Filed under: Ranger Wins | Tags: Ben Broussard, Frank Catalanotto, John Mayberry Jr., Minor Leagues
How quickly the fortunes of baseball change. Monday night, the Mariners rocked Kevin Millwood in a 7-3 win, only to have the Rangers return the favor on Tuesday. This time, it was Miguel Bautista and reliever Cha-Seung Baek who got knocked around, as the Ranger offense showed some impressive plate discipline, drawing a total of 10 walks from the aforementioned pair, giving them more than enough baserunners to make some big things happen.
Ian Kinsler lead the game off with a double to LF, and Michael Young and Josh Hamilton followed with a pair of walks. Milton Braldey hit an RBI grounder to first, and David Murphy followed with a sac fly to make it 2-0 early. Brandon Boggs and Frank Catalanotto would draw walks to load the bases again, but Jarrod Saltalamacchia couldn’t come through, grounding out to second.
Even though the Rangers didn’t cash in as big as the could have, Bautista threw an astonishing 44 pitches in the first inning, setting up his own early exit. The Rangers tacked on a run in the second, on a Michael Young sac fly, but the big inning would be the top of the third.
Milton Bradley drew a walk to start the frame, and David Murphy followed by crushing a 2-run homer. Brandon Boggs struck out, but Bautista walked Frank Catalanotto with one out, after which he was pulled for Cha-Seung Baek. Baek came in and immediately got Saltalamacchia to fly out to deep right, but the Rangers put together a 2-out rally to blow the game wide open.
Baek loaded the bases by allowing Vazquez to single, and Kinsler to walk, and then Michael Young whacked a broken bat single up the middle to score two. That brought up Josh Hamilton, and he put the finishing touches on the offensive explosion by absolutely crushing a 425-foot 3-run homer to right field. That made it 10-0, and the Ranger put it on cruise control from there, as Sidney Ponson continued to impress.
Through 7 innings, Ponson gave up just one run on 7 hits and one walk. He only struck out 2, but he got 12 ground balls to 7 fly balls, and kept the Mariners off-balance the entire night. As I’ve said in the past, I’ve been one of Ponson’s biggest detractors, and in the back of my mind I still wonder how long his recent success will continue. But that doesn’t take away from the fact that he has pitched like an absolute fiend lately, and has made a fine addition to the rotation. And if his success does continue, we might actually be able to spin him for a prospect or two at the trade deadline.
On another interesting note from the game Frank Catalanottogot the start at first base, and went 1-2 with three of the Rangers 10 walks. As TR Sullivan notes, this is something we should be seeing a lot more of, as Ron Washington looks to get Catalanotto into the lineup, and squeeze some production out of the first base position (Texas 1B have a 546 OPS right now, the lowest in the AL).
It looks like my prediction yesterday about Ben Broussard’s time in Texas coming to an end may be coming true – as TR hints at in his article, and as Evan Grant puts a tad more bluntly, Catalanotto getting time at first base pretty much makes carrying Broussard unnecessary. Broussardis hitting a microscopic .159/.225/268, with a 493 OPS in 82 AB’sso far, and has just one hit with RISP all season – his grand slam against the Angels back on April 4th. Factor in his platoon weakness against LHP, and Ben starts to redefine the terms “useless” “roster clogger” and “spare”. And even though Washington nor the Rangers have yet to say it directly, they seem to have realized that they realistically cannot carry three first basemen on the roster once Marlon Byrd comes off the DL, so…
On other news, TR also has a peice up on the Rangers farm system right now on the Rangers sight, boasting about the current record of the Texas feeder clubs - whose collective .658 winning percentage is second only to the Yankees minor league clubs. There’s also some highlights on players like former #1 Rangers pick John Mayberry Jr., who is ripping up AAA Oklahoma (to the tune of a .500 average) since he got a promotion from Frisco around the same time Brandon Boggs was called up to the Majors last month.
The emergence of Mayberry, who has had a lot of struggles with his complicated swing in the minors since he was drafted over players like Boston’s Jacoby Ellsbury in 2005, is certainly a huge development. Back when he was drafted, he was supposed to be the Rangers RF of the future, but his stumbles though the system made him one of the Rangers most unpopular draft picks – now, according to Rangers farm director Soctt Servais, he could even be considered for a late-season callup if he continues his success:
“I’m really excited about [Mayberry],” Servais said. “You didn’t know what you’d get, but I’m most happy his strikeouts are down. At Frisco he was having some of the best at-bats. I’m not talking about hits but just staying on the ball and using all fields. This is a big year for John Mayberry. Hopefully he’ll settle in, put up good numbers and maybe by August or September he’ll get big league consideration.”
There’s also notes about Max Ramirez, the young catcher acquired for Kenny Lofton from the Indians last year, who recently won the Texas League Player of the Week award, and his hitting an insane .390/.475/.700 for AA Frisco so far, the health of Joaquin Arias, who could factor in as a short-term replacement at SS should the Rangers decide to move Michael Young to another position late this season, and on the development prized first base power prospect Chris Davis, about whom Servais has the following to say:
“The switch to first base has been very good for Chris,” Servais said. “He’s very athletic, and I’ve seen him make some very good plays. He’s making adjustments at the plate, trying to cut down his strikeouts and use the whole field. We know he can hit the ball five miles, but there is still plenty of development time needed.”
I don’t know about you, but the more I go on about the young guys, the more pumped I get. The farm system is truly the highlight of the Rangers organization right now – though I don’t often make many notes about it in this space, since I can only focus on the big-league club with my currently limted writing time, keeping up with the kids in the system via blogs like Mike Hindman’s or EMC’s, which are up on the sidebar, and other sources like Baseball America should be a required activity for Ranger fans right now.
Tomorrow, the Rangers face another left-handed pitcher in noted Ranger-killer Erik Bedard. Texas is just 1-6 this season against left-handed starters, and has not sent a lefty starter to a loss yet. Vicente Padilla goes for the Rangers, and is coming off a fairly solid performance in Oakland. Hopefully the Rangers can break the jinx lefties have on them so far, but it’ll be tough to do it against Bedard, who has held the Rangers to a .217 average in his 7career starts against them.
