Filed under: Ranger Wins
Well, here we are, standing on the precipice of the last Rangers baseball game of 2008. Yes, apparently that’s what it’s taken for me to sit down again in front of the keyboard again, and for that I’m sorry.
I’ve been sitting here trying to find an elegant way sum up my overall feelings the 2008 season, and all I can think of is it’s been a blast for me. I’d like to think myself and my fellow Ranger fans have witnessed the beginning of an important transition in this team’s history in 2008 - and I’d also like to think I personally gained a lot more understanding into this team and this sport than I ever have had before. It’s been one giant rollercoaster ride, and in one way I’m more than ready to put a stamp on it and watch and wait for the offseason to unfold – but in another, I’m definitely going to miss not having a Ranger games to distract me and wreak havoc upon my weekly schedule for the next five months. And after all, the way they’ve played in their last three games… who wants the fun to end now?
The Rangers have of course clinched second place in the AL West standings – they did that Friday night with a 12-1 spanking of John Lackey and the Angels in which they also tied the major league record for doubles in a season at 373. Last night they eclipsed that mark during an 8-4 win that guaranteed them the series win and gave them a chance at squashing the Angels bid for a 100-win season later today.
Hank Blalock, whose September hot streak has been one of the bigger stories for the Rangers of late, rapped the historic two-bagger to drive in a run in the third inning. Chris Davis later added a double of his own in the 6th, setting the new record at 375 with one game left to play.
Perhaps more notable however was what Josh Hamilton accomplished in the 6th inning – after driving in 2 runs in the game on Friday Friday, Hamilton’s 2 run single that capped the Rangers scoring in the 6th gave him 130 RBI on the season and allowed him to retake a one RBI edge over the Twins Justin Morneau for the American league RBI lead. Hamilton’s once-comfortable lead for the RBI crown had evaporated thanks to a 15 game stretch from 9/7 to 9/23 in which Hamilton did not drive in a run. He snapped the streak during the Rangers final home game on Thursday however with 2 run double, and he has now driven in 2 runs in his last three games while Morneau has found himself in a slump with just one RBI in his last 8 games.
It’ll probably take some luck to hold onto that lead if Hamilton doesn’t pad it today though, as Morneau could possibly play an extra game if the White Sox and Twins need a tiebreaker, and Detroit and third place Miguel Cabrera (who is just three back at 127) could possibly have a a makeup game left to play on Monday. If Hamilton does hold on he’ll be the fifth Ranger (after Jeff Burroughs, Ruben Sierra Juan Gonzalez and Alex Rodriguez) to lead the league in RBI – he’s already only the 8th Ranger ever to reach the 130 RBI plateau, which was apparently his goal for the season:
“Everybody knows all that [RBI] stuff except for me,” Hamilton said. “Some of the guys were saying, ‘You’re on top again,’ and I said, ‘What do you mean?’ That was my goal, to get 130. If that leads the league, then that’s great.”
Today Kevin Millwood (who was of course the opening day starter in Seattle back in April) will close out the season for the Rangers, facing off against Angels lefty Joe Saunders. As mentioned above, if the Rangers can pull off the sweep they’ll prevent the Angels from reaching 100 wins for the first time in their franchise history – which, considering how strongly I dislike the Angels is something I’m really rooting for.
Also, I’m planning to start a season-in-review series this week in which I’ll break down the 2008 Rangers roster position by position and take a look back at the various seasons each player has had (and my opinion on them going into 2008). That’s actually something I’ve been looking forward to doing for awhile, so be sure and check back for that. In the meantime… enjoy the last Ranger baseball we’ll see until March ‘09. It’s gonna be a long winter.
Filed under: Ranger Wins | Tags: Frank Francisco, Gerald "Superstar" Laird, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Matt Harrison
So… it’s been awhile. Far too long actually, since I sat down and attempted a post. I suppose some of you are wondering what happened to me – well, simply put the Rangers took an unexpected nosedive, and so did my inspiration and will to write. Don’t get me wrong, I haven’t been bandwagoning (I do take a sort of masochistic pride in the fact that I’ll sit through as much of every Ranger game as I can, no matter how bad it gets) I think I just honestly needed a break from blogging. Now the challenge will be getting myself back into the rhythm of writing and posting on a regular basis - I don’t know if I’ll be able to post after every gamelike I have earlier this season, but I’ll post as regularly as I possible.
Thanks of course are in order to any and all of my readers who haven’t given up on me during my absence - next time I take a “break” I’ll make sure to at least have the decency to inform ya’ll of it (hopefully though, I won’t be doing that until at least the offseason). But enough yakking – time to get down to business.
The Rangers, for all the tough times they havesuffered through over this past month have just slapped a nice little bow on their first sweep of the 2008 season in Kansas City last night. It’s been an important turnaround series for the pitching staff, which had come into Kansas City sporting a 6.45 ERA for their last 17 games (of which the Rangers had lost 14). But Scott Feldman put together a quality start on Monday, Kevin Millwood went the distance (for his second straight start) on Tuesday night and Matt Harrisoncompleted the sweep with 6.2 innings of 2-run ball last night as he outdueled Brian Bannister for a 3-2 win.
It’s worth noting of course that the anemic Kansas City offense that they faced is second to last in the AL in runs per game (4.07) but that doesn’t change the fact that this has to be a much-needed morale boost for this team after their 3-for-17 swoon:
“This is a great sign that even though we let ourselves fall out of the race and the wild card, we know we need to play with some pride and get back to where we were three weeks ago,” reliever Jamey Wright said. “Play well and have some fun and get back to what we were doing.”
Harrison wasn’t exactly lights out last night - giving up 7 hits and 2 walks over his 6.2 frames to the Royals isn’t exactly truly shutdown baseball, but what Harrison did do was a good job of wriggling out of jams. He stranded 4 runners in scoring position, including 2 in the 4thafter the Royals had put men on second and third with nobody out. When he left in the 7th, it was with property at second and third again, but Joaquin Benoit took over and struck out David DeJesus to end the threat and preserve Harrison’s line.
Offensively it was a big night for Jarrod Saltalamacchia and the Rangers young hitters, who picked up the rest of a largely quiet Ranger lineup. Brandon Boggs, who was inserted after Josh Hamilton was a late scratch with anabcessed tooth, hit his 8th home run in the 4th inning and Saltalamacchia unleashed 2 doubles on the night, the second of which came back-to-back with a Chris Davis double in the 7th to tie the game at two.
That’s when the lightning struck – for the second consecutive night, the Royals gave the game away via error, when Brian Bannister somehow managed to drop a 2-out infield popup off the bat of Joaquin Arias. An alert Salty came rumbling around third base and scored on a head-first dive – an almost inexplicable play since #1, infield popups are dropped about once every decade, and #2 Salty is of course a catcher.
