Prince Fielder career to end with announcement expected Wednesday.

It was reported by Ken Rosenthal first and then team sources following that Prince Fielder will announce the end of his 12 year career Thursday afternoon. He was acquired back in November of 2013 in a trade for Ian Kinsler. It was a trade that was seemingly one that fit needs for both teams. The Rangers needed a power hitting first baseman to add to their lineup after losing Mike Napoli and the Tigers needed to add speed and defense to their lineup. Dave Dombrowski and Jon Daniels were able to work out a straight 1-for-1 trade. This trade freed up some of the Tigers payroll and gave them enough money to extend Miguel Cabrera for what looks like the rest of his career and try to fortify their bullpen. The trade for the Rangers opened up second base for Jurickson Profar to become the starting second baseman in 2014. The Rangers had too many middle infielders, the Tigers wanted Cabrera to play 1st and so it was thought to be a trade that would work out for both teams.

Trades that always look good on paper don’t always stand up to what can happen in real life. On paper it looked like Prince Fielder would come here and use that short porch in right field and reestablish his career as a 30-35 home run or more guy. He would add power to the lineup and protection for Adrian Beltre. It would give some thump to a lineup that in 2013 had really been missing power. In 2013 the Rangers as a team hit 176 home runs. Mitch Moreland at first base hit 23, but only hit for a .232 batting average. The Rangers needed more from first base and they needed someone at DH as well. Jon Daniels looked at his roster and knew he was likely losing Nelson Cruz in free agency and that would be about 30 less home runs. Instead of chasing someone in free agency he traded for Prince Fielder who had a track record of hitting for power and average. It was a controversial move as Ian Kinsler was very well liked in the clubhouse and among the fans. If he had stayed he might have gone down as one of the best 2nd baseman in Texas Rangers history. Jon Daniels as always is willing to take chances. The team had also loved what they saw from Profar in 2013 and were ready to hand him the 2nd base job. Things don’t always play out how you picture them though.

In Spring Training of 2014 everything looked ready to proceed according to the plan that is until Profar’s shoulder came up lame early on in camp. They had him rest and just hit, but it was not getting any better. They eventually had to DL him and he ended up having to sit out the entire 2014 season. His was one of many injuries for that 2014 team. Prince on the other hand came to camp and was just hitting weak singles all through Spring Training. It was thought that he was just trying to peak at the beginning of the season. The weak singles continued on into the season as he was hitting for little to no power in April. The team kept chugging along though and somehow was in first place as April went along.Then in May the bottom dropped out. Martin Perez had to have Tommy John surgery and the injuries just kept piling up. It became too much for this team when after May 16th it was announced that Prince would have season-ending surgery to repair a herniated disc in his neck. No one could have predicted that this would happen that both Prince Fielder and Jurickson Profar would miss the entire season. In Profar’s case he would miss both 2014 and 2015. He rested his shoulder the entire offseason before 2015 thinking that would help him be ready for Spring Training and the shoulder would heal. Unfortunately that is not what happened. He would require shoulder surgery and would be out all of 2015. If that had been the end of the story then this trade would be marked as an abject failure and would be looked at as one of Jon Daniel’s worst moves during his tenure.

2015 was a new season for Prince. He came in with a renewed attitude and sense of purpose. He admitted that Mitch Moreland was better than him at 1st and should be starting over him at the position. He said he would be okay with being the DH. He embraced the fact that his power had decreased due to neck surgery and so worked to be able to hit the ball the opposite way. It led to teams not being able to use the shift against him. He was also able to carry the offense the first two months as he was playing at an MVP type level through May. In May alone he hit .377, with 9 home runs, and 28 RBI’s. It was an astounding month that saw the Rangers get back into the division race after being in last place through April. Prince was the sole reason that was happening. He was amazing. He cooled down after that though and played close to career norms the rest of the season. He still only hit for 23 home runs which continued a trend of his power declining. That was to be expected though as he was coming back from neck surgery. It was thought after an offseason of rest he will come back in 2016 and continue to be the player the Rangers thought they were getting.

That is not what happened. Prince came back and has been one of the worst players in MLB. He didn’t have the same bat speed, he could not get around on good fastballs, he was back to hitting weak singles like he was in 2014, and just was not able to contribute to this team in the fashion that they needed him to. Banister continued to write his name in the lineup and gave him days to rest to help him get through the season and maybe rejuvenate his season. Nothing worked though. Finally on July 20th the team placed Prince Fielder on the DL. On July 25th it was revealed he would need neck surgery again to repair a different herniated disc. Now here we are and it is announced that he will be ending his career.

It really is sad anytime a long-time player has to end his career. It is even sadder when his career is taken away from him due to his body breaking down on him. I was never a Prince Fielder fan, but it did seem like the team loved playing with him. He was a good clubhouse guy that just loved playing the game. I loved seeing him with his kids around him as it showed that he is a caring father. I am going to miss seeing that big smile on his face and that majestic swing of his. He had such a powerful that if he ever got into one it was gone. Ranger fans have gone through this before as fan-favorite Rusty Greer saw his career end suddenly when his body couldn’t recover from injury. Greer stayed on the roster in order to collect the rest of his contract. Fielder will do the same thing as he will not officially retire until after 2020. That is when his current contract is due to end.I wish him well on his recovery and hope that he decides to stay around baseball. If the Rangers are going to have to pay him through 2020 they might as well employ him in some fashion. I would not be surprised to see him in Spring Training as an advisor of some sort or a coach. I could see him working for Jon Daniels in some fashion. I just hope they keep him in the organization in some aspect. Prince is still young and bright. This may be the end of his playing career, but his life in baseball is far from over.

It was another bad night for the offense. On the day that the Rangers and Angels finally completed the trade for Josh Hamilton the offense could generate only one run that came from an error off of a wild throw from shortstop Brad Miller. It continued a bad trend from their weekend series against the Angels when the Rangers just could not come up with that big hit that could blow the game wide open. I got the feeling that it just seems like they have the wrong people up at those opportune times, but then Prince Fielder struck out with Leonys Martin on second in the 8th. This loss dropped the Rangers to last place in the division by themselves at 7-12 and they are now 1-3 in this very important 9 game stretch. There is still time to rebound, but they must start winning tonight. 5 games under .500 is not impossible to rebound from, but 10 games under .500 pretty much ensures that is where you will finish the season. Right now, that is the direction the team is headed to. Still plenty of time to turn it around though, but it has to start now.

The team also fell to 0-7 on the season following a win. Much like the other 6 games that followed a win, it was their defense that put them behind early. In the first inning alone Gallardo walked the first two hitters, but then was able to induce a ground ball of the bat of Robinson Cano that should have been a double play. Roughned Odor bobbled the ball and was only able to get one. That allowed Cruz to knock in a run. Then Kyle Seager grounded to Mitch Moreland who tried to start a double play by throwing to Elvis at second and then back to Gallardo at first, but Elvis threw it way wide and that allowed Cano to come home with the second run of the game. Before the Rangers could bat they were already down 2-0. That was pretty much it as the offense could only generate 1 run.

The offense had opportunities, especially late. They had runners in scoring position in the 7th, 8th, and 9th innings. In the 7th they had two runners on and then Robinson Chirinos skied out to center on the first pitch. In the 8th Martin was on second with no outs, but Jake Smolinksi popped out to foul territory, Prince Fielder struck out, and Adrian Beltre grounded out to the pitcher. In the 9th they had runners on 1st and second, but Chirinos once again lined out to center field to end the game. They just cannot string enough hits together right now to have long rallies and that is a major problem, one that I am sure not even having Josh Hamilton in the lineup will fix. It has to come from the players already on the team. They have enough talent in that lineup to be able to score more than 1 or 2 runs a game. They have shown that as well. They scored 10 runs in a win against Oakland, 10 runs in a loss against the Mariners, 7 runs in a win against the Diamondbacks, but right now they just are not hitting for power or hitting really much at all. I know that these guys are trying, it is pretty obvious that they are. It just is a matter that right now what they are doing is not working. I don’t know whether it is the game plan or just their approach at the plate, but whatever it is it needs to change in order for them to start scoring runs.

