SI's Bri Amaranthus and Chris Halicke discuss how the coronavirus hiatus has impacted the Texas Rangers starting rotation.
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00:00 Well, we've all been sitting around waiting for baseball to pick back up.
00:04 So have the players.
00:06 And I think a case could be made that the rest could have helped the Texas Rangers,
00:11 especially when you look at the starting rotation.
00:13 But I think you could also make the case that the rest and being away from the facilities
00:17 away from the trainers away from practice also may have hurt the Rangers.
00:22 Chris, what way are you leaning?
00:25 I'm actually the proponent that it could help, but I'm still a little torn because in the
00:32 way that it could help is it's a shortened season.
00:35 It's 82 games.
00:37 You look at the Rangers even last year in 2019 through 82 games under what the expanded
00:42 playoffs would look like, they would have been a playoff team.
00:45 And that's with only Mike Miner and Lance Lennon in the rotation, as opposed to having
00:49 Corey Kluber and Kyle Gibson and Jordan Lyles, a much deeper and higher quality rotation.
00:55 So I think that in a shortened season, which is more of a sprint than a marathon, which
01:01 the baseball season normally is, they could take advantage of that.
01:04 And it could end up becoming the reason why the Rangers can make a push for the playoffs.
01:09 At the same time, they're going to have about half the time that they normally do to get
01:13 ready.
01:14 They're going to have no more than three weeks to get ready for the season.
01:17 So I think at most of those pictures are going to be built up to about 85 to 90 pitches.
01:23 So if they're struggling with their pitch count in the fourth and fifth inning of a
01:27 game early on in the season, they're going to have to come out.
01:31 Which really this rotation, the strength of the rotation more than anything is their ability
01:35 to eat innings.
01:36 And you can't do that if they're only pitching into the fourth and fifth inning.
01:40 They need these guys to go into the sixth or possibly even the seventh or eighth innings
01:44 in order for them to really live up to their potential and their expectations.
01:49 It's going to be interesting because obviously the rest of the organizations, all of the
01:53 clubs are dealing with the exact same situation that the Rangers are in.
01:57 And so I'm interested to see if the Rangers are able to maybe have that X factor or that
02:01 motivation or who knows what it is to actually be able to in a shortened season, win the
02:08 sprint and not win the normal marathon that the MLB usually is.
02:13 Hopefully they can do it.
02:14 I think they can.
02:15 They have the arms to do it.
02:17 Absolutely.
02:18 Mike Miner and Lance Owen were both great last year.
02:20 Corey Kluber, we know how great he's been before.
02:22 And Kyle Gibson and Jordan Lyles are a very good duo at the back end of the rotation.
02:27 If they live up to expectations and can take advantage of the shortened season, this could
02:31 be, it could really be the reasons why the Rangers make the playoffs in 2020.