Friday a.m. stuff
by Adam J. Morris on Jun 6, 2008 9:55 AM CDT
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PrintThere is praise for Kevin Millwood today, as the Rangers finally had a starting pitcher go out in the ugly wind conditions at TBIA and give the Rangers some quality innings. After a difficult first, Millwood shut the Indians out over the next 5, and gave the team a chance to come back and get back to .500 on the season.
Tim Cowlishaw talks about Milton Bradley's all-star caliber 2008 campaign, noting that, in spring training, he would have had Ben Broussard as more likely to be one of the guys the Rangers were promoting for the All Star team than Broussard.
Ron Hopkins is trying to temper the comparisons of first rounder Justin Smoak to Mark Teixeira and Chipper Jones, saying it isn't fair to Smoak to be setting that sort of bar for him. Still, given the scouting reports and Smoak being a switch hitter, the comparison seem inevitable.
Jeff Wilson says that, late last season, Ron Washington planned on having Marlon Byrd as his cleanup hitter in 2008, but Byrd is now fighting for the 4th outfielder slot, and isn't exactly thrilled about it.
Randy Galloway likes the Rangers offense, and his column is another love letter to Rudy Jaramillo. This seems to be a regular theme from Galloway...if the offense isn't producing, it is management's fault for not getting good enough players in here, and if the offense is producing, the credit goes to Rudy, for doing such a great job with the not good enough players management has brought in.
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Rangers
As bad as the pitching has been these last few games you look up and we are 4-3 so far on this homestand and our offense is on fire. Hopefully our pitching can straighten itself out and all we need for it to do is hold us in the game. Its nice to see but we don’t need a guy to only allow one run to give us a chance to win. As long as they can eat some innings and give us a sluggers chance we will win more than we lose.
Bryan Smith (12:17:17 PM PT): Justin Smoak and Josh Hamilton. The AL West might just have found their Bash Brothers, v. 2.0.
Good thing Ron isn't the GM
Nothing says cleanup hitter like a career 4th/5th outfielder doing a poor man’s Gary Matthew’s Jr impersonation for one year at the age of 30 while riding a .370 BABIP.
byrd has actually been good since returning
keep it up till the all star break and we might be able to find someone that wants to give him every day at bats.
broussard over bradley? hah.
Bring up Justin Smoak
RISP
I thought about doing a fanpost about this, but it seems to fit into the talk about the improved offense. Here is a graph showing team performance with RISP.
The numbers are from 5 June. So, the Rangers have the second best performance with RISP (according to the line of best fit). The circle also indicates how many HR’s a team hits; the larger the circle the greater number of HR’s.
Oh, I also like how Galloway says he apologized for earlier remarks that were not exactly nice about Washington, and then says in the next sentence says Washington deserved it.
by Excel Hearts Choi on Jun 6, 2008 10:14 AM CDT reply actions 1 recs
And contrast that
with April, when their RISP avg. would only have been considered acceptable for a pitcher.
...and curse Sir Walter Raleigh, he was such a stupid git.
This is cool.
Could you do it with OPS+ instead of BA?
Yet another metric that tells us that Boston and Texas have good hitters while Seattle….does not.
Sorry
I get these graphs from Hardball Times. Click on the “Teams” link near the top, and select “AL West” in the drop down menu. These graphs are updated about once a week. The list of data is pretty much up to date. Here is the most recent graph with OPS (5/29/08)
by Excel Hearts Choi on Jun 6, 2008 5:31 PM CDT up reply actions 1 recs
Byrd at cleanup
Heh, Wash sharing that at the winter meetings probably spurred Daniels to pull the trigger on the Hamilton trade.
As for the rest of the offense, you have to give Wash, Jaramillo, and the players all some credit. They have been disciplined in working the count and not trying to do too much and swing for the fences all the time. I am starting to think a heavily incentive-laden deal for Bradley is not only preferable to trading him, it’s a necessity if the team is going to contend strongly in 2009. The free agent market for outfield/DH types sucks, Bradley is the best DH right now, and he’s proving to be very popular in the clubhouse.
Unless a team makes an offer they can’t refuse, keep him.
...and curse Sir Walter Raleigh, he was such a stupid git.
Thank you!
Not enough has been made of the hitters buying into Wash’s credo, and what it is doing for the offense. Up & down the lineup, these guys are taking far more pitches than in the past. Keep it up!
On Bradley-his season has been stunning thus far, and if the other players like him as much as it sounds, he is worth more here than traded elsewhere.
"...my balls are really like a veiny flesh color" blueballlefty on Jun 4, 2008 7:44 PM EDT
"If you ain't got no money, ain't nobody calls you honey," Bo Diddley
Washington
Ok before I say this let me preface by saying I am not excusing this only trying to rationalize it.
Now at the time Washington made this statement who else would you have put at cleanup? Blalock? Possible. But he has historically hit better out of the 5 hole. At the time you were probably looking at Cat/Kinsler/Young as your 1-2-3. Salty is still really young and you didn’t even know if he was going to break camp with the big club. Murphy…no. Broussard….hell no.
