Tagged: Braves
Matt’s Entertainment: Rangers 5, Yankees 3
The Rangers offense is officially in a slump.
Texas managed a mere four hits off of Yankees pitching in the opener of their three game set in Gotham. Fortunately this did not hurt them for three reasons: 1) The Rangers also managed seven walks in the game; 2) two of the hits were well-placed run-scoring hits by Michael Young, the only Ranger not in a slump; and 3) Matt Harrison was pitching again.
Harrison has always been kind of like a big tease for the Rangers. One of the players who came to Texas via the Mark Teixeira trade with the Braves, Harrison has always had scouts drooling over his stuff while delivering less than optimal results. As a result, the lefty has spent each of the past three seasons floating between the starting rotation and the bullpen, with a couple DL trips thrown in for good measure.
This year, Harrison vowed in Spring Training to pitch with a new attitude and to trust his stuff more. Most of us said, “Yeah Matt, we’ve heard it before.” Now, through three starts, Harry seems to be walking the talk.
To be sure, last night’s performance was Harry’s weakest of his three starts. He allowed seven hits in eight innings and walked three as well. The thing is, just about every time he allowed a runner on base, he got someone to ground into a double play.
In the first, it was A-Rod. In the third, it was Teixeira. Robinson Cano obliged with a DP in the 4th, followed by Derek Jeter in the 5th. Former Ranger Andruw Jones obliged in the 7th and Nick Swisher completed the twin killing parade in the 8th. Six DP’s, tying a Rangers team record and helping to move Harrison to 3-0 on the season with a sparkling 1.23 ERA, which would have Rangers fans oooing and aahing even more if Alexi Ogando didn’t have a 0.00 after two starts.
Better yet, the double play onslaught allowed Harry to go eight innings on only 104 pitches, including a 5-pitch 7th.
One more win in the next two and Texas will have a winning record on their first road trip of the season. Derek Holland goes for the honor in an afternoon tilt Saturday against veteran Fredi Garcia.
We’ve been getting the pitching. It’s time for the bats to come back.
Opening Day Eve: Random Thoughts
While thinking of story ideas, so many random thoughts came to mind now that the regular season is upon us, it’s time for one of those hodgepodge columns with no defining topic…
- In the Rangers last exhibition game against AAA Round Rock, Darren O’Day gave up yet another home run. That’s six now in his last 9 Spring Training innings and 12 HR in his last 22 innings, including the regular season and post-season of 2010. This is one pitcher I’m VERY worried about.
- Key to the 2011 season? Let’s take injuries out of the equation. All teams have to deal with injuries. So, assuming a relatively injury-free year, the biggest key is Derek Holland. I see Colby Lewis having a better year than 2010, CJ Wilson an equal or slightly lower year. For his third go-round with the big club, it’s time for Holland to put it together. We’ve seen some tantalizingly good games from Derek, but it’s been more like three average to subpar outings for every great one. It HAS to turn around in the other direction for the Rangers to repeat in the West.
- As if the feeling that the starting pitching depth isn’t as good as initially thought wasn’t bad enough, Michael Kirkman only lasted an inning and a third in the exhibition game last night. Kirkman left after taking a Nelson Cruz line drive to the elbow. Kirkman doesn’t think it’s anything for than a giant owwie, but it sure doesn’t help in the peace of mind department.
- Second key to the 2011 season: Elvis Andrus in the 2 hole. He led the team in batting average with runners in scoring position in 2010. He’s good at bunting guys over to second and he’s a decent contact hitter. Unfortunately, Andrus had the lowest number of extra base hits of any everyday player in baseball last year as well. Maybe it was because he knew as the leadoff guy in 2010, the Rangers didn’t want power from him, just for him to get on base. Still, like Holland, Andrus HAS to step up his offensive game or he won’t be in the two hole for long.
- I’ve been antsy all week waiting for the season to start. Will be in Arlington on Saturday with my oldest to see the Rangers get their AmericanLeague Championship rings before Colby Lewis matches up with John Lackey. Lackey played junior college ball right up the road from Dallas at Grayson County College in the Sherman-Denison area. The Rangers have a pretty good track record against Lackey over the past few years. I hope that continues on Saturday.
