Tuesday a.m. things
by Adam J. Morris on Apr 1, 2008 9:49 AM CDT
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PrintI get the feeling Ben Broussard is going to be the new Rod Barajas.
Anyway...if you want the obligatory, "See, the Rangers sure are terrible, just look at what happened yesterday, that's going to happen all year" column, there is this morning's piece from Jim Reeves. Meanwhile, Kevin Sherrington talks about how winning isn't what it is about this year.
Evan Grant's game story offers some parallels between Kevin Millwood's game yesterday, and some Opening Day starts by Charlie Hough and Nolan Ryan.
Ian Kinsler had a fever of 103 yesterday, but played anyway. Also in Grant's notes, Jon Daniels says he is making efforts to try to get the Rangers to start the season at home more often, and the Rangers had all 25 players on the active roster -- plus Luis Mendoza -- attend the team dinner Sunday night.
Ron Washington says Frank Catalanotto will start in left field today, with David Murphy sliding over to right field, and Marlon Byrd presumably going to the bench.
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Road openings
I don't get it. The Rangers play in one of the few cities where early April weather is much better than summer weather. They should be more likely than not to play more April home games at the expense of say, August games. Instead, we have 2 games postponed, another one delayed on and off, and a bunch of cold players in other places.
Seems like a scheduled with more home games in April and a few less in July/August would help everyone...
Also, count me as one who is not surprised that Teixeira wasn't going to club dinners last year...
agree
after all those snow-outs last year, i thought i had read that MLB would adjust the schedule for this year. even thought seattle has a dome, nadel said it's closer "to an umbrella" than a trueindoor stadium.
and i still think the unbalanced schedule is wholly unfair, but that's a post for another day.
by neatfreakgeek on Apr 1, 2008 10:04 AM CDT up reply actions
Attitude
The one thing that stands out to me in this game, other than the untimely hitting is that it seems like these guys are sticking up for each other. If Padilla pitches a good game today, I think we win the next one. I am also usually on the optimistic side.
Offense
Could be an obvious concern (as discussed). Hank at #4 against a Lefty? I agree with Adam, Ben may not be the Lefty solution. That combination of Ben, Byrd, Hank, did not look good at all. Lots of dink grounders in key situations. Yes, they worked the count better than ever. But less one HR, and one small grounder RBI, not many balls were even hit hard. Not to panic.
reply
That 3-some was 0-10 with 4K's. Mostly Ben w/ the K's. But is Hank a true #4? He's a stop gap #4. This 3-some concerns most. I love Byrd on defense and as a human being, but, his bat may be more Barajas than Barajas? Could that be?
Hank
Don't include him in this group. If anything Kinsler looked more lost at the plate than Hank did. The simple fact is we were facing one of the toughest left handed pitchers in baseball yesterday. To expect success from everyone is absurd.
The only reason I don't like hank in the 4 slot aside from his career numbers is the back to back left handed hitters. We saw yesterday how easy it was for an opposing manager to trot out a lefty specialist and breeze through the middle of our lineup. Put Hank back in the 5 hole and we should see an improvement.
Hank is historically
not very good against lefties. Hank's splits are
Against righties .292/.358/.504
Against lefties .226/.280/.349
Putting Hank in the 4th slot against lefties seems pretty dicey.
"Before I leave, I once again condemn the despicable buffoonery of D.J. Cahill." - Huck
Maybe Kinsler looked lost
because running a 103 fever will do that to a person sometimes.
"Before I leave, I once again condemn the despicable buffoonery of D.J. Cahill." - Huck
Come on, baby
do you do more than dance?
"Sabean did a good job on selling high on Liriano." Excel Hearts Choi
by thedirkatron on Apr 1, 2008 11:18 AM CDT up reply actions
Lighten up
brett posts a non-imflammatory comment and gets flamed. That's just cold as ice.
A working class hero is something to be.
Huh?
He made a joke and I made of joke of his. I don't see how I can get much "lighter" than that.
Fishing in the rivers of life. All bound for Mu Mu Land.
Retracted.
This is the problem with internet posting, no sense of tone.
A working class hero is something to be.
ha ha :)
I hereby ordain you Benny Brou Ha Ha<-----Wash thinks you can hit lefties....in 2 months time you will be a full fledged Brouhaha..trust me on that one.
haha
I hereby ordain you Benny Brou Ha Ha<-----Wash thinks you can hit lefties....in 2 months time you will be a full fledged Brouhaha..trust me on that one.
Hank wasn't scary looking up there
he seemed focused, albeit without great success.
Byrd and Broussard, on the other hand, looked completely out of their element. Now, Bedard is an advanced lefty, who has pitched very well (actually, much better) against this lineup in the past.
But it does seem like every year the Rangers have trouble hitting lefties. And that's not good, particularly with their ballpark.
Reply - Hank
Just considering the Tex void we have from last year, and w/ no real replacement at 1st (unless Ben shows something more), game one or not, this is THE problem area in the offense. The OF has some hope. But, can we really survive w/o a better 1B option who CAN hit Lefties? We're just expecting too much of HB.
consider this
Tex wouldn't do shit for us for the first month anyways...so we have a month to figure it all out
"No, Donny, these men are nihilists, there's nothing to be afraid of."
by Walter Sobchak on Apr 1, 2008 12:53 PM CDT up reply actions
+ 1
"He'll be better next time he gets the ball"
Ron Washington says after Fukumori gives up 2 hits, 3 earned runs, 2 walks and a couple of wild pitches in a third of an inning.
