Filed under: Ranger Wins | Tags: Gerald Laird, German Duran, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Josh Hamilton, Josh Hamilton is amazing, Kevin Millwood, Max Ramirez, Scott Feldman
So, how do you rebound from two dissapointing series that saw your offense and pitching staff both get kicked around like soccer balls? Well, coming back from a 5 run deficit and scoring 14 runs against the team with the lowest staff ERA in baseball is a pretty good place to start.
With observing scouts dotting the stadium, the team who just might have the most moveable talent at this years trade deadline put on quite a show, starting with Vicente Padilla. Padilla put together a decent, if not fairly impressive start despite giving up 5 runs in the third inning – which was thanks in part to Michael Young, whose key misplay on a ball that was (most generously) ruled an infield single set up the Oakland rally.
After A’s RF Ryan Sweeny started the inning with a leadoff double, Padilla got Kurt Suzuki to ground one to the right of Young, who bobbled it. For some reason the official scorer ruled it an infield single, but it was pretty clearly an error, even in the opinions of Rangers radio announcer Eric Nadel, who said he had marked the play down as such in his scorebook expecting it to be changed.
After the miscue Padilla loaded the bases by walking Jack Cust, struck out Emil Brown, allowed a bloop RBI single to Carlos Gonzalez and got Mark Ellis to foul out. But with that extra out, the A’s went walk, single, single and single before David Murphy threw out Jack Hannahan at home plate to end the inning. Down 5-0, the game was shaping up in a far too familar fashion – but the Rangers where about to conjure up some more of that pre-all star break magic.
Much like Michael Young in the bottom of the third, the A’s defense started their top of the 4th with third baseman Brooks Conrad throwing away a Marlon Byrd groundball, and that’s all the opening the Texas offense (which has been without hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo of late, as he was in Dallas having knee replacement surgery yesterday) would need. David Murphy followed the Error by jacking his 14th bomb of the season to left center to put the Rangers on the board. After Chris Davis single, Jarrod Saltalamacchia walked and Ian Kinsler hit a sac bunt, Michael Young followed witha sac fly to right. That brought up the 98-RBI man Josh Hamilton as the tying run with one out. The A’s now-beleaguered rookie starter Sean Gallagher tried to snap off a first pitch curveball, but it hung – and then hung some more as it soared out to right for Hamilton’s 99th and 100th RBI’s of the season. Josh Hamilton = unprecedented greatness.
The rally didn’t just give the Rangers chances at winning a new lease on life, it seemingly gave Vicente Padilla a huge boost in confidence too – he came back and retired 9 consecutive A’s, including 5 strikeouts over the 4th, 5th and 6th innings before being pulled at 108 pitches. The Rangers took the lead just in time to qualify him for his 12th win in the top of the 7th – Chris Davis, who would come up a triple short of the cycle at the end of the night smacked a 1-out double and Ian Kinsler brought him home with a 2 out single to right, making it 6-5 Rangers.
The bullpen also seemed recovered from it’s meltdown on Thursday, as Frankie Francisco and Eddie Guardado fired hitless 7th and 8th innings. With CJ Wilson warming in the bullpen, the Rangers had one last chance to tack on some insurance in the top of the 9th. Apparently, the Texas offense doesn’t trust CJ anymore than I do right now, because they batted around to score 8 runs off two different Oakland relievers. Chris Davis got it started by jacking his 9th Major League home run of the season, and Michael Young (RBI double), Hank Blalock (2 run single) and Marlon Byrd (RBI double) where the other prime contributors to one of the Rangers best single innings of the season. The fact that the seemingly too often-used Jamey Wright gave up a run for the 5th time in his last 6 outings in the bottom of the 9th was completely lost in the revelry of what the Rangers offense had accomplished: every single player had a hit and a run scored in the 17 hit, 8 walk attack that should go a long ways toward shaking this team out of it’s recent funk.
In other news, it now looks as if Kevin Millwood is indeed headed to the DL with his latest groin pain – according to TR Sullivan, Millwood tried to throw a side session yesterday in Oakland and “it didn’t go well”. Instead of simply having Millwood skip a start and wait to see if he can pitch again during the Rangers next weekend, the Rangers feel it would be better to have Millwood focus on fully recovering before he rejoins the rotation -and considering how bad he has been this year, that certainly sounds like the best course of action. This will of course mean the Rangers scrapping their plan to send Scott Feldman to the bullpen, having him instead rejoin the rotation as the 5th starter so he can be skipped over and pushed back whenever possible. They’re still hoping to keep him under 150 innings for the season.
Also in injury news, German Duran has undergone surgery to repair a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his thumb and will be out for 6-8 weeks, effectively ruining the second half of his season. He apparently suffered the injury Wednesday, in his second game after being sent down. This really stinks because it could very well be a huge setback in the development of the 24 year-old Duran, who spent most of his 2 months with the big club this year riding the bench. As a result, Duran has gotten just 176 total at-bats this year, and hit just .225/.279/.363 in 102 Major League at-bats as a followup to a .300/.352/.525 breakout campaign with AA Frisco in 2007. It’s my opinion that Duran has been horribly mismanaged and misused this year by the Rangers – although it was an oft-overlooked fact, he never should have been allowed to sit on the bench as much as he was in the first half. If that meant sending him back to AAA and putting Ryan Roberts on the roster as the utility infielder, that’s what the Rangers should have done – but unfortunately, it’s too late to do anything about it now.
Coming off the DL tomorrow will be Gerald Laird. Laird completed his rehab assignment with AAA Oklahoma last night and looks 100%, despite the fact that he went 0-12 at the plate in his four-game stint. He is apparently expected to be the “#1 catcher” when he gets back, something that I find slightly disappointing:
“When he comes back, I certainly want him out there as much as possible,” Rangers manager Ron Washington said. “I’m not going to put a number on it this time. How many days a week he’ll catch, I don’t know. But he’ll certainly do most of it.”
I had at least hoped to see a return to the platoon of Laird and either Max Ramirez or Jarrod Saltalamacchia, whichever doesn’t get sent back down. Admittedly, Salty’s season has been a massive disappointment due to underperformance, injuries and sporadic playing time, and MaxRam hasn’t exactly dazzled in what little playing time he has gotten since being brought up – but making Laird the “#1 catcher” for the rest of the season does absolutely nothing to help whichever of those two winds up stuck as Laird’s backup, or resolve the logjam the Rangers currently have with their three young catchers.
In my opinion, Laird - whose career line is still a meager .257/.308/.387 despite his performance in the first half this year - is pretty redundant in regards to our catching future seeing as how he’s the most expensive of our catchers, and a free agent in 2 years. Since we’re 10 games out of first place, even if Max and Salty suck right now, it would be much more productive for us in the long run to get them as many innings as possible in the second half (meaning one needs to be going full-time in AAA, and the other catching at least on a semi-regular basis in the majors) to allow them to continue to refine their game as much as possible heading into 2009. But sentencing one of them to catching once a week behind Laird is tantamount to what the Rangers did with German Duran this year, and that is stunt his development.
What all this seems to be leading up to however, is a trade of one of our catchers – we just don’t have room for four, and in TR Sullivan’s recent rundown of Ranger trade rumors, he mentions that the Yankees (whose catcher Jorge Posada is on the DL and will not be able to catch again this year) have asked about both Laird and Salty, and the Reds have been looking at Laird since this spring. TR says that 20 teams have asked about one of the four Rangers catchers. I believe I’ve said this before, but seeing as how I think Laird is the most redundant catcher we have, and because he’s likely at an all-time peak in his trade value, he is the one (in fact the only one) who I would prefer to see dealt.
Speaking of trade rumors, I’m still planning to do a seperate post and run them all down sometime this weekend – I’m horribly behind as far as reporting upon trade rumors in this space goes.
Quick hits: Joaquin Benoit got roughed up in a rehab outing for AA Frisco yesterday, giving up 2 runs on 3 hits and 2 walks while not recording an out… Joselo Diaz cleared waivers and has been sent to OKC… LHP Beau Jones, the forgotten part of the return in the Mark Teixeira deal, has been promoted from Bakersfield to AA Frisco.
Today, Matt Harrison takes on Justin Duchscherer in Oakland – Harrison has given up 13 runs in 7.2 innings his last two starts, and Duchscherer is the AL’s ERA leader at 1.87. So, uh… yeah. Looks like a tough one.
Filed under: Ranger Wins | Tags: CJ Wilson, Ian Kinsler, Josh Hamilton, Matt Harrison, Max Ramirez
Back on April 24th, when this Texas Rangers ballclubwas sitting at 7-16 in the standings if somebody would have told me we’d finish the first half with 50 wins by the All-Star break I probably would have told them they where insane. And really, it is insane. It’s insane how this team turned itself around on a dime, and gone from one of the worst Aprils in team history to 4 games over .500 at the break. It’s insane the contributions the Rangers have gotten from core players like Josh Hamilton, Ian Kinsler, Milton Bradley - and from the rookies like David Murphy, Eric Hurley, Chris Davis and Brandon Boggs. Yep – it’s absolutely, beautifully insane.
Some of that beautiful insanity was demonstrated yesterday against the White Sox, in another weird, wacky contest in which pitchers (bothstarter and reliever) where treated as rudely as doormats. Though I regretfully don’t have time this morning to run through all the craziness at great depth like I normally would (I also need to do a roundup of all the latest Rangers news and notes I haven’t been able to get to) I’ll just give you some of the noteable highlights of yesterday’s 12-11 slugout:
- Matt Harrison, trying to make his case for a spot in the second half rotation gave up 5 runs on 7 hits and 2 walks in 2.2 innings. Not a very good performance for Harrison – but considering how everybody else that pitched in that game pretty much got hammered as well, I’m not super concerned over this hiccough. Matty should start the second half in the rotation irregardless in my opinion.
- Ian Kinsler3-5 with 2 doubles and 3 RBI – he ends the first half leading the AL with a .337 average in a league-leading 452 PA’s. He also leads in hits (134), total bases (218), runs scored (84), doubles (34), extra base hits (52) and runs created (92). All that, plus some other cool stuff like being 5th in OBP and 7th in SLB% adds up to a .945 OPS and an AL-leading 52.4 VORP. That’s your first half MVP, not only for the Rangers but for the American League. And maybe even for all of baseball.
- Oh yeah, almost forgot: Kinsler extended his hitting streak to 25 games. This may be the one reason I am sorry the ASB is here – he doesn’t have a chance to go for 26 until Friday.
- Maximiliano Ramirez: 3-5 with 1 double and 3 RBI. He’s been getting some additional playing time since Salty tweaked his groin July 5th. The result? He’s gone 7-for-20 with a homer, 6 RBI and a .959 OPS. Overall his line has jumped from .182/.280/.318 to .250/.333/.425. Sounds like Salty better get his groin healed and show us something immediately after the ASB, or he could wind up being the one sent down when Laird comes off the DL (which is tentatively targeted to be July 25th).
- Milton Bradley: 2-5 with his 19th homer of the season yesterday. Not only does it tie his personal best in HR’s for a single season, but it was the 100th of his career.
- CJWilson: gave up 3 runs on 5 hits after being brought into the game with a 12-8 lead in the top of the 9th inning. That’s bad. Again. He also said that he didn’t get pumped up enough to start getting outs until he heard Ozzie Guillen taunting him from the White Sox dugout, and that…
“I don’t really worry about my ERA too much,” Wilson said. “I just worry if I get my saves, because that’s the only thing I can control.”
Forgive me if the next few sentences sound like a rant, but… that’s just a horrible attitude for a closer to have. Maybe I’m reading to far into this, but if taken literally, he’s basically saying he doesn’t care how many runs or baserunners he allows just so long as he doesn’t give up that tying run. Being an adrenaline junky is one thing, but as a closer, your job is to go out there and get outs as quickly and efficiently as possible. You have to go out there and want mow down every single batter with your very best stuff, and from the sound of it, CJ doesn’t seem to have the drive to do that unless the tying run is actually standing at third. And when you’ve got a 5.01 ERA, a 1.573 WHIP, and 23 BB’s already, the law of averages would seem to dictate that sooner or later, that guy on third is gonna start scoring.
We don’t have too many options to replace CJ in the 9th inning with at this point – but I’ve had enough of the antics of watching our 3-4 run leads evaporate to one in a matter of minutes after CJ takes the mound. Not to repeat what I’ve said before, but I really think it would be a good thing if the Rangers told CJ he was splitting time in the 9thinning with Frankie Francisco, who has at leas the pure stuff to pitch there (though he too could use a lesson in being more aggressive with it at times). Under that scenario, we’d get a look at what Frankie can do, see if he can handle the role and at the same time hopefully light a fire under CJ’s ass to get some 1-2-3 innings as well.
Anyway… this kind of turned out to be an impromptu rant about CJ Wilson, so my apologies for that. Hopefully I’ll be able to do a more proper post, and round up all the latest Ranger news later.
Tonight… tonight is gonna be special. We have Josh Hamilton in the home run derby (which is on at 7:00 central on ESPN if you’re wondering). In a really cool gesture, Hamilton has chosen to bring his high school coach, 71 year-old Clay Council to the derby to throw him the cheese. I’ve been a little concerned that the derby will mess up Josh’s swing for the second half, but at this point there’s really nothing to do but shut up and cheer him on – and based on what we hear about his BP sessions, this should be a piece of cake for Josh as far as launching balls goes… if you’re a betting man… he’s even the odds-on favorite. Who can argue with that?
Filed under: Ranger Losses | Tags: Dustin Nippert, Luis Mendoza, Matt Harrison, Max Ramirez, Neftali Feliz
Well, you can say one thing about the 2008 Texas Rangers, they don’t give up. Put into an impossible situation by the early implosion of starter Luis Mendoza, the fact that the Texas offense even came back and made last nights contest a ballgame was pretty impressive. Of course, while that may have been one of the biggest positives to take away from last nights 9-6 loss to the Angels, it may have also been the biggest frustrations for Rangers fans who have to be wondering how games like this one might turn out different if the Rangers actually had some starting pitching.
It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what the problem was for Mendoza last night - command, stuff, confidence, you name it, he didn’t have it. If one didn’t know any better, you might have wondered if perhaps you’d arrived at the ballpark early and the Angels where taking batting practice as they blasted Mendoza for 8 runs on 9 hits (three of them being home runs) and 3 walks in just 1.1 innings.
Dustin Nippert took over after Mendoza allowed back-to-back homers to Vlad Guerrero and Torri Hunter to finally spell his demise in the second. Nippert, who spun a 7-inning no-hitter for AAA Oklahoma back on June 29th, would proceed to turn in a gargantuan effort for the Rangers in relief, throwing 103 pitches over 7 innings, giving up just 1 run on 4 hits while striking out 4.
Enough really cannot be said about the importance of that performance by Dustin Nippert - not only did he veritably shut the Angels down and give the Rangers that shot to climb back into the game, but he also saved the rest of the Texas bullpen from having to work - which could be a godsend considering how the health issues of Vicente Padilla and Eric Hurley currently have the rotation in a disarray. And of course this probably grantees that Nippert will be sticking around in the bullpen, at least for awhile – who knows, given the duration of that performance, he might even get consideration for a start sometime.
The Rangers did make the Angels sweat for this one – the return of the Murphinator continued in the 5thinning, as David Murphy socked his second 3-run bomb in 2 days, and just minutes later Chris Davis closed the gap to 2 runs with a monsterous 2-run blast of his own.
The real drama however came in the top of the 8th, when things got a little down and dirty. The Angels had runners on the corners with one out when Maicer Izturisgrounded one to first. Chris Davis came home with the throw, and Angels catcher Jeff Mathis, barrelling down the third base line decided to try and steamroll Max Ramirez. Max got bowled over by Mathis, who seemed to jam his hands up toward Max’s face as they collided, lay on his back momentarily, and then popped back up and gunned a throw to third base to double off Kasey Kotchman. I don’t think I’ve seen a play as singularly awesome as that yet this year – or maybe ever, for that matter. Max Ramirez is one tough hombre.
I can’t help but kind of feel what Mathis did was a little dirty though - first of all, if he had just tried to slide into home, there’s a very good chance he would have been safe, because Chris Davis double-clutched the throw from first. Second, Mathis hit Max in a pretty awkward way, shoving his hands up into Max’s chin to bowl him over – that’s the type of thing that can flip a guys head into the deck and seriously injure him. Of course, to give Mathis the benefit of the doubt, that last part about the collision may or may not have been intentional – but in my opinion, the collision was not a necessary one in the first place, and therefore a pretty bush-league move by Mathis.
With three games left to play in the series, this incedent may wind up rekindling the old Rangers vs. Angels hatred that always seems to lie beneath the surface when these two teams play – Milton Bradley got riled about the whole thing, and was yelling something accross to the Angel dugout in the aftermath, while David Murphy said the play got the Rangers “fired up”:
”The way was going, against a division rival, it got us fired up a little bit,” Murphy said. “Baseball’s a crazy game.”
Sounds like If nothing else, you should fully expect Mathis to take one high and tight tomorrow – and maybe even get run over himself should the chance present itself.
Fired up or not though, the Rangers last-ditch rally in the 9th would fall short - they put runners on second and third and got the tying the tying run to the plate in the personage of David Murphy, but he was robbed by Kasey Kotchman on a liner toward the right field line to end the game.
In another important game last night, Neftali Feliz make his AA debut in Frisco - and looked pretty good, too. His fastball was hovering around 97, and even hit 100 and 101 MPH a couple times absolutely electric, although the Travelers started catching up with it a little by the end of the outing. Overall, Feliz went 5 innings, gave up 3 runs on 6 hits and one walk, while striking out 6 - 53 of his 80 pitches went for strikes. The three runs all came with 2 out in the 5th, his last inning, but Feliz kept his cool and still escaped the inning with the lead. He didn’t get credit for the win as the Frisco bullpen later imploded, but that’s still a pretty nice AA debut for a guy who’s skipping high-A altogether. Feliz is a guy who really has a chance to be special – it’s going to be exciting to watch him continue to take on AA this year.
Some important rotation stuff: Vicente Padilla has been scratched from his start on Wednesday, and the Rangers now aren’t sure whether he’ll pitch again before the all-star break. To take his place, the Rangers have announced Matt Harrison is going to be called up to make a spot start today, while Eric Hurley’s start will be pushed back at least one more day, if not more. According to the Rangers, Hurley’s hamstring is feeling better, and they don’t want to put him on the DL, but they also don’t want to push him in his recovery. If Hurley can’t pitch on Wednesday though, I’m not sure who will – the Rangers are really out of starting pitchers after Harrison, because there’s really nobody else in Oklahoma who is either rested or ready for a callup to the bigs right now. If Josh Rupe doesn’t pitch today, he’ll have 2 days rest since he last threw, so he might be able to make a 4 inning start or something… or you could always start Kevin Millwood on short rest… this is just getting to be an ugly situation.
Quick hits: Hank Blalock is actually making progress in his recovery in Arizona, taking some swings in the batting cage without hinderance. If he doesn’t have another setback, he’ll go on a rehab assignment over the all-star break with Frisco… Jarrod Saltalalmacchia’s groin kept him out of a second straight game yesterday, but he should be back today… Gerald Laird also swung the bat yesterday, and apparently could return by July 21st – just in the nick of time to prove he’s healthy before the trade deadline.
Matt Harrison makes his Major League debut tonight against the Angels – Harrison was 3-1 with a 3.55 ERA and a 1.42 WHIP in 6 starts for OKC this year – he’s coming off a good outing down there in which he allowed one run in 6 innings. Harrison is a guy without amazing stuff, but he’s got good control and he gets a lot of ground balls – which of course means he’ll have to rely on our iffy infield defense. That, plus the fact that lefty Joe Saunders will oppose for the Angels might not bode well for the Rangers. Pressure on the infield defense and LHP have been the Rangers kryptonite this year.
Filed under: Ranger Losses | Tags: Chris Davis vs. Hank Blalock, CJ Wilson, Eric Hurley, Kevin Millwood, Max Ramirez, Neftali Feliz, Vicente Padilla
It was not a very good 4th of July for the Texas Rangers. First of all, they wound up on the wrong end of the fireworks show for the second consecutive game, as Vicente Padilla got lit up in a 10-4 loss to Baltimore - the second time in two games the Rangers have given up double digits in runs. As if that wasn’t bad enough Padilla and Eric Hurley have both come up with some minor strains, all of a sudden creating some turmoil in the starting rotation.
There’s not a whole lot to say about yesterday’s game – I frankly don’t see the need to go dwelling upon it too much this morning. Padilla lasted just 2.2 innings, and gave up 8 runs on 9 hits and 2 walks, which doomed the game early. The Rangers did manage to rally to within 4 by scoring 3 runs in the 7th but the O’s put it away with 2 runs in the 8th, allowing them to cruise to a series-opening victory. There where however, some positives among the carnage you can take away from this one – so why don’t we focus on those real quick:
- Warner Madgrigal tossed 2.1 perfect innings after relieving Padilla in the third, retiring all 7 batters he faced rather handily. That’ll go a long ways toward offsetting his disastrous ML debut – very encouraging to see.
- Ian Kinsler, Milton Bradley and Jarrod Saltalamacchia all had 2-hit games – Kinsler is maintaining a 16-game hitting streak, Bradley knocked in 3 of the 4 Texas runs, while Saltalamacchia had his first 2 hit game in nearly a month, and is now hitting .300 for his last 5 games.
- Frank Francisco (I’m not really sure why he was used in a spot where it was an 8-1 ballgame, but this is still pretty good) tossed another perfect inning, and has now not allowed a hit or a walk in his last 5 appearances (5.2 innings). New setup man, anyone?
The big news of the day however, was the condition of Eric Hurley and Vicente Padilla. Padilla took a liner off his thumb in the third inning, was pulled and sent for x-rays on the thumb. Fortunately, the thumb is fine, but Ron Washington said Padilla came out for a different reason: a neck strain. Apparently, his neck is something that was bothering him his last start against Philadelphia, when he gave up 7 runs in 6 innings. It isn’t clear yet whether he will make his next start Wednesday against the Angels – irregardless however, Padilla’s not blaming his poor performance on his neck:
“I’m not sure how [the neck] will be for the next time; we’ll have to see,” Padilla said through a translator. “But the neck is no excuse. I left everything over the middle of the plate.”
Hurley meanwhile has been scratched from his next start after his left hamstring “tightened up” while he was doing windsprints:
“I was doing some sprints in the outfield and had to pull up,” Hurley said. “The leg has been tight but on the off-day yesterday, it felt good, and today it felt good. I’m not sure why it tightened up but I don’t want to take any chances.”
Add that to Kevin Millwood, who got smacked in the shin by a liner and had to leave early in his last start, and the Rangers now have 3/5 of their rotation nursing minor injuries. Millwood at least expects to make his next start on Sunday however - but right now the Rangers aren’t completely sure about Hurley and Padilla. Hurley should be back by Tuesday, while Scott Feldman, who was supposed to get some extra rest by having his start pushed back a few days, will just swap starts with Hurley, and go on normal rest today. But there appears to be a little more doubt about Padilla’s condition:
“This thing is bothering me,” Padilla said, pointing to his neck. “So I’m not sure if I will be done with that and be able to pitch on five days’ rest. I have to wait. I have to see.”
If you’re wondering who would get that start if Padilla is unable to go, Dustin Nippert was pulled from AAA Oklahoma’s game today, and would seem to be the likely callup should anything go wrong.
Meanwhile, Ron Washington reiterated yesterday that Hank Blalock would play first base when he came back from the DL:
“Once Hank made the decision to move to first, he said he didn’t want to be yo-yoed back and forth,” Washington said. “I want to do my best to respect that. Let’s just let this play out. I don’t want to speculate. Let’s wait until Hank is ready. Chris is playing well so I don’t want to create any problems.”
Doesn’t sound too good for Chris Davis, even though Ron does a nice job of backpedaling there at the end. The mighty CD went 0-4 yesterday, if you’re wondering - but I guess it doesn’t matter. Either way it seems that the Rangers are indeed that stupid, to let a guy who has absolutely no chance to stick around here next year as a first baseman upstage their #1 positional prospect. Ugh.
Speaking of shorting the younger players playing time, it appears that getting Max Ramirez at-bats isn’t very high on Baseball Man’s priority list either – he’s decided he wants to play Catalanotto as much as possible now:
“Cat’s swinging the bat well,” Washington said. “It looked like [Wednesday] he was swinging with determination. He was aggressive and we want to see if we can keep him going. I want to find ways to play him. Every opportunity I get, I’m going to get him in there.”
If this is gonna be the way it is, I would like to see Max sent down to AAA, where he can play DH/1B and catch a couple times a week. It might not be the consistent time behind the plate which he could probably use to work on his defense further, but Max at least needs consistent at-bats – it really doesn’t sit well with me that he’s spending so much time riding the pine. Either play him or send him to AAA and bring up Kevin Richardson to back up Salty, or go get a cheap veteran like Damian Miller for the job. But he’s too good a natural hitter to be fermenting on the bench.
CJ Wilson apparently had some pretty interesting stuff to say yesterday during an interview with Bob Sturm of the sports radio station KTCK- much of it having to do with how he feels that the subtraction of certain players from the Ranger clubhouse has really improved the atmosphere this season.
“I can’t even begin to tell you how much better it is now than it was two years ago,” Wilson told KTCK’s Bob Sturm. “And the most obvious thing I can say is, you look at the roster, the guys that we have now versus the guys that we had then.”
CJ had some praise for Milton Bradley and Eddie Guardado, and their clubhouse presences this year, while saying that a “dark cloud” was lifted from the clubhouse last July, obviously referring to the Mark Teixeira trade.
He also made reference to a ”big” and a “medium sized” cloud disappearing from the clubhouse after the 2006 season – and apparently intimated that one of those “clouds” had been Gary Matthews Jr. If I had to guess, I’d bet the other one was probably Buck Showalter.
“They weren’t interested in being part of a team,” Wilson said of the unnamed players. “They were just interested in bank accounts.”
Very interesting indeed.
Big minor league promotion being announced this morning: Evan Grant has just confirmed the speculation that the Rangers #1 pitching prospect Neftali Feliz has finally been promoted from low-A Clinton, where he has been dominating this year – the 20 year-old righty had been 6-3 with a 2.52 ERA and a 1.01 WHIP in 17 starts. The surprise, however was that he has not been promoted to high-A Bakersfield, the traditional next stop in the minor league chain – he’s being sent straight to AA Frisco, and will make his first start on Monday. Pretty aggressive promotion, but I guess they figure Feliz, who had 106 strikeouts to 28 walks in 82 innings in Clinton this year can handle it. Feliz is still working on building his secondary arsenal around a pure heater that sits in the upper 90’s (usually around 97) - but he’s made strides on his changeup and curveball this year in Clinton and apparently, the Rangers see fit to challenge him here. Needless to say, I’m really excited about this promotion – Feliz is a guy I really think could be #1 starter material, and I’ve been waiting for them to promote him from Clinton for awhile now. The thing is, I thought he’d spend some time in Bakersfield, where I might be able to actually go see him pitch – but promoting him straight to Frisco is way more exciting to ponder. It seems like the Rangers are promoting with daring right now – we’ll see how it goes with Neftali Monday, but I think a challenge could be good for some of these young guys. After all, learning how to make adjustments and compete at a higher level it what it’s all about.
Quick hits: Joey Matschulat has an article you should check out up on BTiA breaking down Ian Kinsler’s defense – very informative and eye-opening… Brandon McCarthy threw a 55 pitch bullpen yesterday, and will throw a simulated game on Tuesday, as he seems to be edging closer to a comeback… Chris Shelton has accepted his assignment to AAA Oklahoma… and Michael Young was back in the lineup yesterday, his groin apparently fully recovered, and Eddie Guardado’s shoulder has apparently recovered as well.
Scott Feldman vs. Brian Burres tonight – Burres is a lefty, but he’s got reverse splits, with LHB’s hitting .349 against him and RHB’s .277, so maybe he won’t hinder the Rangers as much as other lefties have this season. One things for sure, I’d be happy to see our pitchers hold the opposition to 5 runs or less after the last 2 games. Go Rangers.
Filed under: Ranger Wins | Tags: First Major League hit, First Major League homer, Luis Mendoza, Max Ramirez
Wednesday was a dreaded day for Texas Ranger fans. For the first time this season, the Rangers found themselves without either of their 3-4 hitters, Milton Bradley or Josh Hamilton in the lineup, and as a result, the batting order almost looked like something out of a bad dream. Facing off against the Houston Astros ace Roy Oswalt, the Rangers needed some new heroes, fast - and they may have found them in Max Ramirez and Luis Mendoza, whose timely contributions would carry Texas to an improbable 3-2 victory.
Of course, you’ve got to give a some credit to Rangers starter Scott Feldman, too – Feldman may have had his shortest outing of the season last night, throwing 99 pitches in the span of just four innings, but he set the tone for the Ranger pitchers by keeping his head and working out of almost every jam he got into. Of the 8 baserunners allowed by Feldman(on 6 hits and 2 walks), only 2 scored, and they both came on a 2-run homer in the second by Michael Bourn. Other than that, Feldman fought hard to get the key outs he needed to, and that set the stage for the pitchers who followed him, and for Max Ramirez.
The 23-year old Ramirez was making just his second Major League start, and his first as a catcher last night but it sure didn’t seem to phase him any. He picked up his first Major League hit with a single in the top of the second and looked solid behind the plate as well, earning praise from manager Ron Washington for his handling of the pitchers:
“We certainly weren’t at full strength but that kid behind the plate did a great job,” Washington said. “Not only swinging the bat but handling our pitching staff. The kid knows how to swing the bat, but the thing I wanted to see was him handling the pitching staff and get them through nine innings. He did just that. That’s what matters most and he did an excellent job.”
The big moment for Ramirez however, came in the 4thinning. With the Rangers down 2-1, Frank Catalanotto rapped an innocent 2 out single to right to keep things going for Max. Roy Oswalt, who had struck out the first two batters of the inning, fell behind 3-1 to Max, and then tried to challenge “the new guy” with a fastball in the zone.
408 feet later, the score was 3-2 Rangers.
