The Future of the Texas Rangers

Posted on June 23, 2014 by colonelsportsnation

The 2014 season is about halfway over and for the Texas Rangers it has turned from a season of promise into a lost season due to all the injuries. In all the Rangers have made 20 DL moves this season, 3/5 of their expected rotation is on the DL, their starting and backup first basemen are gone for the season, and numerous other star players and role players have missed time due to injury. 2014 will always be in my mind “the nightmare season” that as soon as it is over will never be spoken of again. It was the year players started getting hurt in the offseason, it carried over into Spring Training workouts and the games, and extended into the regular season. It has felt like the Rangers have not went more than two weeks without having to make a DL move. It has been a valiant effort by Ron Washington and the team to stay as close to .500 as they have, but as of today they are 11.5 GB of the division, and 4.5 GB of the wild card. They are still in the race right now for one of the wild card spots and so the season isn’t completely over, but I have decided instead of dwelling on the present on this blog I will be focusing the next couple of weeks looking into the future.

In the present it looks bleak, the Rangers have players that are hurt or underperforming, they only have a good chance of winning 1 out of every 5 games, and there really isn’t much in the way of reinforcements coming into the team. Despite all of that though the near future looks bright. They have prospects such as Joey Gallo, Luke Jackson, Chi Chi Gonzalez, Jorge Alfaro, Nomar Manzaro, Ryan Rua, and others that are still developing and on their way up. On the major league club we have seen the promise and potential that Michael Choice, Roughned Odor, Luis Sardinas, Robinson Chirinos, Nick Martinez, and Nick Tepesch have shown. The future looks promising, but these players are not ready yet. They will have their moments, but not sustained and rarely in the late innings. In some ways this feels a lot like 2008 and 2009 in that there were a lot of players who were good, but they did not know how to win yet. They had to spend those two years learning how to win and then in 2010 it all came together. This group of players has to learn how to win together and in order to become winners a team first has to lose. It happens in every sport, it is called the slow build. For the Rangers that is what 2006-2009 was. It was getting the pieces together and then learning how to win. Before the Dallas Cowboys won their last 3 Super Bowls they had to endure seasons of 1-15, 7-9, 11-5, before going 13-3 and winning the Super Bowl. That is where the Rangers are back to right now.

Over the next two weeks leading into the All Star Break I will be writing 5 parts to our future of the Texas Rangers series. The first part will take a look at Joey Gallo. He has been called the most interesting man in the minors by Grantland and so I will be writing part one about him and the expected impact that he will have on this team, when he will arrive, and what type of player he will likely become. The second part will take a look at the top 10 Rangers prospects and their expected arrival time and what kind of impact they will have on this team. The third part will take a look at the moves the Rangers need to make to win in 2015 and beyond. The fourth part will take a look at the young players on the roster right now and what their ceiling is and if they can become long term contributors to the team. The fifth and final part will be prediction for what the 2016 roster will look like. It will be a compilation of the previous four parts and look toward 2016 when many of these players will have made or will make their debuts. Baseball America does something like this in their prospect handbooks every year where they jump ahead 3 years to make their prediction on the starting lineup and rotation. I will do the same to close out this 5 part series.

In conclusion Rangers fans don’t despair. I know that it may be hard to watch this years team and the season cannot get over quick enough, but enjoy it while it is here. Spend the games watching Roughned Odor hit or Nick Martinez pitch and realize that this is the future and while it may not be great now, they will be once they have some more seasoning under their belt. It takes time to grow for young players such as them, but I would expect that as soon as next season they will be back in the hunt for a playoff berth next season and in 2016 I expect to see them back in contention for another World Series berth. Unfortunately 2014 is not 2015 or 2016. The future will be better I guarantee that.

The Greatness of Yu

Posted on June 12, 2014 by colonelsportsnation

Darvish throws first CG Shutout

There is a lot that can be said of Yu Darvish, but until last night you couldn’t say complete game shutout for Darvish. He has gotten close to perfect games, no hitters, and shutouts, but had never completed one till last night against the Miami Marlins. The contributing factor always being pitch count. In those games when he would have a chance his pitch count would be above 120 and so to give him a chance would be to risk injury. This season he has found that balance between striking people out and going deeper into games. His first two seasons he averaged 6.2 innings pitched per start, now he averages 7.1 innings pitched per start and 5 times has pitched 8 innings or longer. That is mainly due to adding a more consistent sinking fastball to his arsenal of pitches. Last night he used it to induce 8 groundballs, and 3 double plays. One of those double plays came in the 9th inning after a leadoff single by Giancarlo Stanton. Afer the single there was some movement by Washington like he was considering removing Darvish for Soria, but he allowed Darvish to stay in. Washington said about that, “I put my card down and told [bench coach Tim Bogar], ‘I’m just going to sit here and watch him get a ground ball.’”He did and was able to strike out Garrett Jones to finish it off.

