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.

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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.

more...

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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."

more...

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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.

more...

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