Other Game Notes

• Elvis Andrus even though he committed another error was actually a bright spot at the plate. He started to hit well at the end of the road trip and that continued last night as he went 2-4 in the game. After hitting .163 through the first 12 games, he has hit .312 (10-32) over the last 7 games. He is starting to heat up and may soon be moved back to the number two spot to hopefully form the dynamic duo at the top of the lineup that the Rangers were envisioning when putting together this roster.
• Yovanni Gallardo wasn’t mentioned in the recap, but he pitched well. He came out of the bullpen and walked the first two hitters, but should have only given one run in the first inning. His defense failed him and contributed to him allowing two runs in the inning. He bounced back from that though and retired the next 12 hitters though and was able to pitch through 6 innings and record a quality start. It just was not good enough to get the win and so his record dropped to 2-3 and that makes two straight losses after two straight wins. Hopefully if he can pitch like this in the future that the offense can score enough runs for him to win.
• Shin Soo Choo continued his slump as he went 0-4 to continue his hitless streak to 0-19 and his slump to 2-38. He is in the longest hitless streak of his career and his batting average is among the lowest in the league at .096. Throughout his career he has been as Jeff Banister describes it a “professional hitter”. I went through his career dating back to his time with the Mariners and I could only find 3 examples of stretches like this. In 2008 he had an 0-14 stretch. In 2011 he went 0-16 in a stretch  to drop BA to .217, rebounded to get hits in 20 of next 22 games. Last season he had an 0-17 stretch, but rebounded to get hits in 10 of 11 games. Normally he doesn’t stay cold for long and when he rebounds he just racks up the hits. The Rangers have to keep playing him, not just because of the contract, but because of the hope that today will be the day that it ends. Once, it ends I believe he will get the stroke back and start lining singles and doubles into the gap. Until that point it will be hard to watch. It seems like doesn’t have a coherent strategy at the plate. For example in the 9th inning he came up and tried to bunt on the first pitch. The only thing a bunt would have accomplished is get them an out closer to losing the game. The pitch was a strike and he then ended up striking out on 3 pitches. It was pathetic to watch. I still have hope that he can turn it around, just based on his track record. Lets hope that is starts tonight.
• Before the game the Rangers made a move with their bullpen in sending Tanner Scheppers down to Round Rock and promoting left-handed reliever Alex Claudio. This gives the team a left-hander in the bullpen for the first time all season. It also allows Scheppers to go down to the minors and work on his control in a more low pressure environment. Since coming up 10 days ago he has been very erratic. He had that appearance in Seattle where he walked the bases loaded. He also had an appearance over the weekend where he walked two batters and hit another batter and had to be relieved by Anthony Bass. It appears the Rangers just didn’t think he would be able to find his control in the major league games, but they don’t think he will be down for long and neither do I. If he can go down to Round Rock and do well for a week to 10 days, I would not be surprised if they brought him right back up in that period of time. Better to lose him for 10 days than not have him pitch well all season long.
• Finally, the Josh Hamilton presser. After watching it and seeing the joy on Hamilton’s face I am glad that he is back. This is where he belongs and I hope the Ranger fans will show him the appreciation he deserves in his first game back sometime next month. I don’t know how good he will be, but I do know that he will give everything he has to this team. Will it be enough to make a difference in a playoff race, who knows? Any fan who doesn’t say that they are intrigued or excited about it is lying. This is the most interesting story revolving around this team for the next 5 months. It may impact the development of prospects like Ryan Rua in the short term, but if Rua plays well in the time he is given they will find a spot for him. It will be up to Rua to determine how much playing time he will get. I still believe it will be somewhat of a platoon between him and Hamilton. I am excited and I really do hope he plays well. I look forward to seeing him once again in a Texas Rangers uniform.
• Tonight is game two of the series between the Mariners and the Rangers. It will be J.A. Happ of the Mariners going up against Ross Detweiler of the Rangers. A battle of young left-handers. The Rangers have struggled against left-handers so far this season and Ross Detweiler has struggled against everyone he has faced. The Rangers face an uphill battle tonight, but one they need to win especially with Felix Hernandez on the mound tomorrow night. First pitch is at 7:05 p.m. Lets Go Rangers!!!!!!

Just a quick post as there has been some news come out this afternoon on the Rangers.
First Anthony Ranaudo will get the first shot to fill in for Derek Holland. He will pitch tomorrow in the finale against the Angels. He pitched last Thursday for the Round Rock Express and went 5 innings, giving up 4 hits, 0 runs, and 6 K’s, and 0 BB’s. He will have to show that same type of control as he will be making 8th major league start. He made 7 starts last season for the Red Sox and went 4-3 with a 4.81 ERA, he pitched 39.1 innings, giving up 10 home runs, walking 16, and striking out 15. He does have potential though as he went 14-4 with a 2.61 ERA for their AAA team last season. That is why the Rangers brought him in and so he will get the first shot and if it goes well tomorrow it is likely that he would stay for the time being. If it doesn’t Chi Chi Gonzalez, Jake Thompson, Luke Jackson, and others will be waiting for their chance at a spot in the rotation. There is no word on what the corresponding roster move will be. That will come out tomorrow afternoon likely.
Finally, Jeff Banister is switching up the lineup again in order to get the bats going. Roughned Odor will be your leadoff hitter, Mitch Moreland will bat 2nd, and Leonys Martin will drop down to 8th. Martin is in the middle of a 2-28 slump and is not being the sparkplug the Rangers had hoped for. It is clear Banister is still trying to get a feel for this team and is willing to try whatever it takes to get the offense moving. It should be interesting to see if this move works and if the offense can finally get on track. First pitch is 7:05 tonight and it will be Nick Martinez on the mound against Drew Rucinski.

Now that we are into the season this is going to be a new weekly feature of this blog. Every Monday I will publish a recap of the week. It will contain the best moment of the week, the Top 5 players of the week, and the best gifs of the week. If you don’t have time to read my game recaps just come here on Monday afternoons for a look at the week that was or what I like to call the Roundup.

It was an up and down kind of week. No, literally it was up and down. The Rangers lost on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday. They won on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. No winning streaks last week and no losing streaks last week. It was certainly a weird week. The season got started on Opening Night with an 8-0 loss to the Oakland A’s. Sonny Gray took a no-hitter to the 8th inning when Ryan Rua delivered a single through the right side of the infield for the first hit of the game. The Rangers hit several balls hard, but most of them were right at were the fielders were standing. They won their first game of the season the next night 3-1 behind Colby Lewis and his 6 innings and a nerve-wracking debut of Keone Kela. Kela entered to start the 7th inning and proceeded to load the bases, but then he was able to get out of it with a double-play grounder off the bat of Marcus Simien. They closed the game and evened the record at 1-1.The A’s capitalized off 4 Ranger errors and Scott Kazmir shut down the offense and the A’s won 10-0. That dropped the record to 1-2.  The offense finally woke up in the afternoon to the tune of 4 home runs and 1o runs as the Rangers won the final game of the series 10-1. Nick Martinez was sharp that afternoon in limiting the A’s to 1 run in 7 innings of work. The Rangers were able to get the split in an important season-opening series on the road.

The Rangers then returned home for a 3 game set against interstate rivals the Houston Astros. Friday afternoon was the home opener. All of the pomp and circumstance were there, the flyover was there, the crowd was fired up, and staff ace Derek Holland was on the mound to help deliver a victory for the Rangers. The only fly in that ointment though was the Holland only made it through the first inning in what setup to be one of the weirdest home openers in Texas Rangers history. Holland left the game in the second inning with what was later diagnosed as a subscapular strain. He went on the 60 day DL Satuday morning and cannot even pick up a baseball for four weeks. He will be out till at least June 10th. Shin Soo Choo and Ryan Rua also were taken out of the game early due to injury. Choo had back spasms and Rua left because of a sprained ankle.  The Rangers ended up losing the home opener 5-1 to send their record to 2-3. They again bounced back on Saturday with an impressive performance from Yovanni Gallardo, who was able to get his first win in a Rangers uniform. Gallardo showed more control and stayed strong under pressure as he was in trouble for most of the night. The Rangers lost a heartbreaker on Sunday 6-4 in a game that they left 15 men on base. Leonys Martin looked to have a walk-off grandslam until George Springer caught it at the wall and brought it back for the 3rd out of the 10th inning. That is a quick recap of the two series from this past week. If you want more detail feel free to read my previous recaps of the games.

Top 5 Players of the Week

1. Colby Lewis, 1-0, 3.38 ERA, 13.1 innings pitched, 9 k’s, 2 BB, .208 OBA. Lewis had one bad stretch all week and that was a 5 batter stretch against the Astros. He allowed 2 home runs, a triple, and double to give the Astros the only 4 runs he would allow. From the 3rd to the 8th the only batter who reached base was Jed Lowrie who reached due to an error. He was similarly dominant against the A’s on Tuesday night. He struggled in the first, but settled down after that and pitched 6 innings in that game. He won Tuesday and could have still won yesterday if the offense could have capitalized on their opportunities. He did get a no-decision though which is better than a loss.
2. Prince Fielder, .379 BA(11-29), .438 OBP,3 RBI’s, and .886 OPS. I don’t quite know what to think of this week for Fielder. He is hitting the ball to all fields, and is getting base at a great clip, but he is not hitting for any power. 9 of those hits are singles and so it is hard to say he had a great week, because they pay him to hit home runs and knock in runs and he only had 3 rbi’s all week. The offense does need someone who is getting on base and that is what he is providing right now. Hopefully as the weather gets warmer the home runs will come. I believe they will. I believe this is part of a strategy devised by Fielder and hitting coach Dave Magadan to get teams to play Fielder more stright up, instead of shifting so much. We will see if the plan works out.
3. Keone Kela, 2 holds, 2.25 ERA, 4 appearances, 4 innings. 1 earned run, 3 K’s, 2 BB’s. He has a look about him on the mound. He is unflappable. The moment for me was easily the double play grounded he induced from Marcus Semien. 1 out bases loaded and he goes up there and gets the ground ball he needed to allow the Rangers to still have a chance to win. I could certainly see him at some point taking over the closers position if Feliz continues to be just so-so on the mound. Tanner Scheppers will get off the DL hopefully Tuesday night. That will allow Kela to have a more flexible role instead of just being the 7th inning guy.
4. Nick Martinez, 1-0, 0.00, 7 innings, 4 hits, 5 K’s, 2 BB’s, and a .174 OBA. Colby’s two starts were really good, but Nick Martinez against the A’s was great. He executed the Rangers gameplan perfectly. He threw first pitch strikes, he was economical with his pitch count, he kept the A’s hitters off-balance all day, and did the job the Rangers needed him to do. He was outstanding and showed great poise as well out there on the mound. With Holland now out two months more is going to be expected of him and the rest of the starting staff.
5. Adrian Beltre, .188 BA, 1 home run, 2 2b’s, and a triple, .406 slugging. He got off to a 0-13 start to the season, but since then has been 6-21. He has warmed up and is now looking like the Adrian Beltre we are used to. The offense will look better with a productive Fielder and Beltre.

The Best Gifs of the Week