He is truly becoming the Ace the Texas Rangers have been searching for all these years. Those supposed aces included such pitchers as Rick Helling, Ken Park, Aaron Sele, Chan Ho Park, Kenny Rogers, Kevin Millwood, Cliff Lee, C.J. Wilson, but none of them match what Darvish has been able to provide this team. He has provided stability and stellar performance in his time here. His overall numbers this season are spectacular. He ranks 5th in all of baseball in ERA (2.11), 9th in opponents batting average (.218), and 7th in strikeouts (101). This has been such a tumultuous season for the team with all the injuries and DL moves and players being thrust in the spotlight who may not be ready. The one consistent though has been Yu Darvish. Every 5 days Darvish gives the Rangers a chance at winning. This team may not win anything, in fact I think they have a better chance of finishing last in the division than making the playoffs, but every 5 days Darvish makes it worth it to watch this team. He is a great pitcher on a flawed team and hopefully one day he might be able to add Cy Young winner next to his name.

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.

Rangers Young Guns Continue to Struggle

Posted on May 12, 2014 by colonelsportsnation

The last two games we have seen one of the questions marks heading into the season manifest itself in a negative way. That question was could the Rangers young starters be relied upon to help this team through these first two months of the season. This month we have seen that the answer is no. Going into opening day the Rangers had 4 young starters in the rotation: Tanner Scheppers, Martin Perez, Robbie Ross Jr., and Nick Martinez. For the first 3 weeks they were good to great. Perez was great to start the season. He started 4-0, and had back-to-back complete game shutouts. Since then, he is 0-3 with higher than a 12.0 ERA. Then yesterday it was revealed that he has been suffering from elbow inflammation and will have to go on the DL. Nick Tepesch will be called upon to replace him when he takes his start on Wednesday. Then you have Robbie Ross Jr. who has not had a good start since April 25th against the Mariners, when he went 6.0 innings only giving up 2 runs. Since then, he has allowed 17 runs in his last 15.1 innings pitched. Overall, he is 1-4 with a 5.04 ERA. Finally, you have Tanner Scheppers who got injured in April, but who may have lost his rotation spot regardless. Tanner could not stay out of the big inning. The Rangers were taking a chance when they entrusted these guys with the keys to the rotation, and so far it just hasn’t worked out.

Out of the 3 I imagine Martin Perez will continue getting chances to start. He has a track record of success as a starter. He pitched well in the second half last year and pitched well for most of April. I imagine throwing the back-to-back complete game shutouts is what caused the elbow injury to flare up. Since those starts he clearly has not been the same. Hopefully they will give Perez as much time as he needs to recover and that when he does come back he will be able to have the same success he had in April. As far as Scheppers and Ross I imagine that they will be back in the bullpen very soon. Washington may have to make a decision and switch roles for Nick Martinez and Robbie Ross Jr. Martinez is stretched out and can easily slide into the starter role. Ross has experience in the bullpen and will be able to pick it up very quickly. Something needs to change. I loved the move to bring up Odor and Sardinas, now it might be time to shake up the rotation. Insert both Tepesch and Martinez. They just need to survive until Derek Holland and now Martin Perez can come back. They need to stop this slide. They are now right at .500 and 4 games back of the A’s. Thankfully the A’s are not playing much better or the deficit would be larger. The Rangers will be starting a 3 game series this week in Houston. The offense is starting to come back around, now it is the rotation’s turn to start pitching better.

Tonight it will be Colby Lewis for the Rangers and Brad Peacock for the Astros. Last time out Colby pitched against the Rockies and gave up 7 runs in 3.1 innings. He became the third starting pitcher to get hit hard in that series. He will be looking for better success tonight against the Astros. Game time is at 7:10.

The Major Issues affecting the Rangers

Posted on May 7, 2014 by colonelsportsnation

The team celebrates Choo’s walk to end the game.

