Ranger's Stats - Last 7 Games

by RangerFloppy on May 7, 2009 10:28 AM CDT Comment 7 comments

Here are some pretty telling team stats for the past 7 games for the Little Rangers...

Hitting:

AVG: .315 - 2nd in AL

SLG: .512 - 1st in AL

Total Bases: 127 - Tied 2nd in AL

Runs: 35 - 5th in AL

Hits: 78 - 3rd in AL

2B: 17 - Tied 2nd in AL

K's: 50 - 3rd in AL

OBP: .357 - 6th in AL

OPS: .869 - 3rd in AL

These are pretty typical Rangers offensive numbers, but here are some more telling numbers:

Josh Hamilton: 0 AB's

Chris Davis: .208 AVG, .375 SLG, 1 HR, 24 ABs, 10 Ks

Hank Blalock: .214 AVG, .500 SLG, 2 HR, 6 RBI

Three of our "big power guys" have done very little over this stretch. The fact that this team is going out and winning games when the bats have been taken out of the hands of our major power threats is very encouraging. If mechanical problems (and dear God were there some problems) have been addressed with Kris Davis and Blalock is getting ready to turn a corner this offense could become very dangerous, very quickly. Cruz, Kinsler, Andrus, Young and Marlon Byrd have been carrying this offense during the absence of Hamilton, but imagine the damage we could do with a non-injured Hamilton on the field. Hopefully he has addressed his approach to hitting as well as his injured ribs, if he would start working counts and stop swinging at first pitch out of the zone sliders, he is going to be a monster again, and so will this offense...

All in all, the offense could be considered the 2nd best hitting club over the past 7 games (behind the red hot Toronto Blue Jays). But if I told you that at any point in the season that the pitching staff would collectively be the 2nd ranked American League team over the course of 7 games (going through the rotation 1 and 1/2 times) would you have believed it? Me either...but here are the stats...

Pitching:

Record: 5-2

ERA: 3.23 (just .003 behind Detroit) - 2nd in AL

Runs: 24 - 2nd in AL

Earned Runs: 23 - 2nd in AL

Hits: 55 - 3rd in AL

Walks: 14 - 1st in AL (best stat over the last 7 days, hands down)

K's: 33 - 2nd worst in AL (3 tied with 30), and I'll get to this stat in a bit

Saves: 3 - Tied for 1st in AL

HRs - 4 - Tied for 2nd in AL

OBA: .291 - 1st in AL (next best team? The Rays with a .313 OBA, amazing)

WHIP: 1.06 - 1st in AL

SLG Against: .359 - 2nd in AL

GO/AO - 1.39 - 4th in AL

Pretty unbelievable...For a team to be 2nd worst in the league in strikeouts over a 7 game period, it is pretty incredible for them to have the stats that they do. Their OBA is mind boggling, same with their WHIP. This is a stretch like I have never seen from a Rangers pitching staff. Ever. When you go out and consistently pitch like this you become a serious threat to everyone you play, especially when you have an offense like ours. I can't really say much else about the pitching other than it has been better than I could have ever imagined over the past couple weeks. Also, we now have Kris Benson in the bullpen and Derek Holland foaming at the mouth for a start. If this pitching staff has finally put it together sit back and enjoy it, because this team is about to make serious run.

In my opinion the next stat is the most telling:

Defense:

Total Chances: 278 - 4th in AL

Errors: 1 - 1st in AL

SB Against: 1 - Tied 1st in AL

Assists: 85 - 1st in AL

Fielding %: .996 - 1st in AL

Andrus, Young, Kinsler and Davis are slowly becoming as good of an infield as their is in baseball. Andrus has been nothing short of heart stopping, not only making every routine play hit his way, but making some spectacular ones as well. Michael Young has proven that he could eventually earn another gold glove, but this one won't have SS engraved on it. Kinsler appears to have put last year behind him (he did make the teams only error during the 7 game stretch, a lazy play at 2nd the other day, but he redeemed himself by turning a slick double play with Andrus on the next batter) and Davis has shown he can be a nice corner infielder. Marlon Byrd and Nelson Cruz continue to impress me with their defense (Byrd looks pretty damn good in center), and Murphy and Jones have held their own in left. The pitchers and catchers have improved their defense dramatically from last year as well.

Bottom line, the Rangers are not always going to put things together like this, but if they can put lines together similar to these week in and week out, this is going to be one of the most dangerous teams in baseball.

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Comments

Great stats

I wouldn’t say Hank has done “very little”. I think his .500 slg shows hes done some damage. Sure you’d like to see him have a higher average and beter OBP but hes done more than “a very little”

As for the pitching. I am fine with fewer strikeouts. Generally more strikeouts means higher pitch counts and not lasting as long in games but here lately we have seen our starters be able to keep the ball down and let the defense do its job. Millwood threw barely 100 pitches his last start, Padilla was right around 100 after his 8th inning, Feldman was pulled in the 5th with less than 80 and last night went into the 6th with less than 90. All this means less work for the bullpen which I think will lead to better play down the road.

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.

by bigsteve on May 7, 2009 10:36 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

I think you can win the West

by playing .500 ball, and then having a big 2-3 Weeks where you win about everything.

I think the Rangers are capable of playing 500 ball most of the time, and if the bats get hot, I definitely can see a big 2-3 weeks. I don’t think its out of the realm of the possible.

4/10/09 - Josh Hamilton's last walk.
"You know a pitching prospect isn't any good if John Daniels doesn't trade him away but keeps him insteaad." - http://crops.mlblogs.com/
"You probably can throw Neftali Feliz on that group of overblown Rangers pitching prospect failures." - http://crops.mlblogs.com/

by DJCahill on May 7, 2009 10:46 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

The stats I like are OBP

and BBs. It does seem like the team has gotten a dose of patience at the plate. It is good to see their OBP creep upward. On the pitching front, I have never bought into the “pitch to contact” philosophy. But if that is your goal, you must have a good defense and you must limit the free passes. Over the last week the Rangers have done both.

Elvis Andrus - 2009 AL Rookie of the Year

by RangerMad on May 7, 2009 10:49 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Walks

Nice summary. This pitching staff, as currently constructed, is not going to strike out a ton of guys, so they really need to keep the walks down. If that walk rate ticks up every other stat probably gets worse.

G G G E-flat_______ F F F D__________....

by t ball on May 7, 2009 11:01 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

In FIP, 1 BB is worth 1.5 K.

It is amazing how stingy the starters have been with walks over the past 7-14 days.

Last year, the Rangers were 9 games over .500 in May. Their record coming into May 1 was 10-18 and leaving May 31 was 29-28. Their pitching staff had an ERA of 3.90 in May. Their BB/9 was 3.76, though, so that most of their improvement came from keeping the ball in the park. June came around and they started giving up HRs. July came around and they added BBs to go along with HRs. Still, they played .500 ball over June-July.

So, this year…. The lack of BBs this year compared to last would go a long ways toward sustaining their success for more than a month. I think it would be extraordinarily good fortune for the HR rate to stay low. But, if the starters really have become allergic to walks — like a BB/9 less than 2.5 for May, June, July — the Rangers, in my mind, have much improved their chances of being 10 or 15 games over .500 at the All-Star break compared to what I thought the likelihood of that was before the season began.

Wonderboy, what is the secret of your power? Wonderboy, won't you take me far away from the mucky-muck now. -- Tenacious D

by rooster on May 7, 2009 11:38 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

I love the defense...

this team has been playing lately.

Put that with the fact that I can’t even remember the last time the Rangers got a bad start from a pitcher (Benson maybe?) and that Fx2 has been lights out and the Rangers are on a roll.

"The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance."-Socrates

by slc ranger on May 7, 2009 1:34 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Wow the pitching has been good

Besides the hiccup that McCarthy had…was it McCarthy? The offense has been more consistent. MY is hitting great, and hitting for power I might add. Kins has slowed down a little, but has very good numbers up to this point. After a day off, Cruz is hitting again. And even though Chris Davis is striking out a lot, he had a couple of key hits I think, that RBI single and he does have a respectable 7 home runs I think. He does strike out too much when you consider K to HR ratio but he needs to keep playing to get better. I think everyone put so much hype and faith into him, he is obviously pressing. Elvis is still in the building and making great plays. The sunday night ESPN game was the first Ranger game I saw all season, because I am here in California, can anyone tell me how I can watch more Ranger games for free on the internet? Thank you.

by IanKinslerMVP on May 8, 2009 6:12 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs