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: Eddie Guardado, Ian Kinsler, Ron Washington, Scott Feldman, Tom Hicks
After hovering around .500 for the better part of a month, it looks like the Rangers may have finally hit that hot streak they’ve been waiting for – the one that would push them over the .500 mark, and maybe keep them there for awhile. Since Eric Hurley secured his first Major League win on Sunday, the Rangers have blown into Yankee stadium, taking the first two of three games behind some exceptional pitching from their starters and bullpen to go. Last night it was Kevin Millwood turning in the strong mound performance while Ian Kinsler beat them on the basepaths, as the Rangers rose to three games over .500 with a 3-2 victory.
Once again, just as in the previous two games, it would be the Rangers young players that played a big part in the victory - first and foremost of which would be Ian Kinsler. Kinsler- who is hitting .552 with a 1.537 OPS in his last 7 games - went 2-3 with 2 walks last night, and also stole a season high 3 bases as he eventually wound up scoring the winning run. His season line is now .324/.380/.536, and his 42.1 VORP now leads all American League position players (Milton Bradley is second at 38.5).
As much as Kinsler got on base (and got into scoring position) though, he only scored that one all-important run – the Ranger offense didn’t exactly take full advantage of their 9 hits and 7 walks, stranding 12 men overall, and leaving 6 of them in scoring positon. The only runs they scored in the first 8 innings came in the second on back-to-back RBI singles by Chris Davis and Jarrod Saltalamacchia that gave them the early lead.
Kevin Millwood rebounded nicely from his disastrous start in Houston a week ago by allowing just 1 run in 5 innings, while striking out 6 – and his outing was cut short thanks to a bruised shin he sustained in the second inning on a Robinson Cano comebacker.
“It’s frustrating,” Millwood said. “I felt like I was actually pitching. I felt like I had good stuff. My leg just got stiff and sore. I didn’t feel I could give us a real good chance, so I let them know it was bothering me.”
Josh Rupe came on for the 6th inning, and proceeded to give up the tying run on 3 consecutive 2-out singles – but he settled down to pitch a scoreless 7th, and Frank Francisco tossed a shutdown 8th.
With the game tied 2-2 going into the top of the 9thinning, the Yankees went to closer Mariano Rivera, who sported a 0.74 ERA coming into the night. Facing Rivera was the top of the Rangers order starting with the red-hot Kinsler, who drew upon the memory of some previous at-bats against Rivera.
“In my mind, I know he remembered how he got me last year,” Kinsler said. “That’s part of what makes him so good. So, I think he figured I’d made an adjustment on his cutter, and he was going to come in with the sinker. I was looking in the right place when he threw it.”
Kinsler turned on Rivera’s third offering and blasted it into the LF corner for a leadoff double, with the 2, 3 and 4 hitters coming up next for the Rangers. But Kinsler wasn’t planning to sit out there and wait to be driven in, he wanted to make things happen. Having already stolen 2 bags in the game, Kinsler made up his mind to steal third when first base coach Gary Pettis informed him of Rivera’s slow (1.6 second) delivery to home plate.
“[1.6 seconds is] more than enough time for me to steal the base, and I didn’t want to lose this game,” Kinsler said. “So I was going.”
Kinsler went on Rivera’s 1-1 delivery to Michael Young, and the throw to third from Jorge Posada(who has been nursing a sore shoulder all season) was on the outside of the bag. Withnobody out, the Yankees had to bring their infield up to try and cut off the run, but instead it played right into the hands of Michael Young, who chopped one up the middle for the go-ahead single. The Rangers did proceed to put runners on first and third with one out, but Rivera retired David Murphy and Brandon Boggs to end the threat and leave CJWilson with a 1-run lead to protect in the bottom of the 9th.
Wilson, who has looked like a whole new pitcher his last two times out, started the bottom of the 9th by walking Wilson Betimit on 4 pitches. But he quickly bore down and fired 6 consective strikes to induce a double play ball from MelkyCabrera, and a Johnny Damon chopper to end the game.
At 3 games over .500 now, with another well-played baseball game in the books, things certainly seem to be looking up for the Texas Rangers and their young players – even Tom Hicks says he’s excited about the Rangers young players. But I’m also starting to wonder that if this sudden pre-trade deadline winning streak continues, might actually turn out to be a bad thing. Why? Because Hicks also offered this fairly disturbing quote about the Rangers chances to contend this year:
“Who’s to say?” Hicks said. “[Manager] Ron Washington thinks so, and I’m not going to argue with Ron. It’s all about pitching. We’ve got to get good starting pitching and good bullpen pitching. We’ve had both, but we’ve got to make sure we have them at the same time.”