- 18-Year-Ranger-Fan plans to see two of the three games between the Rangers and Orioles in Baltimore next week, along with Ranger Fan-In-Law. He’s also excited to see the Rangers High-A club in Myrtle Beach, as he’ll get a chance to see the Pelicans when they visit his hometown Frederick Keys this season. Looking forward to his reports this year as well.
- Prediction 1: The Astros are my pick for the surprise team in baseball this year. They did pretty well after Roy Oswalt and Lance Berkman left last year. A bunch of young, hungry, unknown players. Even if the finish somewhere around 78-84, that would be more than many are expecting of them. I’ll also be interested in seeing how Clint Hurdle does managing the Pirates.
- Prediction 2: The Phillies may win the NL East, but they won’t be as good as people think they’ll be with that starting staff. I’m guessing the absence of Chase Uttley is going to hurt the offense more than thought, making for a lot of low-scoring games for the Phils this year. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if the Braves nose ’em out for the division title.
- I already miss Matt Treanor. I just looked at the roster the Royals are heading into 2011 with and I’m willing to bet Treanor misses the Rangers just as much right around now. KC is supposed to be very close to having a contending team, with a whole slew of young bucks ready to hit the big time. Let’s just say they haven’t arrived on 3/31/11.
- I read a fan poster the other day who opines that when Jason Kendall comes off the Royals DL, Treanor will come back to the Rangers as the “player to be named” in the trade a couple weeks ago of minor league infielder Johnny Whittleman. I can actually see that happening.
The regular season has arrived. Here’s hoping the expected bad weather doesn’t cause postponements of any of the six openers today.
The Third Story
Much anticipation among Rangers faithful today. Two exhibition games in the Cactus League thanks to a split squad (the Rangers won both). Each game had one pitcher fans were anxiously awaiting for different reasons.
Neftali Feliz got the start for the Rangers in their game against the Indians in his quest to become a starter in the Rangers rotation. That was the top story. The result: Two scoreless innings but he didn’t wow anyone with them. Feliz got out of a two on mess of his own making in the first and allowed a hit in the second. It’s only one start but my gut tells me Feliz remains the Rangers closer in 2011.
Story #2 came against the Cubs, where rookie Tanner Scheppers was scheduled to make his first appearance of the spring in an effort to make the club’s relief staff in only his second year as a pro. Scheppers is one of the Rangers’ top prospects. He blew through AA in less than half a season and was performing well at AAA when Rangers brass decided to try him out as a starter. He didn’t do well in that role and ended the season on a sour note. His spring debut went about as well as last fall’s end. Scheppers started the 4th and didn’t make it out of the 4th, lasting only 2/3 of an inning and giving up 5 hits, 2 walks and four runs.
All that leads to the story I was most interested in- the Eric Hurley story.
Three years ago, Hurley was one of the bright upcoming stars in the Rangers organization. The Rangers’ first round pick in 2004, Hurley was twice listed as one of the top 100 prospects in the minors. In three seasons at the AA level, Hurley was 11-3 with a 2.71 ERA. And, while his AAA line in 2008 wasn’t great (2-5, 5.30), the Rangers called Hurley up on June 12th when Kason Gabbard went on the DL.
Hurley pitched five games for the Rangers in 2008. In the first four, each start was better than the one before it: 4 runs in 6 innings against the Royals, 2 runs in 5 innings against the Braves, 2 runs in 6 innings against the Astros, and then a magnificent 5 2/3 inning, 1 hit 1 run game against the Phillies (the eventual World Series Champions). Through four games, Hurley was a quite respectable 1-1 with a 3.57 ERA.
The success ended quickly. His fifth start, against the A’s on July 27, 2008, lasted only two innings, in which he gave up two HR’s and six runs overall. After the game, Hurley was placed on the disabled list- torn rotator cuff. He would miss the rest of the season.
It got no better after that. After the rotator cuff came a broken wrist. Then the wrist didn’t heal properly. Hurley missed the entire 2009 season as well. He also missed most of 2010 before finally starting his rehab in the Arizona Fall League, where he went 3-0 with a sub-2.00 ERA.
