A Few Off-Season Thoughts

by T Coleman on Oct 2, 2007 10:33 PM CDT Comment 10 comments

A few things I've thought about since the end of the season:

Home/Road Record - I haven't seen it mentioned much, but the Rangers won the fewest number of road games this season with 28. That is just terrible. What do you make of this number?

So I did a little exercise to determine the teams with the greatest difference in home record and road record. The equation is simple: Home Games Over/Under .500 - Road Games Over/Under .500. (Note: Remember two negatives make a positive). Using this equation, the larger the number, the greater the difference in home and road record. A negative number means the team was better on the road than at home.

Our beloved Rangers tied for the highest value with the Brewers at 38. Other high values include Toronto at 30, LAA at 28, Colorado at 23. The Mets were the only team with a negative value at -12...nice job guys.

Mr. Third Place - Once again, Tex winds up playing for a third place team and watching the playoffs like the rest of us. Had he stayed in Texas, he would have most likely finished on another third place team. After another third place finish with the Braves next year, maybe he will sign with Yankees and continue the streak.

Ichiro Shift - When Ichiro leads off an inning, he typically just slaps at the ball and runs real fast...like skinny guys do in softball. So I would propose an Ichiro shift with the bases empty. In this shift, the centerfielder would become an extra infielder with the corner outfielders sliding over to the power alleys. This might take away some of those cheap infield hits. He might also adjust his swing to try and hit the ball over the infield, thus popping up more. I doubt anyone would try this...unless LaRussa manages against him. Then it would be dubbed a great move by a genius manager.

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A few responses

Most teams tend to take care of business at home. The really good teams, in general, are able to play .500 ball or so on the road, or maybe a little better.

Not sure Tex would have pushed the Rangers past the A's into third place. Texas finished one game behind Oakland, but the Rangers had a better record without Tex than with him.

As for the Ichiro shift... Ichiro can be any type of hitter he wants. He chooses to be a contact singles hitter and hit for average in order to create RBI opportunities for teammates. If he decided to get more RBIs and accept a lower average, he could be a feared slugger. He's well known for the monster HRs he hits in batting practice. So if the outfield is brought in, I imagine he'd whip out the feared slugger Ichiro.

by Inkara1 on Oct 3, 2007 12:19 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Agreed

Ichiro is probably the last guy you would want to shift against because he will find the hole one way or another. Supposedly I've heard he could compete with the best in the home run derby. Why this hasn't happened yet, I don't know.

by slimshadty12 on Oct 3, 2007 12:33 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Yes because

Removing a good player and replacing him with bad ones leads to a better record for the team.

It's a good thing this board hates stats, reason and logic in favor of gut feelings, attitude, and hunches, or somebody might be critical of such comments.

Leonard Davis, the best NFL player of all time. Except maybe for Greg Ellis, obviously.

by Sharky on Oct 3, 2007 2:05 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Oddly enough...

the W-L record could also be considered a statistic, and it's been shown that since Teixeira came to the majors, the Rangers have a better W-L record when Teixeira's not in the lineup.

by Inkara1 on Oct 3, 2007 5:03 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Agreed

I've seen the guy mash the ball in batting practice before and have been completely intrigued since you never see that power from him in real games.

He's also someone who will pinpoint his hits during practice and hit three or four to the exact spot before switching to another spot. He's one of the most impressive hitters I've ever seen during batting practice.

Still, what's with the home run thing? I mean, he averages about 10 homers per season. I've seen his power in batting practice, so I know he had the potential to hit for power, yet he never does. Why? Does his batting practice power simply not translate against real pitching? It's definitely a strange thing.

by rangeressary on Oct 3, 2007 4:40 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs