Tagged: Jon Daniels
It’s Josh. It’s Gonna Be Something Weird
The Prodigal Son Returns
Just a little over two months ago, Jon Daniels answered questions from fans at the annual Texas Rangers FanFest. At the time, Josh Hamilton’s self-reported relapse had not been reported, but there were rumblings Hamilton might be on the trade block. One fan asked Daniels if there would be any interest in the Rangers making an offer. Daniels, who is known for never commenting on moves before they’re made, let out a laugh and answered in one word: No.
This wasn’t a deflection or even a bluff. It was as categorical a “No” as ever came from Daniels’ mouth. He had not one bit of interest in re-acquiring the services of the Rangers best player in the 2010-2011 World Series teams.
Yet here we are, just a few months later, holding a press conference and re-introducing Josh Hamilton to the DFW (and national) media.
This is NOT a Jon Daniels move. This one came from up top, from ownership itself. Arte Moreno of the Angels and Bob Simpson talked on the phone and made a deal. They ran it through MLB and suddenly, Josh Hamilton is a Ranger again.
It’s a very club-friendly situation. The Rangers are only on the hook for about $6-$7 million of Hamilton’s salary over the next three years. Moreno is chipping in about $60 million, more or less, over the same stretch.
While it isn’t a Jon Daniels move, because the money is so little it IS a classic Daniels type of move: low risk, high reward. Daniels has loved getting players on the cheap. Sometimes it’s worked, like with Vlad Guerrero in 2010, Colby Lewis in 2010 and Neal Cotts in 2013. Other times it hasn’t, like with Brandon Webb, Roy Oswalt, Manny Ramirez and Carlos Pena.
I don’t know what to make of the Hamilton situation. I know the Rangers are probably the best team equipped to handle his personal issues, but the Rangers are a baseball team, not a rehab facility. I know Hamilton isn’t the player he was in 2010-2011 and at 34, his best years are officially behind him. As much as the Metroplex loved him in the World Series years, they have bitter memories of the way he performed in his last weeks with the team on the field followed by some ill-advised comments he made after signing with the Angels. He’s also shown that he’s always taken his God-given talent for granted and hasn’t been able to make the adjustments needed to compensate for the deterioration of those skills.
But I also know he has more home run potential at Globe Life Park than the Big A in Anaheim and, even with diminished skills, can probably man left field more capably than Jake Smolinski, Carlos Peguero and Ryan Rua, both offensively and defensively. If he doesn’t pan out, it hasn’t cost the Rangers much money at all. If he does, Arte Moreno’s paying him to play for his team’s rival, which could really blow up in his face.
It’s still going to be at least three weeks or a month before Hamilton puts on a Rangers uniform again for an actual game. There’s a lot of time between now and then. The only thing for certain is this: People are going to be watching the Rangers again, if only to see how this new relationship works out.
3 Reasons NOT To Break Up The Texas Rangers
Several stories have appeared nationally suggesting it’s time for Jon Daniels to bite the bullet and tear down the Texas Rangers in order to build them up again. Nobody is more forthright and insistent on this than MLB Network’s Jim Bowden, himself a former GM.
Overall, the mantra of these national scribes is: the Rangers are going nowhere this year, so why not get what you can for the pieces you can get a return on. This is often brought up at the same time as speculation that the Rangers are after Cole Hamels to provide them with an ace while Yu Darvish is out for the season.
Not a single game has been played in the 2015 regular season, yet already the Rangers are given up for dead.
I’m here to tell you, now is NOT the time to tear down the Texas Rangers. In fact, now is a great time for Daniels to stand pat and play the hand he’s been dealt for 2015. Here’s three reasons why.
Joey Gallo Isn’t Ready Yet
Along with his insistence that now is the time to trade Adrian Beltre, Bowden ties it together with the call for Rangers uber-prospect Joey Gallo to start his major league career as the new Rangers third baseman. Why someone who’s worked at the top of the MLB food chain would suggest this is puzzling. For all his prodigious power potential, Gallo isn’t ready for the majors yet. He’s only had about 250 at bats at the AA level and he struck out almost 120 times in those at bats. A K% like that does not spell “Big League Ready” in anybody’s book but Bowden’s. So, if the Rangers traded Beltre, who plays third base? Nobody of any consequence. And if you’re using Beltre as a chip to acquire Hamels, the Phillies aren’t going to throw in a big league third baseman as well.
Prince Fielder
The Biggest Contracts Have The Least Return
Outside of Beltre, the three biggest Rangers contracts belong to Prince Fielder, Shin-Soo Choo and Elvis Andrus. Fielder and Choo are coming off injury-plagued years and Andrus had arguably the worst season of his career in 2014. In other words, their trade value is at the lowest it could possibly be. The Rangers would get very little return in players. Maybe a little salary relief, but not much in players. Derek Holland might fetch a decent return but Texas isn’t about to part with one of their best pitchers when putting together a decent rotation is the key towards reaching the post-season.
Two Years From Today
Joey Gallo isn’t ready this year, but he probably will next year. Also ready in the next year or so will be catcher Jorge Alfaro and pitcher Chi Chi Gonzalez, who nearly made the club THIS year. Martin Perez is coming back from Tommy John surgery this year, Darvish will be back next year. Heck, we might even put Jurickson Profar back in the mix, who could be back next year as well. The point here is, while this year’s Rangers may not make the playoffs (and I think they’ll be better than a last place team), the 2016 Rangers could feature Gallo and Alfaro as rookies. If they become the big leaguers scouts think they will, the 2017 Rangers will have one of the most potent offenses in the AL with Gallo, Alfaro and Rougned Odor, even if Fielder has aged into a 20 HR hitting DH. Meanwhile, the starting rotation will feature Darvish, Holland, Perez and Gonzalez.
Not every prospect pans out but there’s every reason to believe the ones who are just a year away from Arlington are going to be special.
Break up the Rangers? Even if this season is a rough one, there’s enough on the horizon to stand pat. The window may be opening again soon.