“Didn’t think it was possible,” third base coach Matt Walbeck said. “If Salty hadn’t been running hard the whole way, it never would have happened.”
Salty did have a passed ball last night and somehow lost a laser beam throw from Brandon Boggs that should’ve cut down a run in the 5th inning, but he is now hitting .362 witha .944 OPS since the all star break in his limited playing time as the backup catcher. Gerald Laird on the other hand has regressed toward his mean, hitting .242 with an abysmal .670 OPS since he was handed the full-time starters job again (which might lend further credibility to the theory that Laird only seems to really play well when his playing time is on the line).
This little stint with Laird as the starting catcher has been fun (okay, not really) but I think it’s safe to say Salty has earned himself some more of that semi-regular (platoon) playing time again. Or, let me put it this way: it’s absolutely senseless for the Rangers not to give their 23 year-old catcher more playing time now that he’s started to hit again and now that their wildcard hopes are down the drain. Whether you see him as offseason trade bait or the catcher of the future, they need to allow Salty to salvage as much of his 2008 season as he can.
Getting back to the game, the Rangers also bore witness to a small milestone last night: Frankie Francisco’s first big league save. You probably already know Frankie moved into the closers role this week (something I believe I’ve suggested in the past) when the Rangers traded Eddie Guardado to the Twins for relief prospect Mark Hamburger, and last night was his debut in the role. And even though he was only facing the Royals 7-8-9 hitters you really couldn’t have asked for a better debut: he threw 9 pitches, struck out two and got a ground ball to close the game out. After the game, Frankie stated that he his new goal as closer will be to just go after them – exactly what he did his first time out:
“Since they told me, I’ve been thinking about it and I just wanted to go out there, take a breath, trust my stuff and go after the hitters,” Francisco said.
“I didn’t want to waste any pitches. The next time I want to go about it the same way. I don’t want to give them any chance to use strategy. I don’t want to joke around with the hitters
Well, he’s certainly got the right idea… let’s hope we continue to see him back it up. After CJ Wilson’s unhealthy debacles, it sure would be nice to see somebody talk about throwing strikes and then actually go out and do it in the closers role - and so far, so good for Frankie even if it was on;y the royals 7-7-9.
I’m afraid I’ve got to cut this short (my first entry back, and I’m already cutting it short) there was some stuff that I wanted to get to, but it’ll have to wait until this afternoon or tomorrow.
Today we’ve got a big game, in more ways that one – number one, it’s going to be Brandon McCarthy’s second big league start this year (after he went four effectively wild innings his first time) and it’s also going to be one of three pilot games for baseball’s new instant replay feature. I really don’t have much of an opinion on instant replay (just so long as they stick to HR and fair/foul calls I’m fine with it) and in all likelihood, all it will actually provide is a topic for the announcers to fill the air with, but games against the Angels are always exciting. Hopefully we’ll carry some of this pitching success from KC over to Anaheim as we’ll probably need it. Now if someone could just wake the offense…
One Ranger lefty dominated last night. And one imploded horribly, for what may be the last time in 2008. Such has been the fortunes of the Rangers feast-or-famine pitching staff all year - even in such an exhilarating win they couldn’t manage to escape without some kind of debacle to debate afterwards.
The good fortunes of the night belonged to Matt Harrison, whose defense turned 3 double plays behind him as he worked into the 7th inning, allowing 2 runs on 5 hits and 3 walks. Travis Metcalf (who started at third base with Andy Pettitte on the hill for the Yanks) turned all three double plays, which all bailed Harrison out of possible trouble in the second, third and fourth innings. He certainly looked like a completely different pitcher than his last time out – the control was much better, and he wasn’t leaving the ball over the middle to get pounded. Maybe a new pitching coach does make all the difference, eh?
The Rangers offense, for their part actually didn’t seem too fazed by the left-hander Pettitte for a change – in fact, left-handed hitters Josh Hamilton (who crushed a 2-run homer in the first) David Murphy (RBI single in the 6th) and Chris Davis (sac fly and a 3-run double) accounted for 7 of the 8 Texas RBI. The Rangers appeared to be on cruise control headed into the 8thinning – with a comfortable 8-2 lead, Ron Washington decided to give struggling closer CJ Wilson a chance to try out a new mechanical apprach in the top of the 8th.
Unfortunately, nobody could have possibly predicted just how wrong the experiment was about to go. Wilson, who had two separate side sessions before the game with new pitching coach Andy Hawkins entered the game and immediately looked disastrously bad, issuing a walk, a HBP, a strikeout and the another walk to the first four batters. That brought up Richie Sexson, who promptly jacked the second pitch he saw from Wilson out to left center for a grand slam.
Matters just got worse when Ron Washington came out to take the ball from Wilson, who nonchalantly flipped the ball at his manager and started to saunter off the mound. But Wash pulled him back, returned the ball and told Wilson to hand it to him before he left. It almost looked like a scene out of “Supernanny” or somesuch, and it didn’t sit too well with his teammates or the management:
“I didn’t like it one bit,” said outfielder Marlon Byrd, who followed up his game-winning grand slam, with three hits and a two-out, rally-starting walk in the seventh. “Everybody hits rough patches, but when the manager comes out to get you, you hand him the ball and show him the respect he deserves. I don’t know how it looks to fans, but I know how it looks to 24 other guys. It doesn’t look good.”
Said general manager Jon Daniels: “Guys are going to struggle. That is part of the game. That’s not the issue. There is a way to act and carry yourself. The way he left was unacceptable and disrespectful. He’s somebody we need and somebody we have to get right. The physical issue becomes the No. 1 priority for right now, but that doesn’t excuse what happened on the mound.”
“The physical issue” was announced as a case of bone spurs in Wilson’s elbow, something the club has apparently known about for at least a little while now, since it only took the Rangers 30 minutes of “unpleasant” discussion with Wilson after the game to make the decision to put him on the disabled list.
“I’ve been trying to pitch through it for a while,” Wilson said. “I can’t do the team much good if I’m not healthy. There are plenty of guys who can get the job done in the bullpen.”
That certainly would provide an explanation of CJ’s erratic performance this year, and his rapid deterioration since mid-July - but my question is this: how long has this been an issue for CJ, and just how long have CJ’s coaches and managers known about this? I can’t help but notice that the bullpen side sessions and admission of an injury are something that came only after Andy Hawkins installation as pitching coach – could it be this is something that his predecessor Mark Connor perhaps overlooked? Or even worse, did the management and coaching staff know about CJ’s condition all along, and allow him to pitch through it despite his increasingly poor performances?
We might not ever get an answer to those questions, but it’s certainly something to ponder, given how the Rangers have allowed pitchers to take the mound in questionable health before - both Brandon McCarthy being allowed to pitch for over two months with a stress fracture in his shoulder blade and Vicente Padilla pitching through a sore elbow for much of the first half last season leap to mind. I certainly hope the CJ doesn’t wind up being Connor’s last victim – he’s currently headed out to LA to consult with specialist Dr. Lewis Yocum to decide whether or not he will need surgery, so hopefully it’s not too late for CJ to get himself right, and get back on track for next year.
