Category: Texas Rangers

Happy Valentine’s Day?

Okay, so I know what most of you must be thinking…. Derek, you’ve lost your mind. In case you didn’t notice, it’s December and everyone is in full one-horse-open-sleigh mode. I know, I get it, but trust me when I say there is a method in my madness. Although I have a feeling that when I’m through with this, most of the 6 people who read this will think that there is madness in my method. Fair enough.

Let me start out by saying how very sorry I am for abandoning the 6 of you throughout the playoffs and the World Series, but there was a lot going on in my life. That, and I got tired of looking up stats. As much as I love writing, I loathe research. That’s why I decided to pick back up my blog now, when I have a greater opportunity to just give my hot sports opinion with headlines like this bit of amazing confusement(I don’t think this is a real word, but just go with it).

Tonight I was relaxing on my couch, about to take in a movie on my DVR. Of course I was setting up my laptop so that I could be continuously informed of the latest up to the minute news from the baseball winter meetings in Dallas. As I logged into Twitter, I was struck in the face with the latest blow to our beloved Texas Rangers. Not only did it look like the Rangers and Miami Marlins weren’t going to sign the soon to be former Ranger C.J. Wilson, but the team that was appearing to be the victor was none other than the hated Los Angeles Angels of Somewhere or Other. Ouch. Yes, I know that a lot of people are ready to run him off, and right after the playoffs I was one of those people. He doesn’t help endear himself with his arrogant self absorbed blow hard sounding attitude. The problem is that the guy can pitch. Yes, he is beginning to rake up the reputation of not doing well on the big stage, but the guy choked after throwing an incredibly large amount of pitches and innings in his second full year as a starter, which is usually the hardest year for a starting pitcher. The positives to look at are the fact that he didn’t back down from the challenge, his regular season stats are a large part of what got the Rangers back to the playoffs, he’s a good teammate, he’s an incredibly hard worker, he’s always looking to improve, he stays healthy, he’s durable and he was among the league leaders in wins, ERA and strikeouts.

So yes, I’ve been quietly hoping the Rangers would re-sign C.J. Wilson.

Besides, who wants to break up the band? After the 2010 season, I felt like the team was still missing something big. There were entirely too many holes. We needed a catcher. We needed a new 3rd baseman. I love Michael Young, but the guy is a butcher in the field these days. Of course, we all thought we needed the savior, Cliff Lee. General Manager Jon Daniels went out and found a good catcher and a great catcher in Yorvit Torrealba and Mike Napoli, he made us all question his sanity by spending a lot of money on Adrian Beltre (Well, everyone but me. I won’t say I told ya so) and he put the ball in the hands of C.J. Wilson. Everyone buried the Rangers when they couldn’t sign Cliff Lee, but the fact of the matter is, it wasn’t Cliff Lee that got the Texas Rangers to the playoffs in 2010, it was Wilson and fellow starter Colby Lewis. When the 2011 season ended, I didn’t feel like we were missing something big. It wasn’t the same vibe as a year earlier against the San Francisco Giants. It just felt like the team needed more time together.

Wow, losing C.J. kind of feels like a bad break up. We love him, we hate him. We love him, we hate him. Lather, rinse, repeat. Now he’s about to start dating our mortal enemy. **sigh**.

So as I was searching through the dozens of movies I recorded on my DVR during the HBO free preview weekend over the Thanksgiving holiday, I ran across the movie “Valentine’s Day“. I have no idea how it got on there and I had heard that it wasnt very good anyhow. Okay, I’m lying. It had an amazing cast, I wanted to see it and no I’m not gay. Don’t judge me. What is most important is that I enjoyed the movie, and it also helped me put the C.J. Wilson thing in perspective. Ashton Kutcher‘s character thought he had the perfect union with his girlfriend, played by Jessica Alba. He proposed, but shortly after that, she left him because she was too caught up in her career to give her time to the good thing that she had with Ashton. You know you’re a baseball nerd when you see the parallel between that and the relationship between the Rangers and Wilson. This made me depressed, and it didn’t help at the end of the movie that Ashton finds love again in his long time best friend, this time played by Jennifer Garner. While I felt that the Rangers weren’t going to fill the void left by their All Star lefty this quickly, the movie did teach me something.

There are other fish in the sea?

No.

Ashton Kutcher is one lucky SOB.

I turned off the TV and returned to Twitter just in time to see that a “source” close to the Angels was saying that LA was in on both C.J. Wilson AND Albert Pujols. **SIGH**.

 

 

Oh, and that Yu Darvish, the Japanese phenom starting pitcher will be posted after all on Thursday.

No, Ashton, there are no other fish in the sea. But there’s one across it. Huh, maybe there was something to the end of that movie afterall.  Hope always springs eternal tomorrow….

Happy Valentine’s day, everyone.

 

Wakefield Pushed Back a Day

Thursday’s start for Tim Wakefield of the Boston Red Sox has been pushed back one day to allow him extra rest and the opportunity to get win number 200 of his career at home at Fenway Park against the Oakland Athletics. Andrew Miller will start in his place Thursday against Matt Harrison. Miller is 5-1 with a 4.99 ERA this season.

Roller Coaster Ride

Texas Rangers Keeping Fans on Edge

Okay, so who besides me thought that this dance with the Angels was all but over after taking the first 3 games in Anaheim? Lots of hands… Good.

And even after falling apart at the end of game 4, who here thought that the Rangers were still firmly in control with 3 out of 4 wins against the 2nd place Angels on the road? Not as many hands, but still, a pretty good amount.

Now… Who was a little worried FREAKING OUT leaving Chicago, having just lost 3 out of 4 to the White Sox, allowing the Angels to once again pull things within 4 games in the division and potentially setting up another do or die series this weekend? Okay, that’s a whole lot of hands.

Ironically, what do people do when riding a roller coaster? That’s right, you guessed it. They hold their hands up.

Boston Comes to Town

Well, if you thought the roller coaster was taking a nose dive down on its way out of Chicago, then it undoubtedly was on its way back up in Arlington tonight.

The Rangers took care of business in the opener of an important series against Boston at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington tonight. No, Boston isn’t in the Rangers division, but the Rangers have their eye on catching the Red Sox and New York Yankees in the overall American League Standings to potentially give the Rangers home field advantage against someone other than the wildcard winner.

Rangers pitching sparkled for most of the night, with the exception of Neftali Feliz looking a bit shaky in the 9th. With a 4 run lead, it looked as if Feliz was using the opportunity to work on a few of his secondary pitches. When it came down to it, he kept the Sox off the board in the 9th, and The Rangers had shut out the potent Boston lineup, 4-0 .

CJ Wilson became the Rangers first 13 game winner, but don’t expect him to be the last.

Pitching Matchups

The matchups for the Rangers in the rest of the Boston series are mostly favorable. Take a look…

Tue:

(Bos)Lackey 11-9, 6.02 ERA

(Tex)Lewis 11-8, 3.83 ERA

Wed:

(Bos)Beckett 10-5, 2.46 ERA

(Tex)Harrison 10-8, 3.28 ERA

Thu:

(Bos)Wakefield 6-5, 4.97 ERA

(Tex)Ogando 12-5, 3.30 ERA

While Lackey’s record has been significantly better over his last 8 starts (6-1), his ERA during that span is a mediocre 3.86 . While that is an improvement over what Lackey had been giving the Red Sox before his last 8 games, it’s still very average at best. Colby Lewis, in his last 12 starts dating back to June 17th, is 6-1 with a 2.70 ERA.

Josh Beckett is Josh Beckett. Everyone knows what he is capable of, but I hope no one looks at this third game of the series as a throw away. No one would argue with you if you said that Matt Harrison was very quietly putting together a very decent season. What you may not know is that the few times that Matt Harrison has not had his best stuff, he has continued to regroup and come back stronger than ever in his subsequent starts, quieting many doubters within the media and fan base. No, Harrison did not look too good in Chicago over the weekend, but look at the team and individual stats for Harrison and the Rangers over his last 12 starts:

Harrison:
5-2, 3.26 ERA, 5 no decisions

Team Record:
10-2

That’s right, the team has won ALL FIVE of Harrison’s no decisions in that span. That is because no matter how good his stuff is, he can battle and keep the team in the game long enough to allow the Rangers hitters to catch up. It’s very hard to count out Matt Harrison in any game.

As far as the Thursday game with Tim Wakefield on the mound… Check back here on Thursday Morning.

Two Down, Two to Go

First Place Texas Rangers

Today is Wednesday, August 17th, and the Texas Rangers have a 6 game lead over the LA Angels in the American League West.

Last night, the Rangers played the 2nd of 4 games against the second place Los Angeles Angels and defeated them in Anaheim, 7-3.

…And Then There Was Santana

So the Texas Rangers have done exactly what is expected of a good baseball club. They went into Anaheim, and with 11 game winner and All Star Alexi Ogando, they defeated a team who was starting a pitcher that until last week had never pitched above the AA level. Actually, to be completely accurate, they defeated the Angels bullpen. Rookie Garrett Richards was only able to go two-thirds of an inning before straining his groin.

Then, after the young and inconsistent Derek Holland gave up 5 walks in 6 innings against the Seattle Mariners last week, the 3rd year veteran Derek Holland pitched 8.2 innings, allowing only 3 runs and 1 walk, while striking out 7 Angels hitters. The Angels pitcher, rookie Tyler Chatwood looked like a rookie last night. The Rangers forced him out of the game after only 2 innings, continuing to drain the Angels bullpen. In the end, it was again the Rangers who had beaten who they should, winning 7-3 and extending their lead in the American League West to 6 games over the Angels.

Now the real work begins.

The Rangers have held serve against the rookies. If they can win one more game in this series and walk out of Anaheim with at least a 6 game lead(possibly 8 if they sweep), the feeling will be that the Angels have dug too deep of a hole for themselves, especially considering their current issues with the back end of their rotation. The problem with that theory is the front of the Angels rotation.

Tonight the Angels send Ervin Santana to the mound, to be followed by Jered Weaver tomorrow night.

Santana has been untouchable lately. Literally.  In his last 5 starts, he is 5-0 with a 0.84 ERA, including his no-hitter at Cleveland on July 27th. While it would be nice to score 3 or 4 runs off of Santana early and get into the overworked Angels bullpen, the reality of it is that it probably won’t happen. The key is going to be for the Rangers hitters to see as many pitches as possible and to manufacture a run or two against Santana. If the Rangers pitcher CJ Wilson can keep his ballclub in the game, at least until the new-look bullpen can take over, and the Rangers hitters can get to the Angels pen by the 7th or 8th inning, there is a more than decent chance that this game can be had. On the other hand, if Rangers hitters that have feasted on young and inexperienced arms recently become impatient, then it could be a very long night, and CJ Wilson may experience another hard luck loss at the hands of the Angels. In his last game against the Angels, Wilson pitched 8 innings without giving up an earned run, while only allowing 2 hits. He took the loss in a game that the Rangers dropped 1-0. In that game, the Angels pitcher was American League All-Star starter Jered Weaver, who threw 7 innings of shutout baseball that night. The bright side of that outing was that the Rangers were able to get 9 men on base against Weaver, while forcing him to throw 122 pitches. Weaver will face Colby Lewis on Thursday night, in what is expected to also be a pitchers duel.

The Bottom Line

If the Rangers can come away from the next two games with at least one win, they can begin to establish themselves as the likely representative from the American League West in the 2011 postseason.

….but if not…

…then the Rangers leave Anaheim in the same way that they arrived. A 4 game lead over their division rivals, and the door still standing wide open.

Quick Hits

– Alexi Ogando became the Rangers first 12 game winner of the season on Monday, pitching 6.1 innings and allowing 4 earned runs.

– Jered Weaver had his worst start of the season in his last time out against the Toronto Blue Jays, going just 4.2 innings and allowing 8 earned runs. Don’t read into that too much. Before that game, he had only given up 8 earned runs in his last 7 games combined.

Rangers at Angels Preview

First Place Texas Rangers

Today is Monday, August 15th, and the Texas Rangers have a 4 game lead over the LA Angels in the American League West.

Over the weekend the Rangers swept the Oakland Athletics in three games, while the Toronto Blue Jays took two out of three from the Angels.

