A lonestar in california


Millwood, Bradley carry Rangers to split with Indians, 9-4
June 6, 2008, 5:48 am
Filed under: Ranger Wins | Tags: , , , ,

So, what is the perfect thing to top off a successful day at the MLB draft? Why, a 9-4 win, of course.

Things started out a little bleak on a windy day at the Ballpark in Arlington. Kevin Millwood, starting on an extra days rest because of the “personal matter” he had to attend to on Wednesday, hit a speed bump right out of the gate, as he gaveup 4 runs in the top of the first inning to the Indians. Cleveland, which had scored 35 runs in the first 3 games of the series looked to be off to another flying start. But Millwood found his stuff and buckled down, while the red-hot Ranger offense would continue it’s roll over the next 8 innings and stage nifty comeback against the defending Cy Young winner, CC Sabathia.

The biggest play in the game probably came in the second inning. Milton Bradley (who had another stellar game, going 3-4 with another homer) lead the inning off with a HBP, and got moved to third on a Marlon Byrd GIDP. Gerald Laird drew a 2-out walk to keep the inning alive though, and then Chris Shelton beat out an infield single to score Bradley and put the Rangers on the scoreboard. With 2 on and 2 out, Ramon Vazquez lashed a chopper through the right side into RF – and that was when Shin-Shoo Choo made the error of trying to glove it and come up firing, instead of conceding the run from second base. Instead, the ball skipped under Choo’s glove and kept rolling deeper into RF, allowing 2 runs to score, and Vazquez to end up at third.

That extra run might have been critical in the Rangers rally against Sabathia, as Milton Bradley tied it with an RBI single in the third. Things stayed knotted at 4 until the 6th inning, when Michael Young (who went 3-5), batting with runners on the corners and 2 out, hit a slow roller to short. Jhonny Peralta had to charge, and he wasn’t able to make the throw in time to get Young, while the go-ahead run scored from third in the form of Gerald Laird.

Meanwhile, Kevin Millwood had rebounded from his 26-pitch first inning to toss 5 more scoreless frames, allowing just 3 hits and striking out 5. At one point, he retired 15 batters in a row – just the type of bounce-back resiliency that was missing from the Ranger pitchers over the first three games of the series. Eddie Guaradado and then Frankie Francisco took over for Millwood in the 7th, and combined to pitch a scoreless frame, and Joaquin Benoit had a 1-2-3 8th, and important appearance for him after giving up 4 runs his last time out.

After CC Sabathia exited with 119 pitches after the 6th, the Rangers jumped of Rafael Betancourt in the bottom of the 7th. Milton Bradley homered and Ramon Vazquez tripled in 2 more runs to blow the game open, while Mike Young added a solo homer in the 8th off Edward Mujica. With a 9-4 advantage, the Rangers brought in Jamey Wright, who while failing to record an out in his last two appearances, had since done some tweaking on his mechanics. Apparently it paid off, as much like Joaquin Benoit, he managed to record a 1-2-3 frame to end the game.

After the outright disasters the previous three games had been for the Rangers pitching staff, this not only was a sweet win for the Rangers, but a much needed one – hopefully those 8 scoreless innings Millwood and the bullpen turned in tonight will be the turnaround the Rangers pitching staff needs going into a three-game series against the Tampa Bay Rays.

Now, with all the attention I’ve focused on the draft lately, I’ve fallen behind a little on the latest news, so I’ll just play some quick catch up:

The Rangers called up Kam Loe and Elizardo Ramirez Wednesday, and the both pitched that day as well. As expected, AJ Murray went on the DL, but the suprise was the optioning of Travis Metcalf back to AAA. That currently leaves the Rangers with no backup infielder, and apparrently, their content to roll that way through the weekend. Which seems kind of strange to me, at least for a team that appears afraid to DH Jarrod Saltalamacchia, even with Chris Shelton on the roster, but whatever. Apparently, German Duran will be called up before the Rangers roll into Shea Stadium for some interleague play next week to take Metcalf’s place.

I am wondering though, what the Rangers are going to do with the Kam Loe/Elizardo Ramirez situation now – Vicente Padilla comes off the bereavement list to start today (thank goodness) and somebody will have to be sent back to AAA to make room. Ramirez doesn’t have any minor league options as far as I know, meaning he’d have to be put on waivers, so I imagine it will be Loe that goes down first – but even then, who goes down to make room for German Duran Monday? Doug Mathis is scheduled to start on Sunday, so apparently he’s still in the rotation for now - but if the Rangers want to haing onto Ramirez past this weekend, they’ll have to option either Mathis or Josh Rupe Monday. And since Mathis will have just worked, he’d be the logical choice to send down, with the Lizard sliding into the rotation.

