As everybody knows Ron Washington is probably my favorite punching bag on this blog. I have many reasons for this, the simple, all encompassing awnser being that intellectually speaking, I think Ron is among the worst managers in the Major Leagues (probably behind only Dusty Baker and Ozzie Guillen in the “lack of common sense” category). Well folks, I’m sorry to report that Sunday afternoon, Ron gave everyone a golden demonstration of a more specific reason of why I hate him so: horrible, horrible bullpen management, that when combined with a bullpen meltdown, resulted in one depressing 13-8 loss to the Oakland A’s.
Things got off to a good enough start on a sunny afternoon in Arlington, withMilton Bradley socking a 2-run homer off Greg Smith with2 out in the bottom of the first. From there, Smith and Scott Feldman held kept each other’s teams off the board until he 4th inning, when Feldman gave up and RBI groundout to Bobby Crosby. Travis Buck then homered to start the 5th for Oakland, and Feldman gave up 2 more runs on a hit, a walk, an RBI single and fielding error by David Murphy that lead to a sac fly.
That made it 4-2 A’s for a short while, but the Rangers rallied in the 6th, as Josh Hamilton, Milton Bradley and David Murphy hit three straight RBI singles to regain the lead. Chad Gaudincame on to take over for Greg Smith, and promptly allowed a single to Gerald Laird, threw a wild pitch to plate another run, and got Frank Catalanotto to hit into an RBI fielder’s choice to give the Rangers a 7-4 lead by the time the inning ended.
After that was when the wheels came off.
Top of the 7th: decision time for Ron Washington. He can either leave in starter Scott Feldman, who is only at 85 pitches, and has been fairly effective so far. Normally, even Wash would have left Feldman in to at least start the inning, but for some reason, he decided to go to the bullpen a little early. We can mark this as bad decision #1.
Ron brought on the Electrican, Jamey Wright. Not a bad choice, Wright has been pretty good this year, and he pitched a scoreless inning last night. Only problem was, the Electrician had a short somewhere in his game, as he quickly loaded the bases on 2 hits and a walk, and then walked in a run to make it 7-5.
Okay, so: bases loaded, nobody out. Biggest situation of the game, pitching wise. Available in the bullpen you have the following: #1 Frank Francisco, who was excellent at stranding inherited runners last season, he’s on three days rest. #2 Joaquin Benoit, you’re 8th inning man who made just 7 pitches the previous night. #3 Robinson Tejeda, just got called up from AAA, has documented control problems, hasn’t thrown a pitch in the big leagues yet this year. So, who do you put in? Well, you answer that question in your head, and lets see what Ron does.
Ron comes out for Wright, and calls for… Robinson Tejeda!!! Yes, this makes perfect sense: the one guy in the bullpen who has not thrown a pitch yet in the bigs this year is on in the game-making-or-breaking situation. So what happened next? Well, from the Yahoo p-b-p:
- K. Suzuki walked, T. Buck scored, C. Gonzalez to third, D. Barton to second- J. Hannahan doubled to deep right, D. Barton and C. Gonzalez scored, K. Suzuki to third- B. Crosby singled to center, J. Hannahan and K. Suzuki scored
At this point, it’s 10-7 Oakland, and I am beating my head on my desk. Robinson Tejeda’s ERA is now infinity (no joke, it really is) and the entire offensive comeback we had made in the 6th is not only negated, but ground up and turned into coleslaw.
Now finally, AFTER the big meltdown is complete, Ron decides it’s time for Frankie Francisco. Unfortunatley for Frankie, he doesn’t have it either, and he serves up homers to Jack Cust and Mark Ellis to make it 13-7. By this time, I have transformed into the Incredible Hulk, and hurled my computer all the way to Hawaii, but I have since been informed that the inning did in fact end, after a total of 9 runs, 6 hits and 3 walks.
It is absoultey incomprehensible to me why Robinson Tejeda entered that game when he did. Incomprehensible. Anyone in that bullpen, even Josh Rupe would have probably been a better option than the wild fireballer just up from AAA. And now I point to all this and ask: is there really any further evidence needed to prove that Ron Washington is not a Major League manager? Come on JD and Nolan, wake up: the guy who should be managing this team is standing on the third base line. And the guy who is managing the team should be standing on the third base line.
Arrrgh. Sorry if all that seems like a rant (it really is of course, but I’m leaving it all in, because I think this is a good time to illustrate the teeth grinding frustration I feel over Ron Washington), but incompetence like this just really ticks me off. And I’m not really alone in my bewilderment over this, either: even Adam J. Morris is beginning to admit that Ron just might be in over his head as a manager after this one.
And now for the other news, condensed to quick hits due to time constraints: Hank Blalock is hoping that he might be able to return from his carpal tunnel surgery in 2 weeks… Vicente Padilla has left for Nicaragua to tend to a “family issue”, and will skip his scheduled start today, and possibly tomorrow’s rescheduled start as well… Josh Hamilton gavea testimonial about his life after yesterdays game… Shawn Shroyer has a piece up on Thomas Diamond, who wants to make it to the Majors by the end of this season. Says Diamond:
“I’d like to get there by the end of this year,” Diamond said. “It seems like a pretty lofty goal, but if I’m throwing good and I have low enough innings, I think they’ll give me a chance.”
I don’t think that’s really an unrealistic goal at all for Diamond, although it seems more likely to me that he’d debut as a reliever than as a starter if he indeed does make it up by September – Eric Hurley and Matt Harrison should also be up by then, and pitching in the rotation. And finally, Jarrod Saltalamacchia will catch again for the first time in four days after not seeing any action whatsoever this weekend against Oakland. Sigh. I hate this stupid catching platoon.
With Padilla absent, Doug Mathis goes against the young Cleveland lefty Aarron Laffey today. Doug pitched a gem his last time out against the Indians – he dueled CC Sabathia to a draw, giving up just one run over 6 innings. Still gonna be interesting to see how Mathis does today though, as two starts hasn’t really been enough to truly gauge him. Hopefully Ron Washington won’t make any more stupid decisions for awhile - I know it must seem like I enjoy bashing him, but the reality is, I really wish I didn’t have any reason to do so. Unfortunately though, I think the only time I’ll be able to stop bitching about him is when he gets fired. Let’s hope thats sooner than later.
PS – Almost forgot: on a lighter note, Micah was out at a Clinton Lumberking’s game recently, and came back with photos, and even a video of Rangers 2007 #1 draft pick Blake Beavan juggling. Trust me, the video is a must see, if for no other reason that you finally get to realize just how big Blake Beavan is.