CJ will be replaced on the roster by Joaquin Benoit, who will be activated from his DL stint for a sore shoulder – he probably won’t be slotted right back into the late innings though as for now, Eddie Guardado will take over as closer, with Frank Francisco presumably moving to the setup role. For tonight’s game though, it’s very likely that Frank Francisco might get the save opportunity should one arise – Eddie has worked 3 nights in a row, and if I had to guess, I’d say the Rangers will probably give him the night off.
I had more to write on CJ and on some other notes regarding the rotation, but that’ll have to wait for now. Perhaps I can add them later, but for now I’ve got to go. Tonight’s pitching matchup:
Tonight we have a scale-tipping pitching matchup – big Tommy Hunter vs. the equally big Sidney Ponson in a game that will be nationally televised on ESPN. Much like the first time we faced Ponson this year, I really hope we can kick his ass again today – and if we do, maybe we’ll actually hold on to win the ballgame this time.
You know, this has been one incredible season for the Texas Rangers so far. No, they’re not really contenders yet from an organizational standpoint (despite being within longshot range of the wildcard) and yes, we’ve cringed and ripped our hairout over more than our fair share of injury woes and pitching meltdowns. But this team has also produced some very memorable moments on the baseball diamond that are going to stay with it’s fans for a very long time – and last night was one of those moments.
Coming into last night’s game, the Yankees had won their last 10 games in the Ballpark in Arlington. And the way things started off, it looked like they might be on their way to #11 after they opened up a 3-0 lead in the 4th with solo homers by Jason Giambi and Robinson Cano. But as we all know by now, 3 run leads do not scare the Rangers - David Murphy quickly responded for Texas, bashing a 2-run shot of his own in the bottom half of the inning, making it 3-2.
The umpiring crew made it 4-2 in the top of the 5th when they called two balks on Vicente Padilla, which allowed Johnny Damon to make it around to score. At the least one of the balks was very questionable in my opinion – but then again, east-coast bias from umpires is hardly anything new. In fact it’s something you pretty much expect when you’re playing the Yankees. Kudos to Ron Washington for arguing the call after the second balk however - one of my beefs with him is that he doesn’t defend his players enough, but he made his statement yesterday and it may have attributed to what turned out to be the game-changing call the next inning.
With nobody out in the bottom of the 5th and Ramon Vazquez standing on first after a leadoff single, Ian Kinsler hit a tapper out in front of home plate that started rolling slowly down the third base line. Pudge Rodriguez quickly picked it up and threw to second to nail Ramon Vazquez, and after the relay to first, the Yankees believed they had completed a double play. But the ball had slightly nicked Ian Kinsler on the thigh before kicking down the third baseline and Kinsler alertly didn’t budge from the batters box until the umpires huddled to discuss the call. And much to my pleasant suprise, when they broke the huddle they got it right and reversed the call, continuing Kinsler’s AB. Kinsler proceeded to work a walk, after which Michael Young stepped in and blasted a 3-run homer to right to give the Rangers a 5-4 lead. While it can’t be said for certain, I’d be willing to bet that Ron Washington’s stand on the balks in the top of the inning at least played a subconscious role in the umpires decision to overturn the double player right there - maybe Ron is starting to see that getting out of the dugout to argue may really have its benefits after all.
The game stayed 5-4 until the 8th, when Xavier Nady got ahold of a 2-out Frankie Francisco offering and belted it to right where it just barely cleared the fence and the glove of a leaping Marlon Byrd to tie the game at 5. Eddie Guardado nearly got touched for a run in the top of the 9th as well - it took a fairly spectacular rolling catch by Josh Hamilton to spear a sinking Derek Jeter liner to keep the game tied.
Interestingly enough, it would be against southpaw Damaso Marte that the Rangers made their final charge against in the bottom 9th – the Rangers may have had their troubles hitting left-handed pitching this year but they really didn’t have to do a whole lot of hitting against Marte, who was wild. He walked the sacs full by issuing passes to pinch-hitter Milton Bradley, Gerald Laird and Josh Hamilton around an Ian Kinsler strikeout and a Michael Young flyout. That brought up Byrd, who has hit just .183 with RISP this year. I have to admit, I was yelling for a pinch-hitter at my computer screen, but then… BAM.
Byrd had gone up there looking for a first pitch slider from Marte, and what he got was room service. He knew it was gone off the bat, and walkoff pandemonium ensued as soon as it cleared the wall, the Rangers storming the field and mobbing their latest 9th-inning hero. It was the 6th Ranger walkoff this year, and the third in the last 8 games – what the Rangers offense has been doing in the late innings lately has just simply been unprecedented greatness.
“Just great,” Byrd said. “We just keep picking each other up. The second half … that’s what we’ve been doing. That’s what winning teams do.”
The Rangers are now hovering at 5 games behind Boston for the AL wildcard – not that that I think we’re going to actually catch the Red Sox or anything, but from a prestige standpoint, it’s kinda nice to be considered longshots again. One can only hope that any whiff of being in the postseason race will give this team some motivation for 2009.
I’m afraid I’ve got to cut this post short, as I don’t have time to run down all the Ranger notes right now - tonight, Matt Harrison will take on Andy Pettitte at the Ballpark in a battle of southpaws (which is bad news for the Texas offense of course). I’m interested to see if Harrison can reign in his control under the tutelage of new pitching coach Andy Hawkins - he walked 5 en route to giving up 6 runs his last start, and for a guy whose command was his calling card in the minors, that’s going to need to improve.
Filed under: Ranger Wins | Tags: CJ Wilson, Ian Kinsler, Luis Mendoza, Tommy Hunter
I’m afraid all I have time for this morning is a quick post here this morning – hopefully, I’ll be able to resume regular posting sometime sooner rather than later. But for now, I have for you a few observations from last night’s game and this weekend:
- Luis Mendoza was impressive yesterday. Yes, he gave up 3 runs in the first inning, and appeared to be off to another rough start – but he turned it around and fired 6 innings of one-run, 3-hit ball as he pitched into the 7th inning for the first time in his major league career. I still think Mendoza is destined for the bullpen, where he’ll be able to rely on his superb 2-seam fastball more than his somewhat erratic breaking pitches, but that shouldn’t take away from what turned out to be a huge start for Mendoza.
- Ian Kinsler however, has really cooled off of late. The Rangers leadoff man is hitting just .222 with a 561 OPS since the all-star break, and after enjoying a stretch where he had 5 consecutive 2-hit games (July 23-28th) he’s hitting just .130 in his last 5.
