When the Rangers play the Rockies in Colorado...

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Posted by: Ben at 08:22 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I'm not entirely sure what the Rangers did this week...

...but it wasn't baseball.  Baseball is a *competitive* sport in which two *baseball teams* take it in turns to pitch, hit, catch and throw.  Whichever team does it a little bit better wins.

Texas' AAA, AA, A and Low A affiliates *all* could have put in a better showing than the Rangers did this week.

You remember I mentioned after the first Tampa game that several of the players looked like they were sick, or drunk, or were being directly affected by *some* kind of performance-dehancing condition?  That's what Texas looked like *every* game this week.  They *all* literally looked sick.

If every game was like the first against Oakland, where Sonny Gray really *was* pitching that well (although I still think Texas could have scored a couple of runs), that would be one thing.  But the lackluster performances against Seattle after sweeping Oakland, and then this absolutely pathetic, little-league bullshit of the last two nights...

That was embarrassing, Rangers fans.  *Oakland A's* fans were tweeting about how embarrassed they were that their team was beating a team that was playing so poorly.

I generally don't go along with the idea that a team *owes* it's fans anything other than an attempt at competency and a safe and reasonably enjoyable ballpark experience.

But someone from the Rangers needs to apologize for this mess.  The infield defense is pathetic.  This is something that has been a Texas strength for years.  The team chemistry is non-existent, at least at first glance.  There's no energy.  The offensive problems are well-documented.

This team has some problems.  I just hope they are not as deep as they look right now.

Posted by: Ben at 09:41 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Three weeks ago...

...only the drunk would have placed a bet on Texas being first in the A.L. in 22 games.  Mainly because the Rangers have the following on the D.L.:

• Jurickson Profar (starting 2nd Baseman)
  
• Matt Harrison (All-star Left-handed starter)
  
• Adrian Beltre (he's f***in Adrian Beltre)
  
• Geovany Soto (not that big a deal, but Yu Darvish likes him)
  
• Derek Holland (see Matt Harrison)
  
• Pedro Figueroa (one of the bullpen pieces that was working)
  
• Joseph Ortiz (the working bullpen piece that Pedro replaced)
  
• Joe Saunders (leave him)
  
• Tanner Scheppers (8th inning man put in a starting role)
• Jim Adduci (4th outfielder, our backup Craig Gentry)
• Engel Beltre (see Adduci, but has higher ceiling as a prospect)
• In addition Shin-soo Choo and Kevin Kouzmanoff, or basically the first Rangers run of every game, are day-to-day.

The starting roster includes the following names:

• Josh Wilson and Donnie Murphy (journeyman infielders)
• Robinson Chirinos (rookie catcher who wasn't a catcher only a few years ago)
• Nick Martinez (RH starter, first year above A ball)
• Aaron Poreda and Shawn Tolleson (waiver-claim relief pitchers)
• Luis Sardinas (not-ready-for-prime-time AA shortstop)
• Dan Robertson (cash deal Padres outfielder, defense-first and speedy.  He's a backup to Adduci, in other words.)  He's the third Ranger this year to wear #19.

It's a B-team roster, and the 40-man is filled with players that seemed to be depth-for-depth, catch-and-release, try-before-you-buy minor-league lifers, brought in at inexplicable times; and yet they keep being the *right* players available at *just* the right time.

Or another way to look at it, as ghostofErikThompson said on Lone Star Ball:  "The Rangers are in first place in the West.  The Rangers swept the Oakland A's in Oakland.  The Rangers have the best record in the American League.  The Rangers are the Oakland A's."

And there are other ways that analogy makes sense, but of course it can only go so far.  Beltre (5-$85), Darvish (5-$55+$52), Andrus (8-$120), Choo (7-$130) and Fielder (7-$13 make it pretty clear that the financial resources of the two teams are completely different.  And regardless of how well you may want to argue Texas has spent it's money, the Rangers still aren't in the same class as Oakland and Tampa Bay regarding continued success for very little money.

But as for right now, you couldn't really say that Oakland is spending their money any better than Texas, either.

Posted by: Ben at 09:13 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Since the last time Colby Lewis pitched...

I don't have much time for a post because of work, but a few thoughts on the past week.

After failing to support Lewis in his first start, the Rangers then won the next five straight, including Lewis's second start.  Colby was solid enough in his first game and looked even better in his second.  Lewis allowed only one run before coming out of the game in the sixth inning and has yet to walk a batter.  He only allowed six hits, but none of them were cheap, and a lot of the outs he recorded were nail-biters.

The Rangers looked like they were finally getting everything together this past week, which makes sense considering Texas' spring training was a mockery of team assembly.  Everyone had a good week, or at least some good moments, even Prince Fielder, Josh Wilson and Donnie Murphy.  People are starting to scream about Fielder not hitting; after all, Texas isn't paying him to *just* get on base.  Which is arguable but also philosophical, so we'll leave that alone for now.  Fielder hit two home runs this past week, along with a few more hits and got on base almost every other at bat.  Despite which, a fan's visual perception was most likely of Fielder grounding out several times, or hitting line drives straight into the shift.  However, some notes of promise for those who are really worried about the Rangers' investment:  Fielder, for more than ten days now, is hitting the ball HARD almost every time.  He's just not beating the shift.  I suspect he will at some point though, because Prince has shown with most of his hits that he can change the direction of the ball significantly and quickly; he just doesn't have his timing down quite right.  His last home run was in on his hands.  He literally just flicked the bat and dented a fan deep in the home run porch.  An amazing home run, but amazing batsmanship is more significant.  Also, Fielder's walk rate this year is currently the second highest of his career, off the high mark by less than a percentile.  His K rate is the lowest of his career.  His eyes are good, his defense is OK, and his baserunning has been acceptable (all of the Rangers had some serious baserunning gaffs in the first week).  Fielder will come around, and if this last week is any indication, when he does he's going to be a terror.

Kouzmanoff, Andrus and Leonys Martin have been carrying the offense, and Andrus is up to nine stolen bases on the year last I checked.  And let's not forget that almost half the time, Choo is on base.  His slash line is currently .313/.429/.463; Choo is currently on track to beat his numbers from last year by a slight margin.

And then there's J.P. Arencibia.  The Arencibia signing was meant to show that J.P.  could actually be a good catcher and contribute offensively.  Instead, it seems to be proving that J.P. Arencibia is a poor game-caller, a mediocre defensive catcher, and a failure behind the plate.  It is possible that it's only a coincidence that Arencibia has caught the worst-pitched games this year, especially considering he was used almost exclusively for the first week, but it does seem a bit weird that every time he catches, the ERAs go up.  Except for Darvish.  Darvish pitched better to Arencibia than Chirinos, if you want to count two runs in eight innings as bad.  Of course, as I've documented before, Darvish is wound pretty tight.  Even though his tremendous talent and accumulating big-league experience has helped him master his game to a greater extent than ever before, we know he can go out of balance easily with the right stimuli.  Maybe Arencibia sticks as Darvish's personal pitcher, as Soto has for the past two years.

As for that last game against the White Sox, well; did you watch it?  That was a weird game, man.  I'm not saying it was aliens, but having the Easter bunny in the stands couldn't have been a good thing.

Posted by: Ben at 09:24 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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One of the worst baseball nights ever...

Colby Lewis is back after almost two years of breakdowns, and looked just as good as he always did.  (Which is to say, he's a middle-of-the-rotation starter at best, except for his inexplicable dominance in the post-season).  He struck out four, made it through the lineup once on only a handful of pitches, scattering only a few hits; before tiring in the sixth (he hasn't pitched regularly in two years, remember).

And the Rangers gave him two three fielding errors and two fielding mistakes that weren't ruled errors and one run.

Damn it.

Posted by: Ben at 11:04 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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How you look when the car is moving, but there's clearly something wrong....

I've been trying to figure out what would be good to write now that the season has started, but there really isn't much to say.  The Texas Rangers have played nine games now, and are 4 - 5.  That is, obviously, not where Rangers fans would like the team to be...but there are reasons why that record isn't really so bad...and also reasons to be concerned.  So let's hit the highlights, shall we?

Texas started the year with Tanner Scheppers "technically" out-pitching Cliff Lee, but both were awful.  The Rangers scored 8 runs off of Lee, which means they should have won.  Unfortunately, the Rangers' bullpen allowed 8 runs, in addition to the 6 Tanner allowed.  Martin Perez then stepped up and pitched a shutout through 5 innings before allowing 1 earned and 1 unearned run.  The Rangers came back to win the game in the 9th 3 - 2, although the ineffectiveness of the offense until the final outs of the game was alarming.  Robbie Ross allowed 3 runs through 5 innings the following day, putting him above Scheppers but under Perez.  Again, Texas came back in the 9th to win the game 4 - 3, and again people were grumbling about the offense.

In Tampa Bay, the Rays beat the snot out of Joe Saunders (which was absolutely expected) until Evan Longoria knocked Saunders' ankle out of commission for a week or two.  Thankfully, the Texas bullpen shut down the devilish Rays, but the Rangers' bats managed only one run the whole game.  About this time fans really started to bitch about the offense quite loudly.  Texas committed four errors in the game and made at least four non statistical errors beyond that.  A couple of the players literally looked as if they were hung over or sick.  The temporary fifth starter, AA rookie Nick Martinez allowed only 3 runs through 5 innings of work, while Texas uncharacteristically scored 4.  Unfortunately, bullpen ace Neal Cotts gave up two runs to earn the loss.  For the third game, the skies opened up and Yu Darvish descended on a golden throne.  Darvish pitched 7 scoreless innings and left with a pitch count under 90, and the Rangers wanting to keep his workload low.  The Texas offense didn't score a run until Darvish left the game (not THAT again), but the bullpen kept the Rays closed out and Texas won it 3 - 0.  Darvish also set a (nother) Major League record, becoming the pitcher with the fewest innings to reach 500 strikeouts.  It was also around this time that people started noticing that every time you looked up, Shin-soo Choo was somewhere on the basepaths.  Prince Fielder still wasn't.  With a 3 - 3 record, the Rangers headed to Boston with high hopes.

Tanner Scheppers allowed 2 runs in 5 innings this time, but all five innings took a lot of work.  Reliever Seth Rosin allowed two to reach, and Shawn Tolleson allowed those 2 runs and another to score.  Texas managed only 1 run against John Lackey.  The offense finally returned in the second game, with the Rangers running the score up 9 - 1 before Martin Perez allowed 3 runs in the 7th and came out of the game.  Neal Cotts didn't blow it this time, but Joakin Soria had his first bad outing of the year and allowed 3 runs in the 9th.  In the third game, despite walking 6 batters, Robbie Ross held the Sox to one run for five innings, while Texas batters gained a 1 - 0 lead, then regained a 2 - 1 lead, then Neal Cotts blew another one with a three-run shot to David Ortiz.  Adrian Beltre left the game with a (we now know minor) quad strain.

So that's the way it is.  I am seriously concerned with the offense.  Except for Shin-soo Choo, who has a slash line of .355/.475/.484.  I am not even making that up.  And Elvis Andrus, who's at .306/.306/.404.  And Alex Rios, who has .364/.465/.515.  And Adrian Beltre, who's at .286/.394/.393.  Unfortunately, the rest of the team is batting more like .250/.260/.350.

The pitching is ugly, but working.  However, the rotation is going to get better soon, which means the bullpen will get better soon.  Martinez is gone, but his roster spot can be used by someone else.  Darvish is back, and has finally figured out how to pitch his nasty, nasty stuff to contact.  The strikeouts will go down, for a while.  However, once Darvish has this routine solid, I suspect he's going to find he's inhabiting a world similar to the NPB league, where he struck batters out by whim.  And he'll have to get a bigger cap (again) because his head will swell to humongous proportions and his ego will have it's own translator.  Martin Perez showed in his second start that he's finally nailed down a process for getting outs even when he doesn't have command of the strike zone.  he's a solid #2 or #3 pitcher.  Colby Lewis will be back in the rotation, most likely on Monday.  The scouts say to not expect a return to form for Lewis, but that's what they said when he came back from Japan, too...so I'm still dreaming.  Derek Holland is fighting the clock so hard to come back early from his micro-fracture surgery that I expect he'll still be bloody and bruised for his first mound appearance.  He's still not scheduled until June, but he wasn't supposed to be throwing off the mound until May, either.  He's been doing that for over a week, now.  Harrison is supposed to be back at the end of the month, and the scouts are thrilled with what he's doing on the mound.

Of course, someone has to go when Lewis comes back.  Joe Saunders deserves the boot most of all, but he deserved *that* before he made the Rangers rotation, so I'm not clear on his status with the club.  That he is where he is *already* means he's got an in or a reason somewhere that I'm not aware of.  (Incidentally, Tommy Hanson signed a minor league deal with the White Sox, despite several good teams needing depth.  Chicago is not, generally, a very smart team, and I take that to mean that Hanson has problems that are not generally published.  Unless he had tremendous luck, the problem *isn't* his arm.)

The big questions Rangers fans need to be asking themselves right now are:

1. How would Joe Saunders do in the bullpen?  Is that an option?
2. If it's not, who goes back first:  Ross or Scheppers?  Keep in mind that Joe Saunders is a lefty, and the only other lefty in the rotation is Perez.  In the bullpen, Pedro Figueroa was supposed to be the Loogy, while Cotts was supposed to be one of the two "shut down/setup" pitchers.  Right now, Figueroa is ok but not great and Cotts is a 2-run handicap.  Ross would be really nice in the bullpen...or maybe Saunders?
3. Scheppers staying in the rotation most likely means Lewis does not.  Does that mean Lewis becomes the new Scott Feldman?
4. Does Colbyashi even want to *be* the new Scott Feldman?  He's 36, and probably would like to secure one more good contract to pay for his hip surgery (and his retirement).  Lewis, more than maybe any other Ranger, seems to have a good working relationship with this ball club.  *If* he can still contribute as a fifth starter/long man at a championship level, I would hope they can work something out.

Several parts of this offense are *stunningly* good.  I believe Prince Fielder will join them, and I think that by itself will be enough to start guaranteeing three or four runs per game, maybe better.

One thing that's very clear so far is that this group of players isn't playing as a team yet.  I'm pretty sure that will come with time, and if it doesn't, I would put  quite a bit of blame on Washington, as that's his #1 job.

That's all I've got for now, hopefully we can be discussing a winning streak before too long.

Posted by: Ben at 10:40 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Pride of the Rangers...

Posted by: Ben at 06:26 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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If I were Scioscia I would make the same call, and if I were Wilson I would be pissed, too...

Posted by: Ben at 10:06 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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A breakdown of baseball fans by county...

Keep in mind, you can't find a couple of teams on this map.  Oakland and the Mets obviously have fans, but the implication is that even in their home areas, there is no county in which their fans comprise the majority.  Some of the other small areas are pretty obvious.  While the Cubs have a regional audience, the White Sox aren't followed heavily outside of Chicago.  San Diego fans mostly live in San Diego.  The Yankees and Red Sox are the only truly national teams, with majorities in counties across the U.S.  However, I suspect that "other teams winning" affects those two teams most of all, as well.

Map is HERE.

Posted by: Ben at 09:15 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The Omen...

Posted by: Ben at 08:30 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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No, really...who?

Can anyone tell me why the Rangers have a non-waiveable career AAA third catcher on the 25 man roster rather than another pitcher or corner infielder?  I can argue any name on this roster except Gimenez.

Posted by: Ben at 06:48 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Seattle...

It is not unusual that a player who is out of options who is DFA'd (designated for assignment, also called an 'outright' assignment or being 'outrighted') because the team that owns their contract doesn't want/need them on their 25-man 'starting' roster, will refuse the assignment if they have the prerequisite service time (five years) and elect to pursue free agency.  These players, more often than not, will sign a contract with another AAA club.  The free agent contract can be argued to be better than working under the players existing contract, but it's usually an extremely marginal or even intangible difference.

That being said, it seems that Seattle is suffering from a huge number of players who really want to get the hell away from the Mariners organization.  It doesn't help that Seattle has been reputed to be a highly-dysfunctional and poorly run organization for years.

Just a thought.  Comments and insight welcome.

Posted by: Ben at 10:12 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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They can't all be winners...

Editor's Note:  The Rangers have made some highly publicized trades over the past decade or so.  Generally speaking, they provided the Yankees 1B, 3B and one of their outfielders (sort of).  Texas got a significant portion of it's World Series teams, and current team, from the Braves.  Most significantly, Texas has provided so many players to the Baltimore Orioles over the past twenty years that Rangers fans have taken to calling the Orioles the "Rangers East" club.

However, in recent years Texas has acquired another trading "partner", although as this guest post by Wonderduck illustrates, the relationship isn't exactly bilateral.

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Earlier today, I was at work when, from out of nowhere, our charming and delightful host here at the Wrigleyville South Baseball Blog popped up and asked if I'd like to write a little bit about the Arlington-Chicago pipeline. After asking "who are you and how did you get in here?" and calling security, I stepped into my office and locked the door behind me. After the weird person with the Rangers cap was escorted away by Virgil and Ron, I thought about his request and thought "eh, why not?"

It would be wrong to say that the Chicago Cubs and Texas Rangers have been trading partners over the past couple of years, because that would suggest that there has been equanimity between the two teams. In truth, the Cubs have been stealing the Rangers blind the entire time. For example, the Matt Garza deal. Or, as it should really be called, "13 mediocre starts by Matt Garza for Mike Olt, CJ Edwards, Justin Grimm, and Neil Ramirez."

Edwards could grow up to be a #3 starter. Grimm looked good until he hit Triple-A, at which point he discovered that baseball can be difficult, and the big leagues, at which point he discovered that perhaps selling cars isn't such a bad career after all. Ramirez is probably what is termed "organizational depth," as in "you need 25 players on a team, and they can't all be Mike Trout."

And then there's Mike Olt. Mike "I'll be starting for the Cubs this year" Olt. In Wrigley Field. When the trade first happened, the general consensus on sports-talk radio up here was that he was their third sacker for the rest of the decade at least. Me, I was some small amount less excited; the Cubs seem to have an institutional inability to create third-basemen out of can't-miss minor leaguers (Kevin Orie, anyone? How about Gary Scott? Heck, even the best Cubs trade of all time involved a third baseman that failed at the position... turned out Ryne Sandberg was okay at second, though). Despite this, I still thought Olt had a good chance to take over the hot corner at Sheffield and Addison. Turns out the Cubs agreed with me and put him on the major league roster today.

Meanwhile, Matt Garza will be pitching for the Milwaukee Brewers in 2014. Well, heck, that's okay, the Rangers still have that other Cubs pitcher you got a few years ago, Ryan Dempster, right? Oh, wait. Well, the Northsiders still have Kyle Hendricks and Christian Villanueva from that deal. Hendricks will be down in Triple-A to start the year, but it wouldn't have been a huge surprise if he had made the team out of Spring Training. Villanueva, on the other hand, suddenly has his path to the big leagues blocked by... Mike Olt. Whoopsie. Okay, you say, but Geovany Soto will be our starting catcher again, and he was a Cubs player! Yep, and as soon as his knee heals in twelve weeks, he'll be back to being Geo (Metro) Soto again.

It's been brought to my attention that the Rangers picked up ex-Cub Donnie Murphy off waivers today. My first reaction to this bit of news: "who?" My second reaction: "he was still on the Cubs?" Murphy is a 31-year old... let's be charitable and call him a "journeyman"... third-baseman that hit 11 homers last season (while striking out 48 times and walking eight). He'd hit 18 home runs in his previous six seasons combined. There's no question that he's better than not having a player at third base at all, so you've got that going for you, Ranger fans!

Once upon a time, the Cubs used to steal the Pittsburgh Pirates blind regularly. Now it looks like their attentions have turned to Arlington. At times like this, it's best just not to answer the phone if the caller ID shows an area code of "312." Trust me, you'll be better off.
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Wonderduck blogs about F1 Racing, anime, ducks, military history, baseball, the Chicago Cubs and ducks at Wonderduck's Pond.

Posted by: Ben at 11:41 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Who?

UPDATE:  I had written that the Rangers were playing the Mexican National Team in an exhibition game.  That is incorrect, they played the Quintana Roo Tigers, a AAA team in Cancun who are the Mexican National Champions.

The Texas Rangers have announced their starting rotation, at least for the first week or two of the year.  As a reminder, here's the starting rotation that was projected before spring training began, a rotation that many analysts concluded would be one of the best in baseball:  Yu Darvish, Derek Holland, Matt Harrison, Martin Perez, Alexi Ogando/Colby Lewis.

more...

Posted by: Ben at 08:13 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Ranger rotation update, or perhaps ragnorok...

Today Rangers fans learned that Yu Darvish has been pulled from the opening day start and will see a back specialist Wednesday.  The Rangers are claiming the check-up is a precaution, but no one believes them.

Texas also optioned former closer and Bobby McFerrin disciple Neftali Feliz to AAA Round Rock.  Officially, the move is to allow Feliz to recover his strength and velocity (again), but rumors still persist that the reassignment is the second move in an escalating game of trying to light a fire under Feliz's butt and get him to drop the "What, me worry?" act.

Two bits of good news; Robbie Ross was told to go out and earn a starting rotation spot against the Cleveland Indians.

Robbie Ross pitched seven shutout innings, giving himself a 1.27 ERA on the spring, and seemingly locking up a spot in the rotation to start the season. His final line for today: 7 IP, 4 hits, 3 walks, 8 Ks, no runs.

The three best pitchers in Rangers Camp this year have been the guys who pitched the sixth, seventh and eighth innings last year.

Also, Mitch Moreland, after delivering two hits yesterday, walked twice today.  The reason this is impressive is because the great tragedy with Moreland has always been his inability to hit after getting injured, which led to his unwillingness to take a walk.

Posted by: Ben at 05:46 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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