Who would be better: the Texas Rangers at hockey or the New York Rangers at baseball?
[/text_output][text_output]Your immediate reaction might be, “Well duh, baseball is easier to play without any experience, so the NYRs will do better”, but just bear with me as it’s the offseason and this will be fun. For both teams, I’ll start with their lineups and then move onto what level of play they could probably beat, and then end with a final comparison. I fully intend to abbreviate the teams as “NYR” and “TXR” so I don’t have to keep spelling them out, and I’ll also put an H or B to designate the sport if needed (ie. New York Rangers Baseball (NYRB) and Texas Rangers Hockey (TXRH). I also used some of the NYR prospects to fill out the 40 man roster, specifically those who are not currently signed to another major league (ie. KHL).I choose to do this because it would be like including Datsyuk on the Coyotes roster which, while they have his NHL rights, he is not in the NHL system. [/text_output][text_output]I also wanted to give a big shout out to the Texas Rangers subreddit (/r/TexasRangers) for helping me better familiarize myself with their team – thanks![/text_output][text_output]And with that, Lets BEGIN
[/text_output]Texas Rangers Hockey
Central Division
Owner – Tilman Fertitta
Arena – Toyota Center
[/text_output]Forwards
[/text_output][text_output]- Elvis Andrus (A) – 1C: Andrus has great vision and is a leader on the field and in the locker room. He will make an ideal 1C as he brings his playmaking abilities to the ice. Andrus is also a leader on the field which is why he gets an A.
- Isiah Kiner-Falefa – 1RW: IKF is the Buchnevich of the new Texas Rangers Hockey Club. He plays all over the place on the field, has a ton of talent and constantly gets moved around. Rightfully, I am placing him on the top line to show off his offensive and defensive capabilities.
- Rougned Odor – 1LW: Odor rounds out the top line by continuing to play with the infielders he has played with for stretches of this season. He brings a youthful presence to the winger core and his playmaking skills will be useful.
- Delino Desheilds (A) – 2C: Deshields centers his other outfielders and takes a leading role on this line and in the forward core. His talents in the outfield to make plays will hopefully translate to plays on the ice.
- Carlos Tocci – 2RW: Tocci is young and could stand to put some mass on his body as he is only 160 pounds. However, his speed at playing multiple outfield positions will allow him to create plays on the ice when he can get his feet under him.
- Shin-Soo Choo – 2LW: Choo is a high offensive player who can finish plays created by his line mates and convert them into points. Having played as both an outfielder and DH on the field means he should have the gas to be a scoring winger.
- Tony Barnette – 3C: A reliever from Alaska. Hopefully giving him sheltered minutes can allow him to give guidance to some of the younger players and provide some talent while also limiting his minutes. Also, his hair was hockey worthy before he cut it.
- José Leclerc – 3RW: The fiery closer brings his talent to the forward core. Although a main issue would be stamina, it is balanced out by his amazing speed and control. If this translates to the ice, you could see a high scoring third line.
- Mike Minor – 3LW: Minor can provide some defense as a winger to the bottom 6 forwards. He is having an up-year in terms of pitching, including his strikeout %; this control will help him put pucks deep in the net.
- Doug Fister – 4C: Fister is a massive man who will provide size and reach to a fourth line. Despite being 34 years old, he is still one of the better guys throwing for the Rangers and can bring that aspect to the ice.
- Cory Gearrin – 4RW: Gearrin is getting a little old but still has great stuff to put out for his team. Also he has that nice hockey hair so I couldn’t leave him out
- Martin Perez – 4LW: Perez is a decent player but with a lot of stamina. He will hopefully contribute to the 4th
- Drew Hutchinson – 13F: Normally a pitcher, Hutch is the backup in case another forward goes down. If he gets his stuff under control, maybe he can move out of the press box.
What you hope your forwards will look like:
[/text_output][image src=”3031″ alt=”” href=”” title=”” info_content=”” lightbox_caption=”” id=”” class=”” style=””]What your forwards end up looking like:
[/text_output][image src=”3032″ alt=”” href=”” title=”” info_content=”” lightbox_caption=”” id=”” class=”” style=””]Defenders
[/text_output][text_output]- Robinson Chirinos – 1RHD: Chirinos is a good defensive player with some offensive upside as well. His ability behind the plate and as a decent quick catcher will allow him to contribute to any defensive needs on the ice. His vision and patience as a catcher will help with that greatly.