- From what I saw, CJ Wilson was not the one warming up in the bullpen to come in for the top of the 9th last night, even before Texas scored 3 in the bottom of the 8th to blow the game open. Nope, it was Eddie Guardado who was up and chucking during that half inning, and still came in to finish the game off – could it be that CJ’s abhorrent statistics (5.28 ERA, 1.587 WHIP for the season, 9.35 ERA over his last 10 outings) are finally beginning to pry the closers role from his grip?
- Tommy Hunter looked solid in his debut the Friday night, despite giving up 6 runs. Save for a a couple gopherballs that wound up in the seats, Hunter kept his composure, and didn’t seem overmatched at all, getting most of the outs he needed. Always love to see that from a young starter, even if the line wasn’t very pretty.
- Over the three game series, the Rangers managed to come back from a 6-0 deficit and a 4-0 deficit to come away with victories on Friday and Sunday. Of course, when your offense is scoring 5.61 RPG (best in the majors) and hitting .282 as a team (also best in the majors) that’s really not such a novelty. Of course, when you consider that we’ve got guys like Marlon Byrd and Ramon Vazquez in the lineup day in and day out, I have to admit, it does seem a tad bit hard to believe that we’re actually this good. I keep waiting for the overacheivers such as Vazquez and last night’s hero, Gerald Laird to fall back to earth at some point – if they don’t this season, it’ll be a safe bet they do next year.
Hopefully the Rangers Rangers won’t fall back to earth just yet however: the New York Yankees are coming to Arlington for 4 games and that always promises to be a tough series. The Yankees historically always seem to crush the Rangers when they’re in Arlington, and considering the sad state of our pitching, this could very well be a 4-game slugout. Let’s just hope we can get through the Yankee starters, which are supposed to include Joba Chamberlain today, and then Andy Pettitte, Sidney Ponson and Mike Mussina. Yeah… this could be the series that shuts everyone up about the wildcard for once and for all this year.
Filed under: Ranger Wins | Tags: Eddie Guardado, Eric Hurley, Gerald Laird, Hank Blalock, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Michael Young, Milton Bradley, Tommy Hunter, Vicente Padilla
Well, here it is on the eve (okay, early morning) of the trade deadline, and I’m finding myself apologizing again for not posting for several days in a row. A busy schedule, lack of sleep and just plain writers block have all found me unable to sit down and write at length this week (I haven’t even been to see the new X-files movie yet, that’s how busy I’ve been). There’s been plenty of happenings and trade rumors to write about lately though, meaning I’ve got some catching up to do – why don’t we dive in.
Last night’s 4-3 win over the Mariners was pretty nice, overall. Vicente Padilla drummed up whatever last minute trade value he could, with 7 strong innings – he gave up 10 hits, but held the Mariners to 3 runs and even escaped a monumental bases-loaded, no-out situation in the 7th (albeit with a little help from David Murphy, who threw out Willie Bloomquist at home plate that inning). While no Ranger had more than one hit on the night (they where out-hit 11 to 7) they managed to squeeze just enough out of the 7 they did have to make it count – Josh Hamilton and Brandon Boggs homered, and Michael Young drove in the winning run with a pinch-hit sac fly in the bottom of the 8th.
It was Young’s first pinch-hit appearance in 6 years, and it only came on account of his being out of the starting lineup with a broken finger. Young fractured his right ring finger diving back into first base on a pickoff throw in the first inning on Monday, and originally was supposed to be out 5-7 days – but in a tribute to his toughness, he was back in the starting lineup on Tuesday, going 0-5 with a walk. He was too sore to start last night however, leaving him available to pinch-hit and become the hero with a 1-0 fly ball to left-center that was just deep enough to score David Murphy from third – much reminiscent of his game-winning sac fly in the all-star game a couple weeks back.
CJ Wilson managed to nail down his first non-acidic save in recent memory in the 9th, retiring Kenji Johjima, Willie Bloomquist and Jose Vidro around an Ichiro infield single - much more like the type of outing he needs to have on a consistent basis. Before you go and get all encouraged that this was a big step forward for CJ though, remember who he was up against – with the exception of Ichiro (who reached base anyway) those where some pretty sorry hitters the M’s sent up there in the 9th.
The Rangers did get some bad news yesterday however, as it was announced that Eric Hurley will skip his next start - Hurley, who got lit up on Sunday his first start since his DL stint due to a strained hamstring (prolonged by a sore arm) apparently has biceps tendinitis, and will miss his next start on Friday. The Rangers plan on calling up Tommy Hunter from AAA Oklahoma to replace him and make his Major League debut. CJ Wilson had a case of biceps tendinitis in spring training this year that kept him sidelined for almost two weeks, but the Rangers seem to think that if Hurley’s arm “heals as anticipated” he’ll be able to make his next start and not require another trip to DL.
As for Hunter, he will become just the second player from the class of 2007 draft to make it to the Majors (the Washington Nationals Ross Deitwiler got a callup and pitched a single inning last September) after just 161 total minor league innings. Hunter, a 22-year old right-hander who is listed as 6′ 3″ 255 (although most personal accounts believe him to be heavier than that) throws an 89-94 MPH fastball along with a breaking ball that is supposedly his best pitch, and a changeup tossed in for good measure. None of his three pitches are really considered above-average, just solid - it’s probably due to this fact that he’s seen his strikeouts decline as he’s climbed the minor league ladder, which has in turn made his control an increasingly key part of his success.
Hunter started 2008 with high-A Bakersfield, where he logged 58 innings and went 5-4 with a 3.55 ERA, a 1.22 WHIP, and an excellent K/9 of 7.71. Promoted to AA Frisco in May, his numbers jumped to a 3.78 ERA and a 1.32 WHIP, as his K/9 was slashed to 4.82 and his BB/9 spiked from just 1.23 in Bakersfield to 2.92 in 52 innings. That’s a notable spike, but Hunter was quick to adjust, rediscovering his control after a promotion to AAA Oklahoma – he has put up a 1.08 BB/9 since the jump, and has subsiquently gone 2-2 with a 3.24 ERA and a 1.20 WHIP in 33 innings despite his K/9 dropping slightly again to 4.59.
Hunter sounds to me like another Joe Blanton, only with better control - a guy who will probably give up his fair share of hits, but will also get enough outs with his stuff to be a solid starter. His swift rise through the system this year has so far concurred with what the Rangers projected him as - a quick-starting back of the rotation innings eater who might provide us with some stability in the 4th or 5th spot in the rotation by 2010 if not 2009. If he performs well, I could conceivably see him knocking Luis Mendoza (who is back to being horrible of late) or Scott Feldman (to limit his innings) to the bullpen for awhile, and sticking in the rotation until the Rangers decide to shut him down for the season – this should be a very interesting debut.