“I can’t believe it,” Ramirez said. “It was so exciting. My first home run, my first game behind the plate, a really good game. I felt good behind the plate. I tried to do my best job.”
Even though the Rangers would not score again for the rest of the game, neither would the Astros, as the Rangers managed to keep them in check from the second inning on.
Scott Feldman left after the 4th innning of course, meaning he would not be eligible for the win - but if he wasn’t eligible for it, the guy who replaced him most certainly would be. Four days after earning his first Major League save by tossing three scoreless innings against the Nationals, Luis Mendoza turned in some more superb relief, this time when it really counted. He went three sharp innings, giving up just 2 hits and striking out 2 – an absolutely huge, huge performance, as it allowed the Rangers to go straight to setup man Eddie Guardado, and skip their inconsistent and shaky middle relief corps altogether.
Guardado turned in a scoreless 8th, thanks to a little help from Frank Catalanotto, who turned a spectacular double play to help Eddie get around a leadoff double, and all that was left was for CJ Wilson to close it out in the 9th. Of course, that hasn’t been an easy proposition for CJ these days, and last night was really no exception. He allowed a leadoff double to Ty Wigginton, and then walked Michael Bourn with2 out (which may or may not have had more to do with the umpire than CJ’s pitches). Ramon Vazquez then bobbled a grounder at third which should have ended the game, but instead loaded the bases for Miguel Tejada. But Tejada grounded harmlessly to short, a perfect example of the Astrosfrusteration in this game – they went 0-9 with RISP, and left 10 men on base, a testament to how lucky and good the Rangers pitchers where last night.
This win all but nails down the Silver Boot Trophy for the Rangers - unless they lose by more than 11 runs tomorrow, the boot will be coming back to Arlington for another year. I think though the two most important things to take away from this game however, are the performances of MaxRam and Mendoza.
MaxRam’s defense last night looked pretty serviceable to me, quite contrary to his reputation as a poor defensive player. Of course this is only one game (hello sample size) but if Max can prove just adequate defensively while displaying the hitting prowess he did last night, he is going to assert himself as just as strong a candidate for the role of our future starting catcher as Saltalamacchia and Taylor Teagarden, instead being limited to the duties of primary DH and backup catcher as many people (including myself) have projected him as due to his reputation. Of course, some might think it premature to say that after only one start, but after what he displayed last night in his game calling abilities, I am willing to believe it is at the very least a possibility.
As for Luis Mendoza, I’ve mentioned this before, but I really think he may have a great future in the bullpen. This latest performance should earn him a few more innings in some key middle-relief situations – and if he continues to excel, I could see him possibly becoming our 7th inning guy with that turbo-sinker of his. Once things for certain, he seems to have better stuff than just a long man – but the rotation seems to be full up right now, so the Rangers might not have much choice in the matter if they want to truly get the most out of his abilites.
Filed under: Ranger Wins | Tags: Gerald "Superstar" Laird, Ian Kinsler, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Max Ramirez, Milton Bradley
Sorry I missed my usual game recap for Sunday’s game against the Nationals – I wasn’t able to catch the game thanks to some issues with MLB.com’s media player that I still haven’t been able to resolve (I don’t think my computer likes MLB.com very much). So as you might imagine, I really didn’t have a whole lot to say about that game anyway. But there where a few notable highlights that I’ll start you off with here, as we run down Sunday and Monday’s Ranger notes real quick:
The Rangers won 5-3, thanks to a Frank Catalanotto pinch-hit RBI single that broke a 3-3 tie in the 8th – as Evan Grant notes, Cat is now the best active pinch-hitter in Major League baseball, sporting a .292 average and a .382 OBP as a pinch-hitter in his career. Not sure if that actually means anything for his trade value, but I’d like to think it does.
Max Ramirez went 0-3 with 2 strikeouts in his Major League debut – in fact, he was the one Catalanotto pinch-hit for in the 8th. Ouch. I’m not worried though - he’s supposed to be a great natural hitter, so he should be able to adjust to the big leagues before too long.
I do wonder though, that if maybe the Rangers have called him up a little prematurely – with Milton Bradley’s health apparently limiting him to DH again (more on that later) I’m not sure that Max will be able to get enough consistent AB’s in the Majors to make a very seamless transition. Now that the initial euphoria of having Frisco’s resident Beasticon called up has passed, I really kinda wish the Rangers had just brought up Kevin Richardson (the backup at AAA Oklahoma) or signed a cheap veteran (a la Adam Melhuse) to be a scrub backup for awhile, instead of throwing Max into a role where his playing time might all of a sudden become a premium. After all, Ron Washington kinda has a history of not liking young “unproven” players, unless they’re providing some kind of immediate production. Of course, Max has played all of one game, but he apparently didn’t look to good, and it appears he’s going to have to compete with Milton Bradley and eventually Hank Blalock (two proven veterans) for most of his playing time. And that sounds like a losing battle to me, unless Max comes out tomorrow in Houston and goes 3-4 or something (which is of course, quite possible).
Another highlight of the game was Jarrod Saltalamacchia’s laser beam throw in the 6th inning to gun down Christian Guzman, the Nationals leadoff man, trying to steal second - according to Joey Matschulat, it was “one of the best pure throws by a Rangers catcher all season.”
Salty meanwhile, who is 2-3 in throwing out runners since Laird went on the DL, credited Vicente Padilla for getting the ball to the plate quickly, and allowing him to make a good strong throw:
“I knew I had enough time to step to the base and make a good throw,” Saltalamacchia said. “[Padilla] did a great job of getting the ball home quickly so I had a chance at the runner.”
Lets hope this continues.
As for Milton Bradley, he was out of the lineup for a 5th consecutive game on Sunday, and will now be limited to pinch-hitting for the remaining three interleague road games in Houston – although Ron Washington said he could play in a “tight situation”, whatever that means. Once the Rangers return home to face the Phillies, Bradley will once again be the primary DH, and will get infrequent starts in the outfield as he proves ready for them. As I said above, this, and the eventual return of Hank Blalock to play first base is going to be what puts a crimp in Max Ramirez’s playing time.
But when Hank will be getting back seems to be a pretty big question right now. Blalock has had – stop me if you’ve heard all this before – another setback in his recovery. Apparently, he bruised his right wrist diving for a ball in Sundays game in OKC, and was scratched from Monday’s start. Instead of being activated from the DL today, he will be reevaluated instead. Sigh.
One more injury note: Gerald Laird’s MRI results confirmed he is suffering a pulled hamstring – but not torn like Blalock’s was earlier this year. Dr. Keith Meister has given Laird’s recovery a window of 4-6 weeks, however – in other words he might not be back in time for the trade deadline after all. And that might not bode well if you’re like me, and really don’t want to see that stupid catching platoon start back up again anytime soon.
Now for something a little more on the bright side - Josh Hamilton has almost locked up the starting CF spot in the All-Star game. He’s remains second in the AL OF voting, with 1,791,623 votes. And that’s not all: Ian Kinsler has closed to within 166,523 votes of Boston’s Dustin Pedroia in the AL second baseman category, and could conceivably pass him – and of course, whoever’s #1 at the end of voting will get to start the All-Star game.
If you look at the numbers, it’s kind of amazing that Pedroia is in front period – his line of .282/.328/.408 just doesn’t compare to Kinsler’s line of .302/.362/.502. Kinsler also has clear edges in OPS (864 to 736) and OPS+ (131 to 94). Oh, and then there’s my favorite number, the VORP (Value Over Replacement Player) where Kinsler’s 31.1 VORP absolutely owns Pedroia’s 12.6 VORP.
So lets get it done folks: Ian Kinsler for AL starting second baseman 2008! The VORP pretty much tells the whole story.
I’m afraid I’ve got to hurry the rest of this along again, so it’s quick hits time: Evan Grant’s game story focuses on CJ Wilson and Vicente Padilla finding success with their fastballs… MLB.com’s Shawn Shroyer has had a couple nice pieces out on Rangers prospects Tommy Hunter and Elvis Andrus that are worth checking out… Richard Durrett has a piece up on Nolan Ryan and his ties to the Houston Astros… the Rangers have tossed their hat into the ring on the bidding for 16 year-old Dominican pitching prospect Michael Inoa, a 6′7″ 210 pound RHP who is considered to be the “crown jewel” of this years crop of Latin American players.
Today it’s Eric Hurley vs. Houston right-hander Brian Moehler. This will be yet another challenge for Hurley, having to pitch to the Astros high-powered lineup and do a little hitting as well – if he has to give up long fly balls, lets hope they head out into the cavernous center field that Minute Maid Park features, and not down the lines.
Filed under: Ranger Wins | Tags: Hank Blalock, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Max Ramirez, Milton Bradley
After the low-scoring 14-inning affair on Friday, the Rangers sure needed a game like this one. Unlike the way so many games have unfolded recently, Texas got everything they needed for a win, and then some - Kason Gabbard pitched well for the first 5 innings, Frankie Francisco bailed him out of a huge jam when he needed to, and the Ranger offense saw several guys snap some recent hitting slumps as they pummeled the Washington bullpen late for an impressive 13-3 victory.
Things started off on a high note last night, with Ian Kinsler nailing a leadoff homer out to left field on just the second pitcher from Nats rookie starter Garret Mock. Texas added two more in the first inning on a 2-run double by David Murphy, giving Kason Gabbard a nice cushion from the very start.
Gabbard, for his part, turned in his second solid start since being recalled from AAA Oklahoma last weekend, giving up 3 runs on 6 hits and 2 walks in 5.1 innings. The 2 walks where Gabbard’s fewest since May 13th when he only walked one batter in a start against Seattle, and his 5 strikeouts where a season high, as he picked up his second win of the year, and his first since April 4th.
Gabbard cruised through the first 3 innings, until he tweaked his ankle running out a run-scoring double play ball in the top of the fourth. Whether it had anything to do with the ankle or not, Gabbard allowed 2 runs in the bottom of the fourth, and another in the 5thbefore he was pulled with runners on first and second and one out in the 6th. With the Rangers 4-3 lead in jeopardy, Frankie Francisco was brought in to get out of the inning – but the first thing he did was allow a single to Paul LoDuca to load the bases. With the drama climaxing, Frankie induced a pop fly to center from Wily Mo Pena. It wasn’t deep enough for the Nats to score the tying run though, because #1, Dimitri Young was the runner at third base, and #2 Josh Hamilton did a nice job of charging and catching the ball, and throwing a strike to home plate. That turned out to be the pivotal moment in the game, because after a 10-pitch battle with pinch-hitter Corey Casto, Frankie got him to line out to short to end what turned out to be the Nationals last chance at doing any damage, as the Rangers offense was about to blow things open.
With Garrett Mock (who had settled down after his rough first inning to pretty much keep the Rangers in check up till he was pinch hit for) out of the game, the Rangers where able to go to town on the Nats bullpen, as they batted around in the top of the 7th to plate 7 runs. Michael Young, who went 3-6 on the night to break out of his recent 2-38 slump, got it started with a 2-run single, and Josh Hamilton followed with his Major-League leading 75th RBI. David Murphy also rapped a 2-run single that inning, and Ramon Vazquez hammered a 2 run double as the Nats had to use three different pitchers just to get out of the inning.
It was pretty much over after that impressive outburst, as Luis Mendoza (called up just yesterday from AAA when Doug Mathis was placed on the DL) came in and pitched the last three innings to earn his first Major League save. He showed some pretty impressive stuff those last three innings too, flashing an absolutely filthy sinker and touching 95 MPH as he allowed just one hit and struck out 3. If he doesn’t find his way back into the starting rotation this season, I’ve got a feeling that Mendoza just might carve himself a niche in the bullpen if he can come in a mow people down in one turn through the lineup like that.
Most significant though where some of the slumps that got snapped by Rangers hitters last night – the most evident was of course Michael Young’s aforementioned effort, but also snapping a big cold streak was David Murphy, whose 2-5, 3 RBI night snapped a 2-27 stretch. Ramon Vazquez also snapped a slightly smaller 1-13 stretch by going 3-4 with 3 RBI, and even Josh Hamilton re-energized his bat, as he had been 0-for his last 10 with 3 strikeouts when the game started.
The only bad news was Milton Bradley was not in the lineup for the 4th straight game thanks to his strained quad, which is apparently still tender. He did pinch-hit again in the 7th, this time coming away with a base hit - but he was immediately pinch-run for by Chris Shelton, so apparently the leg’s not ready to run the bases yet. According to TR Sullivan’s tidbits, the Rangers still don’t think he’ll go on the DL, but they have now pushed back his return to Tuesday (which should be the same day that Hank Blalock comes off the DL, by the way). Sigh. I guess this is the argument against the idea of signing Milton to a contract extension.
In other important news, Ron Washington has answered the questions as to what the club will do with the catching situation now that Gerald Laird is sidelined – and as expected, Jarrod Saltalamacchia will now be the full-time catcher, while Max Ramirez (who is scheduled to make his Rangers debut today playing first base) will be the backup catcher while also seeing time at first and DH.
“[Salty will] get the bulk of the catching,” Washington said. “This is a great opportunity for him.”
Ron did say he wanted Salty to focus on working with the pitching staff and blocking, and suggested that the Rangers will live with the throwing as it improves. And it’s worth noting that last night, Salty pretty much did exactly that: he seemed to do an excellent job handling Gabbard, Francisco and Mendoza, and made a few pretty good stops on some breaking stuff in the dirt as well – so far so good.
Saltalamacchia meanwhile, has acknowledged the chance that he’s been handed and said he hopes that playing everyday will help him take his game to the next level.
“I hope being in there every single day will help me get in a rhythm and get into a rhythm working with the pitchers,” Saltalamacchia said. “I’ve been working on defense every day whether I play or not: calling pitches, throws to second, blocking balls, getting set, receiving, trying to stay in tune with all that so that I feel like I’m in there every day.
“I’ve got to take this as an opportunity, just like when I first got called up. Anytime you get into a game, you’ve got to seize the opportunity. I just need to play and help my team win.”
“Just because I’m the starter now doesn’t mean I’m going to be starting for the whole season,” Saltalamacchia said. “If I hit 1.000 while Gerald is out, I still think they are going to split our time when he comes back. What I can do right now is show them what I can do every day. I can show them I can be a better me.”
Lets hope he can do just that.
Quick hits: Hank Blalock started his rehab assignment in OKC last night, playing 5 innings at first base, and going 2-3 with 2 singles. Chris Davis also went 3-4 with a triple and an RBI in the game, and Matt Harrison pitched 8 strong innings to secure the win… the Rangers players and their families got to pay a visit to the White House yesterday, and meet with former Rangers owner President Bush.
Series finale in Washington today – Max Ramirez will be making his Major League debut, so that’s something to tune in for. The pitching matchup is Vicente Padilla against Nats lefty John Lannan – lets hope the offense doesn’t backslide against the lefty today. I’d really hate to lose a series to the Washington Nationals.
Filed under: Ranger Losses | Tags: CJ Wilson, Gerald "Superstar" Laird, Hank Blalock, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Max Ramirez, Milton Bradley
It was not a very good homecoming for the Texas Rangers in Washington Friday night. Returning to the spot from which their franchise had morphed 37 years ago, they not only saw their offense shut down and their bullpen futilely spent in the 14-inning 4-3 loss, they lost the veteran half of their catching platoon.
The Rangers pitchers at least did a pretty good job in this one – Kevin Millwood gave the Rangers 8 solid innings, allowing a total 3 runs on 7 hits and 3 walks, striking out 4. Through 7 innings the Rangers lead 3-2, and it seemed Millwood might very well be on his way to a win, and a very important bullpen-saving performance. The only problem was he gave up a solo homer to Elijah Dukes to lead off the top of the 8th inning, which knotted the game at 3 for the next 6 innings.
The Rangers offense, for their part, did practically nothing after Ian Kinsler hit a base-clearing 3 run double in the top of the second. Without Milton Bradley in the lineup for a third consecutive day, they had just two hits and four baserunners from the third inning on, and completely failed to take advantage of a rare solid performance by their bullpen, which matched up with the Washington Nationals’ bullpen until Jamey Wright’s lack of control finally lead to the Rangers succumbing in the bottom of the 14th. After a HBP and 2 walks, Wright struck out 2, and appeared on the verge of getting out of the inning when the red-hot Dukes (who went 5-6 with 2 RBI, stole 2 bases, and fell a triple short of the cycle) grounded the first pitch he saw to the hole and past Michael Young to put a blessed end to one of the most boring and frustrating games the Rangers have had in 2008.
Of course, the real story wasn’t the lack of offense, or losing the game – the real story came in the 4th inning, when Gerald Laird pulled his right hamstring while beating out a bunt single. As he tore down the line, Gerald apparently felt his hamstring tighten just a few steps from the bag, and then give out just as he reached it. He immediately collapsed on the ground in pain, and had to be helped off the field by Milton Bradley and Ron Washington.
“It’s disappointing,” Laird said. “It’s tough to swallow. I want to be out there with my teammates. I felt I had made some adjustments from last year, and I felt I was playing pretty good. Lying on the grass I was saying to myself, ‘This is not happening … this is not happening.’ It’s tough to swallow.”
It is indeed a tough break for Laird who was putting up career-high numbers while platooning with Jarrod Saltalamacchia, hitting .306/.360/.437 in 183 at-bats - 50 points or more higher in all categories than his career line of .257/.308/.387.
Initially it was reported during the game that the strain was “mild” but I think everyone who saw Laird go down at first base had to know that that assessment was extremely optimistic. Later, Ron Washington confirmed that the situation was indeed as serious as it looked, saying
“He pulled it pretty bad. It’s certainly not going to be a day-to-day thing.”
Gerald says he wants to be back by the All-Star break, but the Rangers aren’t going to give a timeline for his return until the MRI results confirm whether or not his hamstring is indeed fully intact (there’s still a worst-case scenario it could be partially torn, like Hank Blalock’s was earlier this year). In any case, him returning by July 14th (the start of the break) seems like an awfully optimistic goal, although it would really be advantageous if he could get back sometime before the trade deadline on July 31st.
In his stead, the Rangers are going to call up Max Ramirez (who was acquired from Cleveland last year in the Kenny Lofton trade) from AA Frisco to serve as the backup catcher, while Jarrod Saltalamacchia should get his shot in the full-time role. Going into yesterday, Max’s line in Frisco was an otherworldly .362/.457/.651 in 235 AB’s with 16 home runs – 17 once you count the one he bashed in the first inning of yesterdays game (of which he was removed once the news of the callup came).
In promoting Ramirez, the Rangers did pass up their other top catching prospect Taylor Teagarden who many initially expected would get the promotion because of his superior defensive ability. But Teagarden has been dealing with a sore shoulder, is not yet on the 40 man roster, and is only currently hitting .246/.372/.447 in AAA Oklahoma. Also, unlike Max Ramirez (who can also play first base), Teagarden is strictly a catcher, meaning it would have been impossible to get him any kind of consistent at-bats, even if he was platooned with Saltalamacchia. And with the way Teagarden has struggled offensively this year, it’s probably pretty important that he continue to get consistent AB’s – so perhaps passing over him for now was the best call.
One thing to keep in mid about this callup though is his defense is even less impressive than Salty’s has been this year - he’s only thrown out 16 of 66 baserunners in AA, and Frisco manager Scott Little said awhile back that Max still needs to improve in ”receiving, throwing, blocking and game-calling” – basically everything. So if anyone out there is expecting Max to come up and somehow knock Salty out of the catchers role, don’t. Max will get his AB’s, make no mistake about it – as Ron Washington said:
”Ramirez is going to play. We’ll just wait and see when he gets here how much he’s going to play.”
But I’m willing to bet the vast majority of those at-bats will come at first base and DH – they should at least, because considering his defensive defences, it really doesn’t make any sense to play Max at catcher when you’ve got a golden chance to give Saltalamacchia the opportunity to snap out of his funk with some everyday playing time.
Of course, Salty’s gonna have some serious work to do – offensively he’s in the midst of 2-for-30 slump that has plummeted his numbers from a season-high .279/.417/.471 back on June 3rd down to an ugly .219/.342/.354 again. He did finally snap his streak of allowing 23 consecutive stolen bases last night after he replaced Laird however - and while he only threw out Nats catcher Jesus Flores on a botched hit-and-run, the throw he made was about as strong and on target as you can get, reinforcing the assessment that there is ability there which consistent playing time should help bring out.
This is it, folks – this wasn’t the way I wanted to see Salty get his shot at every day playing time, but it’s here, and the Rangers better let him try and make the most of it. If for some reason however, all they do is start another platoon with two below-average defensive catchers, it’s going to be beyond stupid and moronic - it’s going to be a travesty.
Anyway, moving on to some other stuff, TR Sullivan has a piece up on the struggles of the Rangers bullpen as a whole, noting that Doug Mathis was put on the DL yesterday, and Luis Mendoza was called up from AAA to take his place in the bullpen. Apparently, Mathis felt some stiffness in his shoulder during two bullpen sessions Thursday and Friday, prompting the Rangers to make the move. Also noted is that Ron Washington reaffirms that CJ Wilson is his closer for now, and the Rangers plan to try and ride this rough patch out:
“Right now, C.J. is still the closer,” Washington said. “If there needs to be a change, there will be some conversations first, but there hasn’t been any yet. He came into the season as our closer and we’re going to give him the opportunity to work through these rough times.”
Speaking of the closing situation, Evan Grant also gave us his take on the subject, basically saying that what the Rangers do with CJ Wilson should depend upon what direction they want to take the team, which is pretty much true.
Milton Bradley was held out from the lineup last night for the third game in a row - he did pinch-hit for the pitcher’s spot in the 10th inning (grounding out on one pitch), so apparently he can swing the bat, he just wasn’t ready to play right field yet. It was reported that Ron Washington expects him to play by the end of this series with the Nats, so we’ll just have to wait and see whether its today or tomorrow.
One thing’s for certain, the Rangers are sure missing his bat in the lineup – without him they’ve scored only 12 runs in the 39 innings since he was removed from the game on Tuesday. Furthermore, a couple key guys in the middle of the order are mired in slumps right now – after going 0-6 Friday, Michael Young is 2 for his last 38, and David Murphy is just 7 for his last 45. If the Rangers complete inability to score last night after the second inning was any evidence, Milton needs to come back soon.
Another missing bat, Hank Blalock starts his rehab assignment in AAA today, and will play three games with the Redhawks at first base before being reevaluated. As a result, everybody’s favorite beasticon Chris Davis (who just went 2-3 with another home run last night) will have to move to DH for 3 games. Now, that’s something that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me – why send Blalock to Oklahoma and displace Davis, who is tearing PCL pitchers a new ass right now and playing a great first base (from what I understand anyway), when you could have sent him to AA Frisco where they don’t have one of our “prospects” playing first base? Not that it probably matters much of course, Davis still gets to hit, but that’s just something that bugs me a little for some reason.
Quick hits time: several Rangers players including CJ Wilson visited the Walter Reed hospital Friday morning, and apparently it helped bring things into perspective for CJ, who said ”I blew a save, they were wounded in battle. Blowing one save is not as catastrophic. … I hate to break it to Rangers fans, but that’s the way it is.”… Kevin Sherrington has a feel-good, Jim Morris kind of collumn up on Oklahoma reliever Brian Gordon, who apparently has gotten some help from Nolan Ryan in his late-career conversion from outfielder pitcher.
Kason Gabbard goes for the Rangers today against Nats rookie RHP Garrett Mock, who will be making just his second career start. Gabbard is coming off a solid (but not spectacular) start against the Mets last time out. The Rangers could really use some innings from Gabbard today, because after the dragout last night, the only pitchers that are fresh in the bullpen are Luis Mendoza, CJ Wilson and Eddie Guardado – and both Wilson and Guardado could probably stand to go another day without pitching, too.
Filed under: Ranger Wins | Tags: Elvis Andrus, Jason Jennings, Max Ramirez, Sidney Ponson
I guess keeping Sidney Ponson on regular rest turned out to be a good idea after all. After giving up 12 hits and 3 walks in 5 innings his last start, the maddeningly inconsistent Ponson rebounded once again, pitching 7 strong innings to help the Rangers finally break the .500 mark again with an 8-4 win.
The Rangers didn’t waste any time getting on the board in this one – Michael Young had a bloop triple in the bottom of the first (to extend his current hitting streak to 16 games) and Josh Hamilton plated him with an RBI groundout off Joe Blanton, who just couldn’t keep his pitches down over the first couple frames- something Brandon Boggs (who now has 7 RBI in his last 15 AB’s) and Ian Kinsler took advantage of with RBI singles in the second to make it 3-0.
Meanwhile, Ponson was busy cutting though the Oakland lineup at breakneck speed – through the first 4 innings, he had faced the minimum 16 batters. He would wind up going 7 innings while giving up 4 runs on 9 hits and walking nobody. 70 of his 101 pitches went for strikes, something that Joey Matschulat correlates to being a key to his effectiveness last night. Apparently, in the 5 starts like this one, when Ponson has thrown at least 65% of his pitches for strikes, he has a 2.50 ERA and a 1.14 WHIP. In his other three starts when he has not thrown 65% of his pitches for strikes, he has a whopping 6.89 ERA/2.23 WHIP – quite the dramatic split. And seeing as how Sidney still gave up 9 hits last night, pinpoint control was clearly the wizard behind the curtain regarding his effectiveness.
5 of those 9 hits Ponson give up came in the 5th inning, which was by far his worst. The A’s touched him for four consecutive singles to open the frame and cut the lead to 3-2, and Jack Hannahan would tie it with a sac fly before Ponson finally struck out Bobby Crosby to stop the bleeding. Fortunately for Sidney, the red-hot top of the order was due up next for Texas.
Ian Kinsler lead things off in the bottom of the 5th witha double to left, and Michael Young quickly knocked him in with a single to right. That brought up Josh Hamilton, who promptly sent a Blanton fastball back behind the Rangers bullpen to make the A’s 3-run gain disappear even faster than Oakland had managed to put it together, and the Rangers would lead from there on out.
Ponson did give up an RBI double to Hannahan in the top of the 7th, but that was the last run the A’s would put on the board all night, and the Rangers broke it open in the 8th. Frank Catalanotto RBI hit an double and Ian Kinsler added his second RBI single of the night to make it 8-4, leaving it to Jamey Wright to come in and retire the A’s in order in the 9th to cap off the win, and put the Rangers above .500 again for the first time since April 10th when they swept that doubleheader against the Orioles.
Some impressive numbers to throw at you from this game, too – Michael Young and Ian Kinsler, who’s 16 and 15 game hitting streaks are currently the longest active ones in the AL, combined to go 6-9 with 3 RBI and a double and a triple last night. The Rangers also did not have a single batter strike out in the game – which is slightly astonishing, considering they lead the AL in strikeouts at 406. Pitching wise, the Rangers did not issue a walk for the second consecutive game (while playing the team that leads the AL in BB’s with 217, no less), and 90 of the 126 pitches thrown by the quintet of Ponson/Guardado/Benoit/Wright in the game went for strikes. Impressive stuff.
As far as the month of May goes, the Rangers set a franchise record for wins in May with 19 victories – that’s also the first time since June 1983 that the Rangers have won 19 games in a month. They are also 22 for the 34 since they ended their 7-game losing streak back in April, and sit just a half-game back of Oakland for second place – a sweep today will propel them past the A’s.
The other big news yesterday was the announcement that Jason Jennings has undergone another surgery on his right elbow ligament – apparently, the ligament was not completely healed from last season’s ligament surgery after all, and had started to deteriorate again. Of course, this leaves him done for the season – in 20/20 hindsight, I guess he wasn’t that great a signing after all. Of course, considering how well JD’s other offseason signings, such as Milton Bradley, Eddie Guardado, and yes, even Ponson have done, I think I can live with Jennings turning out ot be a bust – that, and considering it only cost us 4 million bucks.
Actually, looking at things the way they currently stand, I’m rather relieved that Jason Jennings won’t be rejoining the rotation this year - I didn’t want to see both him and Sidney Ponson clogging up the rotation in the second half, not with the way Scott Feldman has pitched, and not when we’ve got younger guys like Eric Hurley and Matt Harrison to showcase later this year. And unlike Ponson, Jennings wasn’t effective at all this season.
If you’re bummed out over Jennings though, here’s something to cheer you up again: MLB.com’s Shawn Shroyer has a nice article up on the Rangers site about catching prospect Max Ramirez, who is terrorizing the AA Texas League to an otherworldly tune of .377/.455/.683, with 13 HR’s and 40 RBI - that’s a 1.138 OPS. Since his bat obviously isn’t in question, the article focuses mainly on Max’s defensive questions. His defense behind the plate has always been sub-par (he’s a converted 3rd baseman) horrible, and AA Frisco Manager Scot Little says that Max needs more work on “receiving, throwing, blocking and game-calling” – basically meaning that he’s not going to break into the majors as a full-time catcher. His bat however, should have him in Arlington later this season – I wouldn’t be surprised to see him skip AAA altogether if a spot opens up for him on the roster, myself. His future is probably going to be as a DH, but if you’re the Rangers you have to be careful not to pidgeonhole him into that role too soon, as they did with Jason Botts.
In other minor league news, shortstop prodigy Elvis Andrus is going to be out for three weeks with a broken right finger. Apparently, he’s already resumed taking ground balls, but it’s going to be awhile before he can swing the bat again… he had been hitting .268/.322/.316 for Frisco. I always hate to see a prospect like Elvis get injured – it makes me nervous (see also: Joaquin Arias). This probably nixes any dreams people might have of Andrus being ready to play SS on opening day ‘09, although that wasn’t really feasible anyway.
And finally… the Rangers say that Travis Metcalf will likely get a lotof playing time in the coming days, because the Rangers are about to face a gauntlet of left-handed starters again, 4 in the next 5 days. The first one will be Greg Smith tomorrow – Scott Feldman will oppose. If you’re having deja-vu looking at that pitching matchup, it’s because this is going to be the third time already this season that Feldman and Smith will have faced off – the rubber match, if you will, because Smith beat Feldman the first time, and Feldman won the second.
Ahhh, yes… the sweet smell of the air above .500… lets keep it that way, shall we guys?