- Nomar Mazara (A) – 1LHD: Plays a solid outfield game and is a leader on the field. He is fast and has good size to poke check.
- Adrian Beltre (C) – 2RHD: A timeless classic who is a major defensive force even at his old age. Playing him on the second paring will help reduce his minutes but will still be useful against an opposing team’s better players. He will be paired with a young infield talent in Profar.
- Jurickson Profar – 2LHD: Profar is a major upcoming talent and has great vision at the shortstop position. By playing with an absolute legend in Beltre, his youth should complement Beltre’s wisdom and experience. Profar also switch hits so that could provide some interesting tactics on the ice. This should be a fun pairing.
- Joey Gallo – 3RHD: Gallo is massive. Gallo technically plays defense sometimes (-0.3Dwar). Gallo is a perfect 3rd pairing defender.
- Ronald Guzman – 3LHD: Guzman is a decent defensive player but is likely going to be held back by playing 1st in his previous life. Placing him on the 3rd pairing will hopefully hide some of these shortcomings.
- Drew Robinson – 7D: Robinson is very young and not fully ready to step into a bigger role. With time he could become a 2nd pairing defenseman once Beltre retires.
- Yovani Gallardo – 8D: Yovanni is having a down year and needs some time to regroup himself before being used in a larger role again. If he manages to get his stats back in line he may move into a 3rd pairing spot.
A live look at the New Texas Rangers Defense!
[/text_output]Goalies
[/text_output][text_output]Bartolo “Big Sexy” Colon – Goalie: The big man with all the personality is the goalie for the Texas Rangers Hockey Club. This reduces the amount he has to move and allows him to block shots like he does on the mound sometimes. Bartolo is the secondary reason I wrote this entire piece.[/text_output][x_video_embed type=”16:9″ id=”” class=”” style=””] [/x_video_embed][text_output]Chris Martin – Goalie: Martin is the exact opposite of Bartolo; he is 6 foot 8 and has the wingspan of a turkey vulture. The glove saves will be INSANE[/text_output]New York Rangers Baseball
AL East, Toronto moves to central, Royals or Twins move to west
Owner – James Dolan
Park – Shop Rite Field at Belmont Park coming 2021
[/text_output]Pitchers
[/text_output][text_output]- Chris Kreider – Starting Pitcher (L): Kreider has incredible talent and isn’t afraid to do what needs to be done to win a game. His shot and general strength will give him power on the mound and the fact that he is a long tenured Ranger will help greatly in the locker room.
- Mika Zibanejad – Starting Pitcher (R): Could easily be one of the better starters if he can stay healthy. Too many people keep asking, “Oh is he even a starting pitcher? His numbers don’t add up!” WELL THEY DO.
- Pavel Buchnevich – Starting Pitcher (L): Now that we are out from under the late not so great Aaron Boone, we will almost certainly see an amazing season out of what we have all been hoping would be an incredible starter.
- Kevin Hayes – Starting Pitcher (L): With his recent defensive developments, Hayes could become a ground ball artist in a starting role. He will show the speed and control of a talented pitcher but likely throw for defensive plays than strikeouts.
- Vladislav Namestnikov – Starting Pitcher (L): Similar to my reasoning for KZB being starting pitchers, Vladdy has played top minutes with guys like Stamkos and Kucherov, and has both playmaking and shooting abilities. Someone who has had that kind of experience and shown that level of talent should be in the rotation.
- Cody McLeod – Starting Pitcher (R): Every team has its Ubaldo. McLeod is our Ubaldo Jiménez
- Brett Howden – Relief Pitcher (L): What was it that Greg said? “Howden has had ownership of opposing teams”. Yeah, I want that in my bullpen. He has the possibilities of becoming a starter in a few years.
- Filip Chytil – Relief Pitcher (L): In the same vein as Howden, Chytil has all the talent in the world but needs to be somewhat hidden from a starting pitching role right away. I want him to have time to get ready because he can make that switch in the near future.
- Vinni Lettieri – Relief Pitcher (R): Vinni has fire in his blood. He broke Brendan Smith’s hand in a fight. He should provide middle inning relief and could become a higher usage player if he can further develop.
- Jimmy Vesey – Relief Pitcher (L): Vesey has a big advantage in having probably played baseball in his life before. He shows shooting ability which may help him in a short use relief role.
- Ryan Spooner – Relief Pitcher (L): Spooner is an interesting case. He has a lot of promise but doesn’t seem to fit anywhere in particular. He can be used in the bullpen while the front office tries to figure out what to do with him.
- Nils Lundkvist – Relief Pitcher (L): Lundkvist shows a lot of potential in a defensive role. He can be useful in controlling runs in middle to late innings.
- Ty Ronning – Relief Pitcher (R): Ten games with a goal over a stretch. That’s consistency if I have ever seen it. He also seems to put the puck exactly where it needs to be so I want him in the bullpen while he develops.
- Boo Nieves – Relief Pitcher (L): Has shown flashes of high end talent but is also somewhat inconsistent at times. With work he might make a serviceable reliever.
- Peter Holland – Relief Pitcher (L): Holland is getting up in years but could provide a valuable veteran presence in the bullpen with Staal.
- Marc Staal – Lefty Specialist (L): Marc still has a lot of talent even if he doesn’t have the endurance to play more than an inning at once. His leadership ability and what he has left in the tank will translate to pushing the younger pitchers and providing specific pitching needs.
- Lias Andersson – Closing Pitcher: Medal tosser becomes ball tosser. Lias has the ferocity to keep opposing teams to low or no runs when it really counts in the late innings.
It will probably be better than this.
Right?
[/text_output]Catchers
[/text_output][text_output]- Henrik Lundqvist – Catcher: Fairly obvious choice here. Hank has great vision and would still be in a leadership position behind the plate. Now in the catcher role he has the opportunity to make more plays than just as a goalie.
- Alexandar Georgiev – Catcher: Georgiev did quite well as a backup goalie this year and could continue to grow under Hank’s mentorship as they both transition from goalie to catcher.
Infielders
[/text_output][text_output]- Kevin Shattenkirk – Shortstop: Ball moving short stop with some speed and a hard shot. Should be able to lock down the left side of the infield. His talents for blocking shots and creating breakaway chances will hopefully translate to getting single outs and double plays.
- Mats Zuccarello – Second base: The short in stature forward has the speed and ability to act as a leader in the infield. He will easily be able to act as a ground ball stop, a backup to the shortstop and first base and be quick enough to cover a pickoff at second.
- Marek Mazanec – First base: Mazanec plays goalie for Hartford. His skill of catching pucks will transfer nicely to catching at 1st. As he is the tallest of the three goalies, his length will hopefully help in stretch plays. His recent signing leaves me puzzled if he would fit elsewhere in the system.
- Neal Pionk – Third Base: The young defender showed a great ability to make plays and block shots this past season. This will translate well to blocking grounders and making plays to 1st or 2nd. While he is younger than most players at 3rd, he shows a great deal of talent and ability to improve.
- Jesper Fast – Utility Infielder: The utility skater is now the utility infielder. Good at many things, not the best at any one thing. He is the jack of all trades.
- Ryan Lindgren – Second Base: Needs time to bring his skills up to the major league level but can provide a valuable backup to the 2nd base position.
- Brendan Smith – Third Base: Smith’s raw strength should hopefully transfer to cross field throws. Hopefully he can get his game back to form but he is still a viable backup for Pionk.
- John Gilmour – Shortstop: Showed some skill with his call up this season as a good 2nd pair defenseman. He should be able to work at shortstop in case Shattenkirk goes down again.
Outfielders
[/text_output][text_output]- Brady Skjei – Center Field: Regularly the fastest guy on the ice and that speed is useful at center field. As an American he likely has more experience with the knowledge of being the most important player in the grass
- Anthony DeAngelo – Right Field: The possible successor to Shattenkirk with a similar, although less developed, skills as a ball moving fielder. As a faster player he is able to cover the outfield while he improves his ground ball game.
- Tim Gettinger – Left Field: Tall, fast, strong. Gettinger provides a lot of the marks that a good outfielder needs in terms of athleticism. As he develops further he will greatly improve, especially only being 20 years old.
- Libor Hájek – Right Field: Hájek is a strong prospective defender. His speed will hopefully translate to controlling the corner outfield and his defensive skills will allow him to make smart plays.
- Fredrik Claesson- Left Field: The newly acquired young defender has shown to be competent and can fill in as a rotating player for the outfield with the young Gettinger.
THATS MY CENTER FIELDER
[/text_output]And now with just as much scientific realism as “The Deadliest Warrior” lets rate our teams
[/text_output][text_output]In this, I decided to make two estimations based on if the teams either had a) minimal or b) extended practice. For minimal practice, the players only had basic instructions for each sport and 1-2 weeks to practice before playing their first match. For extended practice, I assumed each player had functional coaching and training for an extended period (i.e. 6-12 months of practice) before they played a game. I feel like this distinction is important and I hope you will see why as well.[/text_output]Minimal Practice
[/text_output][text_output]Texas Rangers Hockey –
What do you get when a bunch of people, who barely know how to skate, try to play hockey? Bad things. You get bad things. As someone who tried to play intramural hockey right after learning to skate for 3 months, I do not have a lot of faith in the TXRH to win much of anything. They have adult man strength and some high-level athletes going for them, but honestly, they would probably be better off trying to run in sneakers on the ice. They would BODY some younger kids but I really don’t think they could out skate anyone over the age of ten, other than maybe Tony Barnette since he is from Alaska.
Maybe the adult player’s size could let them poke check young children as they get out skated by 12 year olds? Maybe since they have to take up space on the ice will help stop shots since young kids aren’t accurate shooters yet? Bartolo would just have to be on the right side of the net where the puck is to body block it. I don’t know at what age people start to be able to shoot a blocker high goal. This goes the same way for the TXRH trying to score, they might be able to use their raw strength to fire a puck past the small goalie but again, when do kids get good at stuff?[/text_output][text_output]
Final Rating: U12 hockey
[/text_output][text_output]New York Rangers Baseball –
I think the lack of trying to understand a new floor surface works in the favor of the New York Rangers Baseball club; most people know how dirt and grass work. Along those same lines, the natural athleticism of a hockey player works better to the sport of baseball than the inverse; it is easier to condition your body to make the hockey to baseball switch than the other way I would think. The disadvantages to hockey players on a baseball field come into play when dealing with increasing pitch speeds and difficult fielding plays, such as short hops and double plays. However, the tactics per se, are easier to teach than the play making needs of hockey. With minimal practice and training the issues arise in lacking skills that become natural to a baseball player over time. These things take a considerable amount of thought to a newer player. I assume that all of the American players have been on a diamond before. The last major concern I have is in the control of the pitchers who I have placed in the rotation and bullpen. Pitching is no easy feat especially at a higher level. Without a considerable amount of time to improve I am not sure how good the pitching can actually be. I am trying to estimate what level of pitching some players could swing against and who the pitching staff could actually pitch against.
Also This:[/text_output][x_video_embed id=”” class=”” style=””]
[/x_video_embed][text_output]Final Rating: Senior League Baseball (13-16 year olds)
[/text_output]Extended Practice
[/text_output][text_output]Texas Rangers Hockey-
With a large amount of training and practice on the ice, I would predict the TXRH have the upper body coordination of a good beer league team and the skating ability of maybe 15-16 year olds who have always played hockey. Under these circumstances, their biggest failings would be the lack of experience in play making and knowing how to react in certain situations like more complex plays, how to run a powerplay, and general on ice awareness. They would not be nearly as much of pylons as the previous hypothetical and some of the players may actually have some decent ability on the ice. This length of time would also allow them to condition themselves to hockey rather than baseball, however, hopefully Big Sexy doesn’t become just Medium Sexy. With that said, they should be able to play a lot better against their competition.[/text_output][text_output]
Final Rating- U15 hockey
[/text_output][text_output]New York Rangers Baseball –
NYRB has a continuing advantage of not needing to spend time learning how to move on the ground. Instead, that time can be spent working on a player’s fielding and hitting, or pitching; months of time of continuously working on just a few skills rather than the many major techniques needed to play hockey. While not having years of experience at their disposal, they could easily increase their ability to hit higher speed pitchers, place pitches and make plays in the field. The problem arises in trying to do these important skills at a higher level consistently.[/text_output][text_output]
Final Rating- Division 3 college baseball
[/text_output][line id=”” class=”” style=””]I think this is an interesting thought experiment and could easily be changed completely. Who knows, maybe I am completely wrong. You will probably tell me if I am.[/text_output]
Author: Amanda
New York born, Maryland raised, Minnesota hockeyed. In order: Rangers, Orioles, Gophers, Rockets, Ravens. I live in WISCONSIN now and will be reporting on college kids from time to time.