Looking Ahead To 2015: The Bullpen
There is nothing harder in baseball than putting together a good bullpen. No matter what team you’re a fan of, you’re sure to remember the year the lights-out bullpen that ended up being one of the league’s worse. Conversely, many a team has gone to the playoffs when a little-regarded bullpen suddenly became dominant.
Unless your name is Rivera, closers can go from 45 saves one year to 15 the next with said closer replaced by another 100-mph fireballing phenom in mid-season.
Neftali Feliz
Look at the Texas Rangers. In their World Series years of 2010-2011, the bullpen was one of the team’s strengths. Neftali Feliz replaced Frank Francisco just a week into the 2010 campaign as closer and rode that train for two years. Darren O’Day was a waiver claim who had an incredible 2010. On the other hand, Koji Uehara should have been the final bullpen piece when the Rangers acquired him at the deadline in 2011. He pitched so poorly for Texas he was left off the World Series roster. A year later he was dominant again and now he’s the closer for the Red Sox.
Year to year consistency in the bullpen is the toughest thing to acquire. Among the many ills for the Rangers in 2014, the bullpen was one of them.
Under the circumstances, one could make a case that the Rangers relief corps kept the team from finishing worse than 67-95. While not as formidable as earlier years, they were overall middle of the pack in the American League in contributing a 4.0 WAR. Much of that came early in the season, when the pen consisted of veterans like Jason Frasor and Joakim Soria, both of whom got sent packing at the trade deadline to pennant contenders. And, while the WAR was decent, the Rangers were a piddling 13th in Saves and 11th in Holds.
General Manager Jon Daniels has a philosophy when it comes to bullpens. The main mantra is “Save your money”. Outside of closer, you’ll seldom see Texas spend any substantial dollars on relievers. The aforementioned Frasor pitched two years in Texas, both times on 1-year contracts. Same with recently departed Neal Cotts. Occasionally Daniels will spring for a 2-year deal. Outside of O’Day, those get reserved for proven closers (Joe Nathan, Soria).
Daniels does like to gamble a little with the bullpen. He’s constantly acquiring relievers with big league experience but got released by other clubs due to injury. Success stories include Cotts and Soria, but there have also been busts, such as Nate Adcock and Kyle McLellan. But what the heck, they didn’t cost much money so do real harm there. Daniels mixes these low risk, high reward veterans with young bucks from the farm system whose contracts are under club control for the foreseeable future. It’s worked pretty well during the Daniels regime and it’s what the Rangers once again looking at in 2015.
Tanner Scheppers
The Knowns
What is certain for the Rangers is the closer will be Neftali Feliz, back in the role of his greatest success during the World Series years. Feliz missed most of 2013 to Tommy John surgery and moved back to closer in 2014 after Soria got traded to the Tigers. His velocity isn’t what it once was but he says he finally has most of the zip back.
Texas hopes the 8th inning set-up man will be last year’s Opening Day starter, Tanner Scheppers. Feliz, Scheppers and the departed Robbie Ross were the final nails in the coffin that was Texas trying to convert relievers into starters. It worked once with CJ Wilson but failed miserably with the other three. Scheppers and Feliz are now okay with their roles. Scheppers was the best set-up man in the AL in 2013 and the Rangers are hoping he’ll return to form.
Shawn Tolleson was one of Daniels’ low risk, high reward signings a year ago. Coming back from Tommy John, Tolleson was a respectable 2.76 ERA in 64 appearances and 71.2 innings pitched with 69 K’s. He was a little homer prone, giving up 10 dingers. Tolleson will be the 7th inning reliever. Rangers pitching coach Mike Maddux is already saying Tolleson looks better in the early going of camp than he did all of last season.
Shawn Tolleson
The Unknowns
Four more spots are open in the bullpen and be assured whoever starts the season is in no way guaranteed of being there in September. Among the farmhands, the hopefuls include Alex Claudio, Phil Klein, Spencer Patton and Jon Edwards, who all got a taste of the bigs with the Rangers in the last month of the 2014 season.
A young heat thrower who hasn’t reached the major league level yet is Keone Kela, but he isn’t considered a factor in Arlington until later in the season at the earliest.
Joining the competition are those LRHR players Daniels loves, including Kyuji Fujikawa, Japan’s all-time saves leader whose move to America and the Cubs resulted in yet another Tommy John surgery; Juan Carlos Oviedo who, when pitching as Leo Nunez, saved 113 games from 2009-2011 with the Florida Marlins; and ageless veteran Jamey Wright, back with the Rangers for the second time in a career that has spanned 19 years and 10 different teams.
The most thankless job in the bullpen is long reliever. A pitcher in that role might go two weeks between appearances, then be asked to make a spot start two days after throwing 2 1/3 innings in a game. Veteran Scott Baker admirably filled that role for the Rangers last year and it’s a darn shame nobody has signed him for 2015.
For the Rangers, the likely long man is whoever the last man out is in the competition for the #5 starter. At this writing, the prediction would be for either Ross Detwiler, Nick Tepesch or Nick Martinez to fill that role.
Conclusion
Bullpens are more works in progress than any other part of a ball club. No matter the predictions here, out of the seven member relief corps that starts the season, odds are good three of them will be gone by season’s end. If Texas can improve on last year’s 4.0 WAR pen, they’ll be a playoff contender.
Looking Ahead To 2015: Catcher
Heading into 2010, the year the Texas Rangers first went to the World Series, if there was one position the front office wasn’t worried about for the present and the future, it was catcher. Texas enjoyed an embarrassment of riches in the catching department. At the major league level, Jarrod Saltalamacchia would be the every day catcher for the first time. Backing him up would be University of Texas phenom Taylor Teagarden, who would supply some needed power. Down on the farm, Max Ramirez was the emergency guy at AAA Round Rock and coming up in the system was well-regarded Jose Felix in AA Frisco.