That is the absolute last thing we need, our overzealous owner deferring to our moron manager about our playoff chances and then possibly shifting this teams focus at the deadline this year from selling to buying.
That would be the classic cycle the Rangers organization has kept going though (especially since Hicks has taken over as owner): develop just enough of the young talent to start seeing some marginal success, and then go dealing half of it away to acquire one or two players to try make a premature push for the playoffs that we’re not ready for. No, we need to deal the guys like Vicente Padilla and Milton Bradley for some key pieces who can also be a part of the long term picture, and we need to let the various positional battles, such as the one at catcher sort itself out among the young talent we have there. We also need to let our premiere prospects in the lower levels of the minors, like Neftali Feliz and Michael Main continue to develop, and see where they are in a year or two. I think Jon Daniels at least understands that, and hopefully so does Nolan Ryan – but Hicks is the exact kind of owner who could get worked up about a 7 game winning streak or something right before the trade deadline here, and instruct his GM to make some more potentially disastrous shortsighted moves. But we’ll see what happens - I can only hope the Rangers keep their senses here at the deadline.
In other news, Eddie Guardado’s shoulder tweak isn’t serious, and he should be back by Friday in Baltimore. Also, Scott Feldman’s next start is being pushed back a day, just to make sure he’s handling the rigors of his first full season as a starting pitcher.
“We just want to give him a break,” pitching coach Mark Connor said. “He’s pitching more innings than he ever has in his career. We’ve talked about this off and on. He still gets two more starts before the All-Star break.”
Quick hits: Brandon McCarthy threw a 45 pitch bullpen session yesterday, and looks good – his next challenge will be to face live hitters again… Ron Washington says Frank Catalanotto will start at DH today, while Max Ramirez will start at catcher… Mike Hindman (who recently moved his excellent minor league ruminations over to the DMN Rangers blog) reports that Tommy Hunter, the Rangers 5th round pick from last years draft, has been promoted to AAA Oklahoma… Josh Hamilton will be awarded the Best Comeback Award at the 2008 ESPY’s.
Luis Mendoza will take on disgraced Ranger Sidney Ponson tonight in New York – for me, this is a must win game, because I do not want to lose to Ponson. Only problem is, Ponson tossed 6 scoreless in his Yankee debut, and the Rangers offense has scored just 5 runs in the first two games of the series… but we’ll see.
Last call: today, not yesterday is the last day of all-star voting. Yeah, I know it’s likely a futile cause, but go vote for Ian Kinsler some more anyway.
Filed under: Ranger Wins | Tags: all-star voting, Bad Umpires, CJ Wilson, Eddie Guardado, Frank Francisco, Ron Washington, Scott Feldman
Maybe the pitching staff is finally starting to shape up for the Rangers. Scott Feldman, the rotation’s hard-luck pitcher has watched more than one win slip away in the hands of the Texas bullpen this year. But that all changed, at least for one night at Yankee Stadium, as not only did the bullpen bail Feldman out of a jam, it also completely shut down the mighty Yankee offense over the last 3 innings, allowing the Rangers pull off a narrow 2-1 victory.
Engineering his best start since going 6 scoreless innings against Oakland on May 9th, Feldman battled around some early control problems (he walked 3 in the first two innings) to shut down the Yankees, allowing one run on 4 hits in 5.2 innings. The only run he allowed came when he hung a curveball to Alex Rodriguez in the 4th inning.
The Rangers offense meanwhile, had to deal with the “strike zone” home plate umpire Dan Iassogona was calling for Mike Mussina and the Yankees all night. Of course, it’s really nothing new or even surprising to see and umpire favoring the home team at Yankee Stadium – but Iassogona wasn’t calling a strike zone for the Yanks, he was calling a drop zone that you could have landed the entire 101st Airborne division inside. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an umpire so blatantly favor one team, at least not in recent memory - we’ve had some umps put the screws to us a couple times this year, but this was by far and away the worst occasion so far.
Edit: I’d like to apologize for mistakenly referring to Dan Iassogona as Dan Lassogona in this post (I misread the name in the MLB boxscore). I’ll freely admit I’m not much of a grammatical/spelling whiz, but I do pride myself on at least getting the names of the people I write about correct. Not sure if anybody noticed this error, but I still wanted to clear things up just in case.
