Rangers the front-runners for Jon Garland?

Even a Garko

Kris Benson hadn’t pitched in the majors before last year since 2006, and wasn’t that good in 2006. Benson is a guy who had never been healthy.

Garland, on the other hand, has started at least 32 games every year since 2002, has never had less than 191 2/3 IP in a full season, and has hit 200 innings in 5 of the last 6 years.

If you like FanGraphs’ WAR system, Garland has had a WAR of at least 2 in 6 of the last 8 years, and the two years he didn’t hit 2, he was at 1.8 and 1.9.

Benson, since 2002, had only one year better than a 1.2 WAR.

They aren’t really comparable at all, other than both of them are RHPs.

I think we can do better, especially if we’re gonna spend ~3mm.

I’d rather grab Jose Contreras or Wifey McSucker-Punch if we’re looking to bring in a vet to slot into the rotation.

Or go with the young guys behind Harden/Feldman and bring in a guy to possibly come in and help a few months into the season like a Mulder or whoever the 28-year old Cuban SP who’s out there auditioning for clubs right now. (Maya? I’m too lazy to look it up.)

Or… who knows.

My point is there are probably better options out there than Jon Garland.

We have a habit of making mediocre pitchers look good.

and still end up helping the offense out more. He was horrible when someone was on base despite having a great offensive season.

In fact Jon pretty much summed up my beliefs

JD is scooping up the pitching depth while it’s still there so relax. Hitters aren’t dropping like trees yet.

I mentioned that garland went 6+ innings in 21 of 22 starts during a stretch last year. 27 of 33 for the year.

Hunter: 9 of 19.
Holland: 8 of 21.
McCarthy: 9 of 17 and is injury prone.
Harden: 15 of 25 and is injury prone.
Harrison: 3 of 11 and is injury prone.

If Feliz starts hes likely to be on a pitch count.
CJ with his pitch counts? Not optimistic.

I’m not saying we are in dire need of Garland or that I will be upset if this is a false rumor, but Garland does have something of value to this rotation and he hasn’t been THAT bad. Hes never had an era over 9.. FIP is below 4.5 for the last 5 seasons.

Much like Oliver, I need to know JDs plan for DH.. hopefully it comes downsoon. But if this doesn’t interfere.. would it really be that bad?

I wouldn’t be opposed to bringing in Garland on a cheap one year deal, but not if it is going to take away money from being able to get a decent bat.

But I was advocating for a move like this since they replaced Millwood with Harden. You have a string of young pitchers following an oft-injured ace, and that is NOT a formula for success. It requires too much luck. Even if they did address the offense and addressed it well, they’re not going anywhere without pitching.

I think some of the guys here were spoiled by last season in which rookies did very well for the most part. It’s not the norm. Jon Garland is not the best pitcher around and I wish they could do better, but with the money they have they needed to do this. You know what you’re probably going to get from him, and you cannot say that about ANY other Rangers starting pitcher. Nobody will convince me this is a bad deal even if it precludes them from getting a DH.

The Rangers may want to see where they stand with Davis and Hamilton this season and go from there. With the Rangers system and an ownership group hopefully in place by the beginning of the season, it shouldn’t be too hard to find a somewhat solid bat. Or maybe JD wants to go after a top bat who will be a FA after the season.

He’s good when he’s healthy, and he crushes lefties.

Though trading Hunter of FFATH opens up a hole in the rotation.

We’re counting on them dudes.

And he’s worth less to us than he would be to, say, Boston or Minnesota or someone who needs a 2b/SS/3b since we’re set at those positions.

…writers who are speculating that someone is a good fit or an option.

I’m not a huge fan of the guy, but he’s a good bet to give you 190-200 innings with an ERA around 4.25-4.50.

So yeah, I think he would give the Rangers about the same level of performance as Millwood, adds a little veteran presence to the rotation, and gives JD the ability to package one of the back-end rotation candidates with a prospect or two to get the bat they need.

Maybe not Millwood of last year, but Millwood of next year. Harden and Garland represent a pretty big upgrade in my opinion.

any of us know what the budge TRULY is. I get the vibe that JD has the green light to fill specified needs from the bargain bin. The FO has been saying for months that they need a RH bat…I would be very surprised if that’s the one need the DON’T fill.

Not to mention this stunt gets the fight mentioned every single day for a few weeks and provides another storyline to get people interested.

Unless there’s something wrong him physically and this is how he’s masking it he’s gonna do the fight.

He’s just gonna.

There’s too much money on the table.

As someone mentioned above I think if you wanted a Harden Milly rotation a Harden Garland rotation is better so I don’t really have a problem with this if it happens not to mention Garland will eat innings and Oliver will replace CJ if he is indeed traded for a bat. Lowell I didn’t get though.

…being the Rangers, perceived small cracks in the pitching staff tend to become black holes. I’d rather see them address pitching before offense but I do hope they can add a bat, too.

Our options are pretty limited sans trade. I’ve been rooting for Vlad but hes not such a sure thing himself. And its not like we’d be in on holliday in any scenario.

Holland took his lumps last year and will be awesome this year. Why would he be any more of a liability than Hunter or Feldman or Bmac or Harden?

…that the addition of Garland is about adding someone experienced to help carry the load and to help provide depth in the rotation.

But there was a lot to like about it. He gave up way too many HRs, but other than that, we really got a good look at how dominant he can be.

what has happened since the Harden deal that changed your mood? Perhaps a better question: what were you expecting?

What part of I-35 were you working the other night?

Is apparently asking for 12 million, which is just fucking insane given his health status and the current economy and FA market.

He’s probably gonna be signing extremely late in the offseason unless he forms some more realistic expectations in a hurry.

when Garland was pitching in the AL and pitched in TBiA the Rangers were a much better hitting team then. They made a lot of pitchers look silly at the Temple.

Fits the groundballer innings eater role, probably cheaper than Garland, and has had some success in this park and with Maddux. I hate all those walks though.

I guess this has already been pretty well discussed, but I think that Garland essentially provides the same level of production as McCarthy at a slightly higher cost. Of course, McCarthy has a very high probability of injury, while Garland is about as durable as they get.

With injury risks (Harden) and unproven starters (Holland and Hunter), it might make sense to add a guy who will soak up 200 innings of average production. Garland and McCarthy have basically the same upside, but Garland is far more dependable. If this rumor is true, I think this means the team doesn’t believe any of the free agent DH options are acceptable, and they intend to use McCarthy or a reliever as trade bait for a platoon RH hitter.

Like the Oliver deal, adding Garland would probably make us a better team (albeit marginally so- probably about 1-1.5 wins). Hopefully though, adding Oliver and potentially Garland will facilitate a trade for a hitter.