Saltalamacchia lasted for all of two games and five at bats. He had the game winning hit in the season opener but suffered an injury and didn’t tell manager Ron Washington about it. When it came up after Game 2, Salty went on the DL, Wash publicly chastised him for not speaking up and added he had a lot of growing up to do. Saltalamacchia never returned to the Rangers. During rehab, he developed a case of the “yips”, causing his throws back to the pitcher to sail. He got sent off to the Red Sox in the trade that netted Texas Chris McGuiness and Roman Mendez.
Robinson Chirinos
Meanwhile, it didn’t take long before the Rangers determined Teagarden, for all his power potential, wasn’t able to hit consistently. His long swing led to 34 strikeouts in just 85 at bats. Five of his 11 hits went for extra bases but a .155 average was all he could muster. Before anyone knew what hit them, Teagarden got sent down, Ramirez came up and the Rangers’ starting catcher was someone they picked up at the end of training camp, Matt Treanor, who turned into a godsend. Treanor wasn’t any great shakes, but he gave Texas quality at bats and handled the pitching staff well for 82 games, until the Rangers picked up Bengie Molina from the San Francisco Giants to handle the heavy work down the stretch.
Since that 2010 season, the Rangers have gone through Yorvit Torrealba, Mike Napoli, Teagarden, Treanor, Geovany Soto, Luis Martinez, A.J. Pierzynski, J.P. Arencibia, Chris Giminez, Tomas Telis and Robinson Chirinos and there’s still no true starting catcher in sight for 2015.
Phenom Jorge Alfaro is still at least a year away. In the meantime, the Rangers enter 2015 with the aforementioned Telis and Giminez at AAA Round Rock, if something happens to Chirinos or new arrival Carlos Corporan.
Chirinos was as much a godsend for the Rangers in 2014 as Treanor was in 2010. With Rangers hitting the DL almost every other day, including Soto in pre-season and Arencibia hitting a pitiful .133 on May 16th, Chirinos came up big time, posting a slash line of .239/.290/.415 with 13 HR and 40 RBI. Adding to his importance was his defense. Chirinos came out of nowhere to lead the American League in throwing out would-be base stealers at 40%. His 2.4 WAR ranked 5th among AL catchers. Chirinos’ performance earned Soto a trade to the A’s once he returned from the disabled list.
Carlos Corporan
This year, Chirinos enters the season as the clear #1, although there’s no guarantee he’ll be able to match any of his 2014 numbers. Last year was his first full season in the majors and his performance could go in either direction. The plan is for Chirinos to catch about 100 games, just a few more than he caught a year ago. Injuries aside, his expected back-up for the other 62 games will be Carlos Corporan, who comes over from the Houston Astros.
Jon Daniels told the crowd at FanFest that they did due diligence on Corporan, talking to a number of Astros pitchers about him. One of them, former Ranger Scott Feldman, praised Corporan and credited him for elevating his game in 2014.
The Rangers aren’t looking for great offense from the catcher position. The top priority is catchers who work well with the pitching staff. Still, Corporan has a little pop in his bat and if the Rangers get a combined 3.0 WAR out of the two of them, they’ll be happy.
Texas Rangers Fan Fest 2015
I recently relocated from the Rio Grande Valley to the Austin area, so naturally when I had the chance, I somehow managed to bypass going to the Rangers’ Winter Caravan stop in Round Rock, just a 45 minute drive away. Instead, I chose to make the 3 hour plus drive to Arlington to attend the annual Rangers Fan Fest with my son, who lives in the area.
This was my second Fan Fest, having attended the 2011 gathering at the Arlington Convention Center just three months after the Rangers’ first ever World Series appearance. Fan Fest has gotten so big now that the Rangers have moved it to Globe Life Park, opening up the entire stadium to the fans.
Looking up to the top of Globe Life Park.
Being among the first 5,000 in line (waiting over an hour in 36 degree “comfort”), we each received 5 scratch-off lottery tickets for the chance to get an autograph from the Big 5: Prince Fielder, Shin-Soo Choo, Elvis Andrus, Adrian Beltre and Pudge Rodriguez. Unfortunately, only 750 of the 25,000 tickets distributed were winners. As you can see, I was not one of the lucky 750. My son, however, had a winner and got Prince Fielder’s autograph. His impression? “That guy has some GUNS!”
There were plenty of other autograph opportunities but they weren’t announced until just a few minutes before the session. I was originally in a line to get autographs from Rangers prospects Chi Chi Gonzalez and Spencer Patton but then saw an announcement that propelled me to leave my current location and go halfway around the ballpark (sorry Chi Chi and Spencer!). Thus I was fortunate enough to get Nick Tepesch to sign my Rangers cap and Matt Harrison to ink my 2010 AL Champions T-shirt.
Nick Tepesch Autograph
Matt Harrison Autograph
Then it was on to a Q&A session with Rangers GM Jon Daniels. It was still early so I got a front row seat and even got to ask him a couple of questions. First one: How many calls and texts does it take to complete a trade such as the one that netted the Rangers Yovani Gallardo from the Brewers? Answer: Sometimes just a few, sometimes a lot. Gallardo was just a few… and Daniels says Brewers GM Doug Melvin doesn’t text much, he prefers talking directly to people. Second question: With hundreds of players in the minor league system, how do the Rangers communicate with them? Is there an employee newsletter or something? Answer: Not really. The managers, coaches and scouts grade every player in every game and share the info with each other but the players usually only know what’s really going on by following each other on social media to find out who’s moving up, getting traded, released, etc. Interesting tidbit: No matter how many people are in the room, Daniels looks the person who asked the question in the eye throughout his answer. Impressive!
Rangers GM Jon Daniels with Rangers announcer/former GM/former player Tom Grieve.
It was good to get to Fan Fest early because after a couple of hours, it became clear to us there would be no other autographs to get. At 11:30 more than 200 people were in line at one location for a 2 pm autograph session and the same held true at all the autograph locations. Thus we decided to walk around and see the other sites.