The Iassogona-aided Mussina would strike out 8 Rangers – 5 looking – but the Rangers made what hits they where able to get off of him count. Of the 5 hits Mussina surrendered, 3 where doubles – two of which lead directly to the 2 runs the Rangers put on the board. First Ian Kinsler knocked a 1-out double in the third, andwas subsequently singled home by Josh Hamilton to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead. Then, with David Murphy on second after a walk and a groundout in the fourth, Chris Davis smashed an RBI double up the alley in right-center. Those would be the only runs the Rangers got (they couldn’t cash in on a runner-at-third, 0 out situation in the 8th) but thanks to the Ranger pitchers those where the only runs they would need.
The Yankees did come close to tying the game with 2 out in the 6th – Jason Giambi smoked one out to the wall in right center, and turned it into his first triple since 2002 (no joke!) when Josh Hamilton couldn’t make a running shoestring grab, and saw it go off his glove instead. With the tying run 90 feet away, Ron Washington decided to go to Frankie Francisco, who seems to thrive in tight situations (his 6.8 percentage of inherited runners scored last year was the lowest in the Majors).
“When I get in those situations, I just turn it on,” Francisco said. “I like being in those situations. It lets me pitch to my strength, the fastball.”
Indeed it does, because Francisco came in and struck out Jorge Posada on six pitches, throwing him a high 96 MPH heater to finish him off. Then he proceeded to pitch the bottom of the 7th, retiring the side with 2 groundouts and another K. All total, Francisco threw 18 pitches over an inning and a third last night – 11 of them for strikes. Francisco has now allowed just one hit and zero runs in his last 6.1 innings, while striking out 8 and walking one. If he can keep this up, we may have ourselves a new 8th inning man.
We might need one too, because of what happened to Eddie Guardado last night – while making his final warmup pitches as he prepared to pitch the 8th inning, Eddie apparently felt a “twinge” in his shoulder:
“He felt a twinge in his shoulder and didn’t want to take any chances,” manager Ron Washington said. “He’s day-to-day, and we’ll see how it goes. We don’t think it’s too bad. He’s had this before. Sometimes it’s one day, sometimes it’s a couple of days. We’ll see tomorrow.”
For the sake of the bullpen, as well as any trade value Guardado might possess, lets hope this isn’t serious – his ERA+ of 128 currently leads all our regular relievers.
Jamey Wright – who actually has a 0.93 ERA in his last 10 appearances – pitched the 8th inning for the Rangers instead, and he retired the side in order, leaving it in the hands of CJ Wilson for the 9th inning. I don’t think anyone needs reminding of CJ’s struggles this year - suffice it to say that up until the last two days, he just has not looked like the 2007 version of CJ Wilson that posted a 3.03 season ERA. When he worked the 9th on Sunday however, he turned in his first 1-2-3 inning since June 2nd, while also striking out 2 – arguably the best inning of work he has turned in all season. He built on that last night, as he set down the heart of the Yankees order - A-Rod, Jason Giambi and Jorge Posada – to pick up his 18th save of the season. Of course, two sterling outings does not make a recovery from his struggles – but for the first time this season, CJ appears like he might be headed toward the right path.
This victory puts the Rangers 2 games over .500 for the first time since 2006 – and it took them until they’re 6th attempt this year to win consecutive games after reaching the .500 mark. As I’m sure you already know, Eric Hurley bagged his first Major League win against the Phillies to help us along on Sunday (a belated big congrats to Hurley on that by the way – and my apologies for not making the time to properly blog it), in a game that Max Ramirez caught, and Chris Davis homered in - the young rookies have really played a huge part in this drive to 2 games over, and there’s nothing more exciting to see than the young players who have a chance to be part of this teams future out there contributing and growing. It’s a great time to be a Ranger fan.
Speaking of those young guys, TR Sullivan had a piece up yesterday about the way the Rangers have been doling out playing time to the youngsters… Ron of course, still thinks the Rangers can contend, and says he’s focused on putting his best lineup out there:
“I’ve got to put the best lineup out there,” Washington said. “We’re only 7 1/2 games out. We’ve still got a chance.”