Of course, the Rangers could always just put Elizardo on waivers and avoid having to choose between Mathis and Rupe altogether – although I don’t see the sense in that – he’s not considered that kind of expendable roster fodder, is he?

The other big news I missed reporting as it broke was that Jason Botts has apparently been sold to Japan. Admittedly, Jason was always one of my favorites in the Rangers farm system, though he never really showed much in his various brief stints in the Majors – I always felt though, that he never really did get a fair shake. His fate was probably sealed way back in spring training last year, when the Rangers chose to award the DH job to a publicity stunt named Sammy Sosa. Granted, that publicity stunt worked out pretty well in and of itself, but it robbed Botts of what was supposed to have been his big shot with the club. Instead, all he could do was sit and ferment in AAA for the entire first half of the season before he finally got called up - and although he struggled once he did get the call, he appeared to have been heating up in September when the season ended.

This year, it was far too late for Bottsy to play any real role for the Rangers - I’m just glad that he gets to go somewhere where he’s actually wanted, rather than sit for another season in AAA and play filler behind prospects like Chris Davis. Perhaps Jason will make it back to the Majors someday with another team (he’ll only be under contract with the Nippon Ham Fighters until 2010), but for now at least, here ends the saga of a really nice guy who just never really got a real chance to to live up to his talent. Good luck to ya, Jason.

As it has turned out, I didn’t get my second draft peice out as planned – so instead, I’ll do my draft recap peice later today, and include our second-day picks. If you want to read all about it now (and I know you probably do) Joey Matschulat has his day one recap out, which is inveriably better than what I would have put together anyway. Just for grins, here’s a list of who we took after the now immortalized Justin Smoak:

  • 2nd round (#57): Robert Ross, LHP, Lexington Christian high KY
  • 3rd round (#89): Timothy Murphy, LHP, UCLA
  • 4th round (#123): Joe Wieland, RHP, Bishop Manogue high, Reno NV
  • 5th round: (#153): Clark Murphy, 1b, Fallbrook HS CA
  • 6th round: (#183) Richard Bleier, LHP, Florida Gulf Coast U

I expect to have more on all of the above, as well as some of our day 2 picks out later today.

This evening, it’s Vicente Padilla vs. Scott Kazmir – remember what happened the last time we faced him? Yeah. Cross your fingers and hope Padilla can outduel him, folks.

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Millwood & Boggs shine against A’s, while Rangers make a flurry of moves
May 31, 2008, 5:54 am
Filed under: Ranger Wins | Tags: , , , , , , ,

Boy, I wish all returns from the DL could go a smoothly as Kevin Millwood’s did on Friday. Making his first start since suffering a groin strain back on May 10th, Millwood sure didn’t seem any worse for the wear, as he fired 6 innings of one-run ball to stymie the Oakland A’s, and lead the Rangers to a 3-1 victory.

Dueling with Oakland starter Justin Duchscherer, Millwood worked around a pair of early doubles to to hold the A’s scoreless for the first four innings. Mark Ellis doubled with 2 out in the second, and Carlos Gonzalez (making his Major League debut) doubled to lead off the third, but Millwood would strand them both, allowing the Rangers offense to bid their time – and wait for Brandon Boggs to come to bat.

Boggs, who originally wasn’t supposed to be in the lineup, was a late addition after Milton Bradley was scratched due to light-headedness. Considering how phenomenal Bradley has been this year for the Rangers, you would have thought that would turn out to be a big minus, but Boggs was about to have one of those games.

After striking out looking in his first AB, Boggs came up in the fourth with 2 on and 2 out. He lofted a ball into short center, where Gonzalez, the A’s CF, dove and missed it. Michael Young motored around to score, and Boggs wound up on second with a bloop double. The A’s would quickly come back in the top of the 5th though, as Mark Ellis and Carlos Gomez this time combined a pair of doubles off Millwood to tie the game at one.

The score stayed knotted until the 6th, when Josh Hamilton lead off with a double, and David Murphy beat out an infield single. Gerald Laird hit a fly ball high and deep to left to move Hamilton to third, and then it was Boggs again, lofting one high into left-center for a sac fly to make it 2-1. That was just in time to make Kevin Millwood the pitcher of record, as he was pulled after the 6th due to an 85 pitch limit, imposed due to this being his first game back. Eddie Guardado and Joaquin Benoit pitched scoreless 7th and 8th innings to keep the score frozen, and Boggs tacked on an insurance run in the bottom of the 8th with a double down the RF line. That left it up to CJ Wilson, and despite allowing a leadoff single to start the 9th, CJ struck out Emil Brown and got Mark Ellis to ground into a double play to end the game.

After the Rangers pitching staff walked a whopping 21 batters in Tampa Bay, the thing that really stood out to me was the zero walks allowed by the Rangers pitchers in this one. This is why Kason Gabbard was sent down to AAA before the game (more on that momentarily) – walks have been killing Texas lately, and the Rangers know they need to see less of them. Getting Millwood back, and sending the struggling Gabbard to work out his control problems elsewhere should be a good first step toward that goal.

Now, speaking of roster moves, the Rangers have made lots of ‘em lately – so buckle up, lets run ‘em down.

- As expected, Kameron Loe and German Duran where sent back to OKC (okay, that actually happened on Thursday, I was just too lazy to make an extra post an announce it sooner) to make room for Millwood and Travis Metcalf. Metcalf didn’t start Friday’s game, so apparently he’s not going to be taking over as the full-time intierm 3B just yet – which makes sense, as Ramon Vazquez has hit extremely well of late, although he was 0-3 yesterday.

- The Rangers sent Kason Gabbard to AAA, and called up Robinson Tejeda. For now, this means that Doug Mathis will stay in the rotation, and Tejeda will go back to the bullpen, where the Rangers converted him to at the end of spring training (although he has been starting in OKC for the last few weeks). As highlighted in the article, and as explained by Evan Grant, this move actually makes sense, because the Rangers are basically swapping Tejeda for Kameron Loe here as the swiss army knife in the bullpen. Tejeda is younger, has more stuff, and is therefore more versatile than Loe, and can be used in a wider variety of situations, and according to Jon Daniels, possibly even as a starter. 

“At some point we haven’t ruled it out,” general manager Jon Daniels said. “But right now we’re looking at him helping out in the bullpen.”

So Tejeda not only gets his last shot, he actually gets a chance to make the most of it. With his power arsenal, he’ll no doubt be used for both long and mid relief, and if Mathis struggles, he’ll even get a chance at some starts. All in all, I think this is a lot better than having a struggling Kason Gabbard on the roster – Kason may not have gotten that last chance to recover from his struggles but, we instead have a kind of rebuilding two-for-one.

- The Rangers slid Dustin Nippert through waivers, and outrighted him to AAA, which cleared off the spot on the 40 man roster for Tejeda. Also, Franklyn German refused his assignment to the minors, and has become a free agent. Maybe he can catch on with the Miami Dolphins or something.

So, to conclude: Duran has been replaced by Metcalf. Millwood is back in the rotation, Gabbard is out, Mathis remains in, and Tejeda’s in the bullpen for now. And Nippert is still in the organization, though we probably won’t see him again for awhile.

Now that we’ve injumbled the roster puzzle, it’s time for the bad news. Hank Blalock has undergone surgery to relieve his carpal tunnel syndrome, and is out another 3-4 weeks, according to JD:

“Right now, the sense is it will be 10 days before the incision is healed,” Rangers general manager Jon Daniels said. “Shortly after that he’ll begin baseball activities and it sounds like it will be three to four weeks until he can get out there again.”

Absolutely capital. Say hi to Brandon McCarthy for us while you’re out there in the mythical land of perpetually injured Rangers, will ya Hank?

Sidney Ponson will start today against Joe Blanton. Originally, it was supposed to be Scott Feldman, but Ron Washington decided that a “clash of the fatties” was just too good a marketing opportunity to pass up. Or at least that would sound better than his real reason, which was some incoherent babbling about wanting to keep Ponson on schedule because he has performed well of late. Apparently, Ron missed Sidney’s last start in Tampa Bay.

One more chance for the Rangers to climb above .500, folks – since it’s the A’s, I’ve got a feeling we just might have chance this time if Ponson doesn’t implode.

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Free pass to defeat: Rangers inability to throw strikes costs them rubber match in Tampa Bay
May 29, 2008, 5:39 am
Filed under: Ranger Losses | Tags: , , , ,

.500 seems to be an elusive mark for the Texas Rangers this year. Yeah, they can tie it – but climbing above it has been another story alltogether. They entered yesterday’s contest at 27-27, the fourthtime in the last two weeks they had entered a game with an even record. But just like the three previous occasions, Texas proved unable to break the .500 ceiling, as a lack of control on the part of Kason Gabbard and the Ranger bullpen would send them to a 5-3 loss.

Gabbard, who has sported a 7.29 ERA since he came off the DL and got attacked by Richie Sexson back on May 8th, had another rough go of it yesterday, in a start that almost seemed like a replay of the debacle 5 days ago in Cleveleand. Gabbard only threw 39 of his 85 pitches yesterday for strikes, walked 6 batters for the second consecutive start, and gave up 5 hits as the Rays jumped on him to score 5 runs (4 earned).