Today Eric Hurley faced major league hitters for the first time since that last 2008 start against the A’s. He faced six Indians. He retired all six on only 21 pitches.
Eric Hurley isn’t expected to break camp with the Rangers in 2011, but he could still be a key ingredient in the Rangers’ quest to successfully defend their American League Championship. He took a great first step today and made a lot of people forget what the two biggest stories were supposed to be.
And Now For Something Completely Different
This post has nothing to do with the Texas Rangers (unless they were to sign this guy, which I doubt).
In fact, this is about something I know very little about, though some might say that about everything I write.
This is about minor league free agency and one player in particular.
First off, I don’t know much about minor league free agency and what is considered to be the “prime time” of signing minor league free agents. For all I know, we’re entering into that prime time period right now.
So here’s the deal.
My oldest makes a living catering to the fans of Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas. Me being a baseball fan, I have often contributed by following the alumni of the Texas State baseball program in their quest to work their way through the minors and make it to The Show.
Currently, the only Texas Stater in the bigs is Scott Linebrink, recently traded by the White Sox to the Braves.
Most of the time, these guys top out at the AA level before their dreams end. Some have great success early only to have it end due to injury. Others find themselves passed along the way by a prospect who takes their spot away. A couple keep plugging away only to have reached the six year point and become minor league free agents.
Which brings me to today’s story. I have not met this guy before. I’ve actually never seen him play. All I know about him is that he once played for Texas State and the statistics I’ve gleaned from milb.com, baseball-refernce.com and other sources. In other words, I have nothing to gain from promoting him, but I believe he needs to be promoted.
Matt Miller was selected by the Colorado Rockies in the 13th round of the first-year player draft in 2004. His first full season was nothing short of amazing- a .331 average with 30 HR and 100 RBI for Asheville of the Sally League. While he never again duplicated those power numbers, in seven minor league seasons, Miller has done nothing but hit. He has been a mid-season or post-season All-Star every single year of his minor league career.
Just looking at some of the stats, I know he’s not considered to be any great shakes as a fielder (he plays the outfield). I also know he was considered a great prospect by the Rockies until his first full year in AA, when he slumped badly in the second half and finished at .262. At that point, he was dropped from the list of top prospects, never to return.
Since that time (2007), however, Miller has hit .344 in AA and .331 in Triple-A in 2008, .319 in Triple-A in 2009 and .325 in Triple-A in 2010. In seven minor league seasons, Miller is a career .313 hitter with 91 HR and 560 RBI. His star fell because of one bad half season out of seven. Now, he’s faced a logjam with the Rockies, considering the major league outfield there consists of Carlos Gonzalez, Dexter Fowler and Ryan Spilborghs.
Matt Miller is a minor league free agent. You would think out of 30 major league teams, there would be one who would want to take a chance on a player who’s been named to 10 different All-Star teams in 7 years and apparantly has never spent time on the disabled list in all that time, either.
Matt, here’s hoping someone gives you your chance soon.
Post-Season Hardware Versions 3.0 and 4.0
Two more accolades coming the Rangers way in the past week and a half: Vladimir Guerrero wins the Edgar Martinez Award for being the AL’s best designated hitter. And Baseball America just awarded Rangers GM Jon Daniels it’s Executive of the Year honor.
Guerrero’s award was wholly unexpected. By that, I mean I didn’t even know there was an Edgar Martinez Award given to the league’s best DH. That shows how “gifted” the Rangers DH’s have been over the years. Since there is an award, it would have been hard not to give it to Vlad. With apologies to Jim Thome, Guerrero easily had the best year among AL DH’s, as much by virtue of the fact he played almost every day where Thome did not. I know not whether Vlad will be back with the Rangers in 2011 or not, but those Ranger fans who believe it will be easy to replace Guerrero might be surprised to learn how vulnerable the lineup can be without him.