Now we turn our attention to the hotbutton subject of the day: the trade deadline. According to the latest from GM Jon Daniels, the Rangers (who have been featured prominently in rumors this past week, but have yet to even come close to making an actual deal) says the Rangers are looking for pitching, and will likely not be making a deal if they do not get any in return:
“It’s not a well-kept secret we place a priority on pitching, now and the future,” Rangers general manager Jon Daniels said. “It’s not the only singular factor or the only thing we’re looking for, but it is a priority going forward.”
“Things can change, but right now we’re prepared to go with the horses we came with,”
I really believe though, that it is necessary for the Rangers to trade either Gerald Laird or Jarrod Saltalamacchia – you cannot have Salty sitting on the bench for the second half and expect him to develop, and yet at the same time, Laird has performed well enough to start. I think Laird probably has just as much, if not more current value on the market than Salty (especially for teams looking for a more experienced catcher) and from a personal standpoint, I’d obviously rather see him dealt, seeing as how I consider him superfluous in the Rangers long-term plans – but at the same time, if the Rangers aren’t going to play Salty I would rather see him dealt to an organization that will.
According to ESPN on Monday, nearly eight teams have been looking at Laird and Salty – the Marlins and Reds have reportedly the most aggressive regarding Laird, but so far have not agreed to give up any pitching prospects for him. The Yankees traded for Pudge Rodriguez yesterday, putting them out of the discussion for now, but the Red Sox are currently interested in a catcher of the future, making them a possible destination for Salty.
Of the Rangers other valuable commodities, Hank Blalock is off the table, as he is on the DL again with a shoulder problem – something the Rangers tried to cover up initially, passing it off as a stomach illness on Monday when they thought it would be a one-day thing. But it wasn’t, and Blalock’s latest DL trip is rumored to have killed a deal involving him and the Twins for Boof Bonser. Which is probably good, because Boof Bonser is nothing more than a younger, fatter version of the pitcher Kevin Millwood currently is.
Milton Bradley was also out of the lineup last night with a strained left quad – the same thing that caused him to miss some extended time back in June. He’s hoping to be back in the lineup today, but this latest nick to Bradley’s health may have sapped some of his last-minute value here at the deadline – that is if the Rangers choose to deal him at all, and from the conservative approach Jon Daniels seems to say he wants to take, a deal involving Bradley or Vicente Padilla probably ins’t likely unless the Rangers get an offer they can’t refuse.
Eddie Guardado’s name has also come up in the rumors, including one about a week ago that had him being dealt to St. Lous for a pitcher Jess Todd. The Marlins have also reportedly had some interest, but so far nothing tangibly concrete has actually come up regarding Eddie – which is unfortunate in my opinion, because I don’t see us bringing him back (at age 38) in 2009.
Bottom line: it kind of sounds like Jon Daniels is planning on standing pat unless he finds a deal out there that blows him away. And in my opinion, that might be a mistake – we’ve got several guys having what will likely be career seasons right now, and even if we don’t get the next Mark Teixeira haul in return for one of them, they could still bring back a very solid and valuable bounty. I wish JD would go for broke on the rebuilding like Billy Beane has done in Oakland this year, but I’m preparing for a relatively quiet (and for me, consequently disappointing) deadline.
Tonight, Matt Harrison opposes former Ranger RA Dickey - if you’ll remember, he gave up many a homer in Texas trying to become Tim Wakefield. He appears to have finally figured out how to lob that knuckleball this year however, so this might be quite the experience for some of the Rangers young players (like Chris Davis) who I doubt have ever seen a knuckleballer. Needless to say, I am not looking forward to this game, because as I’ve mentioned before on here, I hate knuckleballers.
Filed under: Ranger Wins | Tags: Chris Davis, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Josh Hamilton, Matt Harrison
I’m afraid I don’t have time for my normal game recap this morning (a prior engagement at church may have to have to preclude my beloved Rangers somewhat today) so we’re gonna try something a little different here by seeing if I can formulate a quick post without turning it into a long one. So, without further adieu, here’s a few thoughts/stats from yesterday’s 9-4 win you might find interesting:
- Chris Davis is awesome. If there’s one guy in the lineup who wasn’t slowed down by the all-star break, it was Crush – he’s 12 for 31 (.387/.387/.871) since baseball’s midsummer interlude, with 4 home runs, 3 doubles and 7 RBI. As his bash buddy Josh Hamilton points out in Evan Grant’s game story, the thing about Davis has been his ability adjust, and adjust quickly – officially one month into what should be a great Major League career, Chris has 10 homers and 20 RBI in just 89 at-bats, which is nothing short of amazing.
“He’s got to be in the top 15 of players I’ve ever seen when it comes to raw power,” Hamilton said. “He’s young and strong, but he’s also learned how to make adjustments pretty quickly. That’s a dangerous combination.”
- That leads us to Josh himself, who even though he’s not hitting much for average right now is sure hitting for power with three home runs in his last 5 games. And credit Ian Kinsler, Michael Young and Jarrod Saltalamacchia (the #9 hitter of late) for getting on base in front of him, too – all three of those homers have been multi-run jobs, giving Hamilton 8 RBI’s to up his season total to 103. The top of the order has started clicking again, and that’s been the key to the Rangers takeoff in the last two games.
- I thought Matt Harrison was pitching okay yesterday before he left with a blister on his index finger after 86 pitches in the 5th. 3 runs (one earned) on 5 hits and 3 walks isn’t spectacular, but it’ll get the job done when you have an offense like ours behind you – in any case, it was important for him to rebound after the two tough starts preceding yesterday.
- Jarrod Saltalamacchia (who went 2-3 with a walk, 2 RBI and 2 runs scored yesterday) has hit .364/.440/.545 in his last 6 games for an 985 OPS, but is now going to be relegated to backup catcher unless he or Gerald Laird is traded in this coming week. I like the him (as everyone knows) so I might sound biased saying this… but does it seem to anyone else that every time he finally starts to find a groove, something has happened to disrupt it (i.e. playing in a sporadic platoon, groin problems, and now being religated to backup catcher)? He hasn’t performed anywhere near his potential this year, but the circumstances sure haven’t helped him any either.
Eric Hurley comes off the DL this afternoon to take on A’s lefty Dana Eveland – Kevin Millwood was put on the DL yesterday to make room for Gerald Laird, but Hurley’s activation means that Max Ramirez should be going down to AAA today to get some regular playing time (and he could use it too, he hasn’t started since July 19th).
So, make sure you’ve got your brooms handy this afternoon folks – provided the offense can handle the left-hander today, we’ve got our best shot at a sweep in months.
Filed under: Ranger Wins | Tags: Gerald Laird, German Duran, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Josh Hamilton, Josh Hamilton is amazing, Kevin Millwood, Max Ramirez, Scott Feldman
So, how do you rebound from two dissapointing series that saw your offense and pitching staff both get kicked around like soccer balls? Well, coming back from a 5 run deficit and scoring 14 runs against the team with the lowest staff ERA in baseball is a pretty good place to start.
With observing scouts dotting the stadium, the team who just might have the most moveable talent at this years trade deadline put on quite a show, starting with Vicente Padilla. Padilla put together a decent, if not fairly impressive start despite giving up 5 runs in the third inning – which was thanks in part to Michael Young, whose key misplay on a ball that was (most generously) ruled an infield single set up the Oakland rally.
After A’s RF Ryan Sweeny started the inning with a leadoff double, Padilla got Kurt Suzuki to ground one to the right of Young, who bobbled it. For some reason the official scorer ruled it an infield single, but it was pretty clearly an error, even in the opinions of Rangers radio announcer Eric Nadel, who said he had marked the play down as such in his scorebook expecting it to be changed.
After the miscue Padilla loaded the bases by walking Jack Cust, struck out Emil Brown, allowed a bloop RBI single to Carlos Gonzalez and got Mark Ellis to foul out. But with that extra out, the A’s went walk, single, single and single before David Murphy threw out Jack Hannahan at home plate to end the inning. Down 5-0, the game was shaping up in a far too familar fashion – but the Rangers where about to conjure up some more of that pre-all star break magic.
Much like Michael Young in the bottom of the third, the A’s defense started their top of the 4th with third baseman Brooks Conrad throwing away a Marlon Byrd groundball, and that’s all the opening the Texas offense (which has been without hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo of late, as he was in Dallas having knee replacement surgery yesterday) would need. David Murphy followed the Error by jacking his 14th bomb of the season to left center to put the Rangers on the board. After Chris Davis single, Jarrod Saltalamacchia walked and Ian Kinsler hit a sac bunt, Michael Young followed witha sac fly to right. That brought up the 98-RBI man Josh Hamilton as the tying run with one out. The A’s now-beleaguered rookie starter Sean Gallagher tried to snap off a first pitch curveball, but it hung – and then hung some more as it soared out to right for Hamilton’s 99th and 100th RBI’s of the season. Josh Hamilton = unprecedented greatness.
The rally didn’t just give the Rangers chances at winning a new lease on life, it seemingly gave Vicente Padilla a huge boost in confidence too – he came back and retired 9 consecutive A’s, including 5 strikeouts over the 4th, 5th and 6th innings before being pulled at 108 pitches. The Rangers took the lead just in time to qualify him for his 12th win in the top of the 7th – Chris Davis, who would come up a triple short of the cycle at the end of the night smacked a 1-out double and Ian Kinsler brought him home with a 2 out single to right, making it 6-5 Rangers.
The bullpen also seemed recovered from it’s meltdown on Thursday, as Frankie Francisco and Eddie Guardado fired hitless 7th and 8th innings. With CJ Wilson warming in the bullpen, the Rangers had one last chance to tack on some insurance in the top of the 9th. Apparently, the Texas offense doesn’t trust CJ anymore than I do right now, because they batted around to score 8 runs off two different Oakland relievers. Chris Davis got it started by jacking his 9th Major League home run of the season, and Michael Young (RBI double), Hank Blalock (2 run single) and Marlon Byrd (RBI double) where the other prime contributors to one of the Rangers best single innings of the season. The fact that the seemingly too often-used Jamey Wright gave up a run for the 5th time in his last 6 outings in the bottom of the 9th was completely lost in the revelry of what the Rangers offense had accomplished: every single player had a hit and a run scored in the 17 hit, 8 walk attack that should go a long ways toward shaking this team out of it’s recent funk.
In other news, it now looks as if Kevin Millwood is indeed headed to the DL with his latest groin pain – according to TR Sullivan, Millwood tried to throw a side session yesterday in Oakland and “it didn’t go well”. Instead of simply having Millwood skip a start and wait to see if he can pitch again during the Rangers next weekend, the Rangers feel it would be better to have Millwood focus on fully recovering before he rejoins the rotation -and considering how bad he has been this year, that certainly sounds like the best course of action. This will of course mean the Rangers scrapping their plan to send Scott Feldman to the bullpen, having him instead rejoin the rotation as the 5th starter so he can be skipped over and pushed back whenever possible. They’re still hoping to keep him under 150 innings for the season.
Also in injury news, German Duran has undergone surgery to repair a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his thumb and will be out for 6-8 weeks, effectively ruining the second half of his season. He apparently suffered the injury Wednesday, in his second game after being sent down. This really stinks because it could very well be a huge setback in the development of the 24 year-old Duran, who spent most of his 2 months with the big club this year riding the bench. As a result, Duran has gotten just 176 total at-bats this year, and hit just .225/.279/.363 in 102 Major League at-bats as a followup to a .300/.352/.525 breakout campaign with AA Frisco in 2007. It’s my opinion that Duran has been horribly mismanaged and misused this year by the Rangers – although it was an oft-overlooked fact, he never should have been allowed to sit on the bench as much as he was in the first half. If that meant sending him back to AAA and putting Ryan Roberts on the roster as the utility infielder, that’s what the Rangers should have done – but unfortunately, it’s too late to do anything about it now.
Coming off the DL tomorrow will be Gerald Laird. Laird completed his rehab assignment with AAA Oklahoma last night and looks 100%, despite the fact that he went 0-12 at the plate in his four-game stint. He is apparently expected to be the “#1 catcher” when he gets back, something that I find slightly disappointing:
“When he comes back, I certainly want him out there as much as possible,” Rangers manager Ron Washington said. “I’m not going to put a number on it this time. How many days a week he’ll catch, I don’t know. But he’ll certainly do most of it.”
I had at least hoped to see a return to the platoon of Laird and either Max Ramirez or Jarrod Saltalamacchia, whichever doesn’t get sent back down. Admittedly, Salty’s season has been a massive disappointment due to underperformance, injuries and sporadic playing time, and MaxRam hasn’t exactly dazzled in what little playing time he has gotten since being brought up – but making Laird the “#1 catcher” for the rest of the season does absolutely nothing to help whichever of those two winds up stuck as Laird’s backup, or resolve the logjam the Rangers currently have with their three young catchers.
In my opinion, Laird - whose career line is still a meager .257/.308/.387 despite his performance in the first half this year - is pretty redundant in regards to our catching future seeing as how he’s the most expensive of our catchers, and a free agent in 2 years. Since we’re 10 games out of first place, even if Max and Salty suck right now, it would be much more productive for us in the long run to get them as many innings as possible in the second half (meaning one needs to be going full-time in AAA, and the other catching at least on a semi-regular basis in the majors) to allow them to continue to refine their game as much as possible heading into 2009. But sentencing one of them to catching once a week behind Laird is tantamount to what the Rangers did with German Duran this year, and that is stunt his development.