Things didn’t look too good for the Rangers from the start, as Tampa Bay’s Matt Garza retired the first 9 men to greet him, and the Rays took an early 1-0 lead on a BJ Upton RBI single in the first. Milton Bradley did deliver a 2-run single to give Texas a short-lived 2-1 lead in the fourth, but that was all the offense Texas would muster against Garza, and the wheels came off for Gabbard in the bottom of the 5th.

After allowing a single and a walk to start the inning, Gabbard gave up and RBI single to Akinori Iwamura to tie the game at 2. Carl Crawford grounded out, but the Rangers chose to intentionally walk BJ Upton, after which Gabbard walked Carlos Pena to drive in the go-ahead run. After that, Gabbard was lifted for Frankie Francisco, who gave up a sac fly to Evan Longoria, but then walked two straight batters himself to score another run before he finally got out of the inning.

A combination of Francisco, Jamey Wright and Joaquin Benoit would hold the Rays scoreless for the rest of the game, but the damage was done, as the Rangers offense just could not solve Garza, who went 8 innings and struck out 10. Frank Catalanotto did manage to tack on a run with an RBI single in the 9th off Dan Wheeler, and Jarrod Saltalamacchia got an AB as the tying run, but he lined out to center to end the contest.

This is the first time in 9 consecutive series that the Rangers have lost 2 out of three, so this loss ended what had been a pretty impressive streak for Texas – but more importantly, it raises many questions about Kason Gabbard and his effectiveness. Some might speculate that he is perhaps dealing with some physical ailment, although the Rangers continue to deny that possibility. Either way, the facts are that Gabbard has allowed 16 runs on 18 hits and 15 walks over his last three starts, while also failing to get past the 5th inning in all of them. He also now has 29 BB to 20 K’s this season, and Evan Grant has even gone so far as to suggest already that it might be time to take Gabbard out of the rotation for the time being – a sentiment I wholeheartedly agree with, although I’d prefer to call up AJ Murray rather than keep Doug Mathis in the rotation full-time.

Speaking of roster moves, it appears that the Rangers will be sending down Kameron Loe and German Duran tomorrow, to make way for Kevin Millwood and Travis Metcalf on Friday. I agree with both moves - although Metcalf hasn’t been lighting up the AAA pitchers so far since his comeback from a torn hamstring, German Duran just looks overmatched at the plate right now in Majors. I think it would be very beneficial for him to go back down and get some consistent playing time again. I’m also happy to see Doug Mathis sticking around in the bullpen – I’ve got a feeling that relief work is probably where his future lies, and he looked pretty good in his first three relief outings this year.

Thomas Diamond had a nice outing in his second start for AA Frisco, allowing just 2 runs (1 earned) on 3 hits and 2 walks, while striking out 7 over 5 innings. His fastball was purportedly in the 90-93 range, topping out at 94, and also showed off a new curveball. Excellent progress for a guy just coming back from TJ surgery – I must say, I am starting to get excited about Diamond again.

MLB.com’s Brittany Ghiroli has a piece up highlighting the Rangers baserunning this year – Texas has a 28-6 success rate on the basepaths this year, and that’s largely thanks to the baserunning abilites of Ian Kinsler, who has not been caught yet in 15 attempts – which puts him on pace for 40 stolen bases, BTW.

It’s an off-day today for the big club, as they travel back to Texas to prepare to take on the A’s. Kevin Millwood is scheduled to start against Justin Duchscherer, as the rest of the pitching staff will get an extra days rest between starts thanks to his return.

 

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Ponson goes all the way, Rangers offense explodes as Texas routes Minnesota
May 22, 2008, 5:25 am
Filed under: Ranger Wins | Tags: , , ,

I said at the end of my last entry that Sidney Ponson could really use a good outing. Now, I don’t think Sidney reads LiCA, but he sure delivered in a big way. Ponson put up 9 innings of one run ball, and the Ranger offense turned the tables on the Twins and put up a big inning of their own, a 7-run 6th, as Texas snapped a 3-game losing slide with a 10-1 win.

After giving up 13 runs in his last two starts (9 earned), Ponson made a small adjustment to his mechanics in his last bullpen session, and it apparently made a world of difference. He allowed just a single run on 6 hits and 1 walk, and got 18 ground ball outs while striking out 5 as he pitched his first complete game since 2005.

The Ranger offense sputtered for awhile against Twins start Nick Blackburn, as Milton Bradley and Ron Washington both got ejected for arguing balls and strikes in between the top and bottom half of the second inning – this the pent-up frsuteration of what was starting out as a third consecutive day of shitty strike-zone judgement from the Minnesota umpiring staff.

I’ve gotta say, I’m extremely proud of Ron for finally showing some gumption, and protecting one of his players. This is the type of thing I’d like to see more of from Ron – after that, the ump seemed to settle down a bit, and it seemed to feed perfectly into the Rangers momentum – unfortunately, that’s only the second time in his entire tenure that I can remember Ron being tossed.

The Rangers finally broke a scoreless tie in the 6th, when Michael Young homered to left. Two batters later, Twins second basman Alexi Casilla bobbled a possible double play ball, and the Rangers capitalized bigtime. Gerald Laird had an RBI single, which Ramon Vazquez followed with a 2-run single, and Ian Kinsler put the big exclamation point on the inning by hammering a 3-run homer to left.

After that, Ponson andthe Rangers put it on cruise control, as they tacked on three more runs on a pair of David Murphy RBI doubles and a Gerald Laird homer to put things away. With that win, the Rangers snapped a 6 game losing streak at the Metrodome in Minnesota going back to last year, and can go for the split tomorrow.

In other news, the Rangers made a roster move yesterday, as they DFA’d Franklyn German and called up Kameron Loe from AAA Oklahoma. German had just tossed 3.2 scoreless innings in relief of Doug Mathis on Tuesday, and had a 2.08 ERA, but the Rangers where concerned about his K/BB rate (15/13 in 21.2 innings) and the fact that he has allowed 10 of 18 inherited baserunners to score this year. He’s also 28 years old, and his 6.75 walks per innings ranks 622nd out of 624 pitchers who have thrown at least 100 innings since 2002. In short, German is just another spare bullpen pitcher, who despite what his ERA says, has not been that good this year. I was surprised when he made the roster out of spring training, and I’m surprised the Rangers kept him on the roster this long. They now have 10 days to release or trade him if they want before they try and slide him through waivers.

In the meantime, Kam Loe is up to provide some added bullpen depth, and we’ll see how long he stays – after a disappointing sring, and a rough start to the season in OKC, Kam has 13 K’s and just one BB in his last 16.1 AAA innings – I don’t know how long he’ll stick around, since the Rangers still appear to like Doug Mathis (who is getting a second start on Saturday, BTW) but it would certainly help his cause if he can get into a game or two and show something in the next few days.

Anybody remember Thomas Diamond? The only remaining, and sometimes-forgotten third member of the old “DVD” trio (John Danks, Edinson Volqurez, and Diamond) from 2006? You may remember, he had Tommy John surgery last spring, and had been out of action since, but he made his return to the mound yesterday for AA Frisco. He lasted 4.2 innings, and gave up 6 runs on 4 hits and 4 walks - 2 runs in the first, and 4 in the 5th inning – while striking out 5. Between the first and the 5th though, he was very effective, retiring 8 in a row at one point. All things considered, it wasn’t really a bad return for a guy who hasn’t pitched in over a year.

TR Sullivan also has a nice piece out on the Rangers minor league pitchers, highlighting Diamond, Matt Harrison and Tommy Hunter, among others – apparently, the Rangers consider a September callup for Diamond a possibility if he has a strong summer. It’ll be interesting to see how fast the Rangers push him to try and make up for lost time - before his surgery, he was considered one of our elite starting prospects, but these days the popular opinion is he’ll wind up in the bullpen, and perhaps even might fit the role of future closer. Either way, for now he’ll be starting for Frisco as he continues to build up arm strength and get his feel back – I wonder though, exactly how long it will be before he’s 100% again. Just look how long it’s taken Frankie Francisco to get back to his old form.

TR also has some notes on Hank Blalock, who is apparently coming off the DL on Friday for certain now to play first base.

Adam J. Morris over at Lonestar Ball had a great post up yesterday on Nolan Ryan’s role in the organization, and his power over the development of the Rangers minor league pitchers – he discusses the recent changes in organizational philosophy since Nolan’s arrival, and also highlights his concern that the Rangers and their fanbase already seem too complacent in believing that whatever Nolan says is gospel. Great post, be sure to check it out.  

Today, it’s Vicente Padilla vs. Livan Hernandez, as the Rangers go for the split with the Twins. Before the road trip, I seem to recall hearing something about Josh Hamilton getting a day off during both the Minnesota and Tampa Bay series because of the artificial turf, so I’m wondering if Josh might not be out of the lineup for this one, we’ll see. He just turned 27 yesterday, by the way – so a belated happy birthday goes out to Josh.

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