The home clubhouse was open but the line was too long. There was no waiting to get to the hitting cages, though. There we saw this “Hitter’s Prayer” on the wall and a couple of cracked batting practice bats, including this custom Adrian Beltre model.
The Boy With The Beltre Bat
The Hitter’s Prayer
We also attended a Q&A with new Rangers skipper Jeff Bannister. He’s not the charismatic rah-rah type like Ron Washington, but he’s just as passionate about the game. He’s a little more sabermetric oriented than Wash and, unlike his predecessor, is unlikely to bunt a lot in the early innings. The cancer survivor Bannister’s mantra, which got a lot of crowd applause, was “Never Ever Quit!”
New skipper Jeff Bannister (with radio announcer Matt Hicks)
Other items of interest. As I was walking out of the Rangers Hall of Fame, I suddenly realized the newest member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, Rangers radio announcer Eric Nadel, was right behind me. Nadel stands 6-1 or 6-2 so I told him he was taller than I expected. His response: “I sound shorter on the radio.”
In the gift shop, we noticed then Rangers still have shirts for one of their minor league players who likely will never face major league pitching, or minor league pitching for that matter: current Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson.
Russell Wilson has a future with the Rangers if he ever decides to give up his day job.
Strangest sight of all: I’m used to seeing tarp over the infield grass and dirt during a rain delay but, due to the mid-30’s early morning weather, I don’t think I’d ever seen tarp over ALL of the grass on the field!
That’s a lot of tarp!
Now the only bad thing is there’s still over two months to go before the Season Opener. Thanks to Fan Fest, I’m ready NOW!
Wash
Ron Washington
In a season filled with bad, this was the baddest news of all. A mid-afternoon quick check of my Twitter feed turned a normal day into one filled with shock. Disbelief. Sadness. Most of all, concern.
The winningest manager in Texas Rangers history was gone. Resigned. Not even an on camera statement. Just a note saying goodbye. Granted, it was a longer resignation letter than Richard Nixon’s when Watergate forced him from office but still. Just a “I’m leaving for personal reasons. I’m sorry I let you down. Leave me alone.”
OK, that last part got written a little nicer. He asked that we respect his privacy. It still means the same thing.
Immediately, of course, baseball writers and Rangers fans parsed every word of the resignation letter and the ensuing news conference with Jon Daniels and Rangers ownership for clues about the REAL reason behind the sudden departure. Daniels immediately stated Wash would allow him to categorically state this has nothing to do with substance abuse. A few years earlier a dalliance with cocaine led to some embarrassing moments for the organization but Wash had come through the other side on top.
Later, Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News said he had received several categorical denials this had anything to do with baseball, substance abuse or his contract. Many were going the route of health reasons when third base coach Gary Pettis said afterwards he hoped Wash had a speedy recovery. However, Grant said later that a text from the former manager himself quashed the notion the resignation had anything to do with his health or the health of his wife of 47 years.
Ron Washington: All Time Winningest Manager in Texas Rangers History
All we know for certain is Wash said he was leaving to address a personal matter. From Daniels’ reaction in the subsequent news conference, there was a distinct impression that whatever the personal matter was, maybe the front office didn’t think it warranted going as far as resigning his position. It was also clear the Rangers didn’t want Wash to leave, yesterday or anytime in the near future.
Until Wash himself decides to address the topic we’ll never know, but I do know I’ve already read some things that are so totally off base they’re ridiculous. A so-called writer on one web site said it was the best thing to happen to the Rangers because Wash was now “out of touch” with his players. Yeah, that’s why players like Derek Holland say he was like a father to him.
What I DO know is Ron Washington is a baseball lifer. He’s been in the game for 50 some years. He loves the game. He’s fond of saying whoever the 25 guys are who’s playing on his team that day, that’s his favorite team. There is no way Wash would just walk away from the life he’s known for so long unless it was for something vitally important to him.
What made Wash unique was his ability to know what buttons to push for each player. Some, like Holland and Elvis Andrus, need a kick in the rear sometimes. Others, like Michael Young, only needed encouragement. With Josh Hamilton, it was long talks in his manager’s office when he played in Arlington. Who knows the method Wash used on Milton Bradley but he reached Bradley in a way no one had before and the result was the best year of his career.
Wash was not a strategist. There’s no doubt about that. Yet he still led his team as close to the edge of a championship as one can get without earning the honor. Even Rangers fans got frustrated to no end by the emphasis Wash placed on the bunt. Sabermetricians would constantly print their charts showing how sacrifice bunts lessened the chances of a big inning. Maybe they’re right but Wash didn’t care. Big innings are great but all Wash cared about was the next run. Singular. Get one run. Then get another. That’s the way he thought.
Ron Washington never got the credit he deserved. In 2010, the Texas Rangers went to the World Series for the first time. Ron Washington did NOT get honored as the AL Manager of the Year. Instead, the award went to Ron Gardenhire of the Minnesota Twins.You’ll never convince me he deserved it over Wash that year. I think they gave it to Gardy as more of a “Lifetime Achievement Award” like they did at the Oscars when they gave Paul Newman Best Actor for “The Color of Money.”
It galled me when I watched the Hall of Fame ceremony this year and heard the words written on Tony LaRussa’s plaque about how he “led” the St. Louis Cardinals to victory in 2011 when they were a strike away from losing it. Sorry, the Cardinals two comebacks in Game 6 had nothing to do with LaRussa. In fact, had the Cards lost in ’11, much would have been made of Tony’s bullpen gaffe earlier in the series. Instead he’s praised as the master tactician. If Texas had won the Series in ’11, I guarantee most writers would say they won in spite of Wash. But it isn’t true.
The fact is Wash was a much better manager than anyone wants to give him credit for. Getting 25 men to play as a team isn’t easy. A lot has to happen before you can even think about strategy and tactics and Wash probably got more out of his teams than any manager in the game. Folks who frequent sites like FanGraphs think Joe Maddon of Tampa Bay is the epitome of the modern baseball manager for the way he embraces new statistical trends. Wash is probably the direct opposite of Maddon. Do a Google search, though, and you’ll find Maddon is effusive in his praise for Wash and the job he does as a manager. Maddon knows it isn’t just strategy.