Deciding who the Rangers want to DH is just one of the questions GM Jon Daniels has to answer in the off-season. Now he can do so as the reigning “Executive of the Year”. Daniels deserves the award, but it was years in the making and really started four seasons ago when Mark Teixeira was sent to the Braves for a package that included Elvis Andrus, Neftali Feliz, Matt Harrison and Jarrod Saltalamacchia. Most awards of this nature come in the season a team goes to the post-season, but more often than not, the grunt work that led to post-season glory started long before then. Daniels is no exception. Still one of the younger GM’s in the game, Daniels has been a key reason for the Rangers’ success. Here’s hoping he’s with Texas for a long long time.
How To Be Bi-Polar In Just 4 Games: Rays 5, Rangers 2
Well wasn’t that just a dandy weekend in Arlington?
You’ve got to admit, the Rangers are the most generous team around. They saw what good hosts the Rays were in Games 1 & 2, they decided to return the favor. Now all I can do is hope the Rays do the same one more time on Tuesday.
From the heights of glee to the depths of depression. That’s playoff baseball for the fan. I can only tell myself this morning, “At least I’m not the Twins. Or the Reds. Or Brooks Conrad.”
Then from depression comes anger. Anger at so many of my fellow Rangers fans, all knowingly saying, “See? We should’ve gone with Cliff Lee on three days rest! Starting Tommy Hunter was a mistake from the get go!”
Give it a rest, guys! You know what? The Rays didn’t start David Price on three days rest either. Tommy Hunter has had success against the Rays in the past and we kicked Wade Davis’ butt in the regular season! It was a good match-up for the Rangers!
Of all the message boards I’ve read since Sunday’s game ended, I think I may be the only person in Rangers Nation with this particular feeling: I think they pulled Tommy Hunter too soon.
I don’t have the stats to back it up (only because I don’t have the time to do the research), but my feeling is the team that most plays the way they played in the regular season will have the greatest post-season success, and that includes how the pitching staff is managed. Look at how the Giants let Tim Lincecum go out in both the 8th and 9th innings in a 1-0 game against the Braves. The Giants have a good bullpen and closer. They showed no fear. The Rangers did. Plain and simple, I think the Rangers pushed the panic button too soon.
On Saturday, it was obvious Colby Lewis was losing his command, so pulling him early was understandable. Not so much with Tommy Hunter.
The first run off Hunter shouldn’t have even scored. Had Josh Hamilton been backing up David Murphy further away from the wall, Carlos Pena would have had only a double and not a triple. And don’t get me started on Ian Kinsler’s dropped fly allowing Pena to score. Nelson Cruz would have easily had that catch and would have been in great position to gun down Pena at the plate, so much so I doubt Pena would have even tried to score on Cruz. Hunter gets no blame for that run.
In essence, then, we had a 2-run 4th inning to blame on Hunter. And Ron Washington pulls him. With the Rangers up 2-1 in the series. If it’s the elimination game, I understand. You’re down 3-0 and it’s time to throw the kitchen sink at the Rays. No, Hunter was pulled with the Rangers trailing but still in a position of power.
The second Hunter was pulled, it was clear to all that Derek Holland was going to have to go at least three innings to give the bullpen a break and give the Rangers time to get back into the game. Holland did give the Rangers three innings. In fact, he gave them four. He also gave up a 2-run homer to Evan Longoria in his first inning of work, which pretty much made his last three strong innings worthless. A 3-0 deficit can be overcome. A 5-run deficit becomes a much harder hill to climb.
Would Hunter have given up two more runs if he’d been allowed to pitch the 5th? Maybe, maybe not. All I know is his pitch count wasn’t that high and he was even striking out batters, which is unusual for Hunter.
My biggest reason for keeping him in is because of the message it sent to the team. Despite all the preaching from the front office on down about starters going longer, they gave Hunter ZERO opportunity to show he could recover from one bad inning. Again, if it’s the elimination game, I completely understand. This wasn’t the elimination game.
All this would be moot were it not for the Rangers inability to take advantage of opportunities. Texas has a good hitting team. They led the AL in hitting. I believe they even led the league in BA with runners in scoring position. In the latter category, however, they are extremely streaky. Sunday was a perfect example. It’s not that the Rangers weren’t hitting. Eight hits isn’t a lot, but it isn’t bad either. They were also drawing walks. They just couldn’t buy a hit when they needed it. This could have been a much closer game than it was if the Rangers had just come through once or twice when they had the opportunities.