The Rangers lost again last night 12-1 to the Colorado Rockies to fall to 17-16 and 2 games back in the division. They have now lost 8 of their last 11 games and are clearly going in the wrong direction. This all comes after the run they went on in the middle of April till late April when they won 4 straight series to surge into first place in the division after sweeping the Oakland A’s. The question becomes what has changed from then to now? Why are they struggling so much? Finally, how do they get it turned around?

Lets start with what has changed from then to now. During that stretch of winning 4 straight series they were mainly relying on getting solid starting pitching, decent bullpen work, and timely hitting. They were not scoring a ton of runs, but they were scoring them at the right time. It was during that stretch also that the starting staff was pitching its best. Martin Perez had thrown those back-to-back shutouts, Robbie Ross was pitching well, Colby had just come back, and Yu was pitching deep into games and being very efficient. Since then though, the league has made adjustments to Perez and he has followed the shutout streak with 2 very underwhelming starts. He has given up 13 runs in his last 9.2 innings pitched. He hasn’t been able to pitch into the sixth in either start. He seems to be pitching the same, but not getting the same results. That is another thing, the starters as a whole are not lasting as deep into games as the teams needs them to. For example, in the A’s series last week in Texas neither Darvish or Perez were able to get through the 5th inning. It also doesn’t help that Colby and Matt seem to have pitch counts put on them. The two of them are both coming back from injuries that kept them out all of 2013, and so it makes sense that the team would be overly cautious in their first few starts. If they are going to do that, then guys like Darvish, Perez, and Ross have to pitch deeper into games. If they don’t it will put a lot more stress on an already thin bullpen. Alexi Ogando has already pitched in 18 of the Rangers 33 games. That is just asking for trouble. He is an arm injury waiting to happen if they keep using him at this rate. The starters just have to pitch into the 6th and preferably the 7th inning.

Offensively, the lineup is just out of balance. Elvis has been in a slump that has lasted for the last couple of weeks and it has seen him drop in the order to number 9. That happening though has caused Ron Washington to have to experiment with who to hit in the number 2 spot. He has went with Josh Wilson, Dan Robertson, and Leonys Martin. None of them has seemed to work, but even if it did, the middle of the order has been struggling. Alex Rios is still putting up solid numbers, but Prince Fielder and Adrian Beltre are hitting with little to no power. Beltre just got his first home run of the season last night and Fielder is still just hitting .233 with just 11 RBI’s. The bottom of the order is really not doing much especially with guys like Donnie Murphy, Josh Wilson, and JP Arencibia hitting down there. They also just are not getting the timely hits that they need. Last night there were several instances of getting runners on base and they couldn’t drive them in. To me it is inexplicable to play two games in Colorado and score only 3 runs. That is a place that with as big of an outfield as they have that they should have been able to score a few runs. Really the only player who seems to be doing his job at the plate is Shin Shoo Choo. He continues to get on base at a ridiculous .500 clip and his average is .370. In his role as a leadoff hitter he is doing his job, but no one else seems to be doing theirs. That is what is holding the offense back is everyone doing their part.

Now the question becomes how do they fix this? How do they get back to playing better baseball and winning games. It has to start with the starting pitcher. The starters must be able to pitch into the 6th or 7th innings. That will take the stress off an already overworked bullpen. Right now it seems the bullpen is running on fumes. Last night Washington even ran Mitch Moreland out there for an inning so he didn’t have to use anybody else in the game. Alexi Ogando will be more effective if he is not being called on to pitch every single day. The big help for the staff will be improved health. Derek Holland and Tanner Scheppers both should be back in the next few weeks. That will allow Robbie Ross and Tanner Scheppers to go back to the bullpen and provide some relief. Robbie I would imagine would take over being the long man and middle relief option and Scheppers would be the 8th inning guy. Then there is that guy Neftali Feliz who is sitting down there in Triple-A still trying to work his way back. He is dealing with soreness and general fatigue right now, but he should be back to pitching soon and hopefully will be option come June. That would provide some serious punch to their bullpen. Having all of those guys come back will certainly help the pitching staff. Colby Lewis and Matt Harrison need to have the shackles taken off of them. Lewis has shown to be as healthy as he has been since probably 2011. The Rangers just need to let him pitch deeper into games. He still has yet to pitch more than 5.2 innings in a game. That will be happening soon though for both of them and that will help the bullpen and the team out as well.

