Saturday a.m. Rangers things
by Adam J. Morris on Mar 13, 2010 9:18 AM CST
78 comments
Another positive game for the Rangers yesterday,as they won 6-2 against the Padres, with solid outings from Matt Harrison and Tommy Hunter, and good offensive days from Julio Borbon and Chris Davis.
Richard Durrett talks to Davis about his hot start to the spring.
T.R. Sullivan writes that the catching situation remains up in the air, with the possibility existing that neither Jarrod Saltalamacchia nor Taylor Teagarden will end up winning the starting catchers job, and instead could simply split time.
Anthony Andro has a story about David Murphy, and Murphy being accepting of his role as fourth outfielder this season, even though Andro says Murphy could be a starter for many teams.
The S-T has some notes about, among other things, Edwar Ramirez making his debut and Derek Holland starting Sunday.
Durrett has some notes on a variety of Ranger players, including Harrison, Mitch Moreland, and Julio Borbon.
Tim Cowlishaw has a column up discussing the Rangers pitching situation, and saying that the Rangers have a lot of options for a lot of open spots. I think he overstates how much jobs are really up for grabs, though...he says Scott Feldman and Rich Harden are the only pitchers who are guaranteed spots in the rotation, and says that it is a "surprise" that Colby Lewis is such a "strong contender." I think it is a given that Lewis is in the rotation, and probably Tommy Hunter, as well.
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I think Salty and Tea platoon might be the best way to go
Seeing as how Salty has hit like an old lady against left-handed pitching in the majors.
Teagarden, terrible as he was last year, did manage a .357 wOBA against lefties wheras Salty has a .260 wOBA against them for his career (and a .289 last year).
Don’t ever let Salty start vs. a lefty or Teagarden start vs. a righty and you actually might get decent total production from the two.
Morality you can fake. Fun you either have or you don't.
Plus sitting Murphy against lefties
Please, let that happen this year
Look at the comments under Jeff Wilson's blog post on dallasnews.com. What a bunch of rocket scientists.- Keith Law
Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!
If he's the 4th OF, theres no way he's going to sit against lefties like he should, unfortunately.
Which is why I don’t like him as the 4th OF.
Morality you can fake. Fun you either have or you don't.
That doesn't make much sense
As a 4th OF, that means its much, much easier to hide him against lefties. Now if there’s an injury to one of your starting 3, then there will be more of an issue. But how many teams have a 4th OF who is actually starting caliber anyways? It doesn’t make much of a difference if your injury fill in is mediocre against lefties and righties or very good against righties and poor against lefties.
By 2028, Mark Teixeira will be in the HOF.
"I am one of the biggest Texas Ranger fans out there but I'm also one of the smartest. Deal with it."
-The Outlaw
But our OF is very left-handed
And Cruz wasn’t particularly great vs. lefties last year either. Murphy being left-handed is pretty unideal for us because it means you can’t use him to time the other guys days off against the pitchers they’re less effective against, or platoon him with someone if necessary. Plus he can’t really play center, either.
He’s a good little player and nice to have right now as insurance for Josh and Vlad, but he’s a square peg in a round hole as our backup.
Morality you can fake. Fun you either have or you don't.
Are you going to go with the Cruz has reverse splits BS?
I know you’re better than that.
A healthy, effective Hamilton might not be as strong against lefties as righties, but he still isn’t a bad option. Last season, lefties were actually the only pitchers Hamilton hit against. Also, Hamilton isn’t getting a day off because of the pitcher he’s facing. He might be DH’d to give him some rest, but that’s it. And then you have Borbon who we have yet to really see how he will handle lefties in the Majors, but Murphy was never really seen as an option to fill in for him. That’s why the 5th OF spot has to go to someone who can play CF. If Boggs gets that spot, then problem solved with wanting another guy who can hit lefties.
I really don’t see how a guy who has a 107 OPS+ in his career with good defense in the COF spots is a square peg in a round hole. That seems like a great player to have on your bench in just about every situation, and this isn’t one of the exceptions.
By 2028, Mark Teixeira will be in the HOF.
"I am one of the biggest Texas Ranger fans out there but I'm also one of the smartest. Deal with it."
-The Outlaw
I know it is unorthodox
But given the Rangers options would they ever consider a 6-man rotation? Depending on who earns the top 6 spots there are reasons for pretty much all of them to get extra rest. Harden, Harrison, and McCarthy could all use the extra day between starts to stay healthy. We aren’t sure if Wilson can be stretched out. Holland, Feliz, and Hunter are all still really young. The only guys I am not really worried about as far as injury or fatigue are Lewis and Feldman and even those 2 aren’t exactly workhorses.
At some point
A 6-man rotation or some kind of tandem start deal could be an interesting way to break Feliz in as a starter while limiting his innings and workload.
Morality you can fake. Fun you either have or you don't.
Orthodox
There are plenty of people in the Rangers organization who strike me as orthodox. So while what you suggest is certainly intriguing, I just don’t see it happening (unfortunately).
by Excel Hearts Choi on Mar 13, 2010 9:38 AM CST up reply actions
Roster construction becomes an issue as well
I suppose the ideal thing would be to just short the bullpen by one guy, but that seems way too risky
Look at the comments under Jeff Wilson's blog post on dallasnews.com. What a bunch of rocket scientists.- Keith Law
Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!
I'm surprised more teams don't go 6-man to start the season...
And then transition to 5-man or even 4-man in the second half. It’d keep the top of your rotation fresh, and allow you to have an in-season competition for spots 4 and 5. The downside, of course, is only sending your best pitcher out there once a week to start the season. But for teams without lights-out aces, seems like it’d be a worthy experiment.
most teams don't have 6 good pitchers
and if the issue is just you can’t decide who is less crappy for the 5th rotation spot, doesn’t seem like a great idea just to throw both of them out there and double up on crappiness.
Start of the season
Considering there are usually multiple extra off days in the first month of the season, I see no reason to have a 6-man rotation at the start. Most teams have a 4-man rotation at the start of the year with a 5th starter who only starts sporadically until the schedule dictates a regluar rotation spot.
That being said, I like the idea of a 6-man rotation in the middle of the hot Texas summer. That would leave open the question of how to adjust the off-start pitching sessions for the 6.
by Mark from OC on Mar 13, 2010 12:27 PM CST up reply actions
Liked this on the last pitch in CD's SO
“It was a ball, dude,” Davis said. “I don’t swing at balls anymore.”
by other_shoe on Mar 13, 2010 9:33 AM CST reply actions 5 recs
Bad ass
"Dying ain't hard. It’s living in the wake of a thorough public humiliation that’s hard.--JDT217
Cowlishaw had an interesting observation
It is possible that the Rangers’ rotation out of ST could be entirely different from last year. As a minimum it will be 4 out of 5 different SPs. How often does that happen and your rotation improves?
Vladimir Guererro - 2010 AL MVP
Rotation
I’m not convinced 4 of the 5 starters will be new. The way Harrison has looked, I don’t think it’s out of the question they break camp with a rotation of Harden, Feldman, Lewis, Harrison and McCarthy, with Hunter and Holland in AAA and Wilson back in the bullpen.
After thinking about it way more than I should, I haven’t got any feel for how the rotation will play out. The only things I’m confident of right now are that Holland will open the season in AAA and Feliz will be in the bullpen.
by Darrell McKown on Mar 13, 2010 9:45 AM CST up reply actions
Of all the SP candidates
BMac is the one I worry about them giving a rotation spot instead of him earning the spot. I don’t think he will actually beat out Hunter or at this point Harry.
Vladimir Guererro - 2010 AL MVP
When I first saw the headline
I was convinced Cowlishaw’s article was going to be of the “when are we going to get some pitching” variety, which probably says something about my low expectations from the DMN columnists.
Had a tiresome argument with a young Boston fan last week, when he asserted we “forgot half the game” by not valuing pitching. I had a hard time figuring out where to start.
Funny you say that..
I had a similar argument with a Detroit fan about how “terrible” our pitching is. Hard to defend myself when Detroit lit a fire under our asses last year.