What all this seems to be leading up to however, is a trade of one of our catchers – we just don’t have room for four, and in TR Sullivan’s recent rundown of Ranger trade rumors, he mentions that the Yankees (whose catcher Jorge Posada is on the DL and will not be able to catch again this year) have asked about both Laird and Salty, and the Reds have been looking at Laird since this spring. TR says that 20 teams have asked about one of the four Rangers catchers. I believe I’ve said this before, but seeing as how I think Laird is the most redundant catcher we have, and because he’s likely at an all-time peak in his trade value, he is the one (in fact the only one) who I would prefer to see dealt.
Speaking of trade rumors, I’m still planning to do a seperate post and run them all down sometime this weekend – I’m horribly behind as far as reporting upon trade rumors in this space goes.
Quick hits: Joaquin Benoit got roughed up in a rehab outing for AA Frisco yesterday, giving up 2 runs on 3 hits and 2 walks while not recording an out… Joselo Diaz cleared waivers and has been sent to OKC… LHP Beau Jones, the forgotten part of the return in the Mark Teixeira deal, has been promoted from Bakersfield to AA Frisco.
Today, Matt Harrison takes on Justin Duchscherer in Oakland – Harrison has given up 13 runs in 7.2 innings his last two starts, and Duchscherer is the AL’s ERA leader at 1.87. So, uh… yeah. Looks like a tough one.
Filed under: Ranger Wins | Tags: CJ Wilson, Frank Francisco, Gerald Laird, Marlon Byrd, Nelson Cruz, Scott Feldman, Taylor Teagarden
With 100 down and 62 to go in the Rangers 2008 season, I think I can say I’m very pleasantly surprised at the fact that this team sits at 52-48, four games above the .500 mark. They’ve certainly come a long way from their 7-16 start to April – not that they haven’t had their struggles along the way, but the key to the Rangers slow climb back among the ranks of the respectable teams in the AL has been an avoidance of ruts. While they have yet to sweep a series in 2008, and have only won three straight games twice since their season high 5 game winning streak on May 6-10, they also have not lost three consecutive games more than once since their 7 game-losing streak on April 18-24.
Case in point are the first four games back from the all-star break. After a horrible start to the series in Minnesota, featuring a stone-cold offense and poor pitching from Kevin Millwood and Matt Harrison, we’ve seen the Rangers pitching rebound to allow just one run in the last 2 games. Sunday it was Vicente Padilla coming off the DL to contribute 7 scoreless innings, making Taylor Tegarden’s first homer (and first career hit) enough for the Rangers first 1-0 win since September 19th, 2004. Yesterday is was Scott Feldman tossing 6 innings of 1-run ball in an emergency start to help the Rangers to a 6-1 victory.
Feldman, recalled from AA Frisco yesterday (where he had technically spent the all-star break as part of a deft roster move by the Rangers to add bullpen arms before the break) was making the start in place of Eric Hurley, who was scratched from his scheduled activation from the DL due to arm soreness and a stiff shoulder. The Rangers don’t think Hurley’s problem is serious though (despite how ominous a ”sore arm” sounds) and expect him to make his next start in Oakland, so this shouldn’t affect the plan to put Feldman in the bullpen for the remainder of the season. It did at least give him a chance to make what should be his last start of 2008 an impressive one.
Although he gave up 4 hits and 3 walks, the Rangers turned 3 double plays behind Feldman, whose only blemish came when he surrendered a solo home run to Carlos Quentin leading off the 4th inning. Otherwise, Feldmanwas able to hit his spots withhis sinker, throwing 51 of his 85 pitches for strikes as he matched up with counterpart Javier Vazquez.
Vazquez, like Feldman, only made one real mistake on the night – he steamed through the still-lukewarm Texas offense for most of his 7 innings, striking out 10 Rangers along the way. The difference was, his mistake pitch would be far more costly than Feldman’s. With after giving up a 1-out single and a 2-out walk to Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Michael Young in the top of the third, Vazquez hung a 2-0 slider to Josh Hamilton – who jacked it all the way out to the moss-covered wall behind the fence in dead center. That gave the Rangers a 3-0 lead, and they never looked back.
Frank Francisco pitched another brilliant 7th inning, throwing 10 of only 13 pitches for strikes and racking up 2 K’s. Frankie now has a 1.29 ERA, a .160 BAA and 16 strikeouts to 4 walks in his last 14 outings. Say what you will about his inconsistency earlier this year - but in my humble opinion, he’s the guy who should be at least sharing the closer duties right now with stats like those. By comparison, CJ Wilson has a 6.08 ERA, a .316 BAA and 10 walks to 16 K’s in his last 14 games – and on the season, Frankie also has big edges statistically over CJ in categories such as ERA (3.40 for Frankie to 4.89 for CJ) WHIP (1.387 to 1.559) and ERA+ (122 to 85).
That’s one thing we mercifully didn’t get to see last night – a reprisal of the CJ Wilson/Ozzie Guillen feud. Hank Blalock jacked a 2-run homer to right in the 8th, and Ian Kinsler (who is 0-15 with just a walk since the all-star break) added a sac fly in the top of the 9th, making it 6-1 before CJ ever got a chance to warm up. Jamey Wright pitched the bottom of the 9th instead, and sent the White Sox to the clubhouse on just 13 pitches – a good inning for him, considering he sports an 8.10 ERA for July.
Overall, that was a pretty good game for the Rangers – 2 homers and 4 doubles out of 8 hits and 3 walks last night will do something to quiet any concerns about the offense after the Minnesota series. But it should be noted that the Rangers still struck out 13 times in that game, and Ian Kinsler, Michael Young and Milton Bradley are now a collective 3 for 45 since the break. Right now the Rangers are getting by on the legs of some timely homers, but they’re going to need those aforementioned three (especially Kinsler and Bradley) to pick it up again soon.
In other news, Taylor Teagarden was sent back to AAA as planned yesterday to keep his Olympic eligibility intact. Teagaren struck out 4 times in 6 at-bats in his two starts this weekend despite crushing the game-winning homer on Sunday, but he’s still understandably a little dissapointed at being sent back down:
“Anytime you get sent down you’re disappointed,” Teagarden said. “[Manager Ron] Washington talked about how I have a win-win situation. I get to stay here for the rest of the year or just get a once in a lifetime opportunity to be in the Olympics. I think that’s the best way to look at it. Obviously, I’d like to stay here a little longer, but I’ll go back to Triple-A for about a week or so, and go from there.”
Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Max Ramirez will continue to perform the catchers duties for now, but Gerald Laird’s rehab assignment starts today for AAA Oklahoma. Once he comes back, the Rangers will have to send either Salty or Max down – Max had been heating up going into the all-star break, but he was 0-3 in his start in Minnesota on Saturday and Salty went 2-3 with a double last night. I imagine it’ll be Max sent down when Laird rejoins the team (which is tentatively supposed to be this weekend in Oakland) so he can get full-time AB’s in OKC - he’s just not getting enough playing time in the Majors right now, even getting snubbed of a big chance in Minnesota so the Rangers could get a look at Teagarden.
