Filed under: Ranger Wins | Tags: Ben Broussard, Frank Catalanotto, John Mayberry Jr., Minor Leagues
How quickly the fortunes of baseball change. Monday night, the Mariners rocked Kevin Millwood in a 7-3 win, only to have the Rangers return the favor on Tuesday. This time, it was Miguel Bautista and reliever Cha-Seung Baek who got knocked around, as the Ranger offense showed some impressive plate discipline, drawing a total of 10 walks from the aforementioned pair, giving them more than enough baserunners to make some big things happen.
Ian Kinsler lead the game off with a double to LF, and Michael Young and Josh Hamilton followed with a pair of walks. Milton Braldey hit an RBI grounder to first, and David Murphy followed with a sac fly to make it 2-0 early. Brandon Boggs and Frank Catalanotto would draw walks to load the bases again, but Jarrod Saltalamacchia couldn’t come through, grounding out to second.
Even though the Rangers didn’t cash in as big as the could have, Bautista threw an astonishing 44 pitches in the first inning, setting up his own early exit. The Rangers tacked on a run in the second, on a Michael Young sac fly, but the big inning would be the top of the third.
Milton Bradley drew a walk to start the frame, and David Murphy followed by crushing a 2-run homer. Brandon Boggs struck out, but Bautista walked Frank Catalanotto with one out, after which he was pulled for Cha-Seung Baek. Baek came in and immediately got Saltalamacchia to fly out to deep right, but the Rangers put together a 2-out rally to blow the game wide open.
Baek loaded the bases by allowing Vazquez to single, and Kinsler to walk, and then Michael Young whacked a broken bat single up the middle to score two. That brought up Josh Hamilton, and he put the finishing touches on the offensive explosion by absolutely crushing a 425-foot 3-run homer to right field. That made it 10-0, and the Ranger put it on cruise control from there, as Sidney Ponson continued to impress.
Through 7 innings, Ponson gave up just one run on 7 hits and one walk. He only struck out 2, but he got 12 ground balls to 7 fly balls, and kept the Mariners off-balance the entire night. As I’ve said in the past, I’ve been one of Ponson’s biggest detractors, and in the back of my mind I still wonder how long his recent success will continue. But that doesn’t take away from the fact that he has pitched like an absolute fiend lately, and has made a fine addition to the rotation. And if his success does continue, we might actually be able to spin him for a prospect or two at the trade deadline.
On another interesting note from the game Frank Catalanottogot the start at first base, and went 1-2 with three of the Rangers 10 walks. As TR Sullivan notes, this is something we should be seeing a lot more of, as Ron Washington looks to get Catalanotto into the lineup, and squeeze some production out of the first base position (Texas 1B have a 546 OPS right now, the lowest in the AL).
It looks like my prediction yesterday about Ben Broussard’s time in Texas coming to an end may be coming true – as TR hints at in his article, and as Evan Grant puts a tad more bluntly, Catalanotto getting time at first base pretty much makes carrying Broussard unnecessary. Broussardis hitting a microscopic .159/.225/268, with a 493 OPS in 82 AB’sso far, and has just one hit with RISP all season – his grand slam against the Angels back on April 4th. Factor in his platoon weakness against LHP, and Ben starts to redefine the terms “useless” “roster clogger” and “spare”. And even though Washington nor the Rangers have yet to say it directly, they seem to have realized that they realistically cannot carry three first basemen on the roster once Marlon Byrd comes off the DL, so…
On other news, TR also has a peice up on the Rangers farm system right now on the Rangers sight, boasting about the current record of the Texas feeder clubs - whose collective .658 winning percentage is second only to the Yankees minor league clubs. There’s also some highlights on players like former #1 Rangers pick John Mayberry Jr., who is ripping up AAA Oklahoma (to the tune of a .500 average) since he got a promotion from Frisco around the same time Brandon Boggs was called up to the Majors last month.
The emergence of Mayberry, who has had a lot of struggles with his complicated swing in the minors since he was drafted over players like Boston’s Jacoby Ellsbury in 2005, is certainly a huge development. Back when he was drafted, he was supposed to be the Rangers RF of the future, but his stumbles though the system made him one of the Rangers most unpopular draft picks – now, according to Rangers farm director Soctt Servais, he could even be considered for a late-season callup if he continues his success:
“I’m really excited about [Mayberry],” Servais said. “You didn’t know what you’d get, but I’m most happy his strikeouts are down. At Frisco he was having some of the best at-bats. I’m not talking about hits but just staying on the ball and using all fields. This is a big year for John Mayberry. Hopefully he’ll settle in, put up good numbers and maybe by August or September he’ll get big league consideration.”
There’s also notes about Max Ramirez, the young catcher acquired for Kenny Lofton from the Indians last year, who recently won the Texas League Player of the Week award, and his hitting an insane .390/.475/.700 for AA Frisco so far, the health of Joaquin Arias, who could factor in as a short-term replacement at SS should the Rangers decide to move Michael Young to another position late this season, and on the development prized first base power prospect Chris Davis, about whom Servais has the following to say:
“The switch to first base has been very good for Chris,” Servais said. “He’s very athletic, and I’ve seen him make some very good plays. He’s making adjustments at the plate, trying to cut down his strikeouts and use the whole field. We know he can hit the ball five miles, but there is still plenty of development time needed.”
I don’t know about you, but the more I go on about the young guys, the more pumped I get. The farm system is truly the highlight of the Rangers organization right now – though I don’t often make many notes about it in this space, since I can only focus on the big-league club with my currently limted writing time, keeping up with the kids in the system via blogs like Mike Hindman’s or EMC’s, which are up on the sidebar, and other sources like Baseball America should be a required activity for Ranger fans right now.
Tomorrow, the Rangers face another left-handed pitcher in noted Ranger-killer Erik Bedard. Texas is just 1-6 this season against left-handed starters, and has not sent a lefty starter to a loss yet. Vicente Padilla goes for the Rangers, and is coming off a fairly solid performance in Oakland. Hopefully the Rangers can break the jinx lefties have on them so far, but it’ll be tough to do it against Bedard, who has held the Rangers to a .217 average in his 7career starts against them.
Filed under: Ranger Losses | Tags: Bad Managing, Frank Catalanotto, Jason Jennings, Left on Base, Ron Washington channels Joe Morgan, Salty watch
Welp, make that 7 straight losses. Boy, we all knew this would be a tough road trip, but I don’t think even the most pessimistic of Ranger fans would have predicted that we’d lose 7 straight to the Red Sox an Tigers, and wind up with the franchise’s worst start since 1982.
After sitting through the heartless slaughter that was Wednesday nights game, I wasn’t able to get too upset about today’s loss, however. Probably because I fully expected the Rangers to get beat anyway. I think the real shock would have been if we had somehow managed to avoid the sweep with Jason Jennings (or Scott Feldman, for that matter) on the mound.
Jennings wound up making his scheduled start, despite the fact that the Rangers had previously reported that Scott Feldman would make a spot start, and allow Jennings to get two extra days rest before starting again. Instead, they held Feldman out to be used in long relief if needed, and sent down Wes Littleton, who had thrown 82 pitches appearing in 3 of the last 4 games for the Rangers, and called up Kazuo Fukumori (as I predicted yesterday – check it out, I finally nailed a prediction! Wheee!!!). They have yet to place Luis Mendoza on the DL yet though, and are still keeping their options open on whether to start Feldman against the Twins Saturday, or call up AJ Murray or Sidney Ponson.
Anyway, Jennings (or Jenny, as I think I’m going to start calling him) was his typical self Thursday, lobbing meatballs up to the plate when he did hit the zone, and only actually hitting the zone about 50 percent of the time, as only 44 of his 81 pitches through 5 innings where strikes. He gave up three home runs, one to Curtis Granderson, and two to Magglio Ordonez, which accounted for all 5 of the runs that he surrendered, and walked 5 on the day before he was lifted for Kaz Fukumori, who promptly gave up back-to-back jacks in his first inning of work to Brandon Inge and Ryan Raburn.
Raburn’s homer, which was to RF, was a bit of a controversial one, as it hit the yellow line atop the wall, and bounced back onto the field of play. I couldn’t tell you if it was a homer or not from the replays I’ve seen, but the umpires did call it a big fly however, after a quick huddle to discuss it – something that only brought marginal protest from Ron Washington. This is one of my biggest problems with Wash: that’s a call that most major league managers would, and probably should get ejected over. Especially when your team is on a 6 game (now 7) losing streak. Not that it would have probably made eny difference in the outcome of game, but Ron had the perfect opportunity to show some fire, and send the message to his players that he actually cares about this team, and is willing to fight for it, but no, Ron just strolled out, briefly conversed with the ump, and strolled back to the dugout as if he’d just gone out to get the address of the nearest fried chicken joint.
Small wonder why players like Frank Catalanotto have been complaining lately about the stagnant atmosphere in the clubhouse:
“It’s getting a little monotonous, every single day seeing the same thing. “You come out, you play lethargically and nothing changes. I wish I had the words to say what it is. We need to pitch better. We need to hit better in the clutch. It seems like right now everything’s going wrong for us.”
I think the above-chronicled events are a perfect example as to why that feeling is so prevalent in the Rangers clubhouse.
Getting back to the game for a moment, the Rangers offense continues to disappoint: they left another 11 men on-base, stuck out 19 times, and failed to take advantage of the fact that Detroit starter Jeremy Bonderman walked 7 and threw only 56 strikes of 110 pitches during his 4.2 innings of work. The only two Ranger runs of the game came on Michael Young’s solo home run in the first, and a bases loaded walk of David Murphy by Bonderman in the 5th, as the Rangers mustered just 4 hits to go along with the 8 overall walks they took on the day. They are now hitting .194 with RISP – that is one ugly stat.
Other notable news: both Ian Kinsler and Milton Bradley had the day off with sore hamstrings. According to the Rangers, it’s nothing to be alarmed about – Kinsler asked for the day off to take a breather, and Ron Washington held Bradley out as a precaution, despite originally planning to play him. Hopefully, this won’t affect Milton’s play, but Ron’s statement about whether or not this is part of his knee problems is kind of cryptic, though:
“His hamstrings have been sore for the last week or so,” Washington said. “But as a designated hitter, he can manage it. His [right] knee is fine. There is no problem with his knee. But this could be a part of that. I don’t want him pushing it.”
Just for fun, I’m going to tag this entry with “Ron Washington channels Joe Morgan” again.
Salty watch: Hopefully, this will be the last Salty watch I do this year. There’s not anything official that I can find on Salty’s callup as of 1 AM PT here tonight, so the official word won’t come down until the morning, but based on everything I’ve heard, this is it. I can only hope his stay will be permanent, and that he will immediately take over the full-time catching duties from 5 tools Laird – it really doesn’t make sense to call him up and just send him back down, so I’m hoping that will be exactly the case.
In my realistic estimation however, he’ll probably get only 4-5 days behind the plate though, as the Rangers continue to try and “inflate” Laird’s trade value – hopefully, Milton Bradley’s legs are OK, and he can play the field a little more so Jarrod can DH when he’s not catching. The last thing we need to have happen is Salty being run out there at first base again. Hopefully the Rangers will have figured out that’s not a good idea by now.
Tomorrow (or today, depending upon how you look at it), it’s Kevin Millwood vs. Twins rookie right-hander Nick Blackburn. Hopefully the Rangers can get something going against him, although he has pitched well to start his freshman season in the bigs. Interesting stat: Kevin Millwood has never beaten the Twins in his career, and has a 5.64 ERA against them.
Hopefully, Salty will make his 2008 debut tomorrow, and maybe provide the offense with some spark – we sure could use it.
Filed under: Ranger Losses | Tags: Dustin Nippert, Errors, Frank Catalanotto, Josh Hamilton, Kaz Fukumori, Salty watch, Spot starters, Vicente Padilla
Welp, after popping their heads above .500 for the first time in 18 months with a sweep of Thursday’s doubleheader, the Rangers didn’t let their fans spend too much time in orbit. Rather, they brought us crashing back to reality with an 8-5 loss in the first game of a weekend set with the Toronto Blue Jays.
The Blue Jays didn’t arrive in Arlington until 5 AM after going extra innings with the A’s on Thursday, yet it was the Rangers who looked like they had been up half the night. The defense proved to be incredibly bad, perhaps the worst it’s been all season (and that’s saying something). Texas made three errors on the night, and had other plays, such as Kazuo Fukumori failing to cover the bag on a grounder to first base in the 7th that made them look embarassingly bad - the Rangers are now leading the AL in errors and unearned runs, and last night was a seeming showcase of why.
Perhaps the worst part of it was having to watch Frank Catalanotto clank around like a broken refrigerator in left field, getting charged with one error on the night – which was lenient, considering he had two huge gaffes in the game. The critical one came in the fourth, he failed to track down a Vernon Wells fly ball that went over his head, which contributed to the Blue Jays tagging Vicente Padilla for 4 runs that frame. Later, he made his error cutting off a ball out there in LF, that wound up leading to an unearned run.
It’s times like this that I really wonder why Catalanotto is on this team – he has done nothing but suck since JD signed him to 3-year deal in the 2006 offseason. He had his career lowest batting average in 2007 (.260) and has a whopping two hits so far this season (one of them a bunt single that came last night). He’s quite obviously a defensive liability, as his range, reads, and arm strength in the OF have deteriorated to the point of making him near-worthless. He can sub at first base, but he doesn’t really have enough experience at that position to be a viable option there, either – and of course, we already have a left-handed first baseman in Ben Broussard. His offense really isn’t making up for any of it, either – and his platoon limitations as a left-hander who cannot hit LHP severely limits the value of what offense he could provide. Considering this roster is already full of left-handed batters, he really doesn’t even make a good bench bat. The bottom line is, all Catalanotto (who turns 34 this month) really is is an offensively and defensively limited platoon player who is taking up precious room on the 25-man roster.
In all seriousness, I’m of the opinion that the Frank Catalanotto signing has turned out to be the worst move Jon Daniels has independently made as GM of the Rangers - why you would give a guy like Catalanotto a long-term contract, who was setting up for the downside of his career even back in the winter of ‘06, is beyond me. You could DFA Cat right now, and it would be addition by subtraction - and yet perhaps the real kicker is, we’re giving him more playing time than Jason Botts, who is supposed to be getting his last chance at proving himself this season. Talk about a monkey wrench in the rebuilding plan – I really wish the Rangers would find a way to get rid of him. But I digress - I’ve gotten off on a tangent here – let’s get back to our regularly scheduled programming.
Gerald Laird was also a big part of the defensive meltdown last night – he made two errant throws down to second base (the second of which, however, could partially be blamed on Michael Young) and allowed Greg Zaun to steal home plate when he threw down to second on a Jays double steal with runners on first and third. This is where I could throw in a snide comment about how Laird’s supposed great defense is the reason why Jarrod Saltalamacchia is in AAA, but I will refrain – it’s only one game, after all.
Of course, this loss can’t be hung squarely on the defense. The pitching had something to do with it as well. Vicente Padilla retired the first 9 batters of the game, but had the Catalanotto-aided 4 run meltdown in the 4th. Amazingly, Padilla kept his composure for the most part (although he did plunk David Eckstein after Greg Zaun’s steal of home plate in the 6th) and battled through another two innings. He would wind up taking the loss (his first of ‘08), giving up 5 runs, 4 earned, on 7 hits and three walks in those 6 innings, while striking out 5.
It was Kaz Fukumori who let the game get out of reach, however. He managed to give up 3 runs, 4 hits and a walk the 7th, while only recording one out. So far, the Rangers latest Japanese investment has yet to pay off – after a brilliant spring, Kaz is now pushing for a tuneup in OKC if he can’t start getting outs.
The late innings of the game would bring the highlights for the Rangers, though. Dustin Nippert, who has supposedly been suffering from a sore shin after getting nicked by a ground ball in his disasterous outing back in Anaheim, replaced Fukumori, and turned out to be an immediate improvement. Not only did he get out of the 7th, but he pitched the remainder of the game for Texas, in 2.2 brilliant innings of work, allowing zero runs on 2 hits, striking out 2, and throwing 27 of his 39 pitches for strikes. With that outing, I’d say it’s safe to assume Dustin has saved himself from the DFA or disabled list hatchet that the Rangers where seemingly preparing to drop on him this weekend. It’s certianly reassuring to see Nippert flash his potential after that uglyness in his first outing – here’s hoping we see a lot more outings like this one.
Another highlight was Josh Hamilton, who went 2-4, and drove in 4 of the 5 Texas runs on the night – that included a monsterous home run in the bottom of the 7th inning. Josh hasn’t exaclty been hot of late, but he’s already up to 11 RBI’s on the season – if this is how he produces when he’s lukewarm, I can’t wait until he hits a hot streak again, like the one he was on in spring training.
For some more uplifting news, let’s turn to the Jarrod Saltalamacchia watch: Salty went 2-4 with another home run against the Albuquerque Isotopes today – he’s now batting a cool .360 for OKC. He also threw out a runner stealing, as the Redhawks won 6-3. Wes Littleton and Frank Francisco also both threw 2 scoreless frames in the game, Francisco striking out 4, and picking up the save. With the way the bullpen has been performing so far, you’ve gotta wonder exactly how long it’s gonna be until those two make their way back to Arlington – I know I wouldn’t mind seeing either one exchanged for Kaz Fukumori right now.
A couple tough pitching matchups this weekend in Arlington – today, it’s Luis Mendoza making his first start of the season against Roy Halladay. A tough matchup, to be sure, but it’s worth noting that Halladay has struggled at The Ballpark in Arlington, with a career ERA of 7.00 there. Hopefully Mendoza has his best stuff, and hopefully the infield defense falls into line – we’re still gonna need both to beat Roy Halladay.
Sunday it will be Scott Feldman making the start for Texas against AJ Burnett – Jon Daniels made the announcement yesterday on the KLRD preview show that it would be Feldman who got the callup for the spot start, instead of someone like AJ Murray, or just letting Josh Rupe, who is already with the team, make the spot start. This will allow the Rangers to push Jason Jennings, who has struggled his first two starts, back to Monday against the Angels, but it’s going to require an additional roster move.
It sounds like the Rangers are leaning toward putting either Dustin Nippert, Jamey Wright, or Eddie Guardado on the DL to make room for Mendoza today, and optioning Josh Rupe on Sunday to make room for Feldman - and after Nippert’s Friday performance, it appears it would have to be one of the latter two if things do go that route. What the Rangers should do though, in my opinion, is send Kazuo Fukumori down for Mendoza today (since Fukumori pitched yesterday, and looks like he could use a tuneup), and make a decision between optioning Josh Rupe or putting someone on the DL Sunday to clear room for Feldman. Then, once Feldman has made his start, you’re free to call up a fresh arm in Wes Littleton or Frank Francisco Monday. We’ll see how things play out – it’s something to keep an eye on though, especially if the Rangers choose to put Wright or Guardado on the DL.
