Thursday night linkaliciousness

You wanna have a catch?

call it whatever, it’s working and I like it.

Pitching and defense baby!

that he’s going to retire at 34 no matter what. And I’m figuring if the Rangers aren’t giving Feliz or Holland (very likely), it might be a case of something like Harrison (a more legit ML starter) or a guy like Beavan, then a ready OF in Boggs, some kind of IF near the bigs (Vallejo? Arias? Maybe even Lemon…), one along the lines of Kiker/Poveda/NeRam and then a player way down the list (not sure there).

So basically, something along the lines of a Harrison/one of Vallejo or Arias/one of Kiker, Poveda, NeRam/an interesting arm lower in the system. Remember, there’s still the case of a big contract to be picked up.

I don’t see the trade for Oswalt happening, because the Rangers won’t be willing to give too much to take on a large contract, even for a very good pitcher and the Astros will obviously be wanting a big haul for a marquee guy.

“sheep who lie to make the blunder boy’s trade history look good” is one dumb SOB

The starters have been great over the last 14 days or so, and they also were pitching to hitters who don’t know how to walk or hit HRs. They had a similar stretch last year in May, but the SP was much worse against those slap hitting teams than this year. Last year’s SP FIP in May was 4.55. This year they’re at 4.15.

So 0.40 run per 9 improvement from the starters.

I’m not saying defense has been unimportant. I’m saying there is a strong synergy where the total is greater than the sum of the parts. The SP ERA last year and this is 4.74 and 3.14, respectively. A full 1.6 runs less. That would suggest the defense alone was worth 1.2 runs of that improvement. I don’t think it’s that large. There some multiplier effect going on between the two.

A similar thing happened with the Rays last year. The estimates of reduction in runs from defense (like from Dewan’s +/-) plus reduction of FIP do not quite add up to the actual reduction in runs. Some sort of non-linear, interaction term was at play.

So, I wish the sportswriters would recognize there are three factors at work over the past 20 games: (1) good defense, (2) good pitching, and (3) weak offenses. It remains to be seen whether the pitchers will continue to pitch with confidence and let the defense do its thing when the big boys come to town.

Back to being a fan…. KEEP IT UP! This is probably the funnest Rangers team I have ever seen. Other years have had fun moments: no-hitters, perfect games, lots of home runs, but never producing consistent highlights in all three aspects of the game: fielding, pitching, and hitting, like this team.

How many games a year do you usually get to attend?

Pass. The Astros will be asking the Rangers to trade for the Cy Young contending Roy Oswalt when that isn’t anything close to what we’d be getting. His FIP has been on a steady decline over the past few years as has his tRA+. Add in his poor start to the season and he’s going to have be doing a hell of a lot better to come close to warranting anything valuable from the Rangers.

I would love to see a similar gif of all of the walkoffs.

if the psychological effect of playing defense good on our pitchers is the real kicker here? Or is that like saying ‘Consistency’ or ‘Grit’ or ‘David Eckstein is a good baseball player’?

Assuming we’re still in it in a month or so, and Injuns continue to falter, he seems like a guy who meets all the criteria we’d want.

Would a Boscan/Kiker/Tommy Hunter/Vallejo package do it for Cleveland? Would you do that deal assuming we’re in roughly the same position as we are now in a month?

Would we have to inculde one of our Smoak/Feliz/Perez big three to get it done? Cause I don’t know if I could bear to lose any of those three.

In May, the Rangers pitchers have the lowest BABIP, by far, at .228, and the hitters have the highest BABIP at .355.

Part of the pitchers’ success has been due to the teams they have faced, which have among the lowest LD rate in the majors. However, I’m willing to believe the increased range of the defense will enable the pitchers sustain a lower than league-average BABIP.

LINK

Basically they’ll be able to stop you from watching Rangers games on MLB.TV if you normally live in say California but are traveling and are in DFW when you pull up the site.

Lame.

I went to the OKC game tonight, and didn’t even know he was pitching until they announced the starting lineups. Pretty awesome surprise. I can’t remember if it was his changeup or his curveball that everyone is worried about (it was dollar beer night, there are a lot of things I don’t remember right now), but he made a couple of Portland players look really stupid on changeups.

On an unrelated note, the Portland team’s mascot is the Beavers. That’s always good for a Beavis and Butt-Headesque chuckle.

for Oswalt straight up right now.

will be Ben Sheets.

If we trade for anyone from the Astros, it will be Valverde.

not sure why so many take it as gospel.

I blew it up to see the faces better

Holy crap, I didn’t realize how much he was destroying my expectations for him. Obviously watching the games I’ve been anecdotally impressed, but hte stats are downright incredible. Especially looking at the increase in slugging. And the fact that his BABIP is WAY down for his AA season (which leads me to believe his numbers are probably going to improve even beyond his growing talent).

I thought if Andrus stayed afloat and didn’t hurt the team too much, I’d be cool with that from a 20 year old who skipped AAA. What he’s doing so far is, instead, probably my favorite thing about the ’09 Rangers.

that there actually is a chance that the Rangers could throw Feliz and Holland (if he’s not starting already by then) into the rotation in September if they’re in the midst of a pennant race? It seems a huge, huge, huge risk but something about the league having never seen two flame-throwing rookies means it could work. Personally, I don’t think I’d do it, but you never know…

on guys like Oswalt and Peavy. I’d also pass on Lee and Halladay too, if they’re even available. I wouldn’t give up the young prospects that it would take to get any of those guys right now. Roll with what you’ve got. If Sheets is able to come back later in the year then go with him. If another starter starts to struggle then plug Holland into the rotation. Don’t give up 3 or 4 prospects for a rent a player.