%, ranked 1st in baseball. He hasn't walked a single batter. The advanced metrics say he's been genuinely excellent, not just lucky. This is the guy who should be getting the ball in the 7th with the lead. Jalen Beeks is right there with him. 0.78 FIP. 1.67 xFIP. 1.24 SIERA. A 66.7% ground ball rate that ranks top 5% in baseball. He's not walking anyone either, with a 0.0% BB% through 3.1 innings. His LOB%+ ranks 4th in all of baseball. The peripherals on Beeks are legitimately elite right now. So here's the picture. We have two relievers, Junis and Beeks, who the data says are among the best in the game right now. And we have Martin and Baumler eating innings in close games and giving them right back. The front office has to make a move. Right now. Not at the trade deadline. Not in May. Now. We're 4-3 and the rotation has been solid enough to keep us in games. MacKenzie Gore gave us 6 innings and 9 K's last night and we still lost because of the bullpen. That cannot become a pattern. If Chris Martin can't fix the location issues in the next week or two, he needs to be DFA. Baumler needs to be optioned until the walk rate comes down. Garcia needs a longer leash in low-leverage spots only. Load up Junis and Beeks in the 7th and 8th. Figure out the 9th. Jacob Latz is probably the answer there for now. That's the blueprint right now. The front office built a rotation capable of winning this division. Don't let a broken bullpen torch the whole thing before April is over.

@Evan_P_Grant What about putting Eovaldi in bull pen to be the closer. If I were an opposing team batter he is the one Ranger pitcher I’d most hate to face.

Rangers column: Until addressed it’s a fatal flaw dallasnews.com/sports/rangers…

@_jivany_ @RangersFanCave Much better fielder than Duran or Smith. But if he can’t hit it’s time to send him to AAA.

@RangersFanCave It's sad because he play GG caliber defense.

Here’s every pitch Josh Jung saw last night. Josh is 0-for-17 to start 2026. Dead last in all of baseball in wRC+, OBP, wOBA out of 379 hitters. He is completely lost at the plate right now and has the 1000 yard stare of a guy who is completely in his own head. What makes it worse is HOW he's making outs. His avg exit velo is 79.9 mph, 335th in the league. His hard swing rate is bottom 9% in baseball. He's going up there and hacking at pitches early in counts, making weak contact, and sitting back down. The 3-pitch strikeouts and the chase rate tell the same story: he's not working counts, he's not hunting his pitch, he's just trying to survive each at-bat. That's a hitter who has lost his process entirely. The 9th inning at-bat against Tyler Wells should be very concerning. Three pitches, three called/swinging strikes. Jung never got the bat off his shoulder in a meaningful way. A 69.6 mph curveball buckled him, and Wells put him away looking on a changeup. His xwOBA is .149. Zero contact quality. At some point, continuing to send him out there against major league pitching every night stops being an opportunity and starts being a slow erosion of whatever confidence he has left. We need the Jungle Cat back. But you don't get him back by letting him go 0-for-4 in front of 40,000 people every night until something clicks. It might be time for Ezequiel Duran to take over 3rd.

@RangerApologist I actually wonder if he’s had an eye exam recently. Can’t seem to tell where ball is coming in. Hope it’s not like Gallo problem of having one swing and one swing only.

Josh Jung has had a brutal start to the season… 0/17 | 7 K | 0 BB At what point do we start worrying ?

@dynamic_voltage @RightOnRangers Joc had a good year in Arizona hitting in thin air and in great lineup. But he shouldn’t have passed these test, put the responsibility on only looking at stats only .

@RightOnRangers In CY's defense, no one thought Joc was going to be a .160 hitter. At least he fixed it by getting Cutch.

The Rangers have an $18.5 million dollar player that wouldn’t even be the first lefty option off the bench today. Let that sink in.

@Evan_P_Grant Jung doesn’t seem to be able to identify the type of pitch or the location. Completely lost, not just now but past 2 years. Has he checked his vision lately?

I dunno, but to me, Josh Jung looks like a guy who missed a bunch of time in spring. Hitless in 12 ABs this weekend - 5 Ks, 6 ground balls, 1 line drive

@RedWavePress This is what happens when a state is spending someone else’s money. The more that is spent the better it is for the state.

NEW: Two years after the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed in Baltimore, Democrat officials show little progress. The rebuild cost has ballooned from under $2 billion to as much as $5.2 billion—more than double the original estimate—while completion has been delayed from 2028 to late 2030. Fox News: “Critics say there’s questions now whether Congress will support rising costs.”

@eyesontheball95 Max is in because he hit the most famous home run of all time!

"Different Eras" - Yep, but we probaly didnt realize how good we had it. One of them is in the Hall of Fame. #AllForTX

@stephendshelton @RangerApologist Besides looking nonchalant his swing looks terrible. Doesn’t pass the eye test, maybe CY and Fenstermaker didn’t see his swing before signing.

@RangerApologist my biggest issue is how nonchalant he seems about being terrible.

Rangers Cactus League: best vs worst BEST Wyatt Langford (36 AB) .444 AVG | 5 HR | 1.468 OPS not human 😮‍💨 WORST Joc Pederson (35 AB) .171 AVG | 6 H | 12 K questionable signing 💔

@CwbyPops @RangerApologist Yes, dump him now. Give Osuna the job. Not convinced how good he will be, but likely better than Joc. Extra cost of replacing joc with Osuna has minimal impact on payroll.

@RangerApologist I’d say dump Joc now !!!

@honeymoon250 All 20, plus I recorded from radio to reel-to-reel tape.

6 for me!! I feel confident nobody Has all 20 How many for you?

@Evan_P_Grant For me he doesn’t pass the eye test. Swing looks terrible. He was signed with stats that looked great after career year in ARI. But not repeatable. Get rid of him now and give young guy a chance.

Rangers column: Joc Pederson has had terrible results this spring. His spring stats have a strange way of predicting his upcoming season. Just not in the way you think. dallasnews.com/sports/rangers…

@CNN Her student visa expired in 2022, so should have returned to her home country for that reason. You can debate whether she should have been detained for protesting, but visa expiration occurred before that. Lots of students overstay their visas, should be required to leave US.

Leqaa Kordia, a Palestinian woman who was detained by immigration authorities for more than a year, has been released from custody, according to her legal team. She was previously arrested at a protest at Columbia University amid Israel's war in Gaza in 2024. cnn.it/4rTZ68p