It comes down to Tuesday’s game. It’s kitchen sink time. If need be, CJ Wilson will come in to relieve Cliff Lee, just as Matt Garza will make a relief appearance if the Rays need him to. Who cares who’ll start Game 1 against the Yankees. Just win Game 5 first or there’ll be no Yankees to face.
Time to win a third road game.
The Shlabotnik Non-Stars: Billy Sample, OF
Another in a series honoring the Rangers/Senators of years past who toiled for many a bad team as a starter, never coming close to whiffing an All-Star Game or playoff appearance, much like Charlie Brown’s favorite baseball player, Joe Shlabotnik.
A great example of a popular player who nonetheless qualifies as a Shlabotnik Non-Star is Billy Sample. Billy remains popular today working on Atlanta Braves broadcasts as well as the web site that provides this blog, MLB.com. A lot of younger fans may hear or see him and not even realize he had a major league career. He did, and most of his time was spent with the Texas Rangers.
The Rangers actually drafted Billy Sample twice, the first time as a high schooler in the 28th round of the 1973 draft, the second time three years later in the 10th round of the ’76 draft when he was a college player with James Madison University.
Interesting Trivia Tidbit: Remember the movie “Remember The Titans”, about a Virginia high school’s first integrated football team with a black head coach that went on to win the Virginia state football championship? Billy Sample was a wide receiver for the team that lost in the championship game.
Sample had a pretty quick rise through the Rangers farm system: half a season in rookie ball, one season in AA and one season in AAA, making his Rangers debut under manager Billy Hunter with his September call-up in 1978. The only time Sample would return to the minors was in a brief rehab stint in 1981.
From 1979-1982, Sample filled the role David Murphy holds today with the Rangers, a utility outfielder, garnering up to 400 at bats per season. Offensively, Sample was fair. He never topped .300 as a batter over a full major league season, but he never slid below .247 either. He didn’t have a lot of power either, with a career best 12 home runs in 1983.
What Sample did was put the ball in play. His first two seasons in 1979 and 1980, Billy had more walks than strikeouts. By today’s standards he didn’t walk much, but he seldom struck out either.
Defensively, Sample was an above average outfielder in terms of fielding percentage. He never won a Gold Glove, but he did manage a career fielding percentage of .987 (the norm for outfielders is .981).
Above all else, Billy Sample was a survivor. Through seven different seasons with the Texas Rangers, Sample played for five different managers: Billy Hunter, Pat Corrales, Don Zimmer, Darrell Johnson and Doug Rader.
Sample’s last manager, Doug Rader, was the one who finally gave Sample the opportunity to be a starter and his first year, 1983, turned out to be Sample’s career year.
Playing almost the entire season as the starting left fielder, Sample compiled a .274 average with career highs in runs (80), doubles (28), triples (3), home runs (12), RBI (57, stolen bases (44) and walks (44). Billy finished 5th in the AL in stolen bases that year and was rated the third best defensive left fielder in the league.
Sample’s 1984 season was his last as a regular and his stats reflected the drop-off that was coming. The average dropped 27 points to .247, the home runs dropped to five, the stolen bases to 18. Splitting time between left and center field, Sample’s defense was once again solid if unspectacular.
Right around the time of the start of Spring Training in 1985, the Rangers traded Billy Sample to the New York Yankees in exchange for a former Senator/Ranger now in the twilight of his career, Toby Harrah. Sample was a part-time player for the Yankees in 1985, appearing in just 59 games. The Yankees then traded Sample to the Atlanta Braves for Miguel Sosa. Sample played 92 games for the Braves in his only National League season, hitting .285 with six home runs. Prior to the 1987 season, Sample signed as a free agent with the Twins but never made the team, ending his major league career.
Billy Sample played nine years in the bigs with a career .272 average and 46 home runs. He struck out only 230 times in almost 2800 at bats and played a pretty decent left field. Since his playing days ended, Sample has been a broadcaster for the Mariners, Braves and Angels. His columns can be read in USA Today’s Sports Weekly. He has also contributed to MLB.com.
One more outfield position to be named on the Non-Stars, coming next Monday.
One Strike Away...Twice! 