The Sunday Read: Jung, Garver may hold keys to how far Rangers’ offense can go
(AP photo/John Froschauer)
ARLINGTON — The offseason weekend that culminates with Fan Fest is always good for the beat writers, and if they were to be polled confidentially, they’d admit they missed it.
The Rangers last held Fan Fest in 2020, just before a virus shut down the world as everyone knew it.
MLB and the players didn’t help in 2022, as things were trying to get back to normal. The lockout knocked out any plans the Rangers had of reviving the annual mid-winter baseball festival.
Saturday was a reflection of what once was in the DFW baseball sphere, with Rangers fans roaming the home ballpark and standing in long lines for player autographs. The media, meanwhile, got its news-hungry hands on club officials and players.
Among them were two hitters who just might be the key to the Rangers’ lineup. No, not Corey Seager and Marcus Semien (though Seager did talk to the media).
I love putting Heaney ahead of Pérez. You may be the only one bold enough to do it (even if you admit that isn’t necessarily the order of the rotation). I love the top 3 coming off 5+ K/BB ratio seasons, with deGrom over 12 the last 2 seasons and Eovaldi over 5 three straight seasons. I love that Jung was just getting too anxious because the Rangers were being idiotic with the RoY draft pick stuff and not promoting him after declaring him their 3rd baseman before the season. If they cared so much about a draft pick, they wouldn’t have give up one in the beginning of the 3rd round for Eovaldi. The comp pick would be at the end of the 1st, so it’s rearly just a round earlier. I noticed that all 6 of the Rangers’ MLB.com’s top 100 prospects were drafted by the Rangers, and it looks that Jung may be close to making it. Before, all their homegrown guys were really just traded for, so this is a sign of good things to come.
The Rangers have done a good job drafting of late. Of course, that’s easier when you’re at the top of the draft, but the scouting group deserves some credit. As for Perez, he needs to slot between hard-throwing righties so that teams can’t get comfortable in a series.