Ruminations on the Rangers

good job AJM!

No arguments here. Except Hamilton did pinch hit last night or the night before? So it wouldn’t go back to Last Sunday anyways, right?

And Blalock, of course, is also hitting cleanup, meaning that you’ve got a guy right smack in the middle of the lineup who is making an out almost 75% of the time.

This needs to be repeated daily until Hank gets his shit together or the AB disparity between him and Andruw normalizes.

Sure seems like MY can’t score a runner from third base with less than 2 outs without getting a hit. Maybe his failure in these situations just stick in my mind easier than the successes. It just drives me batty that the 3-hole hitter can’ get these runners home.

Yes, I know, he pulled the bacon out of the fire several times with key late inning home runs. I guess I should be more “forgiving”.

And perspective. And when (if) things get dicey before the end of the season, this emerging success is the foundation for a lot of hope, but it … is … stilll … a developmental year. If the Rangers win the West, that’s getting off the sidewalk and onto the porch. Yet I’d love to see continuous improvement. And yeah, wiser hitting approach is right up there on the front row.

I felt like we won the WS after sweeping the M’s and Angels last weekend. Then comes Voodoo Palace v 2.0, and now I feel like we’re lost in translation. Let’s get back on track and try to stay positive from here on out.

that park is where homerun hitters go to die and we had a couple real solid hits that would be out of most parks in the league drop into a glove 5 feet from the wall.

im a big fan of using our great hitting off the bench in key moments, and getting guys like Andruw a bat when we need one late in games. Also, any1 catch the situation where we really needed a speedy Golston or Borbon-like pinch runner to come into the game when murph walked and we dont have that a guy filling that role on the 25 man? We are a good team, we had a bad series at a park that is cursed to us, and its shown our need for a power righty in the pen and a speedy jet bench guy who can fill a PR role in a life or death game. Its good to know these things at this point in the season and the good news is, that by september i think we have those roles filled on this club.

good stuff.

On basically everything.

I had the same thoughts about Smoak and why I’d rather hang on to him and trade Davis. The one thing that keeps me from going all in is that Davis has been pretty good defensively at 1st and I’m not sure how good Smoak is. That, and I’m not sure what team matches up really well for what the Rangers need and what they have to offer. It seems like there’s a big difference between what a package like Davis+MaxRam+Main should get you on paper and what you could actually get for them. In my head, that many years of control on cheap solid hitters plus Main should bring back an ‘ace’, but I don’t know what teams have an ace to offer and those spots to fill.

Also, it’s interesting that there does seem to be a good plan in place for the pitching staff (build from within and see what sticks from cheap vets) and for the defense (would love to see Borbon’s bat advance enough so that we could see him patrolling CF), but a plan with more uncertainty in place for the offense. Their stud hitting prospects are blocked right now. It seems that for those, like myself, who desperately want to see the Rangers be more patient, it is going to have to come from a change in mindset of players that are currently here or on their way here soon.

and Pad to DL, this will be a game to watch to see how well Holland does, hopefully it will go very well.

I’m a glass half full guy plus the run prevention has been helped out by defense. If the pitchers were just doing with smoke and mirrors, I’d say that the run prevention could go up. But we aren’t seeing our pitchers up to this point doing something that they aren’t capable of for the rest of the season, and the defense isn’t all of a sudden going to stop playing well. There might be some slumps there just like with hitting, but overall, these guys are playing like they should be and like they are capable of. This is also with Young still learning on the job.

As for the hitting, its going to come around. Its great that this team has been able to be in 1st place despite the hitting not doing so well. Blalock and Davis aren’t going to maintain this OBP below .300. And a big problem with this offense is their hitting w/RISP (something that is due to start going our way):
Blalock:.200/.255/.444
Young:.111/.200/.111
Hamilton:.174/.214/.348

That’s our 2-4 hitters and even with Blalock and Hamilton disappointing offensively this season, they still should be hitting much better than that.

Also, Blalock needs to hit lower in the lineup. His approach in the past has been much different when he is put in the middle of the lineup vs. lower.in the lineup. If that happens, I think we’ll see a more balanced hitter in Blalock and one that will be a lot more productive.

it will be under 90

Batting average is dropping? i hope that he does not go into a long slump, runs scoring is low enough as it is to have him not getting on.

Well maybe a little. I don’t think the run prevention is going to have a massive regression, but I do think some sort of regression is inevitable. On the other hand like you said, the offense could be due for going the other way, and maybe it will more than make up for it. Who knows.

I do know that I’m sick and fucking tired of Blalock and have been for a long time. I told everyone that even at 6 million dollars that was a waste of money and I wasn’t alone. He should be gone right now. Hopefully he’ll go on a hot streak and they can trade his sorry ass, pick up some of his salary, and maybe get some relief help.

I don’t really care if the Rangers walk a lot. Well I’d prefer it if they did but what I really care about is working the count and getting pitches to drive. Some walks would be a natural byproduct of that approach. I did not see today’s game but there were times during this series that it looked like they were trying to do that but the pitching was just too good. Sometimes you just get beaten. What happens in Houston may be more of an indicator.

What happened in DET sucked but I don’t think it’s anything to get too down about. They faced a real good team and played competitively. Shit happens.

I’ll ask this again. Is it a problem when the manager can’t impose his hitting philosophy upon his ballclub? Seems like this team listened to Bradley last year but is tuning out RW this year.

What is Rudy’s contract status? If this team is in contention is Sept I don’t see how they couldn’t bring back RW. Would they bring back Rudy if things continue like they are now?

But I’d like to see this team be sellers at the deadline, as long as they don’t sell any pitching. Send Blalock and Byrd to the highest bidders, bring up Smoak, and take your chances with Murph and AJ in the lineup.

This team does need a Heath Bell or Juan Cruz type in the pen. So if we’re buyers, I hope it’s for something like that.

they don’t get on base more, obviously. Well, maybe Feldman is to blame, not sure.

I remember screaming at the TV about him for swinging at the first pitch. Line drive or GIDP, it always irritated the hell out of me. I wasn’t even interested in sabermetrics at the time, but I still knew that working the pitch count in one at-bat drove up the opposing pitcher’s pitch count, which either forced him from the game earlier than intended, and eventually meant he’d throw a crappy pitch because he tired towards the end of the game.

I remember reading somewhere that high-SLG/mediocre-to-low-OBP teams are very streaky and inconsistent in their offensive production, which makes a lot of sense when you step back and think about it.

I’m not quite ready to crucify Marlon Byrd because he’s cheap and plays great defense (well…he did last year; here’s hoping this turns around as well…) in the outfield, but he has to start walking more. It kills me to watch him bat these days.

now only 2

which reminds me how much I hate pitchers hitting. It’s stupid that the NL doesn’t have a DH. I wonder, when was the last time Holland hit?

Rudy has been the Rangers’ ,hitting instructor for the last 14 years. He also had the same position with the Astros from ‘90-’93. Some stats…

Avg OBP ranking in the AL: 6.6
Avg AL Champion OBP rank: 4 (That includes DET at 12 in ’06 and CHW at 11 in ’05.)

In only 4 years (1998, 1999, 2001, 2008) have they finished in the top 4.
In only 4 years (2001, 2005, 2006, 2008) have they had a higher OBP then the AL champ.

In his 4 years in Houston their avg NL ranking was 8.75.
In the 3 years after he left they ranked 2nd, 1st and 3rd in OBP.

Rudy is a excellent technician. His students have the skins to prove it. Simply put, his philosophy is: See the ball, hit the ball. But I do wonder about his tactical teachings. This team is not very good at situational hitting. I am not talking about bunting and hitting behind runners. They don’t take pitches when a pitcher is struggling to throw strikes. They swing at too many first pitches instead of waiting for a better pitch to hit. They seem to be always swinging for the fences.

I am not in the clubhouse or dugout so I don’t know what RW and Rudy are telling the players. All I (and we) can do is watch the games and analyze the statistics. OBP isn’t the be all, end all hitters stat. But I do think that it is one indicator of a team’s approach at the plate. What baffles me is how this team, with pretty much the same players as last year, can rank 2nd in OBP in 2008 but is currently 11th this year.

2005_COY

i think the offensive approach can be tweaked. Just gotta get the message sent. And I do believe Andruw needs more playing time. I can’t believe I just typed that.

we need to see AJ more. RW needs to spread the patience at the plate religion, and if some players keep wanting to hack at their at bats, they need to know that they will sit the occasional game out. If it means AJ plays every game while Blalock and CD alternate riding the pine, so be it. That second AB from CD was absolutely absurd, striking out swinging at 3 straight pitches out of the strike zone.

The sub 300 OBPs definitely have to go. They are just ridiculous and absolutely shouldn’t be tolerated this late in the season. The players putting them up are all capable of better, and most of them have terrible approaches at the plate where they swing at balls way out of the zone. The message needs to be sent. If you swing at everything, and fail, you will be riding the pine. You swing at everything, you damn well better be Vlad Guerrero in his prime, or you are going to get days off to watch some pitches.

http://www.bbtia.com/the-clubhouse/2009/5/22/the-worst-at-bat-of-all-time.html (exaggeration prevalent in the title, but sue me)

Didn’t actually realize until just now that Davis/Blalock are 1/2 in the BB/K department in the AL. The potential harm in riding Andruw until he considerably cools is probably outweighed by the harm being inflicted by that lack of out avoidance.

We kept bone ing our selves ever time we had a shot Its like the kryptonite for texas ranger bats . The combo of us screwing us and the f ing bermuda friggin triange of detroit it will do you in! We have to sweep houston LA only 2 back now!

Not a surprise

Calvin Watkins of Fanhouse reports that the Cowboys have put OLB Greg Ellis on the trading block.
Ellis, 34, is due to earn $4.15 million in the final year of his contract. He’s been sent him home from OTAs, so the team is serious about dealing him to open up a starting spot for 2007 first-rounder Anthony Spencer. The Cowboys are targeting the Bengals and Patriots, though the Pats are said to have no interest.

Bengals could use a good person.

I think we’re all starting to see that Milton Bradley is missed, which is what I said all along last year. Even though we’re cranking out the HRs, this offense is much less effective without him in the middle. And further, of course, Hamilton’s struggles and injuries have been clearly the biggest obstacle for this team to overcome. I have to think that we would’ve scored a few more runs in the Detroit series with him in there healthy, and won 1 or maybe even 2 games because of it.