Monday a.m. stuff

by Adam J. Morris on Apr 16, 2007 9:35 AM CDT in News Comment 24 comments

Bleah. Those last couple of games really sucked.

I think I'm happy there's an off day today, because I don't know that I'd really be in the mood for any more baseball today.

The really interesting news from yesterday is Brandon McCarthy thinks he may have been tipping his pitches. Evan Grant says that Jose Vidro, on both the home runs, seemed to know what was coming, and McCarthy is going to go look at some tape and see if he can figure out what he was doing that was causing the problem.

Also from Grant's game story, Ron Washington had a brief closed-door meeting with the team, although it wasn't the chair-throwing kind. Per Grant, it was basically, "You guys know what you did wrong out there, let's learn from it, forget it, and move on."

Also from Grant, the Rangers are the worst in the league in hitting from the 7th inning on. Not sure that means anything, but it obviously isn't a good thing.

Dave Sessions discusses the rough day for Matt Kata at third base:

The Rangers made six errors in the two games, including two by third baseman Matt Kata on Sunday.

"We have to be a little more solid defensively," Teixeira said. "Good teams play good defense.

"We're a lot better than we've shown."

Kata misplayed two more balls that were called hits on a rare day off for Hank Blalock.

"He just had a rough day," Washington said of Kata. "I certainly don't want him to feel like he lost this game for us because we all lost it."

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So, does anyone know

of a good AAAA type 3B who can hit lefties?

Its an obvious hole for this team. Outside of Blalock, this team has no 3B, and Blalock has never shown that he can hit lefties.

"The very fundamental issue is, they (Bush Admin) don't know where the hell they're going," --Ret Marine Gen. John "Jack" Sheehan after declining "War Czar" job

by DJCahill on Apr 16, 2007 9:39 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Well

You could play Hairston there.

by Adam J. Morris on Apr 16, 2007 9:44 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Hairston

has played a total of 2 MLB games at 3B.

"The very fundamental issue is, they (Bush Admin) don't know where the hell they're going," --Ret Marine Gen. John "Jack" Sheehan after declining "War Czar" job

by DJCahill on Apr 16, 2007 10:08 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

derosa played like 7 in RF

before he became our starter.

derosa's the man. you have a question? I've got a derosa.

"I want him focused on figuring out a way to beat that lefty's ass." - RW

by ab03 on Apr 16, 2007 10:33 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

We should have kept DeRosa.

But, the boy genius knows best.

Wharter

by Wharter on Apr 16, 2007 9:54 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

derosa

he wanted to start in the infield, and he wasn't getting that here. so you can't fault jd on that one

"Pimps be damned, it's harder out here for a Rangers fan!" "If you don't throw strikes first, you're last."

by rentz on Apr 16, 2007 9:59 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

boy genius

clever. it added to your very insightful comment as well. i've only heard that suggestion proved invalid ten times within the last 3 days but feel free to bring it up again.

personally, i'm going to go with, "Sure would be nice to have barry bonds as our DH."

"I want him focused on figuring out a way to beat that lefty's ass." - RW

by ab03 on Apr 16, 2007 10:36 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Hard to decide what's lamer

Calling a 30-year old man a "boy," or saying we should have re-signed a guy to the bench that clearly and repeatedly stated he wouldn't sign w/ anyone unless he was gonna be a starter.

I like camo because it makes you blend in. But when you're not in the woods, it does the opposite. Its like, hey, there's an asshole.

by Brian Thomas on Apr 16, 2007 10:56 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Nobody else

were making excuses, except McCarthy. Don't like to see that. I don't see how the 1st two teams he didn't think he was tipping pitches but all of a sudden he might be...

Anyways, for his sake, he better hope that he was tipping his pitches...

by Longhorn on Apr 16, 2007 10:12 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

McCarthy

I doubt he was tipping, i think his control was just off and made things easy to hit....though its possible that the mariners saw something on film about him , who knows

"Pimps be damned, it's harder out here for a Rangers fan!" "If you don't throw strikes first, you're last."

by rentz on Apr 16, 2007 10:15 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

well

i don't think tipping was the only thing that went wrong. and i think mccarthy realizes that too.

i could just as easily read that comment as giving a reason for the bad performance and maybe a way he can correct it, not really as a way to escape blame.

"I want him focused on figuring out a way to beat that lefty's ass." - RW

by ab03 on Apr 16, 2007 10:38 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

right

i dont think i said he was making excuses really.... he just was bad, he acknowledged he did something wrong. I just don't know that he was tipping pitches

"Pimps be damned, it's harder out here for a Rangers fan!" "If you don't throw strikes first, you're last."

by rentz on Apr 16, 2007 10:41 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Might have gotten a bit rattled by

the failure to be able to field a grounder, having to get 5-6 outs an inning can be a little tough on a pitcher. Liked to have seen him handle it better, but......

by tklawless on Apr 16, 2007 11:30 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

too bad

the 2 hrs came before that.

by Longhorn on Apr 16, 2007 12:53 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Making excuses?

How was BMac making excuses? An excuse is where you blame something besides yourself for your screw-ups. BMac was saying it might be something he was doing wrong that resulted in the three bombs and that he planned to take steps to solve the problem. That sounds like a guy taking personal responsibility for his bad game to me.

by Athos on Apr 16, 2007 10:38 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

yeah

you worded it better than what i was saying above.

"I want him focused on figuring out a way to beat that lefty's ass." - RW

by ab03 on Apr 16, 2007 10:38 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Not sure about the tipping pitches

I listened to the first inning on the radio and after that I was in a loud bar but the radio announcers said two the same things on both 1st inning homers. On the Ichiro HR they both said it was hanging changeup right over the middle of the plate belt high and that you couldn't serve a better pitch to hit. On Vidro's first they again said it was hanging changeup and the it was even worse than the first one. That to me just sounds like a bad day, b/c I'm not sure how you would tip a hitter to that you're about to throw a hanging breaking ball.

by cgolden on Apr 16, 2007 11:14 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

no backup at 3B

Kata looked hopeless on almost every ball hit in his general direction yesterday. His career fielding stats including yesterday:

pos starts inns chances Errors pct
--- ------ ---- --------- ------- ----
2B 83 763 448 5 .989
3B 22 199 64 3 .953

2 of the 3 career 3B errors are from yesterday, though he arguably could have been charged with 2 more.

He has only one major league career start in the outfield (last Friday against Seattle), with a total of 12 major league career innings in the outfield as a starter/sub.

Observations:

- Kata has a lot less experience at 3B than 2B. Before yesterday he was pretty reliable there, with only 1 error in 21 major league starts. But 21 starts is not much of a track record.

- He appears to be a pretty solid defender at 2B. His range factor of 5.29 there is not bad... Kinsler's RF was 5.58 last year, with a .973 fielding percentage. Jose Vidro, considered one of the top defensive 2Bs, had RF 4.73, FPct 0.990.

- If Hairston only has 1 career start at 3B, that gives us a total of 23 career starts among backup defenders at 3B.

JD and Washington have assembled a team without a reliable backup at the hot corner.

by LukeR on Apr 16, 2007 10:41 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

What makes it even worse

is that we knew going in that our 3B has shown no ability to hit lefties, and it might be prudent to have a platoon plan for later in the season if he is not able to figure it out.

"The very fundamental issue is, they (Bush Admin) don't know where the hell they're going," --Ret Marine Gen. John "Jack" Sheehan after declining "War Czar" job

by DJCahill on Apr 16, 2007 10:57 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

easier said than done?

"I want him focused on figuring out a way to beat that lefty's ass." - RW

by ab03 on Apr 16, 2007 11:11 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Honestly,

I haven't looked at all the waiver wire moves, and AAAs that are filled with AAAA players, but normally a guy who is bench quality who can play adequate defense isn't too tough to find. Maybe this year it was tougher, but the minors are filled with good glove, no stick guys.

"The very fundamental issue is, they (Bush Admin) don't know where the hell they're going," --Ret Marine Gen. John "Jack" Sheehan after declining "War Czar" job

by DJCahill on Apr 16, 2007 11:31 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Kata

I imagine the belief was that Kata could handle 3B from time to time.

If he can't, then there's not really much point in having him on the roster.

by Adam J. Morris on Apr 16, 2007 11:13 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Absolutely

Maybe he just had a bad game, but right now our backup 3B position needs help. We might also need a backup CF.

"The very fundamental issue is, they (Bush Admin) don't know where the hell they're going," --Ret Marine Gen. John "Jack" Sheehan after declining "War Czar" job

by DJCahill on Apr 16, 2007 1:01 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs