A lonestar in california


Rangers shut out by Twins as Blalock returns to third base
July 19, 2008, 10:39 am
Filed under: Ranger Losses | Tags: , , , , ,

Sorry for running off and not posting for the last few days folks. I think I needed the all-star break just as much as the players did – life has kinda caught up with me over the past few weeks, but hopefully I’ve rejuvenated my baseball-saturated brain enough that I’ll slide back into the swing of posting again. The least I could do is try and get my second half off to a better start than the Rangers did theirs last night in Minnesota.

In the first half, Texas was the only team in the Majors who had not seen their lineup shut out by the opposition, scoring 2 runs or more in all but 6 of their 96 games. But after of last night, they now hold the unhappy distinction of being the first ones shut out in the second half, as they fell 6-0 to the Twins.

Not surprisingly, it was a lefty who finally completely stymied the mighty Rangers offense – for all their run-scoring, they put up just a 756 OPS against southpaws in the first half. Nothing changed yesterday against the 25 year-old Glen Perkins, who held Texas to just 3 hits and 3 walks over 6 innings.

For the Rangers on the mound, Kevin Millwood pitched beyond 5.1 innings for the first time in 4 games last night – but once again he looked pretty horrible doing it, giving up 11 hits and 1 walk through his 6.1 frames. The opposition is now hitting .400 with a .446 OBP against Kevin in his last 5 games (in which he sports a 7.08 ERA), and .324/.378/.460 overall. What’s even more disturbing than the numbers however, is Millwood’s seeming indifference to his struggles:

“Everybody has those teams they struggle against and that’s one of mine,” Millwood said. “There have been other games like this. There have been games where they just kicked my butt. There’s not much you can do; just keep going out there and maybe one day I’ll get it right.”

“There’s not much you can do; just keep going out there and maybe one day I’ll get it right.” Wow. So much for the guy who came into this season bragging about his winter kickboxing program, and saying he was in his best shape in years, eh? And we’re stuck with him, too - if there was ever a chance that Millwood was going to be of any value come the trade deadline this month, it’s completely gone now. He’s only got two starts left before July 31st, and unless he reels off a pair of CG shutouts, the 5.23 ERA, 1.725 WHIP and $60 Mil. contract he currently carries with him probably aren’t going anywhere. What a waste.

One last piece of gloomy news from this game for you: the Rangers shutout streak wasn’t the only streak that ended last night – so did Ian Kinsler’s 25-game hitting streak, which had been tied for second best in franchise history. Kinsler went 0-4 with two flyouts and two popouts, snapping his streak and dropping his average to .333. Neither he nor Josh Hamilton (who also went 0-4) looked very good at the plate last night – but then again, nobody really did.

The big news of this past week was of course Hank Blalock’s return to third base - a 180-degree turn from Ron Washington’s earleir insistence that the club was not considering that as an option. Apparently, they finally realized that they just couldn’t rationally send down Chris Davis (who hit .321/.367/.786 run over the last week heading into the ASB), and where also aware of fact that Ramon Vazquez has cooled off, and was hitting just .240/.316/.280 in his last 15 games heading into the break:

“This really came down to what was best for the team and what made the most sense going forward into the second half,” general manager Jon Daniels said. “We thought we’d be best with both players in the lineup. When [Blalock] suggested he move to first base earlier this year, it was with the team’s best interests in mind. After a couple of setbacks, the landscape has changed. I think he was understanding of that.”

Blalock, who asked to be moved to first base while he was on the DL recovering from a slightly torn hamstring earlier this year wasn’t exactly happy about the move, but knew he didn’t have much choice but to except it:

“It’s what the boss says is best for the team. I am an employee, and that’s what I’m going to do,” Blalock said.

“I hope it will be easy, I can’t predict how I will play over there. I know I’ve played plenty of games over there, to where it is a comfortable position for me. I’m going to work hard to get the rust off, and go play the second half just like I never made the transition.”

“My arm strength probably isn’t what it used to be, after a couple surgeries, but I will be able to get the job done.”

Hank looked okay in his “re-debut” at third last night, making a couple routine plays, so it would seem that he is indeed still able to play third right now – meaning that if he can show that he’s healthy and do a little hitting in the next couple weeks before the trade deadline, his value as a trade chip just might significantly shoot upwards. There’s a lot more contenders who might be willing to give up something for a cheap short-term third base upgrade (most notably the Twins - who have recently been rumored to be looking at Blalock – and the Phillies and Brewers) than there are teams looking for a short-term first base upgrade.

