Rangers news and other disasters...

UPDATE:  I mentioned Mitch Moreland would probably be out until opening day.  He was back in the lineup last night against the A's and contributed positively on both offense and defense, playing in left field.  So that's good.

Real-life has kept me away from blogging duties both here and at my personal blog, but the Rangers news has reached a bursting point.

I've been told by Cubs fans that there comes a point in every season where the sense of inevitability comes to full fruition, and you realize that the team can't do worse than it is *right then*, and then you can figure out how the Cubbies will end up in October.  Rangers fans probably feel that way right now.

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Do players have a problem with Rangers management?

I was surprised, for the most part, when most Rangers fans dismissed Ian Kinsler's slam of the Texas Rangers and the organization's front office.  Jon Daniels, the Rangers GM, has been the target of vitriol ever since Nolan Ryan was stripped of the Team President title and Daniels was promoted.  However, the few people who have commented in support of Kinsler have generally expressed a similar opinion to that espoused in this Shutdown Inning piece.

Even worse than that is if the players do really hate his guts for various reasons and Washington isn’t able to keep the fence up between his dugout and the front office. It’s a fun bit to pretend that Jon Daniels is a ninja or has Jedi-like abilities, but the reality for all general managers is that the shelf life for success is usually very inconsistent and often fleeting. Another fun twitter exercise is to bag on Nolan for his age, his old-school mentality and his overall disdain for anything metric related, but what if his presence WAS that valuable to the players as Kinsler alluded to? If Nolan in fact was the glue that kept the bridge between the front office, Washington, and the players’ together things could unravel quickly in 2014 and beyond. Nolan choosing to go back to Houston and join an organization that embraces advanced metrics and that new paradigm in baseball management more than most orgs out there may speak more to the personality issues rather than the baseball philosophy differences here in Arlington. What if Jon Daniels has become so incorrigible that he has become blinded by his own ego and desire to prove Nolan and other doubters wrong that rash decisions are quickly approaching? Acting on ego and emotion is typically not a good policy.

I tried to comment to the article but couldn't ever get a comment through; if my multiple submissions ever actually show up I would like to take this opportunity to apologize for causing problems.  I have instead provided my response below:

I thought on this a bit after the Kinsler comments came out. In the end, like everything else, you have to look at the evidence. The players who have expressed dissatisfaction are all players that Daniels got closer to than he should have when he first joined the club; a mistake that he has admitted to. Doesn't make it right, but it is valid context.

There is no evidence that Nolan Ryan ever served as the "glue" for the team, as repeatedly big-name free agent pitchers refused to sign with Texas, sometimes even despite better contractual offers. That certainly could have been because of Jon Daniels' presence, but it shows that *if* that were the case, then Nolan wasn't powerful enough to overcome dislike for Daniels.

But even then, since Ryan left Daniels traded for Fielder (who could have blocked the trade), Choo rejected a contract with New York to sign with Texas, and Michael Young turned down multiple contracts to come back to Texas and retire as a Ranger. Martin Perez signed an incredibly team-friendly contract for several years. Colby Lewis signed on for another year despite seeking a major-league contract. None of these things seem to indicate players want to stay away from Daniels.

So, I don't really see any sign of Daniels being a problem. In fact, it would seem that having Ryan around was more detrimental to contracts than Daniels. The point being, three players have generally trashed the Rangers front office, while complementing Nolan Ryan; yet it doesn't seem to actually mean anything to anyone beyond these three players. Which indicates to me that the problem was isolated and isn't a general issue with the organization.

Time will tell, of course.

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Calling the Rangers starting rotation:

I, of course, retain the right to change my mind at any time before the announcement is made.  This is what makes sense to me right now, and it includes two big assumptions.

1. Darvish.  No brainer.
2. Harrison.  However, this spot will be skipped the first week.
   
3. Perez.  He'll have his act together by his next outing.  Also, this location my be wrong; he may swap places with the #4 starter.
4. Lewis.  All the news out of Surprise so far is that Lewis isn't just doing ok, he's doing great.  Good enough that he can hold done the middle of the rotation.
5. Hanson.  He's started out better than the best he ever did last year.

The Rangers are probably going with an extra reliever early on so they can keep Harrison and Lewis on low pitch counts.  So far, Kirkman is probably going to be this year's Scott Feldman.  Feliz may be one of the odd-men-out; while he performed well in winter ball, his spring performance has been terrible.  The rumors of "lack of effort" are starting to fly again.  Meanwhile, former KC closer Joakim Soria has worked effectively and efficiently, much in the mold of Joe Nathan.  Nothing overpowering, but everything done well.

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First week of Spring Training notes and news...

First, some general baseball news:

Three minor league players are suing MLB for unfair compensation.  The claim is that minor league contracts haven't kept up with other salaries or the cost of living in general, and minor league players earn less than the current minimum wage.  Noted baseball author and former player Dirk Hayhurst writes in support of the lawsuit.

Fangraphs analyzes how much of their salary all of the teams devote to the starting lineup and the starting rotation.  Biggest non-surprises:  The Phillies devote the largest percentage of their payroll AND the largest payroll overall to their starting pitchers, $80 million.  However, the dollar amount is only a few million more than the Dodgers; The Yankees and Tigers both spend around $60 million and are near the top of the list in percentages.  The Giants are the second-highest percentage and the fifth highest amount at $57 million.  The Marlins are dead last by significant margins, at $3 million and 7%.

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Texas Rangers, the Bunt, and Ron Washington's contract...

Shared from Lone Star Ball:

"For those confused about why Ron Washington doesn't have a contract beyond this season, Washington spoke with Gil LeBreton about the sacrifice bunt and this is a literal quote from the Rangers' manager among other such insanity:

"They can take the analytics on [sacrifice bunts] and shove it up their [bleep][bleep]."

I assume the "they" in that quote is you, me, Jon Daniels, Tim Bogar, the media, and everyone else who isn't Ron Washington. Therefore, we've just been told. If that isn't proof that Ron Washington boots up his AOL account and reads LSB, I don't know what could be.

Ron Washington also said, as told by Drew Davison, that if Shin-Soo Choo leads off the 2014 season with a double, expect Elvis Andrus to bunt him over in the first inning. So, either Ron Washington is playing the longest of cons, or my pitchfork is at the ready.

Evan Grant has more on what is already making me dread the 2014 season. Mainly that Ron Washington spouts numbers that have no basis in reality while deriding people who use numbers to analyse productivity and admits to forcing Elvis to bunt a metric ton last season -- a thing he intends to continue doing for the rest of our lives.

Anthony Andro shares this quote from Washington about wasting outs:

"Mike Scioscia dropped 56 sacrifice bunts, the most in the league, and he's a genius. Ron Washington dropped 53 (in 2010) and he's bunting too much."

Ron, my friend, since I know you're reading, let me clue you in:

Mike Scioscia has piloted a billion dollar failure to four straight disappointing seasons. No one thinks he's a "genius." The only reason he hasn't been fired is because he's still in the middle of an 87 year contract with the Angels. It's becoming clearer by the day why the Rangers haven't offered you a similar long-term deal."

Link to the original story.

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Controvesy! (Averted...)

As one journalist noted on twitter earlier, the reason why Yu Darvish isn't more candid with the media is because of days like today.

Early this afternoon, someone finally got Darvish to open up about the Masahiro Tanaka/Yankees contract. His two comments were "I don't know too much about the new posting system but I think the Yankees gave him too much.," followed by "I think Kuroda, Iwakuma and I really helped him as far how the scouts and teams evaluated him." The first comment speaks for itself; the second seems to imply that the success of Darvish, Kuroda and Iwakuma led scouts to grade Tanaka higher than he otherwise might be. Of course, there isn't really anything controversial about the first comment...it's a common sentiment around the baseball world. The second comment is interesting *and* worthy of debate, but is also a bit of a slap in Tanaka's face. The statement suggests that Darvish and the other two are all superior pitchers to Tanaka, a fact that benefited him when scouts judged him by *their* merits instead of his own.

Controversial, insightful, and interesting.

Unfortunately, what was left out of the initial reports is that both Darvish and his translator were laughing when he delivered the comments, and the pool of reporters present laughed in response. After the story blew up, Yu tweeted that he thought it was obvious that he was joking; and he thought that the reporters present, by their laughter, understood it was a joke. He apologized for any misunderstandings that the comments created.

