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.

Earlier in the spring, rotation hopeful Matt Harrison triggered a month-long setback when he slept on a soft mattress and got a stiff back.  Shin-soo Choo, Elvis Andrus and Jurickson Profar have all been experiencing continued arm and shoulder soreness.  Choo and Andrus have both been examined repeatedly and found to have no injuries, but Profar has just been put on the DL with a torn muscle.  He'll miss the first three months of the season.  DH and backup fielder/backup-for-Fielder Mitch Moreland is out probably through opening day with a strained oblique; this has been a recurring injury for him.  Today the Rangers announced that starting catcher Geovany Soto, who has only been in camp for a week following foot surgery, will now miss three months after surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his right knee.  Engle Beltre, the still-promising-but-not-yet-really-fulfilling outfielder who is out of options, will miss half the season with a broken tibia.  Yu Darvish's neck has been stiff for a week now, and the Rangers are concerned he won't be ready for opening day.

Joe Saunders and Tommy Hanson both made starts against the White Sox, in what should have been position-clinching performances for both pitchers.  Instead, they gave up 18 runs.  Joe Saunders has pitched 8.1 innings for the Rangers and given up 15 runs on 18 hits.  His WHIP is 2.52.  Hanson has given up 11 runs on 14 hits in 14 innings.  His WHIP is 1.36.  Obviously, Hanson has the tools, they're just not working for him very well.  Unfortunately, these numbers are consistent with his performance last year.  Saunders is stinking up the place.  There is no way you let him into the starting rotation.

Now, there is a little bit of good news.

First, I do want to establish that losing Profar hurts the Rangers worse than losing Derek Holland.  Holland's performance can be replaced fairly easily, as I've blogged before.  Profar, however, was showing in spring training why he was the #1 prospect in baseball for two years.  As in, he was performing like Ian Kinsler in his prime.  The Rangers *do not* have another 4 WAR second baseman on the roster.  No one does.  It's a position of scarcity.

What might make up for the loss of Profar is the loss of Soto.

Because Soto was performing about as expected, which isn't so hot.  However, his replacement, Robinson Chirinos, has been red hot this spring, both offensively and defensively.  Manager Ron Washington made his opinion clear earlier in the spring:

Asked if Chirinos could still beat out Arencibia for the job, manager Ron Washington said: "No. Arencibia could still beat out Chirinos.”

Chirinos is batting .435 with a 1.196 OPS.  He's thrown out 3 of 9 base stealers.

The injuries to Beltre and Moreland make it more likely that Michael Choice will have an every day role with the team.  The highly-touted power-hitting outfielder prospect is batting .326 with an .866 OPS.  He also has three home runs and thirteen RBI in 24 partial games.

In the rotation, the disaster that is what-should-have-been is hopefully giving way to a promising future.  Harrison and Lewis are both throwing minor league games and impressing, but it's pretty clear neither will be in the rotation at the start of the season.  Neither will Alexi Ogando, who was told this past week he will be moving back to the bullpen where he will serve as the primary 8th inning arm.  This is a role Rangers fans will embrace; Ogando has tremendous stuff but has suffered numerous injuries in years that he's tried to start.  Out of the bullpen, his fastball hits 98 mph; he was given the nick-name "No-gando" in 2011...by the Detroit Tigers, who never did figure out how to hit his pitches.  Neftali Feliz, the former Ranger's closer, has lost out in his bid to reclaim the role after Tommy John surgery.  This is bad news for Feliz, but the good part is that Joakim Soria legitimately earned the closer role by pitching lights-out all spring.  Feliz hasn't been bad, but he hasn't been good, either.  However, the rumors around camp are that Texas is most concerned with his lackadaisical attitude.

Former reliever Tanner Scheppers has pitched his way into the starting lineup.  In his first game of the season, he gave up three runs on, I think, six hits.  After four starts, his line is five runs on eleven hits with fourteen strikeouts.  His opposing batting average is .208, and his WHIP is 1.02.  The Rangers have maintained for the last few years that Scheppers is a future #1 pitcher, and he's shown the last two weeks why that very well could be.

Lefty reliever Robbie Ross has made his own strong argument for joining the rotation, something more likely after Joe Saunders' abysmal performance this spring.  Ross has allowed four runs on fourteen hits in 14.1 innings.  He's only K'd 5, and his opposing batting average is maybe a hair higher than you'd like at .258, but his WHIP is 1.12, he's only walked 2 and allowed only 1 home run.  The final spot, for now, may be claimed by left Ryan Fierabend who has had a good spring except for his previous relief outing when he got bombed.  However, he shut out the A's for four innings today, allowing four hits with no strikeouts and no walks.

Also, Richard Durrett of ESPN covered some quotes by Rangers General Manager Jon Daniels concerning the Matt Garza trade last year.  As is clear in hindsight, and was predicted by quite a few people at the time, the Garza deal was bad, and Daniels admits it:

"I thought way too short-term with the Garza deal last year," Daniels told Zach Buchanan of the Arizona Republic. "That one's got a chance to haunt us and haunt me."

Friend Wonderduck, a Cubs fan, alerted me to this article, and we've talked about this trade a few times.  I asked him what he thought of it when it happened, and his answer was, essentially, that Chicago got away with robbery.  It turns out he was right.

At the time, I thought the trade was acceptable as long as we signed Garza for, basically what he ended up signing for with Milwaukee.  The problem, of course, was that Matt Garza just did not pitch well in Texas.  He competed, he screamed, he entertained, he apologized for insulting other players' wives, but he didn't pitch well.  Therefore, Texas never really pursued him in the off-season.  The Rangers could have got the same performance out of ONE of the pitchers that were traded for Garza:  Justin Grimm had pitched in the first half of the year just as good as Garza did for the Rangers in the second half.  But Texas ALSO shipped off unconventional but high-ceiling pitching prospect C. J. Edwards, minor pitching prospect Neil Ramirez, and power-hitting third baseman Mike Olt, who was trying to recover from double-vision problems after being hit by a pitch.  The issue being, none of Grimm, Edwards or Olt would be considered *individually* in a trade for Garza right now.  All three is INSANE.  Will this trade haunt John Daniels?  Time will tell, but this mis-step could replace the Adrian Gonzalez trade as the second-biggest mistake Daniels has made.

On the flip side, the Chicago White Sox GAVE THE RANGERS $1 million and Alex Rios for a utility infielder.

Playing on a contender rejuvenated Rios, who became a pleasant surprise for the Rangers on the field and in the clubhouse. He could bat anywhere in the lineup. He could play the outfield and had deceptive speed on the base paths by stealing a career-high 42 bases at age 32.

Alex Rios, as of right now, is easily one of the five best outfielders in the American League.  Bargain.

Stay tuned for a fantasy baseball update.

Posted by: Ben at 08:50 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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