The bottom line on defense is unearned runs. This season, the Rangers have allowed 10 unearned runs to this point, seventh fewest in the AL West and the fewest in the Western Division. Last year they committed 107, 24 more than any other team in baseball.

Good write though, nice to see the defense is improving numerically. Then again, no Davis/Vazquez at 3rd and no Young at SS would definitely lead to an improvement

I think the consensus here this off season was that the defense had to improve, and I really like what I’ve seen so far. With the staff essentially the same as before, the defense had to step up and improve in order to get them as much help as possible. If you’ve watched more than a handful of games its quite clear that the defense has significantly improved and the DER numbers support that.

I can’t help but think of the Rays last year, and their focus on improving the defense was a big reason they made such a huge leap forward.

Appears to be pitchers fielding their position. Better glove work and better throws. No secret that pitchers were a pretty big chunk of errors last year, and before.

He looks great to me.

One area where they must improve is their allowing Inherited Runners to score (IS%). They are currently at 49% (lg avg is 39%) and last year they were at 40%. Improvement is this area will have a direct effect on RA and ERA. Probably wins also.

Cinco de Mayo: With five straight wins, the Rangers claim first place in the AL West, and they continue to reap the benefits of Elvis Andrus’ promotion. While the young shortstop’s hitting (.259/.286/.407) isn’t much to write home about, the team ranks third in the league in Defensive Efficiency, an MLB-high 31 points better than last year. That’s particularly helped the shaky rotation, which ranks seventh in SNLVAR after bringing up the rear by a wide margin a year ago.

IK will make a few, too many, but he gets to a lot of balls at 2b and combine that with the balls The King gets to at SS that MY never could dream of getting to, we are seeing the medium hot shots that used to go through the middle and all be singles for these pitchers, and help run up their IP’s and Pitch Counts and ER’s are turning into outs.

I think its no coincidence that our pitchers are giving up less hits up the middle and pitching deeper into games and that our Defense up the middle is rangier and getting to more balls.

the game is all connected and i think thats what had some here so frustrated.

the rangier rangers, it wasnt our pitching, it was our defense….

heh

Now imagine what good defense plus good pitching would do if the Rangers can put that together for a full year. Hopefully we’ll see that soon. At least four serviceable starters and a bullpen that’s capable of shutting down teams in the late innings. A defense that’s so good it gets outs that it shouldn’t. An offense with the talent that this group has, but with the discipline that they showed in 2008.

That’s a championship caliber team.

I don’t know if Face would have made the play at 3rd last night.

I’ve felt that the defense hasn’t been getting enough credit for how great the pitching has been recently. It really shows I think in the BABIP. This year, our pitchers have a BABIP of .292. That’s tied for 6th best in the league. Last year, the Rangers were dead last in the league with a BABIP of .322. When your pitchers aren’t going to strike many people out, you need a defense behind them that will make the plays. Last year’s team didn’t have that while this year’s does.

1) David Ortiz accidentally made contact on a check swing and it went in to shallow left field, beating the shift.

2) Going to third, Dustin Pedroia ran in to Jason Bartlett and fell over.

3) Carl Crawford — and this is the weirdest part — double clutched and STILL sailed the ball over Iwamura’s head. I’m talking soft lob that went miles past second base, like it was on purpose or something. So instead of getting out, Pedroia gets to third.

4) Meanwhile, David Ortiz goes to second.

So bizarre.