That, right there, is one of my biggest gripes with Wash: even if we have a chance at somehow backing our way into the playoffs this year (which, realistically, we really don’t) it shouldn’t matter, because we should still be focused on putting the building blocks of a future dominant team together. He shouldn’t be worried about putting his “best” lineup together, he should be focused on getting the youngsters like Max Ramirez and Brandon Boggs their share of AB’s out of reserve roles, instead of handing them to the spares on the bench like Marlon Byrd and Frank Catalanotto. Hopefully, this is a problem that will be fixed at the trade deadline, if we can find takers for Byrd and Catalanotto – but the point is, I still don’t think Ron Washington is on the same page that this organization needs him to be on at this juncture.
Guess what today is, folks? It’s the last day second to last day of All-Star voting. Now, Josh Hamilton is safely second in the OF voting, as is Michael Young at SS – but according to the latest stats, Ian Kinsler(who has moved up to second in the entire American League in VORP recently) is still 183,686 votes behind Dustin Pedroia. One last day Ranger fans - you all can do it, you just need to get cracking. Here is the ballot, and if you’re out of e-mail addresses, you can use dodgit.com to create disposable e-mails - for example, just type in something like lonestarincalifornia@dodgit.com in the e-mail box on the ballot, and you’re good to go – and you can create as many variations as you need/want. So lets give it one last push, folks - Kinsler deserves to start that game waaay more than Pedroia does.
Quick hits: Dustin Nippert tossed a 7-inning no-hitter for Oklahoma Sunday… Kason Gabbard had an MRI today on his inflamed elbow, which revealed that there was no structural damage… Gabbard was given a cortisone shot to treat it… and Josh Hamilton is really excited to be playing in Yankee Stadium.
Today it’s Kevin Millwood vs. the Yankees top young pitcher Joba Chaimberlain. Unlike Mike Mussina, Joba isn’t going to need an overly-biased strike zone to hold the Rangers to 2 runs – considering Millwood got lit up his last start, this might be a pretty tough game. Joba has been known to be wild at times though, so if we can stay patient, maybe we’ll get to him.
Filed under: Ranger Wins | Tags: David Murphy, Eddie Guardado, Eric Hurley, Joaquin Benoit, Milton Bradley
All of a sudden, the Texas Rangers are the comeback kids. Make it two nights in a row now that they’ve come back from a 5-1 deficit, and this time they did it in thunderous fashion, with a 7 run 7th inning, highlighted by David Murphy’s first career grand slam, stunning the Royals and sending the Rangers to an 11-5 victory.
Early on, it things almost looked the same as Tuesday night’s game: Kansas City pulled ahead early in the game, taking advantage of a somewhat erratic Vicente Padilla, who allowed 5 runs (4 earned) on 7 hits, 3 walks and two HBP’s in his 6 innings of work. For the second game in a row, KC”s starter, this time right-hander Kyle Davies, held the Rangers to just one run for the first 6 innings, although the Rangers helped him out a bit by hitting into 3 double plays in the first 5 innings.
Davies, who now has allowed just one run in all three of his starts this season for Kansas City, left at 109 pitches after 6 innings. That was when the Royals decided to bring in rookie Jeff Fulchino, for just his third big league appearance, and second this season. That was the beginning of their undoing.
Ramon Vazquez hammered a leadoff triple to greet Fulchino, and then Royals shortstop Mike Aviles made a throwing error on Ian Kinsler’s ground ball, throwing it in the dirt where it skipped by Mark Teahen and into the photo well. That scored Vazquez and sent Kinsler to second. Fulchino walked Michael Young to make it first and second before he was finally lifted for lefty Jimmy Gobble to pitch to Josh Hamilton. Unfortunately for the Royals, Gobble didn’t have it, either.
Hamilton, who went 3-6 to break out of his recent slump, knocked an RBI single up the middle to make it 5-3, and Gobble then walked Milton Bradley to load the bases with nobody out for David Murphy. Gobble missed with the first two pitches, and then tried to throw a get-me-over 89 MPH fastball to the Murph, who turned on it and jacked it to right for his first career grand salami. 7-5 Rangers. Later, Murphy would reveal exactly how bad a mistake Gobble’s pitch was:
“I was fortunate enough to get into a 2-0 count,” Murphy said, “and bases loaded 2-0, I’m pretty much looking dead-red fastball. That’s what I got right where I wanted it.”
The Rangers picked up another run off Gobble before Yasuhiko Yabuta was brought in to finally get three outs. Jamey Wright and Eddie Guaradado pitches scoreless 7th and 8th innings to keep the score at 8-5, and the Rangers tacked on 3 more in the top of the 9th off Brett Tomko, including a second home run by David Murphy that gave him a career-high 5 RBI. Frank Francisco pitched a sharp bottom of the 9th, throwing 14 of his 18 pitches for strikes to polish off the Royals, and the Rangers pulled back above .500 a 34-33.
About the only downside of this win was that Michael Young’s hitting streak was snapped at 23 games, as he went 0-5 with a walk – other than that, the Rangers pounded out 16 hits all total, and four guys (Kinsler, Hamilton, Murphy and Byrd) all registered 3 hit games in another excellent display of resiliency.
After the game though, where some some strange near fireworks involving Milton Bradley. Bradley apparently took exception to something he had heard Royals announcer Ryan Lefebvre say on the clubhouse TV during the game, and afterwards, decided to head up 4 flights of stairs to the broadcast booth to confront him. Ron Washington and Jon Daniels set off in pursuit, and escorted him back down to the clubhouse after a security guard stopped Milton from entering the booth.
It was an emotional Bradley that re-entered the clubhouse, as he nearly broke down, saying “all I want to do is play baseball, and make a better living for my kid. I love you guys. I’m strong, but I’m not that strong.” Afterwards, he stood at his locker with his head down, where an undetermined number of his teammates tried to console him – according to Richard Durrett of the DMN, it was “many” while Mark Dent’s of MLB.com story strangely differs, saying “most stayed away”.
What evidently had offended Bradley was some comments Lefebvre had made while contrasting Bradley and Josh Hamilton:
“From what I remember, we were complimenting Josh Hamilton and how he’s turned his life around and been accountable for his mistakes,” Lefebvre said. “Frank [White] and I were just having a conversation that it’s a shame it doesn’t appear Milton Bradley is doing the same in his life.”
….
“This wasn’t a Milton Bradley rip session,” Lefebvre said. “It was just based on the pictures we’ve seen of him in the series walking from the dugout all the way to right field. Dropping his bat. Making gestures to the fans in right field and above the dugout, taunting them. He’s the only person in baseball I know who does that kind of stuff.”
Lefebvre also insisted he had complimented Bradley as well, but suggested Milton had not heard that part in the clubhouse.
While nobody seems to know exactly what Lefebvre really said, whatever it was apparently made Bradley feel deeply insulted - of course, considering how emotional Milton can be, that’s usually not too hard to do. It does seem though that the KC announcers are not fans of the way Bradley has been carrying himself throughout the series so far, so it wouldn’t surprise me at all if they where indeed holding a miniature rag session on Milton, who can be a popular target (although the reason for that is because of incidents just such as this).
I don’t know what to personally make of this incident one way or another, but this is the risk you run by having Bradley on your team - it seems we’ve just had our first “Milton Bradley moment” of the season. Fortunately, this was stemmed before it had a chance to get out of hand, although we don’t know for sure that it would have - but even so, this won’t be something that will be forgotten by the media anytime soon.
In other news, Eddie Guardado has officially been promoted to the 8thinning role, with Joaquin Benoit moving back to the 6th-7th inning. According to Ron Washington, Benoit is “still catching up” after coming to spring training out of shape, and needs to work on his command, but believes he’ll return to form. Hopefully that’s the case, and we’ll see a whole different Joaquin in the second half this year - but I’ve wondered if perhaps maybe the 2007 Joaquin Benoit was a mirage, and we’re back to the old wildy inconsistent Benoit again. Such can be the tendencies of a relief pitcher from year-to-year.
Quick hits: Josh Hamilton says he’s found his swing after a 2-28 start to May, and said the problem was overthinking his swing mechanics: “I don’t know why I started doing that all of a sudden, but that’s the frustrating and challenging part of this game. You should think about your swing in practice, but not in a game”… Jarrod Saltalamacchia apparently did not start Wedensday’s game because of a sore wrist, but is scheduled to be back out there to catch Eric Hurley’s Major League debut today. The two have worked as a battery previously this season in AAA.
That’s right, today’s the big day - you can catch Eric Hurley’s Major League debut at 1:10 PM central time. Brian Bannister, who the Rangers have previously knocked around this year will oppose as Texas goes for the sweep. I’m half expecting Hurley to get knocked around, but we’ll see what happens.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Adam Melhuse, Brandon McCarthy, Eddie Guardado, Jarrod Saltalamacchia
Welp, Jarrod Saltalamacchia is here to stay, per Richard Durrett of the Dallas Morning News. Unfortunately, the Rangers still see the need for him to split time with Gerald Laird, who got the start for tonights game.
In my opinion starting Laird tonight is a big mistake, because this will make 4 consecutive days Salty has not played. He didn’t play Tuesday up in Iowa (day game after a night game), the Redhawks had an offday on Wedensday, and he was held out of the lineup in OKC because of his callup last night. The last thing you want to do is let a guy get out of sync, and 4 straight days without playing for a guy who’s used to going 5-6 times a week like Salty might be very bad. Leave it to the Rangers to mismanage their top catching prospect, of course.
This does mean that Adam Melhuse is going to be DFA’d or released, and Sidney Ponson called up to start Saturday. Eddie Guardado was also activated today, so that means that Frank Francisco, Josh Rupe or Kaz Fukumori will need to be optioned down to make room for Ponson however.
It’s also noted by Durrett that Brandon McCarthy has had a setback in his recovery from elbow inflammation, and still has and inflamed elbow. Looks like McCarthy’s season is pretty much in the toilet – if he needs surgery, he might as well pursue it now.
Currently listening to the game right now… Justin Morneau just jacked a grand slam off Kevin Millwood in the top of the third inning… it’s 5-0 Twins. Unless the offense wakes up tonight, this is gonna be 8 losses in a row. Sigh.
Filed under: Ranger Losses | Tags: Eddie Guardado, First Major League hit, Gerald "Superstar" Laird, German Duran, Jason Jennings, Joaquin Benoit, Left on Base, Salty vs. Laird, Why I hate knuckleballers
You had to know it was going to be a tough series for the Rangers in Boston, taking on the defending World Series champs. But it’s always exceedingly frustrating to see your team blow a late lead, even if it is against the Red Sox.
That’s exactly what happened on Saturday night, as setup man Joaquin Benoit had his second consecutive rough outing to blow a 3-2 Ranger lead in the 8th inning.
Jason Jennings, who got rocked in his first three starts of the season, managed to battle to his first quality start of the season, despite possessing sub-par control against the loaded Boston lineup. Jennings threw 100 pitches over 6 innings of work, but only 57 went for strikes, and he was 9-9 in groundball/fly ball outs, but he managed to shut the Sox out for 5 innings after giving up 2 runs in the first.
According to TR Sullivan’s post game write up, Jennings relied on a cut fastball to keep the Sox from pulling the ball over to the green monster.
“It was good I finally gave us a quality start and give us an opportunity to win the game,” Jennings said. “From that aspect, I was pleased. But coming away with a loss is a little frustrating.
“I felt like I was able to get the ball down in the zone and hit my spots more consistently. But I have to build on it. One game is not going to get it. I have to repeat it.”
Even so, Jennings seemed to go deep into the count on almost every batter, and sure didn’t pitch with the efficiency of someone who was having his best start of the season so far. But perhaps last night, that worked to his advantage, as there’s no denying the results.
The Rangers lead 3-2 after scoring a single run in each of the first three frames. Josh Hamilton launched his fourth homer of the season, a green monster shot of lefty Jon Lester in the top of the first to get the scoring started. After the Red Sox answered in the bottom of the first, Adam Melhuse tied it up with an RBI single to plate David Murphy. German Duran, making his first ever start in LF, bagged his first career hit, a single to right center that put runners on the corners for Ian Kinsler, but Kinsler flew out to CF. That was the first of three consecutive innings the Rangers would leave a man standing on third base.
Jason Botts doubled in Josh Hamilton to give Texas the lead with one out in the top of the 3rd, but the Rangers would leave Hank Blalock stranded at third base when David Murphy and an Gerald Laird struck out to end the frame. They did it again in the 4th, when Michael Young’s 2 out single got Ian Kinsler to third, but Josh Hamilton grounded out to end that scoring chance for the Rangers as well. The inability to come through in those situations would later come back to haunt the Rangers, as their slim one-run lead would not hold up in the 8th inning.
After Jamey Wright got through a scoreless 7th, Joaquin Benoit came in for the 8th inning. Benoit, who struggled his last outing in Toronto, getting charged with three runs on a hit and three walks, started the inning by getting Jacoby Ellsbury to pop out. But then Dustin Pedroia doubled off the monster, and the rally was on for the Red Sox. David Ortiz was up next, prompting the Rangers to swing the infield around to the right, the standard defensive book against Big Papi. Ortiz smashed a ball right into the shift, to the right of Ian Kinsler, who was playing on the RF grass. Kinsler dove, and managed to get his glove on it, but could not stop the hot smash. It skipped into right field, and Pedroia motored home with the tying run. With Ortiz on first, Manny Ramirez was next, and the result was almost predictable. On an 0-1 count, Benoit threw a fastball at the knees, but Ramirez crushed it over the moster for the go-ahead 2-run homer, making it 5-3 Sox. Benoit retired the next two in order, but it was too little, too late.
After that, Jonathan Papelbon came on in the 9th to close the game out with a few 96 mph heaters, and the Sox comeback win was complete. To add to the deflating feeling at the end of this one, Milton Bradley even saw his 13 game hitting streak snapped, as he flew out to deep center in a lone at-bat as a pinch hitter for Gerald Laird, making the final out of the ballgame. Pretty lousy way to see a hitting streak like that come to an end.
There’s not too much you can say when your best setup guy gets clobbered by one of the best offenses in the game, but the real dissapointment of the night was the lack of offensive support. Including the aforementioned three consecutive innings in which the Rangers left a man at third, the Rangers left 13 men on base overall. Josh Hamilton and David Murphy left four men apeice, and Michael Young and Ian Kinsler three. But the biggest dissapointment of the night offensively was Gerald Laird.
In perhaps the joke of the season, Laird started the game at DH (for the first time in his career), and proceeded to go 0-4 with three strikeuts and 6 LOB, lowering his season average to .218. Never mind what horrible decision it is for a manager to have his offensively-challenged catcher DHing, but this, people, is why this offense needs Jarrod Saltalamacchia in it. Aside from striking out with a runner on second and one out in the 2nd inning, Gerald’s other three outs where all inning-enders, in the 3rd, the 5th, and perhaps most critically in the 8th, when he blew the Rangers last chance to score before Benoits meltdown, and struck out with runners on first and second. There’s no denying that this game might have been a lot different if you had had Salty up at the plate instead of Laird, but it’s not about just this one game. This is just a fine example of how bad Laird has been at the plate so far this year.
How bad has Laird been? Well, in 55 AB’s this year, he has 12 hits, which as I mentioned above, is a .218 average. That’s bad enough. But if you take out his mirage performance on April 6th against the Angels, when he went 4-5 with 2 HR and 6 RBI, he has 8 hits in 50 AB’s, which is a .160 average, and only 2 RBI. In fact, out of all AL starting catchers, only Kenji Johjima of Seattle has a worse average (.212).
With numbers that bad, it really makes you wonder exactly how much longer the Rangers can let Saltalamacchia sit in AAA. Laird’s throwing may be an asset, but his overall defensive game, such as his wandering glove, and average range at the catchers position, is really nothing that can make up for an almost total lack of offensive value. According to Jon Daniels preseason plan, Laird was supposed to be building up his trade value by playing full-time, while Salty honed his defensive skills, at OKC. Well, thanks to his crappy play, Laird’s trade value is going in the wrong direction right now, as he’s picked up right where he left off offensively last season. And Salty is tearing it up in AAA, impressing those who actually watch him play every day.
So how long is it gonna be before Daniels wakes up, and realizes this little love affair with Gerald Laird is getting the Rangers nowhere? When you’re rebuilding, the idea is supposed to be remaining ready to play your young, promising players when they are ready - and Salty looks to be Major-League ready, both offensively, and now defensively. I don’t think it can be denied much longer: Gerald Laird’s time as the Rangers starting catcher is coming to a close. The only question before the Rangers is whether to drag it out, and subject us to more craptastic displays of offensive inability, or get started with the future. What’s it gonna be, JD?
In other Ranger notes, Eddie Guardado is not coming off the DL on Sunday, as I reported yesterday, after all. Guardado says his sore shoulder is still “weak” and he doesn’t want to rush himself back into action. He” throw a bullpen session on Monday, and the Rangers will go from there. Hopefully, it won’t be too much longer till Guadardo is back - right now, with the way Joaquin Benoit has performed his last two times out, it certainly would be nice to have that extra late-inning option in the bullpen.
Tomorrow, Kevin Millwood goes for the Rangers against knuckleballer Tim Wakefield. I’m dreading this game, because I really hate it whenever I have to watch/listen to a game in which Wakefield is on the mound – wild pitches, passed balls, 3-2 counts – watching him pitch always seems to be a real drag. He makes a 2 1/2 hour game seem like a 4 1/2 hour game even more efficently than anyone else in baseball. Hopefully the Rangers can square up a few of those knuckleballs, and at least provide us with some moonshot home runs for entertainment, eh? We’ll see.
Filed under: Ranger Losses | Tags: Eddie Guardado, Luis Mendoza, Marlon Byrd, Salty watch
There’s really not much to say about Friday nights game against the Red Sox in Fenway park. All you really need to do is take a look at the scoreboard, and you’ll get the drift: Red Sox 11, Rangers 3. Ouch.
The Rangers came into Fenway on a two game winning streak, having swept the two-game matinee in Toronto for a mini-sweep of sorts. That all came to a screeching halt today, as all it took was one swing by David Ortiz to get the Red Sox offense kick-started in the bottom of the third.
Luis Mendoza, pitching against his former organization, actually got off to a great start to the game retiring the first 8 Red Sox in order on 33 pitches. He was even staked to a 1-0 lead in the top of the third, when Ian Kinsler doubled, stole third base, and was plated on a sac fly by Josh Hamilton (whose 16 RBI so far tie him for third most in the AL). But the wheels would come off for Mendoza with 2 out in the 3rd.
Mendoza started the inning by getting Jason Varitek to foul out, and Sean Casey to line out to short. But then rookie shortstop Jed Lowrie, making just his second start of the season for the Red Sox, doubled into the LF corner, and that sparked the rally. With a runner in scoring position, Mendoza all of a sudden started trying to be too fine, and would up walking Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedrioa, which brought up David Ortiz. Big Papi promplty hammered Mendoza’s first pitch, a fastball that was left out over the plate, over the green monster for an opposite field grand slam.
The Sox didn’t let up, as Mendoza got into more trouble in the 4th. He walked JD Drew to start the frame, and then gave up an RBI double to Jason Varitek. Sean Casey followed with a single to put runners on first and third, which finally chased Mendoza. Josh Rupe came jogging out of the bullpen, but he didn’t help matters much. After a sac fly by Jed Lowrie, Rupe gave up an RBI triple to Jacoby Ellsbury, and a 2 run homer to Dustin Pedrioa before getting out of the inning.
Rupe did settle down to toss three more innings of scoreless ball, but the nails where in the coffin, despite the brief excitement of Hank Blalock (who returned to the lineup a little earlier than expected yesterday) hammering a 2-run homer off Dice-K Matsuzaka in the 6th. The Red Sox tacked on two more runs, one earned, one unearned, against Dustin Nippert in the 8th, to make it 11-3, and the rest is history.
There wasn’t too much distraction to be found in Friday’s Ranger notes, as the only real notables where the fact that Eddie Guaradado is scheduled to come off the DL Sunday, and the leading candidate to be sent to AAA is of course Josh Rupe, the only pitcher in the Texas bullpen with a minor league option (besides closer CJ Wilson, that is), and that the Rangers are also still trying to figure out what’s wrong with Marlon Byrd’s sore knee. He is now scheduled to undergo an MRI Monday, as Byrd was quoted as saying “It’s just not getting any better. We want to know what this is and get treatment for it. I want to be back in 15 days.” It seems that Byrd may actually have a serious problem here - although his condition is apparently a fairly recent development, perhaps it provides some explanation for his lousy play of late. You can’t use it to explain away his cold bat, which goes all the way back to spring training, but it might provide a palpable excuse for his recent morbid defense and baserunning gaffes.
Jarrod Saltalamacchia watch: Salty was 0-4 with an RBI and a strikeout Friday, as Oklahoma beat Round Rock, 6-4. Eric Hurley turned in his first solid start of the season, and picked up the win, while Kaz Fukumori pitched 2.1 perfect innings of relief, striking out 2, and Frank Francisco picked up his 4th save, striking out both batters he faced.
Tomorrow, Jason Jennings takes on BoSox left-hander Jon Lester at Fenway. Jennings, of course, is 0-3 with a 8.79 ERA in his first three starts, and allowed a home run in all three, although Lester has had struggles of his own recently, allowing 8 runs in 9 2/3 innings in his last two starts, and has walked a total of 15 in 4 starts this season. Hopefully, Jennings will stop throwing belt-high 84 mph frisbees, keep the ball down, and prove me wrong, but I’m bracing for a wild one tonight.
