Rangers Win to Get One Game Closer to .500

Posted on May 26, 2015 by colonelsportsnation

A lot has changed in the last three weeks since I last wrote about this team. They have stopped the roller coaster that they were on and have turned into a train. They just are steamrolling opponents during this 6 game winning streak and during this entire month of May. They won yesterday 10-8 in a back-and-forth affair with the Cleveland Indians. That means they have scored 10 runs or more in 3 of the last 4 wins and are doing all of this on the road. It simply is the best baseball this team has played since a 7 game winning streak at the end of the 2013 season forced a one-game playoff with the Tampa Bay Rays. Baseball as a fan and it looks like to the players is fun once again. This team looks like it is taking on the personality of their best players, Prince Fielder and Adrian Beltre. They are both professional guys, but they truly enjoy playing the game and that is visible on a nightly basis. That love for the game has spread to the entire clubhouse. They will lose games this season, but this team will not fall apart as long as Prince Fielder and Adrian Beltre are there. If they get to .500 tonight that would be great, but that is not the goal. They still have two thirds of the season left to catch the Houston Astros and try to win this division. That is the goal as we finish up the month of May and enter into the summer months.

Lets take a look at how they have been able to win these games during this 6 game winning streak. It begins with the scalding hot play of Prince Fielder. I will say I have been hyper-critical of the Prince Fielder-Ian Kinsler trade since the day it was made. I thought it was not a necessary trade, that they took on a bad contract for no reason, and that Prince did not have much left to offer them. I also thought that he would demand to play first base and would just be another guy who hits .250 with 20-25 home runs. He would hinder their defense and clog up the basepaths. For the most I was right to think that, because that is the player he had been throughout his career. That has changed this season though. He missed almost all of last season and that may have changed how he looked at his career. He came into this season with a renewed attitude and a better approach at the plate. In April teams kept playing him to pull and he would hit it the opposite way for singles and doubles. The power was not quite there, but he did not get frustrated or go back to exclusively pulling everything. He just kept hitting the ball wherever it was pitched. In May the power has arrived and he is still hitting it to all fields. That has led to him having a .392 batting average, 8 home runs, 25 rbi’s, and a 1.145 OPS. He has been obscenely hot this month. If not for Jason Kipnis of the Indians playing out of his mind as well, Fielder would clearly be having the best month in the AL. He has been impossible to pitch to. He is hitting line drives to the gaps and is coming through almost every time he is given an RBI chance. He is really driving this offense. He also has not demanded to play first base. He realizes that Mitch Moreland is better defensively than he is and is willing to play DH on a nightly basis in order to give the team a better chance at winning. That was a huge admission and cannot be understated how much that has helped this team. Right now he is making me look pretty stupid for opposing that trade and I love it. He is playing at an MVP-type level right now and if he can keep it up the the team will continue to play well.

Another thing that has happened is that the reconstituted no-roles bullpen is actually working. Prior to this road trip everyone in the bullpen had their job to do. Neftali Feliz was the closer, Shawn Tolleson and Tanner Scheppers were the 8th inning guys, Keone Kela was the 7th inning guy, Alex Claudio was the left-handed specialist, Anthony Bass was the long-man, and Kyuji Fuzikawa was pitching in middle relief. Everyone had their job and for the most part everyone was failing at their job. They had 8 blown saves and cost the team a few wins. If they end up missing the playoffs, the performance of the bullpen in April and early May will be something that can be looked back on in regret. Jeff Banister and the organization had decided they had seen enough and decided to get rid of labels. Since that change at the start of this 9 game road-trip the bullpen has been great. Shawn Tolleson has saved 4 games on this trip and even Ross Ohlendorf has a save. Ohlendorf and Sam Freeman have both gotten critical outs in the 8th inning when normally Scheppers or Kela would have been brought in. Kela and Scheppers have pitched whenever the situations demands it, and not just in the 7th or 8th innings. They also have pitched more than just one inning. Banister has been pulling all the right strings and it has worked out wonderfully. Who knows if this will be a long-term solution or a short term fix, but I do know that it is working right now. That is all that matters. The bullpen is pitching with more confidence and Tolleson is nailing down games when given save situations. Tolleson is the de-facto closer, especially now that Feliz has went on the DL with an abscess removed from his right side. That is another major reason why they have been able to win 6 games in a row heading into tonight’s game against Cleveland.

The offense scoring more runs than anyone in MLB with 131 in just 24 games and the bullpen finally able to close things out is what has led them to this point and it is what will hopefully keep them playing well throughout this summer. The Astros have a feel of a team that is playing well right now, but they can be caught. They will not continue to play at this level. The Rangers just need to stay consistent and ready to pounce when the Astros do inevitably start to slip up. I have to say that baseball is fun to watch again and I love it. The players seem engaged on a nightly basis and are making the plays necessary to win. I would love to see this team get back in contention. With Derek Holland, Martin Perez, and Matt Harrison possibly due back this summer the rotation will get a lot better. They also have talent on the farm that could be ready to contribute at some point this year if needed. Guys like Luke Jackson in the bullpen, Roughned Odor possibly getting called back up at some point, and others that could help contribute to a winner. They are in good position to not only win in the long-term but they are setup to win now as well. I would love to see them surprise everybody and stay in the race all summer long and possibly even make the playoffs. Still a long way to go till then, but it is fun to imagine the possibilities with this team.

They play again tonight at 6:10 against the Indians. It will be a resurgent Wandy Rodriguez going up against Danny Salazaar of the Indians. The Rangers will be trying to make it 7 in a row which would tie that winning streak from 2013. Go Rangers!!!!!!!!!

The Cost of Competing

Posted on May 23, 2014 by colonelsportsnation

In professional sports every team is seeking a window. A window that while open gives them a chance at winning their sports ultimate prize. It could be the Lombardi Trophy, Stanley Cup, World Series, or NBA Finals. General Managers spend their lifetimes trying to acquire enough talent to be able to open that window. Windows normally only stay open for a very short time. Very few GM’s actually get to open that window. That is why when teams get there they normally overspend in order to maximize that window. They never want to admit that the window is closed or is closing. This takes me to the Rangers and the decisions the front office has made to try to keep the Rangers window open.

Jon Daniels has been the Rangers GM since October of 2005. He spent the first 5 years of his tenure rebuilding the Rangers from the ground up. He rebuilt through shrewd trades, under the radar signings, and through the draft. Instead of moves made to compete immediately he slowly started to acquire more and more talent. He brought in players like Josh Hamilton, Adrian Beltre, Elvis Andrus, and Yu Darvish. All along he said that he wanted to get the Rangers to a point where they could compete every season. He didn’t believe in a window of opportunity. The Rangers made it to back-to-back World Series in 2010-2011 and came within an out of winning the 2011 World Series. Since then the Rangers have gotten farther and farther away from making it back to the World Series. They lost a 5 game lead with 7 games remaining in 2012 and then lost the Wild Card playoff game to the Orioles. Then in 2013 in a season full of injuries they lost a one game playoff to the Tampa Bay Rays. This season just shy of Memorial Day they sit 7 games back of division leaders Oakland.

This takes me to the point of the article. In order to stay in contention teams have to make trades that normally they wouldn’t make. Jon Daniels has made several in-season trades and now this season they are seeing that once full minor league system drained by all that talent that was traded away. It started in 2011 with the Koji Uehara trade that sent Chris Davis and Tommy Hunter to the Orioles. It was a sound trade at the time because the Rangers needed bullpen help, but Uehara did not provide anything and was left off of the World Series roster in favor of Mark Lowe. In 2012 there was the trade for Ryan Dempster that sent Kyle Hendricks and Christian Villanueva to the Chicago Cubs. The team needed a starter after Colby Lewis went down with an injury, Neftali Feliz had Tommy John, Roy Oswalt and Yu Darvish were not pitching well, and so they traded for Dempster. One thing we saw with Dempster is what we see with most NL pitchers who make the transition to the AL. They do not pitch as well. Dempster in his time here did go 7-3, but with a 5.09 ERA, and in September that ballooned to 5.68 ERA in the month. The big problem now is that Kyle Hendricks has blossomed in the Cubs organization and is on the verge of being called up. Ryan Dempster is no longer in MLB and was not resigned after the season.

In 2013 they made another trade with the Cubs this time for Matt Garza. They gave up Neil Ramirez, C.J. Edwards, Justin Grimm and Mike Olt to complete the trade. That made sure they got him, but while here Garza continued to be the head case he has been throughout his career. He called people out on Twitter, his behavior was unpredictable on the mound, and his performance just wasn’t what the team thought they would get. He ended up 4-5 with a 4.38 ERA, and allowed 5.02 Runs per 9 innings. The Rangers needed to make this trade because Colby Lewis had not come back, Matt Harrison was out for the season, Nick Tepesch and Justin Grimm were not able to pick up the slack, and they needed a veteran to help them get back to the playoffs. It just did not work either as the Rangers season ended in game 163 to the Tampa Bay Rays. Then this past offseason Daniels really wanted to shake things up. He traded longtime Ranger Ian Kinsler to the Tigers for Prince Fielder, let Nelson Cruz go without a multi-year contract offer, traded fan favorite Craig Gentry to the A’s for Michael Choice, and signed Shin Shoo Choo. Only one of those has really worked out.

Having to trade prospects is the cost of competing. It is what general managers will call a necessary evil, because the here and now is more important than the future. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work out for the team acquiring the veteran. That is what the Rangers have found out as they have had to trade numerous prospects in order to stay in contention. That is what makes a GM’s job very difficult, weighing the question of whether or not to make a trade, and the future consequences of making that trade. Every GM battles with that decision in the offseason and especially during the month of July. Jon Daniels I am sure did not make any of these trades lightly. He knew what could happen, but he wanted to give his team a chance at getting back to the playoffs. The problem has come this year as the team has faced numerous injuries and no longer has the depth to cover up those injuries. Here is a sobering thought, if none of those trades had been made, here is what the Rangers lineup would look like.

LF Shin Shoo Choo

2b Ian Kinsler

1b Chris Davis

3b Adrian Beltre/ Mike Olt

RF Alex Rios

DH Mitch Moreland/ Mike Olt

CF Leonys Martin

C Robinson Chirinos

SS Elvis Andrus

This is the downside of trying to keep the window open. Does it produce exciting pennant race baseball? Yes it does. Does it bring regret later? It does that as well. Every team that competes for a period of time goes through that and now is the Rangers time to go through it. It may lead to a couple of down seasons, but players like Joey Gallo, Luke Jackson, and Jorge Alfaro are just a year or two away from being ready to contribute. That will give the team the shot in the arm that it needs and the ability to compete for the World Series again.

The Curse of the Extension

Posted on May 15, 2014 by colonelsportsnation

Since Jon Daniels has been in charge of the Rangers they have sought to sign younger players to long-term extensions early on in their careers in order to be able to control costs. It also eliminates the possibility of having to go to arbitration with a player. That is certainly a positive, but of late it seems that of late there has been a curse on the team and the players who have signed those extensions. In Jon Daniel’s tenure there has been 5 high profile players sign extensions with the team: Ian Kinsler, Derek Holland, Elvis Andrus, Matt Harrison, and Martin Perez. As you can tell from that list only one of those players is on the current active roster right now.

That is Elvis Andrus. Prior to last season he signed a 8 year and 120 million dollar contract extension. That contract made him one of the highest paid shortstops in the game. He had certainly earned it due to his improved work at the plate and his gold-glove level defense he plays at short. Fortunately for the Rangers he has not gotten hurt, but he has underperformed his contract at times. Last season for example in the first half he hit just .242 and this season he started off so slow that the Rangers had to drop him down to the number 9 spot. Defensively he has been a rock and rarely lets the offense keep him from performing in the field. It is his lack of hitting at times that hurts the team though, especially when he is being counted on to be on base.

The first position player to sign an extension though was Ian Kinsler and as all of us know he is no longer on the team. The Rangers gave him a 5 year/75 million dollar extension prior to the 2012 season. He had just come of a 30/30 season, it was the second of his career. At the time it was thought that he would be here for many years and hopefully the rest of his career, but as we know now it was not quite meant to be. The team ending up collapsing in September losing a 5 game lead with 7 games remaining. Josh Hamilton left after the 2012 season as well as Michael Young, and in 2013 Ian Kinsler was called upon to be the leader of the team. The Rangers signed him to that extension to play well, but also with the expectation that after being around Michael Young for so long he would be able to pick up and carry that torch that Young had held onto for so long. Kinsler did not want that responsibility. He was quoted in an interview this Spring saying,

“They wanted me to lead these young players, teach them the way to compete, when the only thing I should be worried about is how I’m performing in the game”.

That is not the kind of attitude the team wanted and so after refusing to move to first to make room for Jurickson Profar the team dealt him this past winter to Detroit for Prince Fielder.

The first pitcher to sign an extension was Derek Holland. He signed a 5 year/ 28.5 million dollar extension in March of 2012. He had earned his extension too as he went 16-5 with a 3.95 ERA, and 198 innings pitched in 2011. He also had that unforgettable game 4 World Series start where he shut down the St. Louis Cardinals with 8 1/3 shutout innings and only 2 hits allowed as he helped the Rangers tie up the series. Since then, he has failed to build on the success of that season. It was thought he would continue developing into a number one starter, but in 2012 he went 12-7, but with a 4.67 ERA, and allowed 32 home runs. Then, in 2013 he went 10-9 with a 3.42 ERA. Over the off-season though after chasing his dog up the steps of his home he tore cartilage in his knee and had to have microfracture surgery. He is still rehabbing from that injury and hopefully will be back in June or July.

The next pitcher was Matt Harrison. In January of 2013 he signed a 5 year/ 55 million dollar extension. He was coming off of a career season that saw him win 18 games and have a career low ERA, career high in innings pitched, strikeouts, and his WAR was 6.1. It was a great season and one certainly worthy of the extension he got. Since then though he has made 6 starts and may now be looking at the end of his career. He made two starts in 2013 before coming down with a lower back injury that required multiple surgeries. He rehabbed all season and off-season in order to be ready for this season, but a week into camp the same back injury flared up again. He changed mattresses and took it slowly, but was back on the team in late April. Then, on Monday in his 4th start he had to be taken out with stiffness in his lower back. It was revealed to be displacement of vertebra in his back and significant nerve irritation. The doctors have said that he can either choose to live with the pain or attempt a spinal fusion surgery that would end his season and could end his career. Either way, I would be very surprised if we see Matt Harrison on the mound again this season. It is sad, because he is a good pitcher that has just ran into some very bad luck.

The most recent player to sign an extension is Martin Perez. In November of 2013 the Rangers announced they had agreed to an extension with Perez that was 4 years/ 12.5 million guaranteed and 3 option years added on at the end. All together he can earn 32.5 million through the length of the contract. This came after Perez pitched spectacularly in the second half of 2013. He went 7-4 down the stretch with a 3.87 ERA and helped to stabilize the Rangers rotation amidst all the injuries that were plaguing the team. Then, this season he gets off to a 4-0 start that was highlighted by back-to-back complete game shutouts. The second of those was on the road against the first place Oakland A’s. He had outpitched the A’s ace Sonny Gray in that start. That would be the end of it though as he struggled in his next 4 starts. Then on Wednesday it was revealed that he had a partial tear of his Ulnar Collateral Ligament (UCL). He was placed on the DL and will be making a decision soon to see if it heals itself or he just needs to have Tommy John surgery. If he opts to wait it will be 10-12 weeks, if he opts for surgery he likely would not be back till the second half of 2015.

There you have it the curse of the extension. The Chicago Cubs have the curse of the Billy Goat, the Red Sox had the Curse of the Bambino, and now we have the Curse of the Extension. It has affected position players and pitchers alike. I don’t really have an explanation of why it has happened, but it has. Most of it has just been bad luck, but some of it has been how these players have been used. The back-to-back shutouts were great efforts by Perez, but maybe it was not the right thing to do. He still is just 21 and it was still April. I think Washington should have erred on the side of caution. Who can say it was anything but bad luck that Holland wrecked his knee chasing his dog up the stairs? Finally, who would have seen Matt Harrison all of a sudden developing back issues just months after signing his extension. For some reason though these injuries and 13 others have struck the Rangers this season. If they can somehow survive all of this and still get to the playoffs it will be Ron Washington’s greatest coaching job of his career.

6 Things We Have Learned This Spring

Posted on March 25, 2014 by colonelsportsnation

With the Rangers moving on from Arizona in a couple of days and the season starting in less than a week I am going to start a series that looks back at camp and then looks forward to the season. … Continue reading →

The Midpoint of Camp

Posted on March 13, 2014 by colonelsportsnation

Today is pretty much the midpoint of the Spring Training Season. The Rangers are 3-9, with a few ties sprinkled in there, which is the worst record in the Cactus League, but like everything else in Spring Training it doesn’t count. … Continue reading →

March 7th News

Posted on March 7, 2014 by colonelsportsnation

These last two days not a lot has happened outside of the actual games and that is the way it is supposed to be. The Rangers lost 8-2 on Wednesday and they won yesterday 8-4. Alexi Ogando was the winning … Continue reading →

Rangers lose 7-4 to Angels

Posted on March 5, 2014 by colonelsportsnation

This gallery contains 1 photo.

Yesterday the Rangers fell to 1-4-1 by losing to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Yu Darvish got the start and went the first three innings giving up 2 runs on 3 hits. One of those runs was to ageless … Continue reading →

My Favorite Moments as a Rangers fan

Posted on February 4, 2014 by colonelsportsnation

The Texas Rangers have existed as a franchise since 1961 when they were born as the Washington Senators. Then in 1972 they moved the team to Arlington, Texas and became the Texas Rangers. This countdown takes a look at my 10 favorite moments as a Rangers fan. All of the moments tend to range from 1996-2013. I am 30 years old and have been a Rangers fan since about 1992. I didn’t go to my first game till 1994. I know I am leaving out several moments like Nolan Ryan’s no hitters, Kenny Rogers perfect game, Julio Franco All Star MVP, and several other moments from before 1996. I apologize for that, it just is that I was really too young to really appreciate it and remember it. So here are my favorite moments from 10-6.

10. The Rangers clinching the AL West in Oakland in 2010 with a Jorge Cantu Home run.

2010 was a breakthrough season for the Texas Rangers. The theme was, “Its Time”. It meant that it was time to break through and start winning. They had been making a steady climb up hill from 2007-2009. In 2010 the expectation was not to just compete, it was to win. All season long they made moves to help them win. They traded prospects for Cliff Lee, Bengie Molina, and Jorge Cantu. They were serious. The Lee and Molina moves worked out splendidly, but Cantu not so much. Cantu had always been known as a guy who drives in runs. Yet, in his almost two months with the Rangers he had yet to drive in any runs heading into the game against the Oakland A’s on September 21st. The Rangers were one win away from the clinching the division that day, but going into the 8th inning the score was 3-3. Cantu had an RBI single in his previous at-bat, and in the top of the 8th Cantu sent a long flyball to left-center that carried out over the wall and put the Rangers ahead 4-3. They would go on and hold on to that lead and clinch the division that day. That was pretty much the only thing Cantu did in a Rangers uniform. Mitch Moreland would go on to replace him at first base in the playoffs.

9. Nelson Cruz hits 6 home runs in 2011 ALCS.

The ALCS in 2011 was between the two best teams in the AL that season in the Texas Rangers and the Detroit Tigers. The Rangers were led by their powerful lineup with Josh Hamilton, Mike Napoli, and Adrian Beltre. The Tigers were led by MVP candidates Miguel Cabrera and Justin Verlander. They came into the series having beaten the Yankees in 5 games and the Rangers came in having beaten Tampa Bay 3 games to 1. It was a series that was a season in the making. The Rangers won 96 games and the Tigers won 95 games and due to a Rangers win and a Tigers loss in-game 162 the Rangers had the home field advantage. It was going to be a competitive series. The one thing no one was expecting though was the kind of show Nelson Cruz was going to put on. Cruz hit 6 home runs in this series. Two of them were hit in crucial moments. He hit a walk-off grand slam to win game 2 and he hit a 3-run home run in the 11th inning in game 4 to extend the lead to 7-3 and help the Rangers win that game. He followed that with two more home runs, one in-game 5 and one in-game 6. He helped carry the Rangers to the World Series that year. He won the MVP in this series with a .364 BA, 1.273 slugging%, 6 Home Runs, and 13 RBI’s. He was a machine that series. The Rangers ended up winning the series 4-2 and made it back-to-back AL pennants.

8. Rangers 11-10 Comeback against the Angels on August 1st, 2012.

This series came in late July early August. This series had importance to both teams. After a slow start the Angels had rallied to within 3 games of the Rangers division lead. The Angels wanted all 3 games to give them momentum heading into the home stretch and tie up the division. They did take the first two and were in great position to take game 3 up 7-1 going into the bottom of the 5th. The Rangers turned it around though with a four run 5th finished off by Elvis Andrus’ RBI single to score Ian Kinsler. So from there it stayed 7-5 till the 8th when David Murphy had an RBI single to score Adrian Beltre. That is when things offically got crazy. In the 9th Kinsler hits the game-tying home run and sends it to extras. Then in the 10th the Angels respond with a solo home run by Chris Iannetta and a 2-run home run by Albert Pujols. So you are thinking well they did come back, but it just was not meant to be tonight. The score was 10-7 and was 3 outs away from a loss that night and a series sweep that would have tied up the division. The Rangers under Ron Washington are a never say die group and on this night they responded in an unbelievable fashion. Nelson Cruz gets things started with a home run to make it 10-8. Michael Young reaches on an error, David Murphy walks, and then a single by Mike Napoli to load the bases with no outs. From what looked like a sure loss to a game you would expect them to win just like that. Mitch Moreland then singles to right field to make it 10-9 and Elvis Andrus steps up to the plate to win it with a 2-run single on a ground ball that gets by Alberto Callapso. The Rangers win the game and the Angels end finishing in the 3rd in the division.

7. Yu Darvish nearly throws a perfect game against the Astros in game 2 of 2013 Season.

Yu Darvish came over from Japan in the winter of 2011. The Rangers then proceeded to sign him to a contract in 2012. He came into 2012 hyped as the next great pitcher. He didn’t quite live up to that potential. He struggled his first few months with high pitch counts and a lack of control. He could not quite figure out how he wanted to attack hitters. It wasn’t till the last two months that he started to figure it out. He ended the 2012 season as the Rangers best pitcher and started the AL Wild Card game. Going into 2013 there was high expectations for Yu Darvish. It was expected that he would take that next step and become one of the best pitchers in all of baseball. He didn’t get the opening day start, Matt Harrison did due to his overall performance in 2012. Darvish though left no doubt in game 2 who was the better pitcher. In his first start of the season against the Houston Astros he proceeded to retire the first 26 hitters of the game. He was using a mixture of fastballs, curveballs, and an improved slider. He kept the Astros off-balance all night. It wasn’t until the 27th hitter came to the plate did he give up a hit. It was a ground ball single up the middle by Marwin Gonzalez past Darvish that rolled into the outfield. Darvish continued to bring it every 5th day the rest of 2013 as he went 13-9 with a 2.83 ERA and a league-leading 277 strikeouts. Finally, he finished second to Max Scherzer in AL Cy Young voting.

6. Juan Gonzalez hits 5 home runs in ALDS against Yankees in 1996.

Juan Gonzalez was one of the most feared hitters in baseball in the 90’s. He won two MVP awards. He would go on to win it in 1996 and again in 1998. Each time he was among the league leader in home runs and RBI’s. Going into this series no one knew how he was going to do or how the team was going to perform. It was the Rangers first time on the postseason stage. Many of their players were experiencing this for the first time. It was thought that going up against the more experienced Yankees would be too much for them. For most of the players you would be right, but Juan Gonzalez had one of the best series from an outfielder in postseason history. He hit 5 home runs in 4 games in that series. He was an unstoppable force, but unfortunately no one else could get their bats going and so after winning game 1, the Rangers proceeded to lose the next 3 and were done. That doesn’t take away from what Gonzalez did in those 4 games. He was spectacular, and his efforts will not be soon forgotten.