Saturday morning stuff
by Adam J. Morris on Apr 11, 2009 8:39 AM CDT
Email
PrintWell, that was pretty terrible yesterday. Bad pitching, bad defense, and no offense. Bleah.
Jim Reeves says the story from yesterday was three key defensive misplays, and the bullpen imploding. I agree...Kris Benson wasn't real good, but he wasn't as terrible as his line indicates, and if Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Michael Young, and Nelson Cruz make plays behind him that should have been made, things would be looking a lot different right now.
Evan Grant has some quotes from Mike Maddux about the cavalcade of walks that we saw in the late innings.
Jeff Wilson has some notes up, that include Marlon Byrd's hot start and Ron Washington's comments on the bullpen situation.
62 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
Curz
He has looked really poor in RF early this season. The great catch he made in game 2, I think, was because he had initially misplayed the ball and he also had trouble picking up a fly in game 3. It seems that despite his prodigious physical tools he doesn’t pick the ball up well off the bat.
I expect Young to make more good plays than bad and Salty will obviously have some poor moments in the field, but Cruz worries me a bit.
Fire Ron Washington
Cruz isn't getting to the spot
he can run faster than that, and he isn’t. He is looking a little like Juan Gonzalez out there. Lazy.
"Take me out to the ball game, Take me out with the crowd. Buy me some peanuts and cracker jacks, I don't care if I never get back, Let me root, root, root for the RANGERS, If they don't win it's a shame. For it's one, two, three strikes, your out, At the old ball game."
Yesterday was a winnable game
but Benson still wasn’t going to be doing that well yesterday even if he had some better defense behind him.
By 2028, Mark Teixeira will be in the HOF.
-The Outlaw
Anyone have an update
on Nippert and Eyre. If thier DL started on 3/27 then they are eligible to be activited now. The clock is ticking with Rupe. How much time does he have to turn it around? Another bad outing and he could be DFA’d.
Elvis Andrus - 2009 AL Rookie of the Year
Rupe, Madrigal, Jennings, Feldman, Guardado
I don’t have any confidence in these 5 pitchers. Guardado is old and throws grapefruits. Rupe…I don’t see him lasting long (perhaps if Diamond throws another couple times with success, we can call him up). Either way if these guys are going to give up runs at this rate, it will be a very, very long season. I hope our bullpen doesn’t destroy us.
"Take me out to the ball game, Take me out with the crowd. Buy me some peanuts and cracker jacks, I don't care if I never get back, Let me root, root, root for the RANGERS, If they don't win it's a shame. For it's one, two, three strikes, your out, At the old ball game."
what makes you throw
jennings and feldman into that group. jennings was pretty solid all through ST and hasn’t done anything yet to shake your trust. Feldman is probably the best arm of those five and will be starting for us at some point this year. Mad Dog just needs to be in the minors, and he will be as soon as Nip or Eyre is ready. Rupe is the hardest to pin. I am hoping we can stash him on the DL and let him rehab, because he doesn’t seem to “have it” right now.
What is this, Horseville? Because I'm surrounded by naysayers.
I just don't have confidence in them right now out of the pen
although I do think they are need as swing men/ long relief. Feldman is better suited to start IMO because of the assortment of pitches that he has. Saying that, I think that 5th spot is relegated for Holland whenever he is ready. Jennings can be a good long reliever for us and i hope he stays successful, although I have my doubts. This is a ragtag group that can’t afford to walk people because they don’t have the stuff to put people away.
"Take me out to the ball game, Take me out with the crowd. Buy me some peanuts and cracker jacks, I don't care if I never get back, Let me root, root, root for the RANGERS, If they don't win it's a shame. For it's one, two, three strikes, your out, At the old ball game."
i hate to nitpick
but i think you meant “reserved” instead of “relegated”. Relegated has a negative connotation.
I think swapping out Mad Dog for Eyre will be a huge improvement. One, I believe, has the potential to be a 7th inning guy for us, and one should simply not be pitching in major league games at this point.
What is this, Horseville? Because I'm surrounded by naysayers.
I know....
Jennings was the person kept that caused the loss of Galarraga but who were the other guys being considered? Rupe?
Tejeda, Cruz, Mendoza
At least according to AJM.
http://www.lonestarball.com/2008/1/25/155644/304
Remember Red, hope is a good thing. Maybe the best of things. And no good thing ever dies.
Tejeda
should have been the one dropped in that situation. I thought that when it happened
"Take me out to the ball game, Take me out with the crowd. Buy me some peanuts and cracker jacks, I don't care if I never get back, Let me root, root, root for the RANGERS, If they don't win it's a shame. For it's one, two, three strikes, your out, At the old ball game."
Yes, Benson was that bad.
If he gave up 10 hits in five innings on a cold day in Detroit (pitcher’s stadium), imagine what would happen to him on a warm windy day in Arlington.
88 mph fastballs with 86 mph change ups, i smell success...
mormons stole me and held me against my will with Oklahoma beer and 12+ hour work days.
it seemed to me
that alot of the hits he gave up were weakly hit and had unlucky outcomes. Had these not happened, he would not have had the chance to serve up the grandslam
by trgordon723 on Apr 11, 2009 10:04 AM CDT up reply actions
Yeah
he had only 3 or 4 balls hit hard against him. Plays should have been made on 2 of them (MY and Cruz). If those two plays are made, that would have been 5 runs avoided out of 8, and 1 of the three remaining was still unearned.
How can management expect this team’s starters to go deep into games when the defense makes them throw an extra 25 – 30 pitches because of mistakes. I hope our defense improves. I think it will, but will our offense be able to carry us until then?
"Take me out to the ball game, Take me out with the crowd. Buy me some peanuts and cracker jacks, I don't care if I never get back, Let me root, root, root for the RANGERS, If they don't win it's a shame. For it's one, two, three strikes, your out, At the old ball game."
wrong
if those 3 plays where made, it would have been MUCH different. You must not have watched the game…
Stability is key, and JD is a Beast.
zywica for life...
i watched and he didnt look that great to me
but he wasn’t awful.
"I'm against picketing, but I don't know how to show it." - Mitch Hedberg
I'm sure this was talked about....
in the 2000 comments between the GDT and post-GDT, but I haven’t read all that. Benson did look pretty bad. His stuff just isn’t that great. I realize it’s only one start, but I was saying this before the season started too. He didn’t show me anything yesterday that will make me change my mind on him not being a Ranger past the end of May.
The Rangers didn’t play great defense, but I’m not so sure that would have helped Benson out much. He was getting hit pretty hard.
"The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance."-Socrates
For someone who didn't watch the game
I read from some people on here that Benson was rocked. Others say only a few balls were hit hard against him. I listed to a portion of the game on the radio and I think one of those guys said he wasn’t getting hit hard.
So which is it?
by Black Francis on Apr 11, 2009 10:49 AM CDT up reply actions
he wasn't hit that hard
until he had thrown extra pitches in a inning due to misfortune and errors behind him. Then he was hit hard. Therefore, that part should have been avoided
by trgordon723 on Apr 11, 2009 10:56 AM CDT up reply actions
I watched the entire game...
and imo he was getting hit hard. You can say it was after plays that should have been made, but the guy was still getting hit hard. I’m not sure how people couldn’t of seen that.
"The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance."-Socrates
He wasn't getting hit that hard
but the Grand Slam pitch in the fourth was about as bad of a pitch as you will see. Til then, it was mostly weak hits to bad defense.
"The idea that the Rangers are going to be a solid contender for a number of years is a fantasy." - Adam J. Morris
Thanks, Guys
Radio Guy (Nadel’s boring ass new partner), tgordon, and Cahill say “not hit hard” with caveats so I’ll go with that one.
by Black Francis on Apr 11, 2009 9:10 PM CDT up reply actions
Reeves
sounds nearly panicky in his blog notes. And Washington sounds ready to ditch Rupe and Madrigal at the earliest opportunity. Sigh. It’s a marathon, guys.
G G G E-flat_______ F F F D__________....
from the Wilson link
Ron Washington said it’s too early in the season to make adjustments to a pitching staff that walked eight and hit two batters Friday.
“I’m not going to get upset about that right now,” he said. “If this continues, we may have to address it. They know what we expect, and today was one of those bad days. I hope it’s over with.”
I think Monday is a likely day they could make a bullpen change.
Elvis Andrus - 2009 AL Rookie of the Year
today's lineup
Rangers lineup vs RHP Verlander
Ian Kinsler, 2b
Michael Young, 3b
Josh Hamilton, cf
Hank Blalock, dh
Nelson Cruz, rf
David Murphy, lf
Chris Davis, 1b
Jarrod Saltalamacchia, c
Elvis Andrus, ss
Elvis Andrus - 2009 AL Rookie of the Year
Ugh...
Shitty shit on a shit cracker. I hate the damn MLB blackout rules. No Saturday morning games for me on Directv. Looks like I may have to attend a GDT.
"The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance."-Socrates
No shit
A Saturday? Who the hell would want to watch a day game on a Saturday? Top that off with DirecTV won’t give me local channels so I don’t even have Fox and can’t watch any baseball on Saturdays.
To a very limited extent, I can understand the Fox exclusivity agreement, which is to force people to watch Fox and not their local game. But fuck man, I paid $300 (or whatever it is) to watch all baseball not just the local team.