Hard to defend yourself
With a whole 1 year of history too. Come on guys, lets not start acting like the Rangers are the 2nd coming of the early 70’s Orioles. They improved a great deal last year and that’s great but it was just 1 year.
by Chris Martin on Mar 13, 2010 10:07 AM CST up reply actions
Oh, I agree that the Rangers aren't there yet
but there are a number of things that I find annoying about the meme that I hear from other teams’ fans.
First, neither the fans nor the management thinks pitching is unimportant or has “forgotten” it or thinks the team can do it with hitting alone. If this was ever true, it hasn’t been for quite a while.
Second, as we all know, it was the bats that failed last year.
Third, last year was a good lesson that pitching is not half of the game on its own. You have to include fielding.
While it’s certainly premature to think the team is there, it is not at all silly to think they may be rounding a corner.
Wonder if Hunter could get him into judo
Sounds like it might be good for his personality.
Plus, then we could have a Hunter vs. Harden fight some day.
Look at the comments under Jeff Wilson's blog post on dallasnews.com. What a bunch of rocket scientists.- Keith Law
Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!
If that happened and word got around about an impending fight, GhostofErikThompson would run out and throw himself in front of his crush Harden to keep the dreaminess intact and unhurt
"Dying ain't hard. It’s living in the wake of a thorough public humiliation that’s hard.--JDT217
I would destroy...
Tommy Hunter like Tommy Hunter destroys a rack of ribs.
by ghostofErikThompson on Mar 13, 2010 3:38 PM CST up reply actions
Tommy Hunter wouldn't stand a chance.
The 40 Trumps All!!!
by thedirkatron on Mar 13, 2010 11:31 AM CST up reply actions
Damn
I’m straight and all, but that pic makes me want to write a Mac-to-Chase-Utley style love letter to Rich.
Look at the comments under Jeff Wilson's blog post on dallasnews.com. What a bunch of rocket scientists.- Keith Law
Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!
Nice buns.
"Sometimes you just want to sit back and watch somebody throw 100." - Jeff Passan on Neftali Feliz
"Baseball's all that's real" - JB
Murphy being 4th in rangers ab the past 3 years
Made me think about the turnover. With Blalock and Benoit gone we are all the way down to MY and FX2 from 2004. Though I guess you can sort of count Colby Lewis.
Fanatics - my webcomic
As if anyone needed a reminder:
Saturday, March 13 @ Indians 2:05 PM KRLD 1080
"Back on the scene, with a gangsta lean" RW
"When you have a weapon on your shoulder like he has, you can be cool." RW on Perez
And the little bastard threw it for a swinging strike three in a 3-2 count. He’s blessed. And ballsy.
yep
txa 21 at 3 pm vs arizona.
split squad game.. i want to see vlad. anyone know who will start?
Fanatics - my webcomic
pretty meh
but i’ll take what i can get
by texasraider on Mar 13, 2010 12:41 PM CST up reply actions
Monday nite on FSSW
Harden starts – might also see Nippert, O’Day, Madrigal, Edwar … and possibly Scheppers or Beltre.
Not too bad anyway
I’d rather see Lewis than any of last years starters. Hopefully Ray looks right.
Fanatics - my webcomic
↑↑↑ What he brayed ↑↑↑
"Back on the scene, with a gangsta lean" RW
"When you have a weapon on your shoulder like he has, you can be cool." RW on Perez
And the little bastard threw it for a swinging strike three in a 3-2 count. He’s blessed. And ballsy.
The thought of the first televised game of the year
makes me seep from 5 different places on my body
Mike Aviles
I wonder if the Rangers could acquire him to be the utility infielder.
Maybe Boggs and Arias for him.
I was a Ranger fan when being a Rangers fan wasn't cool.
With Gordon hurt?
Highly unlikely, as he is penciled in as their starting 2nd baseman right now.
"Back on the scene, with a gangsta lean" RW
"When you have a weapon on your shoulder like he has, you can be cool." RW on Perez
And the little bastard threw it for a swinging strike three in a 3-2 count. He’s blessed. And ballsy.
Don't they have Getz and Callapso too?