Texas Rangers at Los Angeles Angels Series Schedule

DAY          TIME          TEXAS                                            LA       

———————————————————————————————————————————————–

Mon           9:05PM         Ogando (11-5, 3.22 ERA)               Richards (0-1, 10.80 ERA)

Tues          9:05PM         Holland (10-4, 4.30 ERA)              Chatwood (6-8, 4.07 ERA)

Wed           9:05PM        Wilson (11-5, 3.28 ERA)                  Santana (9-8, 3.10 ERA)

Thurs         9:05PM         Lewis (11-8, 4.01 ERA )                 Weaver (14-6, 2.13 ERA )

WHO’S HOT

Torii Hunter, Angels:

Coming into the month, Hunter had a .232 batting average, and was not performing the way his team needed him to. August has been good to him. Going into Monday’s opener with the Rangers, Hunter had raised his BA to .255 and has been riding the momentum of a 12 game hitting streak. He has also hit safely in 16 out of his last 17 games. Hunter’s BA for the month of August is a robust .486, while posting an on base percentage of .537 .

Ervin Santana, Angels:

Santana is a pitcher on a mission, proving that he has finally come into his own in the world of pitching in the big leagues. He has recorded a win in each of his last 5 starts, and has thrown 3 complete games during that stretch, while giving up 1 earned run or less in each of the contests. Santana has recorded a win in each of his last 6 decisions, and has not absorbed a loss since June 21st. Since his last loss, Santana has pitched 9 games, lowered his ERA from 4.22 to 3.10 and has pitched less than 7 innings only once(6.1 innings on 7/16 at Oakland).

Bullpen, Rangers:

Since July 31st, the day of the non-waiver trade deadline, the Rangers bullpen has posted a miniscule 1.53 ERA in 47 innings pitched. After the acquisition of relievers Koji Uehara and Mike Adams, the bullpen has clamped down on opponents and allowed the Rangers to essentially close the door after the starting pitcher is pulled from the game. Rangers closer Neftali Feliz had one bad outing during this period, but spoke to his former battery mate Bengie Molina while he was in Arlington to receive his American League championship ring from the team. Molina told Feliz that he needed to mix his speeds and rely more on his off speed pitches to confuse hitters. Since the advice, Feliz has pitched noticeably better.

Oh, and if you take away that one bad inning by Feliz…. The Rangers ERA in the pen since July 31st is an unfathomable 0.97 .

Yorvit Torrealba, Rangers:

Torrealba has really benefited from more playing time with Adrian Beltre on the disabled list. Michael Young, who had been playing a super utility/DH role before Beltre’s injury, has been permanently assigned to 3rd base until Beltre can return. This in turn has opened the DH spot, given Mike Napoli more time at first base and has allowed Torrealba to find a way into the lineup almost every day. He has a 12 game hitting streak since July 31st, and in 7 of those games he has gone for multiple hits. During Torrealba’s hitting streak, he has raised his season batting average from .257 to .283 .

WHO’S NOT

Erick Aybar, Angels:

Aybar is just 3 for his last 50 at the plate, and for the month of August has an almost non existent batting average of .065 .

Elvis Andrus, Rangers:

Andrus committed yet another error at shortstop yesterday, giving him 23 for the year and tying 3B Mark Reynolds of the Baltimore Orioles for the major league lead.

Game #1

Alexi Ogando goes to the mound tonight, attempting to forget what happened in his last start. Ogando only made it through 2.2 innings, allowing 8 hits and giving up 6 earned runs against the worst offensive team in the majors, the Seattle Mariners.

For the Angels, they will send rookie Garrett Richards to the mound for his 2nd major league start. In his major league debut at Yankees Stadium in New York, Richards was roughed up for 6 earned runs in 5 innings against the Yankees.

The key for both teams will be to try and take advantage of each of these young pitchers early. If ether of these teams can rattle the others starter, it could be a long night.

Game #2

The question in this game for the Rangers is which Derek Holland will show up at the ballpark? In his last start, Holland went 6 innings allowing 2 earned runs, 6 walks and threw 116 pitches. Against the lowly Seattle Mariners he looked like a gutsy pitcher without his best stuff, battling and keeping his team in the game. If he comes out against the Angels with the same stuff, he could find himself in hot water. On the other hand, you never know when Holland will be ready for a complete game shutout.

Game #3

The key in this game for the Rangers is: Get to Santana. Get to Santana. GET TO SANTANA. Ervin Santana has been pitching his heart out with tremendous results of late. With CJ Wilson on the mound for the Rangers, this has the potential to be a classic pitchers duel.

Game #4

Jerrod Weaver has only allowed 5 runs and has struck out 20 against the Rangers in 22 innings this season, resulting in a low 2.05 ERA in those games. The Rangers will need another outing from Colby Lewis like the one he had on Saturday against the Oakland A’s when he only allowed 3 hits and 1 run in 6.1 innings. If Lewis can get the ball to the back end of the bullpen, then they may stand a chance against Weaver.

Side Notes

– While the Angels have the best team ERA in the AL, there is one stat that they may not necessarily want the Rangers to know about. The two teams have an identical batting average against of .247.

-If the Rangers were to sweep the series, the lead in the AL West would be 8 games. If the Angels were to sweep, the two teams would be tied for 1st place.

Morning Coffee: Thursday Edition

First Place Texas Rangers

Today is Thursday, August 11th, and the Rangers have a 1.5 game lead over the second place LA Angels. Last night, The Angels fell to the New York Yankees in New York, 9-3, but the Rangers failed to take advantage of the loss by dropping their game to the Seattle mariners, 4-3.

 

 

Derek Holland: Quality Start?

It would appear that the dark side of Derek Holland again tried to rear its ugly head last night. To Holland’s credit, he battled hard all night and kept the team in the game. The problem is that any other major league team would have likely scored more off of Holland. By definition, Derek Holland had a quality start last night. Hopefully the way that he hung in there will give him something to build on in his next start. The elephant in the room is that Seattle ranks dead last in the majors in team batting average at a lowly .239, while they are 25th in team walks.

Here are Holland’s numbers on the night.

IP H R ER BB SO HR PC-ST
D Holland 6.0 7 3 2 5 7 1 116-67

 

Gutsy? Yes.

Good enough last night? Yes.

Quality? No.

 

Horses Have Horns?

We have seen our share of bad commercials from the Rangers this season. We’ve seen Alexi Ogando and Neftali Feliz fishing with batting practice balls. They’ve made us watch David Murphy get fined by the flower police for smashing blue bonnets, while Arthur Rhodes and Darren Oliver discussed the situation. We even watched Nolan Ryan grill 30,000 hot dogs on accident. But if I have to watch those two little punks talking about horses having horns again…..

 

Ian Kinsler Watch

I had a sudden thought this evening while watching the game. Ian kinsler reminds me a lot of Mickey Tettleton. In Tettleton’s last full season with the Rangers, his numbers as far as batting average, on base percentage, walks and homeruns were very similar to the ones that Kinsler has put up to this point in the season. The good thing is that Kinsler strikes out significantly less than Tettleton, which makes him a welcome commodity. Oh, and by the way…

 

Neflali Feliz on back-to-back nights

Neftali Feliz pitched on back to back nights for the last two nights. Last night, Feliz again relied on some curve balls and sliders to go along with his fastball to get through his inning. It took him only 12 pitches to get two strikeouts and a fly ball out. Thank you, Bengie Molina. Thank you.

 

Ian Kinsler Watch Cont…

….The Mariners finally retired Ian Kinsler in his final at bat last night, with a grounder to short to end the game. Oh well, you cant win them all.

 

Quick Hits
– Michael Young donated his jersey that he wore during the game that he acquired his 2000th base hit to the National Baseball hall of Fame.

– Josh Hamilton homered last night for the first time since July 19th, translating into 82 at bats between dingers.

-Be sure and stop in at Starbucks tomorrow, because there will be no morning coffee with the Rangers off day today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Morning Coffee – Humpday Edition

Welcome to Morning Coffee…

This is where I will be sharing my daily musings, odds and ends, and other such random things that I wish to share. So pour yourself another cup of Joe, and I’ll give it a go.

First Place Texas Rangers

Today is Wednesday, August 10th, and the Texas Rangers remain 1.5 games ahead of the 2nd place LA Angels. Last night the Rangers came back to defeat the Seattle Mariners 7 – 6, with a walk off single by Josh Hamilton to score Ian Kinsler from second base. Meanwhile, in New York, the Angels defeated the Yankees 6 – 4; a game in which the Yankees had the tying run at the plate in Mark Teixeira, when Curtis Granderson was picked off attempting to steal 2nd base, to end the game.

