Texas Rangers
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A View From The RavineAugust 26th, 2008
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Finally the curtain has come crashing down on the Rangers 2008 season. And while it was fascinating and gruesome, like a terrible highway accident that you couldn’t take your eyes off of, everyone did just that. They were all watching the Olympics, specifically Fishboy, Michael Phelps. I don’t want to go all Cary Lowry-Big Brown here, but if you will, indulge three quick points:
First, I get that he won a lot of medals, but they were all for the same thing. He swam really fast. Shouldn’t that be the point? I mean, Carl Lewis never had the chance to win 8 medals for running fast. He didn’t get a chance to go for the 100-meter dash, 200-meter dash, high jump, 400-meter relay, 100-meter backwards dash, 200-meter left footed hop, 100-meter dash w/book on head, and 400-meter handstand relay.
B, for BORING! Fast in a straight line is okay, protected from the vicious French and the nasty Belgians by plastic lane dividers. But why don’t we smear him in steak sauce and let a couple of sharks loose in the pool. Now, that’s how you decide who’s fast and who’s not.
Third, I love that idea. Americans are watching “So You Think You Can Dance?” and “I’d Eat That For A Buck” in record numbers. Wouldn’t you tune in to a reality show called “Is Michael Phelps Faster Than A Shark?” I’d watch, every single week….
But back to the point, the Ranger’s bus finally teetered over the edge after driving Speed Racer style on the rail for the majority of the season. And April’s bullies, the Tigers and the Red Sox, helped finish it. So now the club is left to play spoilers, messing with the various pennant races while finding out which young prospects can play. The only problem is that Texas has been doing that all season long.
If you are keeping track, (and seriously, you shouldn’t be. Seriously.) the Rangers will be employing player number 52 sometime this weekend. That’s more than two full rosters worth of baseball. We’ve seen Red Hawks and Rough Riders and even a few LumberKings. Really, if you didn’t get called up at some point, you might want to start rethinking career options.
Still, there are a number of questions that need to be examined and addressed over the next five weeks. Among them: Is Chris Davis a 3rd baseman or a 1st baseman? And vice versa on Hank Blalock. And where do you put Ramon Vazquez to keep him in the lineup? The middle of the infield is a little easier with two All-Star, thundering bats in Young and Kinsler, but what about the defense? Is there any way to improve that without sitting someone?
The outfield looks to be settled with Byrd breaking out of his early slump, Bradley proving to be a valuable threat, Boggs and the injured David Murphy maturing nicely. The only question is the Rangers’ ability to sign MVP-Worthy Josh Hamilton to a nice, fat, long-term deal. They simply can’t let him get away.
Behind the plate? Laird is Laird, Salty is less, and Max and Taylor are waiting in the wings. But what about next year? Does anyone feel like one of those folks is the answer at catcher right now?
Luckily we’ve seen about every pitcher in the organization. Unluckily whoever the club hires to be a pitching coach won’t have. He’ll have to waste valuable time judging their strengths and weaknesses for himself. (I’ll help. Strengths: Ability to swivel head 180 degrees repeatedly. Weaknesses: Pitching.) And then he’ll have to figure out if the hurt ones are always going to be hurt. And rebuild the bullpen. And find a reliable long-term solution at closer.
It’s going to be a dangerous looking off-season for Ron Washington and company. Honestly, I’d rather be the guy forging birth certificates for Chinese gymnasts than trying to sort this mess out. Or so I hear. I can’t really say, because I was off watching baseball.
ADDED NOTE: There still may be time to vote for the greatest Rangers player of all time on Baseball Tonight’s online poll. It closes August 24th at 1 a.m. You can vote for Nolan, Ruben, Young, Pudge, Bell, Juan, Raffy, A-Rod, Frank Howard or Mr. Knuckler, Charlie Hough. I tried to write in Curtis Wilkerson and Will Clark, but it wouldn’t let me. If its not too late, go to http://sports.espn.go.com/chat/sportsnation/story?page=bbtnfranchisegreats and cast your vote.
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Why the Wildcard WorksAugust 26th, 2008
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Baseball purists believe the Wildcard rule is untraditional. After all, a pennant is a pennant is a pennant. But I’m here to say, it works. As a Ranger fan, my hopes for post season glory would have been over long ago with the high flying Angels ruling the AL West roost. But instead, there has been hope……possibly dashed recently by losing 10 of 14, but still it is there…..just a mere 10.5 games away. Hopeless? Yeah, probably. Worth watching still? Yeah, definitely.