If Laird returns in Oakland, he’ll have 6 games before the deadline to show everyone he’s healthy – I’m still clinging to some hope that the Rangers will trade him at the deadline so they can move forward with their young catchers, but the fact that Teagarden is likely headed to China tells me that’s unlikely.
Speaking of trade possibilities, Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports says that the Rangers are getting calls about both Marlon Byrd and Nelson Cruz. Because of Brandon Boggs’ emergence, Byrd is of no real use to us and would make a pretty decent 4thOF for a contender with his defensive abilities – teams like the Cubs and the Rays have had intrest in him in the past, so he could possibly bring back some sort of a sleeper prospect. Cruz, despite being 28 and having a career line of .231/.282/.385 in only 442 Major League at bats is drawing intrest due to his monstrous 31-home run, 82 RBI AAA campaign this year. He’s probably not even worth as much as Byrd given his age and history of failure, but he’s a minor league free agent at the end of the season so getting anything you can for him would be very advantageous.
Quick hits: Nolan Ryan says he is happy with the way the team is progressing, although he admits that he has had “very little impact on baseball operations”… Brandon McCarthy will make a rehab start tonight for AAA Oklahoma.
Tonight, Luis Mendoza takes on Mark Buehrle in Chicago. Mendoza was brilliant his last start before the break, striking out 8 in 6 innings of 1 run ball against the White Sox - but he was horrible in his two starts previous to that, so I really have no idea what to expect from him. You’d probably best keep your flack jacket and steel pot handy when you sit down to watch this one just in case. Also, Buerhle is a lefty (the one who no-hit us last year at US Cellular, no less) so be advised of the possibility of a cold front moving in over the offense again.
Filed under: Ranger Wins | Tags: CJ Wilson, Ian Kinsler, Josh Hamilton, Matt Harrison, Max Ramirez
Back on April 24th, when this Texas Rangers ballclubwas sitting at 7-16 in the standings if somebody would have told me we’d finish the first half with 50 wins by the All-Star break I probably would have told them they where insane. And really, it is insane. It’s insane how this team turned itself around on a dime, and gone from one of the worst Aprils in team history to 4 games over .500 at the break. It’s insane the contributions the Rangers have gotten from core players like Josh Hamilton, Ian Kinsler, Milton Bradley - and from the rookies like David Murphy, Eric Hurley, Chris Davis and Brandon Boggs. Yep – it’s absolutely, beautifully insane.
Some of that beautiful insanity was demonstrated yesterday against the White Sox, in another weird, wacky contest in which pitchers (bothstarter and reliever) where treated as rudely as doormats. Though I regretfully don’t have time this morning to run through all the craziness at great depth like I normally would (I also need to do a roundup of all the latest Rangers news and notes I haven’t been able to get to) I’ll just give you some of the noteable highlights of yesterday’s 12-11 slugout:
- Matt Harrison, trying to make his case for a spot in the second half rotation gave up 5 runs on 7 hits and 2 walks in 2.2 innings. Not a very good performance for Harrison – but considering how everybody else that pitched in that game pretty much got hammered as well, I’m not super concerned over this hiccough. Matty should start the second half in the rotation irregardless in my opinion.
- Ian Kinsler3-5 with 2 doubles and 3 RBI – he ends the first half leading the AL with a .337 average in a league-leading 452 PA’s. He also leads in hits (134), total bases (218), runs scored (84), doubles (34), extra base hits (52) and runs created (92). All that, plus some other cool stuff like being 5th in OBP and 7th in SLB% adds up to a .945 OPS and an AL-leading 52.4 VORP. That’s your first half MVP, not only for the Rangers but for the American League. And maybe even for all of baseball.
- Oh yeah, almost forgot: Kinsler extended his hitting streak to 25 games. This may be the one reason I am sorry the ASB is here – he doesn’t have a chance to go for 26 until Friday.
- Maximiliano Ramirez: 3-5 with 1 double and 3 RBI. He’s been getting some additional playing time since Salty tweaked his groin July 5th. The result? He’s gone 7-for-20 with a homer, 6 RBI and a .959 OPS. Overall his line has jumped from .182/.280/.318 to .250/.333/.425. Sounds like Salty better get his groin healed and show us something immediately after the ASB, or he could wind up being the one sent down when Laird comes off the DL (which is tentatively targeted to be July 25th).
- Milton Bradley: 2-5 with his 19th homer of the season yesterday. Not only does it tie his personal best in HR’s for a single season, but it was the 100th of his career.
- CJWilson: gave up 3 runs on 5 hits after being brought into the game with a 12-8 lead in the top of the 9th inning. That’s bad. Again. He also said that he didn’t get pumped up enough to start getting outs until he heard Ozzie Guillen taunting him from the White Sox dugout, and that…
“I don’t really worry about my ERA too much,” Wilson said. “I just worry if I get my saves, because that’s the only thing I can control.”
Forgive me if the next few sentences sound like a rant, but… that’s just a horrible attitude for a closer to have. Maybe I’m reading to far into this, but if taken literally, he’s basically saying he doesn’t care how many runs or baserunners he allows just so long as he doesn’t give up that tying run. Being an adrenaline junky is one thing, but as a closer, your job is to go out there and get outs as quickly and efficiently as possible. You have to go out there and want mow down every single batter with your very best stuff, and from the sound of it, CJ doesn’t seem to have the drive to do that unless the tying run is actually standing at third. And when you’ve got a 5.01 ERA, a 1.573 WHIP, and 23 BB’s already, the law of averages would seem to dictate that sooner or later, that guy on third is gonna start scoring.
We don’t have too many options to replace CJ in the 9th inning with at this point – but I’ve had enough of the antics of watching our 3-4 run leads evaporate to one in a matter of minutes after CJ takes the mound. Not to repeat what I’ve said before, but I really think it would be a good thing if the Rangers told CJ he was splitting time in the 9thinning with Frankie Francisco, who has at leas the pure stuff to pitch there (though he too could use a lesson in being more aggressive with it at times). Under that scenario, we’d get a look at what Frankie can do, see if he can handle the role and at the same time hopefully light a fire under CJ’s ass to get some 1-2-3 innings as well.
Anyway… this kind of turned out to be an impromptu rant about CJ Wilson, so my apologies for that. Hopefully I’ll be able to do a more proper post, and round up all the latest Ranger news later.
Tonight… tonight is gonna be special. We have Josh Hamilton in the home run derby (which is on at 7:00 central on ESPN if you’re wondering). In a really cool gesture, Hamilton has chosen to bring his high school coach, 71 year-old Clay Council to the derby to throw him the cheese. I’ve been a little concerned that the derby will mess up Josh’s swing for the second half, but at this point there’s really nothing to do but shut up and cheer him on – and based on what we hear about his BP sessions, this should be a piece of cake for Josh as far as launching balls goes… if you’re a betting man… he’s even the odds-on favorite. Who can argue with that?