The ones who play the game and manage the game from the dugout and coach the game day in and day out know what type of manager Wash is and they respect it. Don’t suggest the Rangers are better off because another manager can take them to “the next level.” Wash already brought them to the next level. I can only hope his permanent replacement can get the Rangers back to the level Wash was able to bring them to.
With the AL Championship Trophy
It’s Time
Neftali Feliz After Striking Out A-Rod to end the 2010 ALCS, sending Texas to its first World Series
I started this blog in 2010, the year the Rangers first went to the World Series. The original name of the blog was “The Futility Ends Here”. After about a week, I knew it wasn’t a very catchy title so I changed it to “World Series 40 Rangers Fan 0”. Much better. And it made it sweet when the season ended with the Rangers going to the World series for the first time in my then 40 years of Rangers fandom. For the Rangers, their marketing slogan for the 2010 season was, “It’s Time.” A more prophetic baseball slogan was never made.
Flash forward five years. Here at the All-Star break, the shell that remains of the Texas Rangers hobble into the break with baseball’s worst record. Where once I wrote of the exploits of Josh Hamilton, Michael Young, Adrian Beltre, Elvis Andrus, Nelson Cruz and even David Murphy, now all that remains is Beltre, Andrus, Rios, Choo and a bunch of young and/or underperforming offensive players. A pitching staff that once included Cliff Lee, CJ Wilson, Derek Holland, Matt Harrison, a younger Colby Lewis and one of the top relief corps in baseball is now composed of Yu Darvish at the front end, Joakim Soria at the back-end and very little of consequence in between.
So bad the Rangers situation has become, they limp into the All-Star break losers of 19 of their last 22 games. Texas (and the Washington Senators that preceded them) has had some pretty bad teams in their 53 years of existence but NONE of them have been as bad as losing 19 of 22 games. Honestly, if I didn’t know it from reading the box scores every day (it’s become too painful to even watch more than a handful of games on TV), I wouldn’t believe it possible. After all, even without all the injured players, the Rangers still have talent on this team: Beltre, Andrus, Alex Rios, Shin Soo Choo, Leonys Martin, Darvish and Soria. There have been historically bad teams in baseball for whom you’d be hard-pressed to find even two names worthy of putting on the list of talented players. For example, can anyone name more than two Houston Astros from 2o12-2013 worth mentioning? Still, this is where the Rangers find themselves.
Having a bad team does not make it harder to write about a team. Sometimes it can lead to more story ideas than a winning team provides. Among the thoughts I’ve had in recent weeks: spinning an old Paul Simon tune into a treatise on 50 Ways To Lose A Ballgame (“Give up a slam, Sam, Walk in a run, Son…”), wonderful words about the defensive work of catcher Robinson Chirinos, asking if should Jon Daniels get the blame for 2014 or is this a fluke season, talking about the newest Ranger to make his big-league début, Jake Smolinski, riffing on how great the Rangers farm system has been record-wise in 2014, opining whether Ron Washington should pay the price for the poor season, talking up minor league prospect Joey Gallo (who made headlines at the All-Star Futures game), scattershooting trade possibilities at the July deadline, etc. See? No shortage of ideas here.
Instead, I’m going to borrow a phrase from that 2010 Rangers marketing campaign. It’s Time. Time to retire the blog that I’ve devoted so much time to for the past five seasons. It isn’t because the Rangers are losing now. It’s because coming up with 500+ words to say on a regular enough basis to keep readers coming back is getting more and more difficult to do. Life has a way of throwing things in the way of the things you like to do in your spare time and my spare time has had an “S” added to it: spare has become sparse. I’m in the process of relocating to a different part of the state (and job hunting is part of that process). The desire to write about the Rangers hasn’t abated. The time to do it has.
Erik, devoted son, Rangers fan and blog follower. Photo by “One Strike Away…Twice!”
So, rather than put out a piece once every two or three weeks, I’m just going to shut it down for the rest of the season. Maybe I’ll have more time to devote to Rangers writing in 2015. My devotion to the team will not change, only the writing about it. You can still find me on Twitter (@Rangersblogger) where I’ll send out in-game comments when I can. This space, however, is going dark for the foreseeable future.
I thank everyone who has been a regular reader of this space, including The Angels Ace and This Is A Very Simple Game; The Wrigley Regular; all the Rangers fans who have followed me; and especially my son Erik, who has shared in my love for the Texas Rangers since childhood and it remains a constant source of conversation between us. To you and all the others I haven’t mentioned (and never got a chance to know), I’m grateful you took the time to read my sometimes meandering prose.
Post All-Star break will see the returns of Geovany Soto, Jim Adduci and Derek Holland. Hopefully that makes the season’s second half better than the first. Whether it does or not, I still say: GO RANGERS!!!
Texas Rangers Stars Of The Week: 6/2-6/8
Every Monday, this space names the Texas Rangers Stars of the Week. These are the guys who went above and beyond during the previous week. Each week two position players and one pitcher get special mentions. For position players, there’s a Star of the Week for a full week’s performance and one recognizing an outstanding single game. The pitching Star of the Week could be either.
Position Player Star of the Week (Single Game and Full Week):
Nobody in the Rangers line-up is more necessary offensively these days more than Adrian Beltre. The Rangers must rely on the unquestioned leader of the clubhouse and team now that most of the potential power in the line-up has been lost to injuries. Over the past week, Beltre has not disappointed. Adrian gets the Star of the Week for the full week on the basis of a 6-game split of .478/.458/.957. Beltre scored six of the Rangers 27 runs for the week and claimed responsibility for 8 of Texas’ RBI for the week. Adrian also gets the Star of the Week for a single game for his exploits during the Rangers 6-5 loss to the Orioles. Beltre accounted for all 5 Texas runs on two home runs, a 3-run shot off the Orioles’ Bud Norris in the first inning, followed by a 2-run poke in the 5th off Norris again. If anyone keeps the Rangers contending over the long hot summer to come, Beltre’s your guy. Here are Beltre’s two bombs from Wednesday’s game:
Pitching Star of the Week:
The week turned out miserably for the Rangers pitching staff. Joe Saunders led the starters in ERA at 3.18 but also gave up 17 hits in only 11 1/3 innings. Yu Darvish had a gritty performance on a night when his stuff wasn’t great but still allowed a 3-run home run for the first time in his MLB career. Even the bullpen had it rough. Tanner Scheppers returned from the DL and gave up home runs in each of his first two appearances. Robbie Ross Jr. had one great relief appearance against the Orioles but then had a rough outing against the Indians. Through all this, there was one picture of steadiness on the Texas pitching staff: the old veteran Jason Frasor. The former Blue Jay appeared in four games over the past week and the 38-year-old allowed only a single hit and no runs in four innings of work. For the year, Frasor has the lowest ERA on the pitching staff at 1.64 over 22 innings and 25 appearances. He hasn’t given up a run since May 17th and hasn’t allowed an earned run since May 14th.
The Week That Was & The Week That Will Be
Another week, another injury or two, another way to look at this team and say, “Is this REALLY the Texas Rangers? Come on, Donnie Murphy is your starting first baseman? And Joe Saunders is your #2 pitcher? This is a joke, right?”
Rangers fans wish it was a joke. But this is what the Rangers are going to look like pretty much the rest of the year, so we might as well get used to it. The players on the DL are better than the players actually participating in the games. Here’s your DL line-up now:
OF Jim Adduci
OF Engel Beltre
SP Martin Perez
OK, we’re missing a shortstop, an outfielder and an entire bullpen but you get the picture. The 2014 Texas Rangers are going nowhere fast and, seeing that the Houston Astros are starting to make a little noise, it’s now totally conceivable for the Rangers to finish in LAST place in the AL West. Let that sink in. LAST PLACE. The last time the Rangers were cellar dwellers was 2007, the first year of the Ron Washington era. I know, I know. The Rangers are a respectable 31-32, only a couple of games out of the Wild Card berth. True, but you can see the train wreck coming from a mile away. Wash is a great motivator of talent. He’ll get them to play at a very high level but eventually, the talent level shows. It happened a year ago when Nelson Cruz got suspended for the last 50 games. Texas came out like gangbusters at first but whimpered through September and were lucky to force a one game added regular season playoff with Tampa Bay for the right to play in the Wild Card game. This team is considerably worse than that team, talent-wise. The starting pitching is Yu Darvish and 4 guys who are, at best, #4 in the rotation pitchers. And that’s being kind. Derek Holland will return after the All-Star break but there’s no guarantee he’ll look like a #3 from the first start.
With the latest injury, Mitch Moreland’s ankle, Texas truly has no options at first base. There are a couple of guys at AAA being worked out at first base but none with regular experience there: Brad Snyder, Jim Adduci and J.P. Arencibia. Adduci just jammed the finger he broke and was rehabbing from so he’s not available right away. Arencibia had a very offensively unproductive month and a half with the Rangers and Snyder, while a power hitter, is also a strikeout machine. On the big league level, Murphy played the corner Sunday, while catchers Chris Giminez and Robinson Chirinos have both played first in the minors. None of these are very good options. I’m reasonably sure Jon Daniels is going to have to work out a trade with someone and he’s going to give up more than they should because the other GM’s know they’ve got him over a barrel. I suppose longtime fans could hold out hope for Michael Young to come out of retirement and man first base the rest of the year. Even if that were to occur, Young would need to ramp up and wouldn’t be available until the All-Star break at the earliest. Even then, as inconsistent as the offense has been, I honestly think Texas needs starting pitching help even more. You can’t have any hope of winning when four of your five starting pitchers are giving you only a hair more than 5 innings per start.
So, the Rangers got through the last week at 2-4, dropping two of three to the Orioles followed by winning only Yu Darvish’s start in three weekend games with the Indians, all at home. This week isn’t any better. After closing the 4-game set with Cleveland on Monday, Texas closes out the homestand with two against the surprising Miami Marlins. Then it’s on the road again for the West Coast swing that likely will seal the fate of the Rangers for 2014. It starts with three in Seattle against the third place Mariners, followed by three in Oakland against the first place A’s and ending with three in Anaheim with the second place Angels. Meanwhile, the resurgent Astros have their next two weeks filled with the Arizona Diamondbacks (last in the NL West), the Washington Nationals (3rd in the AL East) and 7 games with the Tampa Bay Rays (last in the AL East, worst record in the AL). It’s not a far out thought that the Rangers could be in the AL West cellar two weeks from today.
Scoreboard watching has definitely lost its flavor to me this season.
Final Reminder: A Father’s Day Gift Idea
Back in my college days as a Radio/TV major, I had the pleasure of knowing a classmate who went on to portray a character who, while only spending a few short minutes on the screen at the end of the movie, left an indelible mark with many baseball fans. His name is Dwier Brown and he portrayed Kevin Costner’s father at the end of the classic “Field of Dreams.” I recently discovered Dwier has published a book called “If You Build It- A Book About Fathers, Fate and Field of Dreams”. He is now on a Midwest book tour, appearing a minor league stadiums and the like. It’s both memoir and stories people have told him through the years about what the movie meant to them and their own relationships with their fathers. One of my fellow Baseball Bloggers Alliance members, The Hall of Very Good, has done a 2-part interview with Dwier about the movie and the book. You can read both parts of the interview here:
http://hallofverygood.com/2014-articles/talkin-baseball-with-dwier-brown-part-one.html
http://hallofverygood.com/2014-articles/talkin-baseball-with-dwier-brown-part-two.html
The book sounds like a great Father’s Day gift as well. You can order it at his website, dwierbrown.com.
Texas Rangers Stars Of The Week: 5/26-6/1
Every Monday, this space names the Texas Rangers Stars of the Week. These are the guys who went above and beyond during the previous week. Each week two position players and one pitcher get special mentions. For position players, there’s a Star of the Week for a full week’s performance and one recognizing an outstanding single game. The pitching Star of the Week could be either.
Position Player Star of the Week (Single Game):
These days, when Texas gets some offense it’s coming from all sources. Thus it’s hard to come up with a single game Star of the Week at times. The biggest RBI day came from Shin-Soo Choo, who knocked in the first three runs of one game against the Twins with a second inning bases loaded double. While impressive on the face, I’m giving this week’s award to a guy who knocked in only one run and qualifies as another of those unlikely stars we’ll see from the Rangers this year. Donnie Murphy started the season as part of the second base platoon with Josh Wilson. Then in one fell swoop, Murphy went on the DL, Wilson got demoted to Round Rock and they got replaced by Rougned Odor and Luis Sardinas. Murphy got activated from the DL when Prince Fielder was lost for the season and Sunday, he had to do something he’s never done before: play first base on the major league level. Murphy not only played the position flawlessly, he had three hits batting behind Adrian Beltre at 5th in the order (!) and knocked in the key insurance run in the 8th that gave Yu Darvish a little more of a cushion to work with. The three hits brought his season average up to .238.
Position Player Star of the Week (Full Week):
Overall, the Rangers bats have been a bit warmer of late, with the exception being the power numbers that remain better than the Kansas City Royals but hardly anyone else. Sunday’s Leonys Martin homer over the right field wall in Washington was the Rangers first in seven games. In other words, it was the only round tripper the Rangers hit ALL WEEK! Still, there were no fewer than six Texas players who batted .300 or better over the week. The overall Star of the Week goes to catcher Chris Giminez, a player who only joined the Rangers organization at the end of Spring Training, so close to the start of the regular season that Texas had to place him on the Opening Day roster without ever appearing in a Rangers uniform during the exhibition season. Giminez got sent to AAA Round Rock in short order and didn’t appear in a game for the Rangers until his recall two weeks ago to replace a completely ineffectual J.P. Arencibia. Over the past week, Giminez has garnered seven hits in four games, which is one less hit than Arencibia managed in 20 games with Texas. Overall, the stat line for Giminez was .438/.438/.625 with three doubles and 3 RBI. Giminez has also become the personal catcher when Yu Darvish is on the mound and it’s pretty clear Yu doesn’t have any problems with that arrangement. The proof is coming next.
Pitching Star of the Week:
If there’s a Rangers fan who doesn’t love Yu Darvish, then they are a fan of the New York Rangers hockey team. Meanwhile, Texas Rangers fan love Yu just fine, thank you very much. Sure, there’s the occasional debate of whether he’s earned “Ace” status yet and we sure don’t like the number of times he has a stiff neck and gets scratched from a start. When he takes the mound, though, any start begins with the possibility of magic happening. He’s flirted with no-hitters on several occasions and he leads the majors in double-digit strikeout games over the past three seasons. Sunday, Yu’s assignment was to slow down a Nationals offense that had battered Rangers pitching for 19 runs in the first two games of the series. Darvish was more than up to the task, going eight strong innings on only 102 pitches, giving up only five hits and two walks while striking out a dozen Nationals. Had the game not been played in Washington, where the pitchers come to bat, Darvish likely would have gone out for the 9th and attempted to finish off his first complete game and first career shutout. But, since Texas only had two runs on the scoreboard in the top of the ninth, Ron Washington decided to send up a pinch hitter for Darvish to try to score an insurance run. Joakim Soria secured the save and Darvish had his fifth win of the season.
The Week That Was & The Week That Will Be
Until Darvish spun his gem on Sunday, the weekend got off to a miserable start when the Nationals won Friday’s game 9-2 and added a 10-2 thumping on Saturday. Still, there’s nothing for Rangers fans to complain about. They finished the week 4-3 and they finished their longest road trip of the season going a combined 7-4 against the Tigers, the Twins and the Nationals. Yeah they’re still only a game above .500 and as close to last place as they are to first in the AL West (5 1/2 games), but they’re only a game out of the Wild Card at this point so there’s plenty to hope for.
This is a team with a lot of deficiencies: outside of Darvish, the four other starters are as likely to give you less than 5 innings as they are to even get to 6, the defense is still not anything close to what Rangers fans are used to seeing and the always aggressive running game has resulted in way too many caught stealings. A great case in point is right fielder Alex Rios. By all accounts, Rios is having a good season, hitting .320 and leading the Rangers in RBI with 29. Still, while Rios has 11 steals to his credit, he’s been caught an ugly seven times already. He may own the Rangers RBI lead but he’s also MLB’s leader for grounding into double plays with 15 at just the 1/3 mark of the season. And though he’s a far better right fielder defensively than his predecessor Nelson Cruz, he has three errors on the season and should have had a fourth on the missed pop-up that got changed to a David Ortiz hit that broke up a Yu Darvish no-hitter.
After 11 games on the road, the Rangers get a day off Monday, then spend the week at home against the Baltimore orioles and the Cleveland Indians. That has more than passing interest to Rangers fans, since the Orioles boast ex-Rangers Cruz, Chris Davis, Darren O’Day and Tommy Hunter (not to mention ex-manager Buck Showalter), followed by an Indians team whose uniform is worn by ex-Ranger David Murphy. Cruz would have been more than happy to stay a Ranger but Jon Daniels wasn’t willing to pony up the money to make it happen. Too bad because Cruz is having a career season for the Birds so far this year. Even Murphy has more RBI than Rangers team leader Alex Rios. Record-wise, all three teams are bunched together. The Rangers are 29-28, the Orioles 28-27 and the Indians 27-30. The Orioles get the benefit of not having to face Darvish. With no help coming to the roster via trade in the foreseeable future, a 3-3 record on the week is about what we might expect from a team that has played at about a .500 level all season.