The Argument Against:
1. Winning the division doesn’t mean anything anymore - I think it still does, since there’s only ONE wildcard team against THREE division winners. 75% of the teams making the MLB playoffs have to win their Division. Compare that to 67% for the NFL, and 38% in the NBA.
2. Wildcard teams are winning World Series - True in the case of Boston, St Louis and Florida have turned the trick recently. But is this bad?
3. Too many teams in the hunt at the Trade Deadline stymies the chance at “the great trade” - While more teams are in it, it certainly didn’t stop big names from changing hands in 2008. Manny Ramirez, Griffey, Bay, Sabathia, among others. Besides, why is it such a good thing to see half the league basically GIVE UP in July and dump their roster? Read more
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Rangers Statistical Month in Review - JulyAugust 4th, 2008
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Where they Stand: At 56-53, the Rangers sit in 2nd place in the AL West, 12.5 games behind the 1st place Angels. However, they are only 5 games out of the WildCard race.
The Offense: Texas is #1, period. #1 in OPS (On Base plus Slugging) which I consider the composite offensive statistic. #1 in Extra Base Hits. #1 in Batting Average at .282. #1 in Runs Scored with 610, 30 full runs over the 2nd place Cubs. #1 in Hits, #1 in Doubles, #1 in RBI. True, they are only 5th in HRs, and 6th in walks…..but this offense is the best in baseball. The offense is led by Josh Hamilton, of course. His incredible league-leading 104 RBI put him on pace for 156 by season’s end…..the second highest total in club history (Juan Gonzalez had 158 in 1998). While it’s hard to say that Josh Hamilton is NOT the MVP…..he is not doing this alone. He’s only knocked himself in 25 times (Ken, those are the home runs….stop scratching your head). Milton Bradley actually leads the team in OPS at over 1.000. The catalyst of the offense is clearly Ian Kinsler with 91 runs scored, 21 more than the next Ranger and 16 more than anyone else in the American League. Oh, and Kinsler also leads the majors in HITS, and is 2nd in Doubles.
STAT OF THE MONTH: Ian Kinsler is on pace to score 136 runs this season. How many is that? All Time Career Runs scored leader in MLB history, Rickey Henderson, only eclipsed that total ONCE in all his years. Ty Cobb had 136 or more only TWICE…..and all time hits leader Pete Rose NEVER hit the number that Kinsler is closing in on this year. Read more
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When Bad Things Happen To Good PeopleJuly 31st, 2008
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Pudge in pinstripes? That doesn’t just look wrong. That looks “Ramon Vazquez moustache” wrong. That looks “Solid Gold Brett Favre Commemorative Retirement Coin” wrong. That looks “Rosanne-Barr-in-a-thong” wrong.
Like Julio Franco, Pudge is one of our guys, even if the Hall of Fame plaque has a Tigers or a Marlins cap on the man. He grew up here, he was our hero, and he was a main cog on the best teams the Rangers ever trotted out there. For a little while, we were all sure that he was going to stay with Texas, finding a way to finish his career here, ending up with what the purists call a “clean” baseball card, only one team listed on the back.
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Wild Card FeverJuly 27th, 2008
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American League - Wild Card Standings
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Team |
W |
L |
PCT |
GB |
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59 |
42 |
.584 |
- |
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60 |
43 |
.583 |
- |
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56 |
45 |
.554 |
3.0 |
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55 |
46 |
.545 |
4.0 |
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52 |
49 |
.515 |
7.0 |
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52 |
49 |
.515 |
7.0 |
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52 |
50 |
.510 |
7.5 |
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51 |
51 |
.500 |
8.5 |
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48 |
53 |
.475 |
11.0 |
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46 |
57 |
.447 |
14.0 |
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44 |
56 |
.440 |
14.5 |
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38 |
63 |
.376 |
21.0
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That’s right. Read it and weep. If you are watching the scoreboard, you already see the future. Here come the Rangers, out of the gate after the All-Star break like a “Ron Paul for President ‘08″ campaign wagon. After crushing the Twins and the WSox, taking one out of three in each series, Texas is sitting right where they want to sit, on the fringes of the Wild Card race, lulling the 8 teams in front of them into a false sense of security and waiting to pounce. Read more
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All Star Break: Back and ForthJuly 20th, 2008
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While Back-and-Forth would certainly be an accurate description of the Rangers to this point, a team written off for dead before April was over (at least twice…check our columns…) that has clawed its way back to the fringe of the playoff picture without sweeping an opponent yet. But this column is Back and Forth as Cary and I take turns looking at Texas topics for the second half. Cary’s answers will be in bold. Mine will be intelligent.