Alexi Ogando Struggles

Alexi Ogando stuggled terribly in his first start back from paternity leave, which of course is going to start the rumor mill up, discussing just what it might have been that caused such a rough outing. Ogando pitched 2.2 innings while facing 16 batters. He gave up 6 earned runs on 8 hits, issued 2 walks and struck out none. The problem with speculating about what could have caused such a performance is that there were several factors that could have played a major part. Let’s take a look:

  1. Ogando had just returned from the Dominican Republic on Monday, after being gone on paternity leave. He tried to stay as close to his normal routine as possible by working out and going through with his normal side thowing at the Texas Rangers facility in the Dominican, but with the flights there and back (which I’m told are no picnic), his routine was anything but.
  2. Many people will be quick to point out that we are reaching a point that fatigue could be factoring in. Ogando has never pitched this much in one season, but that may or may not be a worthy excuse. Ogando is 27 years old, so his body has matured beyond that of most 1st year starters. Decide for yourselves….
  3. The game time temperature was 105 degrees. While I don’t think this is the sole cause, I do think that when added to one or more of the other reasons, it could have played a part.
  4. …..And of course he could have simply just been “off”. Nobody is perfect, and for someone with as little experience as Ogando, this very easily could be the major factor.

Ian Kinsler: BA vs. OBP

Okay people, just stop it. Yes, everyone would LOVE for Ian Kinsler’s batting average (.237) to be higher, especially Kinsler himself. But the fact of the matter is, he has a .346 on base percentage. While that isn’t the best OBP on the team, it is still very good. When you add that to the fact that he has 67 walks on the season (7th in the American League), which is nearly double that of the 2nd highest player total on the team (Napoli, 35), you cannot argue with the fact that he should remain the teams leadoff hitter. One of the primary jobs of the leadoff hitter is to see as many pitches as possible to collect information on the other teams pitcher. When you have high walk totals, you tend to see a lot of pitches. And don’t forget…. His walk in the 9th inning last night led to the winning run.

Bullpen Domination

Ladies and Gentlemen, meet the new Texas Rangers bullpen.

In a game that a month ago we all would have written off by the third inning, the bullpen not only showed up and kept the team in the game, but they did it in complete dominating fashion. Yoshinori Tateyama came into the game, I assume unexpectedly, with two outs in the third inning. Scott Feldman, still unavailable because of a blister on his pitching hand (or because manager Ron Washington may be saving him for Derek Holland’s start tonight), has been the Rangers long man in the pen since being called up. But tonight, the call went to Tateyama, and the 35 year old rookie delivered. Tateyama went 2.1 scoreless innings, only allowing 1 hit and 1 walk while striking out 2. Darren Oliver, Mark Lowe and Mike Adams each threw a scoreless inning before making way in the ninth for Neftali Feliz, who has been having struggles recently. The second year closer came on and pitched a scoreless ninth inning, giving him the win. Altogether, the Bullpen pitched 6.1 innings, allowing 3 hits, while striking out 9.

And in case you were wondering… Mike Adams struck out the side in the eighth. Do with this information what you wish.

Quick Hits

-Bengie Molina was in town to receive his 2010 American League championship ring and to throw out the first pitch before last night’s game. Bengie says that his World Series championship ring from the San Francisco Giants (Molina was traded mid season last year, so he received a ring from both clubs) arrived a few weeks ago. In the mail. Which ring do you think really means more to him?

-While Bengie was in town, he spoke to his old battery mate, Neftali Feliz. His message? Throw more than just the fastball.

-Neftali Feliz’s last pitch of the night: A slider.

-According to Anthony Andro of FSSW, the Seattle Mariners are now 0 for 36 versus Neftali Feliz.

The Hot Corner: Daily Tidbits

Ogando in, Blanco out

According to Anthony Andro of FSSW, The Rangers put Andres Blanco on DL with lower back inflammation. Alexi Ogando has been reinstated from the Paternity list.

John Blake tweeted tonights Texas Rangers lineup:

Tuesday lineup: Kinsler, 2b; Chavez, cf; Hamilton, lf; Young, 3b; Cruz, rf; Napoli, c; Torrealba, dh; Moreland, 1b; Quintanilla, ss; Ogando, P

Notice there is no Elvis Andrus in the lineup, but this is just a regularly scheduled day off.

Blake also mentions that Bengie Molina is in town to receive his 2010 AL Championship ring tonight. He will also throw out the ceremonial first pitch.