April 10, 2014
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:
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.
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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:
- How would Joe Saunders do in the bullpen? Is that an option?
- 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?
- Scheppers staying in the rotation most likely means Lewis does not. Does that mean Lewis becomes the new Scott Feldman?
- 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.
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
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That he is where he is *already* means he's got an in
He's an innings eater. He's never thrown less than 174 innings in a year since he's become a full-timer. Historically, he hasn't been a bad pitcher either.
Oh, I grant you his 2013 season was a miserable stack of pistachio-flavored crepe, but it's also the only season of his career that you can say "yep, that was chock full o' bad."
How would Joe Saunders do in the bullpen? Is that an option?
In his major league career, Joe Saunders has never made an appearance in relief. Not once. Do you really want to start experimenting with him now? He's not a good starter at the moment, for whatever reason, but my guess is that he'd be a hundred different flavors of awful out of the pen.
He's an innings eater. He's never thrown less than 174 innings in a year since he's become a full-timer. Historically, he hasn't been a bad pitcher either.
Oh, I grant you his 2013 season was a miserable stack of pistachio-flavored crepe, but it's also the only season of his career that you can say "yep, that was chock full o' bad."
How would Joe Saunders do in the bullpen? Is that an option?
In his major league career, Joe Saunders has never made an appearance in relief. Not once. Do you really want to start experimenting with him now? He's not a good starter at the moment, for whatever reason, but my guess is that he'd be a hundred different flavors of awful out of the pen.
Posted by: Wonderduck at April 13, 2014 01:52 AM (nW35e)
2
Texas has already committed to Colby Lewis getting Saunders' next start, and it's a moot point anyway until Saunders comes off the DL. But that's just a week away. The Rangers just signed Hector Noesi, supposedly with the intention of making him the mop-up man in the bullpen. That means that either Ross or Saunders has a future in the bullpen, and whoever doesn't get that get's reassigned or released. That's my gut instinct. Saunders has a decent track record, but he's not just pitching poorly right now, he's pitching horribly.
Posted by: Ben at April 13, 2014 10:09 AM (OL3h/)
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