Is there anything more boring than a two game May series against the Royals in Kansas City? Yes, plenty of things. For example, listening to people's theories of what the finale of LOST meant. (It was the dog's dream all along, right?) This is Texas Rangers baseball you cynic!
Tuesday, May 25 7:10: RHP Rich "Tight Pants" Harden vs. RHP Gil Meche
Wednesday, May 26 1:10: RHP Scott Feldman vs. RHP Luke Hochevar
Much like a scatterbrained plot thread from LOST, you might be thinking you've gone back in time and are reliving a pitching match-up you've seen before. You wouldn't be wrong. On May 8th and 9th (Right before a suave and roguish new Front Page contributor came along to save the allegorical island of Rangers blogdom with his mystical Series Previews), the Rangers and Royals battled in the remaining two games of their four game set in Arlington with Harden v. Meche and Feldman v. Hochevar facing off. It almost feels like we're pressing the same button every 15 days.
The Rangers won both of those games to complete the four game sweep of the Royals. However, Harden and Feldman combined for a total of nine innings pitched while giving up six runs and collecting zero wins themselves. I've been vocal about this before, but if Harden and Feldman are going to continue pitching back-to-back, one of them, at the very least, is going to have to start giving the Rangers much more than an average of 4 1/2 innings.
If you're worried about the bullpen, and there's reason to begin worrying (Here is a handy website that tracks baseball bullpen usage. You can almost feel the tendonitis!), having to take on half of the innings pitched on the days Harden and Feldman start, on consecutive days, is going to be a major contributor to trouble down the road for the bullpen if a course correction is not taken. With prolonged overuse, the pen is eventually going to start becoming less effective on days when they only have to pitch two or three innings, much less four or five, when you consider that they're already first in the American League in innings pitched (three innings ahead of Detroit and nearly ten innings ahead of third place Oakland) and have three of the top four (Chris Ray (23), Neftali Feliz (23), and Frank Francisco (22) in overall appearances.
Much like a certain television show that recently ended, while the outcome was positive when the Rangers struggling duo of Harden and Feldman last faced the Royals, sometimes the devil is in the details. Or *spoilers!* sometimes the devil is in the gaping hole to hell stopped up by a giant cork that you thought was a metaphorical cork but it turns out it is real and shit and it's the only thing preventing the evil of the world from extinguishing the light of life...or something. So, it's a lot like when pitchers walk a lot of batters is what I'm saying.
Hard Hitting Analysis: The Royals are bad.
Kansas City Royals (18-27, 4th place AL Central)
Rangers' 2010 Record vs. Kansas City Royals: 4-0 in Arlington
Kansas City's Recent Results: 1-2 Series loss against the Colorado Rockies
SBN Royals' Blog: Royals Review
|
Match-up: (as of 5/24) |
Rangers |
Royals |
Advantage |
|
|
Batting (RAR) |
60.1 (13th) |
45.9 (19th) |
Rangers |
|
|
Starters (RAR) |
31.1 (20th) |
30.8 (21st) |
Rangers? |
|
|
Bullpen (RAR) |
8.3 (12th) |
-8.3 (29th) |
Rangers |
|
|
Overall RAR |
99.5 |
68.4 |
Rangers! |
|
|
Defense Runs Saved |
14 |
-20 |
Rangers |
|
Questions to Ponder:
- Is David DeJesus one game stealing, home run robbing catch away from being the next Ryan Sweeney?
- Over/Under: Do the Rangers pitchers walk 8 batters in this short series?
- Did you know: Asdrubal Cabrera has been even worse than Betancourt at short this season? Mariner grown shortstops, what's up with that?
- Will royalsfan come to faux-troll us oh please oh please oh please?
- No really though, the dog was dreaming, right?