My point is at the time we were looking like an anemic offense. Did this spur JD to make the moves he did? Who knows. But had we not traded for Hamilton and not signed Bradley unfortunately Byrd was probably the top choice from what we had. Thank god we didn’t have to go through with that.
Bryan Smith (12:17:17 PM PT): Justin Smoak and Josh Hamilton. The AL West might just have found their Bash Brothers, v. 2.0.
not a surprise
i remember reading how much kenny williams liked jordan danks.
didnt the sox draft him out of hs?
"When we're mad we'll use our words. Then the rest of the world will play nice with us. And the only boom-booms will be in our pants." - Ralph Wiggum
Don't you have to give permssion
for a team to draft you a second time if they didn’t sign you the last time around? Or is that just for consecutive drafts?
Not sure if anyone else picked up on it...
but there was a quote from Smoak in TR’s draft recap
“It’s awesome,” Smoak said by phone from his home in Goose Creek, S.C. “To be a No. 1 pick is big, and to be the No. 1 pick of the Texas Rangers is an honor. I know they’re counting on me as someone to be in the big leagues quickly. That’s my goal and something I’m looking forward to doing.”
That attitude has to make you smile. He’s obviously just saying the right thing here, but we all remember someone saying basically the opposite not too long ago.
"that suzuki guy should go back to making cars" - My girlfriend after C.J.'s close in game 2
Gotta like the sound of that
But you never know though.
"My death certificate will probably say: 'Cause of Death: World Series.'" Jamey Newberg
we're counting on him to to be in the big leagues quickly?
um, I guess so. whatever makes you hit home runs.
Rare Gnats Sex
I thought the idea of picking someone out of college near the top of the draft was to get him to the bigs quickly
Sort of like how the NFL uses college as its “minor leagues.”
Pitching
I have been wincing for years about the pitching. Is it tough to watch, yes, does it piss me off, yes, but what I am really worried about is our hitters getting pissed off. Think about it, you go out and put up 8+ runs day after day and watch your pitchers blow it. That is discouraging to me. I just hope that the whole team feels like Kinsler does. He said the pitchers are struggling right now so we have to bail them out, and when our bats cool off, they will bail us out.
Well, I think they understand
this was a pretty unusual week. It’s not every week your top 2 starters go on personal leave at the same time you have 40 mph winds while your bullpen is exhausted and blowing itself up. I think the hitters remember when the pitching was doing very well early on and the defense was throwing them under the bus.
...and curse Sir Walter Raleigh, he was such a stupid git.
Hamilton volunteered for HR Derby
Maybe I’ll actually watch it!
• Josh Hamilton, a changed man, already has volunteered to be in the Home Run derby.
Joe Morgan: (On Jay Bruce) I think he will. He brings energy to the team, and besides that, he is a pretty good hitter.
Ken Tremendous: I like that the #1 reason he will help his team is: "energy," and the distant #2 reason is: "ability to hit baseballs."
no concerns about that messing with his swing, or health?
"that suzuki guy should go back to making cars" - My girlfriend after C.J.'s close in game 2
Abreu
Isn’t that really the only guy that has gone in the crapper after the HR derby? Hes not much of a power hitter to begin with so I don’t think that is really substantial evidence. Not to mention how many people participate every year and come out just fine.
This is the Texas Rangers, professional destroyers of hope, we're talking about. - BAC
This is one area
that I am a little superstitious about, evidence be damned.
...and curse Sir Walter Raleigh, he was such a stupid git.
i think the concensus was...
...he was everybody’s Plan B…
the Castro pick just doesn’t make any sense… the ‘Stros obviously felt that Berkman is their franchise first baseman and that J.R. has a bag…
i officially believe.
by oc on Jun 6, 2008 1:36 PM CDT up reply actions
Well
I’m asking when the press conference will be…
Go Strangers.
by hightowersmith on Jun 6, 2008 1:55 PM CDT up reply actions
Smoak ain't Big Tex
I hope the guy pans out, I really do. But these Big Tex, Chipper comparisons right now are nuts. Smoak’s best year in college, for the most part, does not even match Teixeira’s worst year at Georga Tech. Teixeira missed a huge chunk of his junior season with a broken ankle, and after not seeing live pitching during an actual game all he did was finish the year hitting .427. Teixeira led several categories for Team USA the year he played, Smoak didn’t do so hot. Both had fairly similar Cape seasons.
I think people forget how incredible Teixeira was in college. His career batting average at GT was .409. His career BA for MLB is .285. I’m not in any way saying BA is the best benchmark for a player, but I give that example to show how far off MLB stats can be from college stats. Smoak was nowhere near the overall college hitter Big Tex was.
oh randy galloway
when he likes somebody, he loves him.
didn’t he bail quincy carter out of jail a few years ago?
http://www.buchanan4pres2008.org/
NIXON: NOW MORE THAN EVER
Cowlishaw
is a complete idiot!
Knows nothing about the Rangers, less than Galloway!!!
"No bear or disco for Juan" - Mr. Santos
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