Seemed like they had more infielders than they could find spots for…
fangraphs
Callaspo was below average last year in 146 games and the perception was even worse than the numbers.
Getz was not overly impressive either offensively or defensively last year
"Back on the scene, with a gangsta lean" RW
"When you have a weapon on your shoulder like he has, you can be cool." RW on Perez
And the little bastard threw it for a swinging strike three in a 3-2 count. He’s blessed. And ballsy.
Callaspo was bad last year? Huh?
.300/.356/.457 from a 2b is pretty damn good.
I take it they’re talking about his defense, as frangraphs has his uzr/150 at -7.5 at 2b last year, but it was +6.5 the year before so I think it’s a little unfair to assume he’s a butcher or whatever.
The 40 Trumps All!!!
by thedirkatron on Mar 13, 2010 2:34 PM CST up reply actions
Quoting fangraphs
"Back on the scene, with a gangsta lean" RW
"When you have a weapon on your shoulder like he has, you can be cool." RW on Perez
And the little bastard threw it for a swinging strike three in a 3-2 count. He’s blessed. And ballsy.
Why would a fantasy article focus on defense?
I guess they’re assuming it’ll influence his playing time, but with Dayton Moore there’s no way that’s possible.
Scout: “He’s a butcher at second!!!”
Moore: “Yah, but look-it !!! A .300 batting average !!!”
The 40 Trumps All!!!
by thedirkatron on Mar 14, 2010 12:44 AM CST up reply actions
A veritable fly on the wall you are
"Back on the scene, with a gangsta lean" RW
"When you have a weapon on your shoulder like he has, you can be cool." RW on Perez
And the little bastard threw it for a swinging strike three in a 3-2 count. He’s blessed. And ballsy.
What do defensive numbers have to do with anything?
Dayton Moore is calling the shots and he is on record as not understanding defensive statistics.
"Dying ain't hard. It’s living in the wake of a thorough public humiliation that’s hard.--JDT217
I thought Getz had the inside track
with Callaspo in a utility type role and Aviles figuring mostly at SS
by Brett Perryman on Mar 13, 2010 5:37 PM CST up reply actions
Geez, Backsick
It’s Scheppers…quit adding a freakin’ D to the end of his name.
"Back on the scene, with a gangsta lean" RW
"When you have a weapon on your shoulder like he has, you can be cool." RW on Perez
And the little bastard threw it for a swinging strike three in a 3-2 count. He’s blessed. And ballsy.
maybe he's talking about dsheppard bringing the heat on his gameday gifs?
Nobody is perfect, i am nobody, therefore, i am perfect
by 34express on Mar 13, 2010 1:02 PM CST via mobile up reply actions
I heard that discussion
And i thought to myself, I wonder if he even knows who martin perez is?
"I'm against picketing, but I don't know how to show it." - Mitch Hedberg
He also thinks
the Rangers would just cut McCarthy even if they can get him through revocable waivers (and I’m adding the revocable, kind of doubt he even knows that situation clearly) because no one would pay someone they’re starting in AAA a million dollars. I’m interested in what he thinks about guys’ performances, but it’s amazing that he could have so little feel for his own sport when he spent so many years being directly impacted by all of the roster rules and considerations.
by Brett Perryman on Mar 13, 2010 5:40 PM CST up reply actions
I think it's great
Because to a certain degree, it really defeats the “did you play?” argument.
by brettgardner on Mar 13, 2010 5:42 PM CST up reply actions
Yeah that part made me chuckle a bit too.
I agree, I’m amazed how little insight a former major league pitcher has.
"I'm against picketing, but I don't know how to show it." - Mitch Hedberg
I had to quit listening when the other guy started his rant
about how they should have paid whatever it took to bring back Byrd and Vizquel. I think he’s gone on about that every time I’ve heard him talk about the Rangers this fall/winter/spring.
by Brett Perryman on Mar 13, 2010 6:08 PM CST up reply actions
I stopped listening right after the McCarthy bit
I just couldn’t take it anymore.
"I'm against picketing, but I don't know how to show it." - Mitch Hedberg
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