Tuesday Newsletter time: Texas Rangers' system gets some love from major industry publication
Baseball America says key performances, the draft and the trade deadline helped significantly upgrade the farm.
The Texas Rangers Newsletter is nearly two months old, but has learned a valuable lesson in its infancy: It’s tough coming up with a newsletter following an off day.
Fortunately, while the Rangers rested Monday the fine people at Baseball America provided some solid material.
The industry leader in minor-league coverage released its midseason organizational rankings, and the Rangers’ farm system climbed 13 spots from the preseason rankings to No. 11.
Baseball America said the leap was due to the development of Double A Frisco right-hander Cole Winn, the addition of No. 2 overall pick Jack Leiter and the prospects acquired at the trade deadline.
Two of them, infielders Ezequiel Duran and Josh Smith, jumped into the Rangers prospect rankings at No. 5 and No. 6. Baseball America ranks Leiter as the Rangers’ No. 1 prospect even though he won’t pitch until next season.
He is also the highest-ranked of the three Rangers on the BA Top 100 prospect list at No. 34. Third baseman Josh Jung is No. 39 and Winn is No. 83.
The Rangers believed that their system, based on what they saw during the fall instructional league, was better than the No. 24 preseason ranking. There was quality depth there that just needed the chance to develop after the minor-league season was canceled in 2020.
Six months later, plus a draft and a trade deadline, they have been proven correct.
Rotation switcheroo
The Rangers dispatched an email Monday morning announcing a change to their starting rotation the next three games against the Seattle Mariners. Here it is:
Tuesday: LHP Taylor Hearn
Wednesday: RHP Mike Foltynewicz
Thursday: RHP Spencer Howard
Howard was scheduled to start Tuesday. Foltynewicz is unchanged. Dane Dunning was scheduled for Thursday.
This is a one-time change, a club official said, and not a move to a six-man rotation. The Rangers, though, have talked about giving Hearn his own day to start. A six-man rotation would allow for that while still giving Howard a chance to start as he works on himself for 2022.
The Rangers were off Monday, which meant no Zoom call with manager Chris Woodward. We have something to ask him later today.
Technical difficulties
Some of you might have received the Monday newsletter right on time Monday morning. Some of you might have received it around 12:50 p.m. Some of you might have received twice.
Here’s what happened: The IT man for the Texas Rangers Newsletter, me, set the Monday newsletter to be sent only to paid subscribers rather than to everyone. The IT guy didn’t know how to send it to those who have signed up only for the newsletter, so the solution was to create a second file and send it to everyone.
Sorry for the snafu. An inbox clogged with emails from the same source is pretty annoying, especially when it’s a duplicate email.
Hopefully the IT guy has learned his lesson.
Here’s another lesson: Upgrading from a free subscription to a paid subscription will help you avoid future IT snafus.
Lord knows there will be more. I hear the IT guy isn’t very good.
Doggy video!
True story: My wife adopted her first dog, Max the Great, because he was the only dog at the adoption center that wasn’t barking or howling. Enjoy. See you Wednesday.