KEN: So, I’ll start this by tossing you a softball. (Just don’t hit it back at me….we both know I can’t field it…) Who is the Rangers’ MVP so far? The two-time player of the month, or are you going to avoid the obvious answer? Read more
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Split? Yes. Even? Maybe not.July 17th, 2008
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So after 4 games in Arlington with the Angels of WhereEver, each team takes 2 wins and the Halos keep the seven and a half game lead. The Rangers didn’t gain any ground, so the series was an even split, right? Maybe not. On paper, (where the games are rarely played because of the way the cleats tear it up), the Angels should have come in and crushed Texas. The 4 pitching match-ups in the series looked more like bows-and-arrows vs. F-16’s. Heck, on Wednesday night, the Rangers didn’t even have a starter, using the bullpen from the first inning.
What did we learn from the series? The Rangers aren’t afraid of the Angels. Texas can win a close game like the Tuesday night, one-run victory in a low scoring affair. They can beat K-Rod, as Josh Hamilton so eloquintly proved with his bomb on Wednesday night. The Texas offense is never done, racking up 20 hits while taking Thursday night’s game to extra innings after being down 10-4 in the 7th. Catcher Max Ramirez is not going to drop the ball at home no matter how hard you hit him. The Rangers aren’t going to go away. And maybe, just maybe the Angels know that.
Seven and a half back is still a lot to overcome, especially since Texas has to pass Oakland in the standings before they can really take sight on the Angels. And there are less than 70 games left in the season, so time is going to start playing a bigger and bigger role. The Rangers need to get their first sweep of the season sometime soon, then maybe add a few more. Because while you can reach 100 victories by winning or splitting every series, you can’t do that if you take the month of April off. But for the moment, it looks like the Rangers are going to be doing more in the second half than just trading players away. Sometimes a split isn’t just a split, and sometimes a team doesn’t walk away from it even.
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Random RangernessJuly 5th, 2008
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A few random thoughts as we move out of June and into July…
The Rangers finally move 2 games over .500, winning Monday night at Yankee Stadium. It’s the first time they’ve reached that lofty height this season following the Great April Wipeout, the Incredible May Recovery, and the June of Treading Water. Since May 22, Texas has bounced between 2 games under and 1 over the break even mark. That is mediocrity not seen since “According to Jim” went off the air. (It did finally, mercifully go off the air, didn’t it?) You keep hoping for that one hot streak that will vault the team back into Division contention. But that’s not the way it ever happens in Texas.
As a child, I came to learn that you could count on the Rangers hanging in there for the first half of the season, and then falling like Skylab right after the All-Star break, scattering players at the trade deadline like debris over Australia. Is this the year that it doesn’t happen? Is this the year that we chase down 2 teams and win the division, using rookies at catcher, first base, third base, the outfield, and a rotation that began the year scattered out across our minor league system? Okay, probably not, but at least we recovered to the point that the dreamers can dream.
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Away GamesJune 25th, 2008
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Apparently, if you translate it into English, Joaquin Benoit means “You can turn the TV off now, we’re losing this one. Read a book.” (I highly recommend Tim Kurkjian’s “Is This A Great Game, or What?”) In the continuance of a theme, Benoit came into Tuesday night’s game vs. Houston, closed his eyes, and started chunking the ball toward what he believed to be homeplate. In 4 1/2 June innings, he’s allowed 8 walks and 3 HRs. Those my friends, are “Now pitching, Ken Jones” kind of numbers. Read more
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It was Big, Brown, and stunk to high……June 19th, 2008
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Let’s imagine a scenario……another world, if you will……and let’s go back to Opening Week in April 2008. Approx 3 games into the season, the following teams were undefeated: The Washington Nationals, The Milwaukee Brewers, The Kansas City Royals, and the Cleveland Indians. Those were actually the only four….we haven’t entered fantasy world yet. So now let’s go into fantasy world and imagine that the other 26 teams decided to bench their starters and give them the rest of the season off. The Red Sox called up the Pawtucket Triple-A Roster to replace their major league one…..the Rangers called up their AA Frisco Roughriders.
The NL West, not having an undefeated representative, just decided to collectively NOT field a team the rest of the season claiming that 162 games is really long and demanding….and they didn’t want to get Brandon Webb, Brad Penny, Jake Peavy, or any of the other players hurt unnecesarily. In other divisions, fans showed up to games only to see players no one heard of playing day in, day out. Ticket prices didn’t change. Read more
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