And that's why ace pitchers from Japan can't be forthright with the media. I do, in fact, mean it when I say "forthright" and "candid", because, despite the laughter, I believe Darvish shared what he actually believes. Of course, it suits my taste because *I* believe it, too...but that's beside the point. If you follow Darvish's blog or Facebook page, it's pretty clear he follows his news clippings. At least half of the off-season Darvish news I got first off of *his* sharing of a story. Darvish is a diva. Thankfully, he's got the dance to back it up, but still...

There is no way in the world Darvish is *not* aware of the following facts:

1. When he signed with the Rangers, opinion was very mixed on how well he would do in the MLB and whether Texas had just blown most of their $100 million + investment.
2. After his first year, there was still a considerable amount of opinion that Yu had had his one good year, and would never have another high-performance season.
3. While acknowledging that Tanaka has never been considered as good as Darvish, the majority opinion on the new MLB pitcher was that he would immediately step into the #2 role in any rotation and maybe even be almost as good as Yu.
4. The Yankees gave Tanaka more than twice as much as Darvish got.

I cannot seriously believe there are journalist out there who seriously believe this isn't an issue grating on Yu's nerves. And you can bet, standing right behind Yu Darvish, whispering in his ear, is Jon Daniels:

"I know what you're worth. You'll get it, when the time comes.

But, apparently, some people out there still don't believe.

You know what you need to do.

Prove it."






It's a nice image.

If you're a Ranger fan.

Posted by: Ben at 09:11 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Angels next in line for tragedy...

Former pitching great Mark Mulder is the latest soldier to fall to Spring Training, moving the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and Los Angeles into the camp of Broken Dreams along with the Mariners and Rangers.  Mulder ruptured an Achilles tendon while doing stretching exercises and is expected to be out for the entire 2014 season.  LA had been counting on Mulder to claim a spot in the starting rotation.  While the loss of Mulder specifically is less serious than Seattle losing Iwakuma for a month or two, or Texas losing #2 pitcher Derek Holland for half the season, the Angels have less pitching depth than the Mariners, and certainly less than the Rangers, who have been signing high-upside back-of-the-rotation pitchers left and right since Holland yelled "Hey, y'all, watch this!"

In addition, a small contingent of Angels fans have been absolutely obnoxious about how signing Mulder was the "steal of the season".

Heh.

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End of the week news update...

The fantasy baseball league is at 7 confirmed players with 1 pledge.  If you have any interest, you can post here or at wonderduck.mu.nu, or email me at midnitetease at hotmail dot com.

Beyond the Box Score has an article up on baseball game attendance since the 1950s.  While attendance is technically down a bit from the peak years of 2006-2008, baseball is still averaging around 30,000 fans per game.  BtBS's conclusions are that this is due mostly to:

The aging of the Baby Boom Generation, those people born between 1946-1964. By the time the 1980s began they were entering their 20s and 30s.

The economic expansion of approximately 1982-2007, which created new wealth and disposable income, allowing for greater spending on items like baseball attendance.

An increased corporate presence and expanded advertising opportunities.

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New fantasy baseball league...

UPDATE:  Wonderduck has more information and a better sales pitch than I do:  Click Here!

I, along with and thanks to the support of a friend and fellow baseball enthusiast, am starting a fantasy baseball league strongly geared toward people new to fantasy baseball and even people new to baseball fandom.  We have 3 or 4 players lined up, only one of which is both a long-time baseball fan *and* an experienced fantasy baseball player.  We would really like to get at least eight players, and as I said, no previous experience will be necessary.  No one will be thrown into the deep end and support, help and practice will be available to everyone.  The league will be run through a free website that has all of the management features needed to maintain and run the league.

If you have any questions or are interested in joining, just email me (midnitetease at hotmail dot com OR TexasBaseballTown at hotmail dot com) or comment below.

Ben

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The trucks are rolling...

The Rangers' equipment truck is scheduled to be in Surprise, Arizona by Tuesday, followed closely by Ron Washington, Mike Maddux and Matt Harrison; hopefully Yu Darvish and the rest will be there as well.

Colby Lewis continues to draw mentions as a stronger candidate than many pundits think for a spot in the rotation; Colbyashi has apparently impressed pitching coach Mike Maddux with his moves:

"He's feeling good," Maddux said. "I've seen video of him throwing, and he looks free and easy. He's able to get off his back side, that's something he hasn't been able to do (because of the hip) in a while. Now he can push off the mound. Before, he was falling down hill."

Lewis was 32-29 with a 3.93 ERA in 80 starts for the Rangers in 2010-12. He was also 4-1 with a 2.38 ERA in eight postseason starts."

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Spring Training begins...

Before too long we're going to be talking about performances on the field rather than player acquisitions.

Suk-min Yoon is apparently the next big prize, although how good he will be in America is more uncertain than Masahiro Tanaka's outlook...

He posted a 4.16 ERA in 11 starts, and a 3.60 ERA in 19 relief appearances. Yoon was good enough to win the league MVP award in 2011 (while Ryu was still there), putting up a 2.45 ERA, striking out more than one batter an inning, and walking just 2.3 per nine innings in 172â…“ frames. Yoon followed that up with a 3.12 ERA, and similar peripherals through 153 innings in 2012.

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Links and news for the sport that starts right after the Superbowl...

Right after the Masahiro Tanaka signing, every journalist in baseball looked over their shoulder at Yu Darvish.  It's been intimated from the time his posting was first rumored that Darvish is a bit of a prima donna.  If you follow his blog and twitter (and occasionally do a little reading-between-the-lines, which is dangerous when in interpreting Japanese) you can certainly see that the current strikeout king regards himself highly, although Yu does, mostly, keep his ego checked.  And he has his own museum in Japan.  Notwithstanding, Darvish prompted a few knowing looks when he recently responded to questions about Tanaka's (a friend of Darvish) contract "Why don't you go ask Ma-kun."*

*If you're not familiar with Japanese culture; formality and very specific social status is a rule and a lifestyle.  An aquantance or casual friend may be addressed by their "family" name, with appropriate suffix to indicate the status of the relationship.  E.g. if Darvish and Tanaka knew each other but were not close in anyway, Darvish would have probably called him "Tanaka-san".  A regular friend might earn the privilege of being referred to by their given name, e.g. "Masahiro-chan".  For a closer relationship, especially between boys or when addressing a male friend, the -kun suffix might be added, as in "Masahiro-kun".  At around the same level, or perhaps a bit closer, a shortened "nickname" associated with the more intimate suffix, e.g. "Ma(sahiro)-kun" might be used.

Rumors started flying around immediately regarding the value of Darvish's contract, and whether he might see a sizable extension soon.  However, General Manager Jon Daniels says a contract extension isn't a focus for the Rangers right now:

"At some point we'll sit down and talk just like we do it on everybody," Texas general manager Jon Daniels said. "He's still got four years on his deal. I don't see a rush necessarily. We'll address is at the right time. Right now we'll just focus on getting him into camp."

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Nolan Ryan to figure prominently for the Astros soon?

This news has only started breaking the last couple of days, and I didn't want to cover it until I had a feel for what Astros fans were thinking.  Surprisingly, a majority of bloggers seem to be encouraging caution, which is probably smart.  Obviously none of us know for sure what happened to the Ranger's front office the last couple of years, but one thing is very clear:  Rangers ownership stripped Nolan Ryan of all direct management responsibilities after the 2012 off season and made Jon Daniels team president as well as general manager.  The owners allegedly wanted to do this at some point *before* the 2012 off season but Daniels refused the promotion.  And now Ryan has opened up the possibility of working for the Astros.  Let's work through some points posted by Idrees Tily at Crawfish Boxes:
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Posted by: Ben at 07:25 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Keith Olbermann on Derek Holland...

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The Tanaka has landed...

The Yankees gave STUPID money to Masahiro Tanaka.  This is a guy who *might* have the upside to be a #2 rotation guy, but has a high-mileage arm and only one plus pitch.  He'll probably be the #3 or #4 pitcher and he's making more per year than all but a handful of pitchers in baseball.

Here's my theory.  The Yankees, and possibly the Dodgers, are trying to drive the price up on pitching.  These two teams are trying to create an environment where only the richest teams can afford the best pitchers.  If, in a couple of years, Yu Darvish wants $30 million AAV, there are only two teams who will give it to him.  And they will.


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