Well that's comforting!
Reeves
Dude, go write about the Fort Worth Cats if all you're gonna do is spread doom and gloom all year. Is that seriously all this guy can do?
Grieve: The Yanks have struggled so far. - Lewin: Yeah, cry me a bag of money.
Bill James and the Rangers
Bill James said (on 60 Minutes) that the best year's of a player's career is consistently 25-29. Even in the steroid era. THAT's what I like about the team JD is trying to assemble. This team is young. And I have confidence that JD will continue to plug holes that emerge. With 25-29 year old players.
I noticed that...
Brandon McCarthy - 24
Luis Mendoza - 24
Kason Gabbard - 25
Ian Kinsler - 25
Josh Rupe - 25
Robinson Tejeda - 26
David Murphy - 26
Josh Hamilton - 26
Dustin Nippert - 26
C.J. Wilson - 27
Jason Botts - 27
Hank Blalock - 27
Gerald Laird - 28
Franklyn German - 28
Jason Jennings - 29
They are all on the major league roster right now. Throw in Littleton, Feldman, Loe, Murray, Hurley, Harrison, Saltalamacchia, Boggs, Arias, Metcalf, Borbon, Davis and Teagarden and we have a very young, promising core to build around. Just need to hit the jackpot with an upper-tier pitcher both inside the organization and outside the organization (trade, free agency) and I think we're on our way to something special.
"No, Donny, these men are nihilists, there's nothing to be afraid of."
by Walter Sobchak on Apr 1, 2008 1:09 PM CDT up reply actions
Macro
Agreed. Our big picture plan has never been better. I like how JD approaches things with the volume, volume, volume mentality. We have a LOT of prospects to sort through. We can always fine tune with a FA or two. Before this tear down occurred, we really were missing out on a macro plan.
So
What exactly is happening with Cruz and Tejeda, are they going through waivers right now. Sorry if this is a dumb questions just curious.
Yes
They're going through waivers. As of Sunday? Anyone? I know Jamey flashed it.
Go Strangers.
by hightowersmith on Apr 1, 2008 10:43 AM CDT up reply actions
They have been designated for assignment
The Rangers have 10 days to trade them or put them on waivers.
They haven't been put on waivers yet.
by Adam J. Morris on Apr 1, 2008 10:44 AM CDT up reply actions
Somewhat OT
Dock Ellis, ex-Ranger, during his acid trip no-hitter:
http://nomas-nyc.com/uploaded_images/dock-735124.jpg
Go Strangers.
Heh
Sorry, I think it's hillarious.
Go Strangers.
by hightowersmith on Apr 1, 2008 10:44 AM CDT up reply actions
+ 1
"He'll be better next time he gets the balls"
Ron Washington says after Fukumori gives up 2 hits, 3 earned runs, 2 walks and a couple of wild pitches in a third of an inning.
Well that's comforting!
+2
"I can only hope that you continue to monitor me, and help me out as I slowly work to take the training wheels off." - BG
by inactive lsb user on Apr 1, 2008 2:28 PM CDT up reply actions
Question about game threads
I was at work and unable to follow the game closely, but I didn't notice anything new or unusual about the game thread. Are their new toys I missed?
A working class hero is something to be.
I was wondering that, too
I didn't notice anything different in the Game Threads than any other normal thread.
One thing I noticed...
Comments populate automatically, ie you don't have to reload. I'm sure you've noticed, though...
Go Strangers.
by hightowersmith on Apr 1, 2008 3:39 PM CDT up reply actions
Ian Kinsler is made of metal, and is very strong.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1435090770451224720
LSB 2.0 confuses and scares me.
Huh?
"I can only hope that you continue to monitor me, and help me out as I slowly work to take the training wheels off." - BG
by inactive lsb user on Apr 1, 2008 2:30 PM CDT up reply actions
OT: Brandon Boggs
He is listed as a Pitcher on the Rangers website in their 40 man roster. Just a misprint or something I've missed?
Rangers Roster Poorly Constructed - left hander heavy
It seems to me, after this game, if I was a manager of an opposing team, I would start any and all lefthanders against that rangers line-up that most of the time has quite a few left handed bats, that can't hit left handers very well:
against lefthander pitching
Blalock - 769(AB) .225 .281 .349 .629
Murphy - 26(AB) .385 .407 .577 .984
Vazquez- 306(AB) .196 .251 .232 .483
Broussard- 350(AB) .226 .288 .397 .685
Hamilton- 75(AB) .227 .306 .293 .599
Cat 323(AB) .248 .332 .344 .676
Except...
you don't don't short a pitcher a day off or two just so he can go against the Rangers as opposed to another team. Also, RF is much shorter in Arlington, which would favor left-handed hitting.
by Excel Hearts Choi on Apr 1, 2008 2:58 PM CDT up reply actions
Except
Cat, Broussard (which rhymes w/ BLEW HARD, HAHAHA I SO WITTY), and Vazquez prolly aren't facing southpaws more than a handful of times this year.
Murphy (or as NYTXFAN calls him, "The Murph") and Hank will probably sit mostly as well.
As many have already mentioned, the only lefty change needed is inserting Milton in between Blalock and Hamilton.
Rex Hudler is in demand as a motivational speaker.
you think
Hank will sit agianst most LHP?
by Randy Richardson on Apr 1, 2008 8:38 PM CDT up reply actions
Ha ha
Yeah, good point, we can't exactly spell him w/ Vazquez's beastly splits.
Misspoken.
Rex Hudler is in demand as a motivational speaker.
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