A trade of some sort might be likely, because Ramon Vazquez is upset about losing his playing time at third base – according to Evan Grant, he met with Jon Daniels yesterday “to discuss his future with the club”. Vazquez is still hitting .310/.382/.472 overall despite his recent cooldown, so I could see the Rangers trading Blalock and allowing Vazquez to take over at third again, with the possible intention of flip-flopping he and Michael Young between SS and 3B in 2009. Or they could trade Vazquez (the Dodgers have been desperately looking for a shortstop since they got the news that Rafael Furcal was out for the season) and pick up Blalock’s 2009 option. So plenty of possibilities there for JD to play around with there, although neither Blalock nor Vazquez is likely to bring anything really special.

The big news yesterday was the callup of catching prospect Taylor Teagarden, who made his Major League debut last night (going 0-3 with 2 strikeouts). Teagarden, who was one of the names recently selected to be eligible for the US Olympic baseball team, was brought up when Jarrod Saltalamacchia reported to Minnesota unable to play due to lingering effects of a flu that had him bedridden throughout the all-star break. Salty is also recovering from a groin injury that he played through leading up to the break, but he’s not going on the DL, at least not right now. Currently listed as day-to-day, the Rangers will give him the weekend off instead, and wait until Monday to see if they will be able to option Teagarden back down before he loses Olympic eligibility. To retain that, Teagarden will need to be back in the Minors by Tuesday, but the Rangers say they won’t be worried about that if they still need him after Monday – which wouldn’t exactly make me sad, I’m not too keen on the thought of one of our top prospects being jetted off to China instead continuing to play in AAA or the Majors for the rest of the season.

To make room for Teagarden on the roster, Kameron Loe was sent back to AAA, and Joselo Diaz was DFA’d.

In the latest news from the mythical land of the disabled list, Kason Gabbard is out for the season after undergoing surgery to remove a bone spur from his left elbow during the ASB. This is really no big loss, since the Rangers had only gotten 56 innings out of him this year, and he had managed to walk 39 batters in those 56 innings – but it would seem to illustrate just how fragile a pitcher he is. He had multiple arm surgeries before coming to Texas in the Gagne trade last year, so I can’t really look at this as a good sign for things to come – JD says he’ll still be in the Rangers future plans, be it as a starter or reliever, but I’m really not so sure myself – John Koronka, anyone?

Quick hits: Vicente Padilla and Eric Hurley are scheduled to be activated Sunday and Monday… Brandon McCarthy will take the next step in his rehab on Tuesday by making a start for AAA Oklahoma, throwing 4 innings or 60 pitches… Mike Hindman has a nice peice on the building of the Rangers farm system and clubhouse over at the DMN blog you should go check out… the Rangers are currently working on reaching terms with several draft picks, including second-rounder Robbie Ross.

Matt Harrison will make his third start tonight, after allowing 5 runs in 2.2 innings his last start. He should have an easier time with the Twins offense though, and the Rangers lineup should have an easier task in right-hander Livan Hernandez, who has a 5.44 ERA and a 1.624 WHIP on the season. Sure would be nice to rebound from that shutout by kicking some of Hernandez’s fat ass tonight…

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Vazquez walks Rangers off in slugfest against Mariners
May 13, 2008, 5:20 am
Filed under: Ranger Wins | Tags: , , , , , ,

Wow. That’s really about all my brain can register regarding last night’s series opener against the Mariners. Just… wow. They fell behind. They came back. They coughed up the lead. Took it back. Gave it up again. And then… Ramon Vazquez. And a 13-12 win.

There where no delusions about what this game was going to be from the very start. Vicente Padilla gave up 5 runs in an ugly first inning, that featured 2 errors and a balk, as well as a jet-stream assisted home run by Raul Ibanez. Before the Rangers even came to bat, the game appeared to be in the control of the Mariners and Erik Bedard.

But Bedard didn’t have his A-game last night anymore than Padilla did, as it would turn out. The Rangers started immediately chipping away, with Michael Young doubling in Ian Kinsler to make it 5-1. German Duran hit a sac fly in the second, and then in the bottom of the third, Texas exploded. Josh Hamilton and Milton Bradley started the inning with back-to-back jacks, Hamilton’s being a a 447-foot monster shot to right center. After a walk by Brandon Boggs, and a double by Gerald Laird, Chris Shelton (who would have a breakout day at the plate, going 2-3 with 2 walks and a sacrifice) brought both home with a single to give Texas the lead. That was it for Bedard, but things where just getting started at the Ballpark in Arlington.

Vicente Padilla, who just like Sindey Ponson on Sunday, rebounded from a tough first inning to toss four shutout frames, got into trouble in the 6th when he allowed a leadoff double to Jeff Clement. That prompted his removal in favor of Frank Francisco, who allowed an infield single before giving up a game-tying double to Yuniesky Betancourt.

The game stayed tied at 6 until the bottom of the 7th, when Seattle reliever Ryan Rowland-Smith set up the rally for Texas. Gerald Laird reached on a bunt single to start the inning, and in a strange decision, was bunted over by Chris Shelton. Rowland-Smith then walked German Duran, and threw a wild pitch, but did strike out Ramon Vazquez for the second out of the inning. That was when Seattle Manager John Mclaren decided to bring in Mark Lowe, and not long after that move, all hell was loosed on the Mariners.

Lowe walked Ian Kinsler to load the bases, and that brought up Michael Young. Young swung at the first pitch, and grounded it to second – but Jose Lopez bobbled it, the go-ahead run scored, and the inning continued. The next batter was Josh Hamilton, and he whacked an 0-2 pitch past the shortstop Betancourt for a 2-run single, and Frank Catalanotto followed with an RBI single of his own. That made it 10-6 after 7.

In the top of the 8th, Joaquin Benoit gave up a 2-run homer to Wladimir Balentien, but the Rangers would tack on a couple more with bases-loaded walks in the bottom of the frame. Heading to the top of the 9th, Texas lead 12-8, with CJ Wilson coming on. That’s when disaster struck.

Wilson, who has really struggled of late to throw strikes and get consistent outs, proceeded to squander the entire 4-run lead, surrendering an RBI double to Ibanez, and then a 3-run homer to Kenji Johjima. Jamey Wright had to come in and finish the inning, and after the Rangers stuck out in order against Brandon Morrow in the bottom of the 9th, the game headed into extras.

Doug Mathis, just up from AAA was called upon to make his Major League debut in a helluva pressure spot, the top of the 10th inning, and he delivered. He got Yuniesky Betancourt to ground to second, retired Ichiro on a liner to second, and then got Jose Vidro to fly out – the first 1-2-3 inning for Ranger pitching since the top of the 7th, when Frank Francisco set down the side in order.

Then it was time for the bottom of the 10th. David Murphy struck out to start the frame, the fourth consecutive K for Brandon Morrow but then… on a 1-0 count… Ramon Vazquez got ahold of a 94 MPH Morrow fastball, and blasted it into the right field seats. Game. Over.

As Ramon would later explain, he was simply up there sitting dead red, and Morrow didn’t disappoint:

“He was coming right at people,” Vazquez said. “I got a good pitch to hit, the pitch I was looking for. I was looking for a fastball down. I was just hoping to lay off the breaking ball. He’s a guy you don’t want to hit his breaking ball. I wanted to get a fastball and get the head off the bat on it.”

…

“That’s a great feeling,” Vazquez said. “That’s all the power I had.”

Doug Mathis would wind up a winner after his very first inning in The Show, calling it ”the coolest thing I’ve ever experienced”,  and the Rangers now lead this three game vendetta series against Seattle 1-0. It may not have been a pretty win, but the momentum from this latest rollercoaster ride was much needed after the A’s let a little air out of the Rangers balloon on Sunday.

There was one small chink in the celebration of this one, though: Milton Bradley apparently hurt himself taking a practice swing in the 7th (which is why Frank Catalanotto hit for him instead). He is currently listed as day-to-day, and will not be in the lineup tomorrow. Sigh. MB = china doll.

Elsewhere, TR Sullivan has a piece up on Jamey Wright, and how important he has been to the bullpen this season – very true, you gotta love the job “The Electrician” has done in 2008. But more interesting to me is this line at the end on Frankie Francisco from Ron Washington:

“Frankie is starting to turn the corner as far as his fastball and he’s starting to get his secondary pitches over,” Washington said. “If he can continue to do that, you never know what will happen. He used to be a stud. His confidence is starting to go up.”

I still hesitate to say that the Frankie of old is back just yet, but he’s been back up to 96-97 on the gun on a regular basis lately, and has flashed some wicked stuff – if he keeps it up, I would say it won’t be long before Francisco starts to get some consideration to perhaps pitch a few times in the 8th, maybe even 9th innings, considering the recent struggles of Joaquin Benoit and CJ Wilson.

TR also has some notes on David Murphy’s recent slump, and Marlon Byrd’s status - Murphy, who got the night off Monday, was hitting just .167 in his last 13 games. Much of that slump can be attributed to his being only 1 for his last 20 against left-handed pitchers, a rash of which the Rangers have faced lately. With Marlon Byrd about ready to come back, the Rangers may soon be able to suppress that issue, but it’s also mentioned there that Byrd still might be left down in OKC for a couple more games. However, with Milton Bradley hurting himself last night, I’m betting Byrd is going to be up tomorrow – and I’m also betting that sooner or later, Byrd is going to platoon with Murphy against LHP, whether Washington calls it an official platoon or not.  

Today it’s Kason Gabbard making his first start since being attacked by Sexson- he will reprise his matchup with Felix Hernandez once again. This time Richie Sexson isn’t in the lineup to try and kill Gabbard, so hopefully we can get him though at least the the 6th inning. The less innings the bullpen has to pitch right now, the better.

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Stifled: Rangers offense lulled to sleep as they fall short of sweep
May 5, 2008, 4:53 am
Filed under: Ranger Losses | Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Well, I guess all good things must come to an end – which is what happened Sunday to the Texas Rangers four-game winning streak. But did it really have to come to an end the way that it did? I’m sure that’s a question that both Scott Feldman and his teammates where asking themselves after the end of this one.

Making his second spot-start of the season, Feldman delivered a beauty, firing scoreless ball over his first six frames, while locked in a pitchers duel with A’s rookie left-hander Greg Smith. Smith himself was brilliant, going six innings and giving up just three hits and two walks, while striking out ten Rangers. But he still left the game trailing 1-0, as one of those three hits he allowed was German Duran’s first major league home run in the third inning. But that was the only offense the Rangers could muster for the entire game, as he 3-4-5 hitters, Josh Hamilton, Milton Bradley, and David Murphy struck out a combined ten times. And as it turned out, that solo homer would not be enough to support Feldman’s outing, as he couldn’t keep the A’s off the scoreboard forever.

The 7th inning started with Feldman inducing a high pop fly from Frank Thomas, but Josh Hamilton, who may have had his worst game ever as a Rangers (0-4, 3 K’s) lost the ball in the sun, and Thomas wound up on second when the ball dropped. Thomas was credited with a double, and after the obligatory pinch-runner was brought in, Jack Cust stepped up, and promptly mashed the second pitch he saw from Feldman to left-center for a 2-run homer. The Rangers never recovered, as the A’s tacked on a third run when Frank Francisco came in after a Bobby Crosby double chased Feldman, and gave up an RBI single to Ryan Sweeny to make it 3-1 A’s.

Texas did have the tying run at the plate in the 9th against Oakland closer Huston Street, after Brandon Boggs doubled with 2 out, but Ron Washington let Gerald Laird bat instead of pinch hitting someone like Ian Kinsler or Jarrrod Saltalamacchia (who where both on the bench) and Laird grounded out weakly to second to end the game. Not that it’s that highly probable that the Rangers would have won if Kinsler or Salty would have hit, but it still kind of irks me that Ron Washington kind of mailed in the game by letting Laird bat. Your bench is there for a reason, and that’s to try for for those once-in-a-million pinch-hit home runs, just like a Hail Mary in football - it’s true, the chances of it actually working are microscopic, but ”Baseball Man” could have at least given it a shot.

But still, two out of three in Oakland isn’t bad – as Michael Young pointed out after the game, the team is still playing good baseball going into Seattle, and you can’t really ask for a whole lot more than that.

Perhaps the biggest downside of the game was the fact that Ian Kinsler was out of the linuep for a second straight game though, with continued hamstring soreness – the Rangers insist this is just precautionary, and Kinsler says he’ll be ready to go Monday though:

“It’s just that I need a couple of days,” Kinsler said. “My legs are pretty sore, pretty tender. I want to make sure I don’t end up like Hank. They have been bothering me for a while, and [Saturday] I woke up and they were pretty sore. I feel like I’ll be ready to go [Monday].”

I certainly hope so – with him unavaible, it sure throws a kink into infield and bench flexibility.

That reminds me though, now is a perfect time to elaborate on a couple things from my last entry that I promised to expand on.

First up: Josh Hamilton is your American League player of the month for April. In 28 games in March/April, Josh hit posted a .330/.379/.591 line in terms of average, OBP, and slugging %, and posted a 970 OPS. He had a major-league leading 32 RBI for the month, and slugged 6 HR, 10 2B’s and 1 3B – all that along with some excellent OF defense, whether he was playing in CF or RF, makes for one awesome month. And as a reward for that awesomeness, he becomes the first Ranger to be named AL player of the month since Mark Teixeira waay back in July ‘04 – and he also will be getting a 52-inch Sharp Aquos TV, although he says he’d accept a simple plaque. 

52 inch TV: about $4,000 with debit mastercard. Being named AL Player of the month: Priceless.

Another retread link from yesterday: Ron Washington has decided to platoon his catchers two days at a time now, supposedly to get them “back-to-back at-bats” – which makes a certain amount of sense untill you realize that now in between playing, each one gets to sit on the bench for two straight days - which actually might serve to screw them up even more than letting them alternate days. Or, if you want to put it another way, a dumb situation just got dumber.

That alternating could see some variation however, as Kevin Millwood apparently wants to have Laird as his personal catcher, and the Rangers want to keep pairing Salty with Sidney Ponson, so there could be adjustments to allow for that. The bottom line is though, that the catching situation is one screwed-up mess – the Rangers won’t commit to Salty because are still trying to generate trade interest for Superstar – who the Reds, Yankees and Brewers have apparently all passed on of late. Granted, Laird has been hitting well of late though, as he currently has an 8-game hitting streak, in which he is hitting .355 for those games, so I suppose you have to play him while he’s actually pumping up his trade value. But even I am starting to regret Salty’s callup – he still needs the consistent AB’s, and he’d at least still be getting that in AAA. Although, on the other hand it did seemingly take Salty’s presence to mysteriously start Laird’s hot streak, so…

Getting back to Sunday’s news, TR Sullivan notes that Kason Gabbard is about about ready to rejoin the rotation, and should start Thursday. He threw 65 pitches in a successful rehab start for Frisco on Saturday, and will throw a bullpen on Monday, after which the Rangers will decide whether or not they will officially clear him for Thursday’s start against the Mariners. If Gabbard does start, that will leave the organization the pleasant problem of having to decide between Scott Feldman or AJ Murray for Friday’s start. Both where excellent this weekend, and since it’s going to be the A’s left-handed lineup again, the Rangers might lean toward the lefty Murray.

Finally, TR Sullivan notes that Ramon Vazquez has taken rookie German Duran under his wing. It seems the Rangers are currently taking special care to publicly promote Vazquez as the gritty veteran, who literally wills his team to wins right now – Evan Grant recently got it started, and it looks like TR’s hopped on the bandwagon as well. Vazquez is a fairly average, versatile backup player, and a good commodidty to have, but the reality is, he’s no super-sub like Mark DeRosa. So I’m really not exactly sure why Vazquez is all of a sudden being hailed as the Rangers own version of Scott Brosius. And, apparently, neither is Scott Lucas.

Monday, it’s Kevin Millwood vs. Jarrod Washburn in Seattle – Millwood is trying to snap a 9 game losing streak on the road, and Washburn is 0-3 with a 5.91 ERA in his last 4 starts. But we’ll have to see if Ramon Vazquez can grit us to another win – he didn’t quite get it done on Sunday.

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Blalock on the DL with a torn hamstring
April 28, 2008, 10:21 pm
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , ,

Apparently, the Rangers will indeed not have Hank Blalock in the lineup on Tuesday when they face the Kansas City Royals. That much I expected.

However, it appears Hank is now going to be out for 3-4 weeks as an MRI has revealed that Hank’s injured hamstring does indeed have a “small tear” in it, despite the initial diagnosis that it was only strained.

Hank had been hitting .299 with 2 HR and 7 RBI, but Ramon Vazquez and German Duran will have to now fill in for the next month or so. Travis Metcalf, who subbed along with Vazquez for Balock when he had Thoratic outlet surgery last season, is still rehabbing from spring surgery to repair a torn hamstring muscle of his own, and isn’t an option to fill in for Hank, at least not yet – so it appears that the power output from third base is about to drop to zero for the Rangers.

Brandon Boggs is tabbed as the likely get the call from AAA to take Blalock’s place on the 25-man roster for now, as he’s the only position player on the 40-man roster at this point eligible for a callup (Joaquin Arias, the only other possible option on the 40, is still recovering from arm surgery last year, and is not yet 100%).

Even though the Rangers probably won’t do this, in my opinion, now would be a fine time to let Michael Young try out third base – with his ever-decreasing range at shortstop, a move to third could be in his future (a position change of some sort most certainly is), so it might be interesting to try him there on a temporary basis now, and see how he handles it. It’s not like you can get any worse defensively at short with Vazquez or Duran, after all.

Tomorrow Jenny Jennings will take on Brett Tomko of Kansas City. I sure hope the Rangers can break out the bats again - if there was ever a game with the potential to be a slugfest, it’s tomorrows.

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