A Father’s Day Gift Idea
Back in my college days as a Radio/TV major, I had the pleasure of knowing a classmate who went on to portray a character who, while only spending a few short minutes on the screen at the end of the movie, left an indelible mark with many baseball fans. His name is Dwier Brown and he portrayed Kevin Costner’s father at the end of the classic “Field of Dreams.” I recently discovered Dwier has published a book called “If You Build It- A Book About Fathers, Fate and Field of Dreams”. He is now on a Midwest book tour, appearing a minor league stadiums and the like. It’s both memoir and stories people have told him through the years about what the movie meant to them and their own relationships with their fathers. One of my fellow Baseball Bloggers Alliance members, The Hall of Very Good, has done a 2-part interview with Dwier about the movie and the book. You can read both parts of the interview here:
http://hallofverygood.com/2014-articles/talkin-baseball-with-dwier-brown-part-one.html
http://hallofverygood.com/2014-articles/talkin-baseball-with-dwier-brown-part-two.html
The book sounds like a great Father’s Day gift as well. You can order it at his website, dwierbrown.com.
Texas Rangers Stars Of The Week: 5/12-5/18
Every Monday, this space names the Texas Rangers Stars of the Week. These are the guys who went above and beyond during the previous week. Each week two position players and one pitcher get special mentions. For position players, there’s a Star of the Week for a full week’s performance and one recognizing an outstanding single game. The pitching Star of the Week could be either.
Position Player Star of the Week (Single Game):
How forgettable was the Rangers’ last week. So unforgettable there really wasn’t one single game outstanding performance. Texas went 2-4 on the week and no player had more than two RBI in a game. Adrian Beltre had a three hit game once but there just wasn’t anything for anyone to write home about. The best performance for the Rangers came with High Class A Myrtle Beach, where Joey Gallo went 4 for 4 with three home runs and five runs batted in against Potomac on May 16th. Gallo leads the minors in home runs with 18 on the year and has been the Carolina League Player of the Week three times already in 2014. Here’s the last of Gallo’s three dingers:
Position Player Star of the Week (Full Week):
It only figures the Player of the Week for all games is a guy who missed half of the six games to injuries. Yes, we’re talking about Prince Fielder who, although he is the POW, had a pretty mild stat line. In three games, Prince went 4 for 10 with a double, 2 RBI and an intentional walk before missing the Houston series with neck issues. While the ball still isn’t leaving the park at the rate Rangers fans or management would like (he has only 3 on the season), May has been much kinder to Prince than April. In the season’s first month, Fielder never managed to beat the defensive shift and entered May with a pitiful slash line of .206/.331/.644. And that includes nine intentional walks. Things are turning around for the Royal One in May, though. Fielder enters play May 20th at .333/.421/.879 for the month. If he gets it going, the Texas offense might start improving on their meager four runs per game average.
Pitching Star of the Week:
I was originally going to give this to Nick Tepesch, who arrived from Round Rock and gave the Rangers 5.1 innings of work a day after Matt Harrison went down less than two innings into his start. Tepesch gave the bullpen a bit of a breather and struck out 8 Astros in the process. Still, there was only one truly outstanding performance for the week and, for the second consecutive week, it belonged to Yu Darvish. In a loss to the Blue Jays, Darvish again flirted with a no-hitter before a single led off the fifth inning. Because of a weak Rangers offense, Darvish lost the game 2-0, but he struck out eleven Blue Jays and gave up only two runs on five hits in eight innings of work. Darvish lost four games 1-0 a year ago and this is the third time this season Texas hasn’t put a run on the boards while he was in the game. The Rangers have one of the top pitchers in all of baseball but his Win-Loss record doesn’t begin to show how good he’s been. Now I know how the Mariners have felt all these years with the job Felix Hernandez has done.
The Week That Was & The Week That Will Be
Last week, I said it was sad that a 3-3 record on the week for the Rangers would make me happy. The week ended with me not being very happy at all. In what could be the worst week in Rangers history, and that’s not hyperbole, the Rangers not only limped home with a 2-4 record on the week, they A) dropped a series to the Astros for the first time in six years; B) lost Prince Fielder for three games to a neck injury; C) lost Martin Perez for the next 1-2 years to Tommy John surgery; and D) lost Matt Harrison to back issues which may result in him NEVER PITCHING AGAIN. EVER.
Yep, it was definitely a week to forget in Rangers baseball and the road ahead doesn’t get any easier. This week, Texas has a brief two game set at home with the Mariners, followed by a four game road trip to the team with the best record in baseball, the Detroit Tigers. Perhaps frustrating us Rangers fans the most is seeing our team struggling while five pieces of the 2013 team (Nelson Cruz, David Murphy, Ian Kinsler, Craig Gentry & A.J. Pierzynski) are enjoying excellent starts to their 2014 with new clubs. The off-season was one in which Job Daniels wanted to rebuild the offense and now, the pieces he let go are doing better than the pieces he picked up.
Robbie Ross is still struggling as a piece of the rotation but thanks to the Perez and Harrison injuries, he’ll likely continue starting for the foreseeable future, unless Texas decides to try Scott Baker out the next time Ross’ spot comes up. The Rangers today sent J.P. Arencibia to AAA Round Rock, replacing him at catcher with Chris Gimenez. Arencibia was horrible offensively and not any better than horrible defensively. Still, in a 5-year career, Gimenez hasn’t been proven as a superior option. He comes to the Rangers with a career slash line of .199/.292/.585. The only positive that can be said for the Rangers catching corps in 2014 is that Robinson Chirinos has been excellent in throwing out would-be basestealers. His 45% mark is second in the AL and third in all of baseball.
What will make me happy this week? Nobody getting hurt is the best I’ve got. As to the record, I’ll be surprised if Texas does better than 2-4 for the week. It gets sadder by the day.
One Strike Away...Twice! 