Remember Red, hope is a good thing. Maybe the best of things. And no good thing ever dies.
f'n ridiculous
"Take me out to the ball game, Take me out with the crowd. Buy me some peanuts and cracker jacks, I don't care if I never get back, Let me root, root, root for the RANGERS, If they don't win it's a shame. For it's one, two, three strikes, your out, At the old ball game."
what is the thinking behind batting cruz 5th and blalock 4th?
not only is it the perfect opportunity to split up lefties and righties, but cruz has been destroying the ball and blalock not so much
by trgordon723 on Apr 11, 2009 10:28 AM CDT up reply actions
agreed
"Take me out to the ball game, Take me out with the crowd. Buy me some peanuts and cracker jacks, I don't care if I never get back, Let me root, root, root for the RANGERS, If they don't win it's a shame. For it's one, two, three strikes, your out, At the old ball game."
Davis needs to get rolling
"Take me out to the ball game, Take me out with the crowd. Buy me some peanuts and cracker jacks, I don't care if I never get back, Let me root, root, root for the RANGERS, If they don't win it's a shame. For it's one, two, three strikes, your out, At the old ball game."
i am pretty surprised
that Chris Davis is in that lineup, seeing as how Wash is managing for his job. I am pretty sure I would have Byrd or even Jones in there over Davis at this point.
What is this, Horseville? Because I'm surrounded by naysayers.
I don't think Wash is allowed to just bench Chris Davis
Day off? Yeah, sure. But I think he knows by now that part of his job is to keep the kids in the game. Anyway, since the rest of the offense has been clicking, why not?
Besides, players have streaks of 4 off games in a row all the time. You just don’t notice it since its usually in July or August and the batting average goes from .274 to .261. Oh well. I think Wash knows that there are ups and down.
Agreed. Crush needs to find his shit soon. Or Smoak will be taking his place.
In memory of Nick Adenhart.
I can't think of a better tribute to Adenhart
Than to have a dumb blog poster use his image and name.
Clean your shit up, because you’re sucking some serious balls.
by brettgardner on Apr 11, 2009 12:41 PM CDT up reply actions 1 recs
Did Galarraga shake his
“luckiest starter in baseball” moniker in yesterdays’ GDT?
Jesus.
It’s four games, people. Davis is going to be just fine. The last thing they need to do FOUR freaking games into the season is show a kid like Davis that they have no confidence in him.
This is what I really hate about April. Everyone overreacts to everything, conveniently forgetting that there are, on average, about 135-140 games to be played AFTER April.
Davis is going to be just fine
I agree. But can you say the same about the defense?
Elvis Andrus - 2009 AL Rookie of the Year
it's not like he has been hitting the ball hard
there is a difference between unlucky and uncomfortable at the plate. Davis has actually accounted for more outs that he has ABs. He has hit into more DPs than he has hits. If this was Andruw Jones, would people still be “overreacting” or would their frustration be justified?
What is this, Horseville? Because I'm surrounded by naysayers.
Then I guess we ought to just cut him.
Clearly, his ’08 performance was meaningless based upon a small sample size in April of ’09.
Yeesh.
Yep
I can’t believe that the first week of the season isn’t even over yet, and people are talking about benching or sending down Chris Davis.
This is why organizations don’t want to rebuild.
by Adam J. Morris on Apr 11, 2009 2:57 PM CDT up reply actions
Silly
"My mother always taught me that if the only thing you have to say is,
‘(Expletive) Dave Samson,’ then don’t say anything at all.
So I’m not going to say anything at all.
Is my mother the greatest or what?"
- Mariners GM Bill Bavasi, after signing Ichiro to a $90 million contract
I wouldn't worry about the fans
talking about sitting down Chris Davis.
I’d worry about the manager that isn’t particularly secure in his job.
"The idea that the Rangers are going to be a solid contender for a number of years is a fantasy." - Adam J. Morris
You think JD would just stand by and watch?
"My mother always taught me that if the only thing you have to say is,
‘(Expletive) Dave Samson,’ then don’t say anything at all.
So I’m not going to say anything at all.
Is my mother the greatest or what?"
- Mariners GM Bill Bavasi, after signing Ichiro to a $90 million contract
I think
if they are winning with CD on the bench, JD will give the manager some rope.
"The idea that the Rangers are going to be a solid contender for a number of years is a fantasy." - Adam J. Morris
I have a hard time believing Chris Davis will be the difference in winning and losing
"My mother always taught me that if the only thing you have to say is,
‘(Expletive) Dave Samson,’ then don’t say anything at all.
So I’m not going to say anything at all.
Is my mother the greatest or what?"
- Mariners GM Bill Bavasi, after signing Ichiro to a $90 million contract
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
Related FanPosts on Lone Star Ball
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Recommended FanPosts
Recent FanPosts
In Association With
Big League Stew - MLB - Yahoo! Sports
- College player makes impossible over the fence catch to save tournament game (Video)
- Security!: Camden Yards guard collides with Royals’ Mike Moustakas
- The Juice: Nelson Cruz matches career high eight RBIs, Pujols stays hot in Seattle
- Benches clear at Fenway as Red Sox-Rays rivalry heats up
- Keeping good company: Albert Pujols becomes fourth-youngest player to hit 450 home runs