The offense needs Elvis Andrus. They need Andrus to spray line drives all over the field and cause havoc on the basepaths. They need his energy and enthusiasm for the game. The offense has been at their best when Choo and Andrus have been getting on and providing opportunities for Fielder, Beltre, and Rios. If Andrus can go back to just hitting the ball and move back up in the order that should provide a little bit of balance that the offense needs. Once again I say that the offense needs Prince Fielder to produce. They are paying him $24 million this season, and they brought him here to be the major run producer that the team lacked last season. So far he has not been able to be that guy. This offense is just waiting for him to go on a prolonged streak and when he does it will make the whole lineup look better. Beltre will get better pitches to hit, and Alex Rios will see more runners on base as a result too. Health on offense will also help as well. Jurickson Profar is starting the process of coming back as he is now swinging a bat and throwing, so hopefully he will be back by the beginning of June. Geovanny Soto will be back too come June and so that will mean no more at-bats for Arencibia. Having those guys back will provide some punch to the bottom of the order and less key at-bats for guys like Donnie Murphy and Josh Wilson. The key though is getting Elvis back on track and having Fielder start hitting on a more consistent basis and for more power. If they do that and they get healthy the offense should be fine.

To wrap up, like I said before the season if they could survive these first two months and be at or above .500 they would be fine the rest of the season. That spurt we saw in the middle of April goes to show me that this team can play on that level. For a few days they had the best record in the AL, so they can be as good as any team in the AL. It is just a matter of balance and people doing their jobs. The starters must pitch deep into games, the bullpen must be able to hold onto leads, and the offense must provide timely hitting. In the lineup everyone needs to do their job. Right now they are not doing that and so the team just needs to survive this stretch and hopefully get it turned around starting tonight at home against Colorado in a weird home and home series. Tonight starts a 5 game homestand as it will be Colby Lewis against Jorge De La Rosa. Lewis needs to continue to build off of the success that he had in his last start against the Angels. Note to Colby, don’t give Troy Tulowitzki anything to hit. The guy is a beast right now. Game time is at 7:05 tonight.

Rangers End Losing Streak

Posted on May 3, 2014 by colonelsportsnation

Colby throwing last night against the Angels

An MLB season is full of peaks and valleys. Every team goes has them. The difference between the good and bad teams is that the good teams are able to stay on their peaks longer and able to not be stay too long in the valley. The Rangers this past week have been in the valley. They lost two winnable games last weekend in Seattle and then got obliterated in 3 games at home against Oakland. Heading into this series they had lost 5 of their last 6 games to fall 3 games back in the division. The whole team was struggling. The pitching was very poor in Oakland and the hitting was not much better. They had not hit a single home run in their last 6 games. Fortunately they had a day off on Thursday to get their heads straight. Last night they began a 3 game series against division rival Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. It was Colby Lewis against Hector Santiago. In this game the Rangers would be counting on Lewis to help end this losing streak and he delivered.

The key to getting this win though would be for the offense to start coming through, specifically Elvis Andrus and the middle of the order. Elvis was in the middle of a 3-36 slump and so yesterday he had a 1-on-1 meeting with Ron Washington to see where his head was at. Washington said that the meeting was about Elvis’ energy or lack thereof, “He hasn’t been playing with that energy lately, and I think he’s accepted that energy is a part of it. I think he knows we’ve been hurting, and he may be trying to do too much.” The thinking is that when Adrian Beltre went down he tried to be more of a run producer rather than a guy who creates havoc on the bases and tries to score runs. That has led to him hitting way too many ground balls. His ground ball percentage is 89.4 and that leads the major leagues. Washington is trying to get him back to driving the ball to the opposite field and being the spark plug of the offense. That is the game inside the game that was going on last night. The meeting seemed to help as Elvis as he did have an RBI single in the 7th inning. It will be something to watch though over the next few days to see if Elvis can continue to break out of that slump.

Colby Lewis though was the main story. He continues to work his way back from his hip injury that kept him out all last season. Last night was his 4th start and with each start he is looking better and better. He showed a greater command of his fastball last night as well as velocity, and better control of his breaking pitches. That was clearly shown by how many swings and misses he was getting. The Angels were late all night on his sneaky fastball and were not expecting the sharp break from his curveball. There were some things he still needs to work on though and that is holding runners on. Twice in last night’s game after getting a runner on first base the Angels stole second. They were able to get great jumps due to Colby’s deliberate delivery. After the game Colby said that was by design, “I was already 0-and-1 both times and the batter ended up taking the fastball to get me to 0-and-2.I thought my job at that point was just to focus on the hitter at the plate.” Overall though it was another step forward. He ended up pitching 5.2 innings, allowing 2 runs, striking out 6, and walking one. The only reason he did not pitch deeper into the game was Washington felt like he wanted to go lefty-lefty with a one run lead and be able to hold the runner on first base. The Rangers were able to get out of the 6th and then eventually they won 5-2 to break their 4 game losing streak.

The other story of the game was the offense coming through. For the first 5 innings it looked like a repeat of what we saw in Oakland. It was a lot of swinging early in counts and weak popups. That changed in the 6th inning when Shin Shoo Choo hit one out of in deep center field past a jumping Mike Trout. Then 4 batters late after a Prince Fielder infield single, yes I said a Prince Fielder infield single, Alex Rios yanked one out to left center field to give the Rangers a 1-run lead. The Rangers tacked two more on in the 7th with a Choo single and an Andrus fielder’s choice. Choo was getting things done last night, he went 3-4 with 2 RBI’s, and a run scored in the game. He was taken out of the game last night in the bottom of the 7th with renewed ankle soreness. It is the same ankle that has been bothering him for about 10 days now. He is day-to-day at this point and might play in today’s game. Last night was his first game back in the field since the injury and so I am sure that they are just being cautious with him.

It was a good win and one that the Rangers needed. There will be other valleys during this season, but they responded to this one with perseverance. They just kept doing what they do and eventually it worked out. Today it will be Matt Harrison in his second start of the season going up against Garrett Richards. Harrison will be trying to continue the success he had against Seattle on Sunday. In that start he pitched 6 innings and allowed only two runs. He looked like the Matt Harrison from 2012 that won 18 games. If the Rangers can continue to get that they will be in good shape over the long run. The start time for tonight’s game is 8:05

Things we Learned from this Road Trip

Posted on April 28, 2014 by colonelsportsnation

The Rangers just finished a 4-2 road trip that saw them go to Oakland and Seattle. They swept Oakland and lost 2 of 3 to Seattle. After the road trip the Rangers find themselves tied for first place and they find themselves starting to get healthier. I will say I did not see a lot of the Saturday and Sunday games. Saturday I was busy watching the Thunder playoff game against the Grizzlies and I wasn’t home to watch the game on Sunday. From what I have read though and what I saw earlier on this trip I think we definitely learned a few things about this team during these last 6 days.

Martin Perez is starting to pitch like the stud pitcher he was projected to be. For several years Perez was this top prospect that the Rangers were carefully nurturing in the minor leagues. They took it slow with him because he was always among the youngest players in his league. Yet, he would go out there and put up great numbers. The Rangers did not rush him though because they knew that he was special and they were willing to wait. That wait ended last year when he became a full-fledged member of the rotation. He struggled at the beginning, but in the second half he figured it out. He went 7-3 with a 3.39 ERA the last two months of the season and was likely their second best starting pitcher. He has carried that momentum into this season. So far he is 4-0 with a 1.42 ERA and has thrown back-to-back complete game shutouts. This last one was against the division leading Oakland A’s and helped them complete the sweep. He has been able to do this with a combination of a devastating changeup and an ability to keep the ball down and get ground balls. He is figuring it out and he has been one of the main reasons the Rangers have excelled. If he pitches well again on Tuesday against the A’s he likely will win pitcher of the month for the AL. That is how far he has come. Hopefully he can continue that as the Rangers move forward through this season.
The starting rotation is finally healthy. Nick Martinez did get a start this last week, but with Matt Harrison now back they are as healthy as they will be until Derek Holland gets back. Their rotation is now Darvish, Perez, Ross, Lewis, and Harrison. That is a pretty stout staff. Harrison came back yesterday and looked as sharp as he did in 2012. He was working quick and getting outs. That is what he does. This team so far is 15-10 and tied for first place despite all these injuries. The number I saw yesterday was that they had 15 wins and 12 players that have spent time or still are on the DL. Now that they are getting closer to being healthy it will be interesting to see how this team does. One thing to watch over these next few weeks is the number of innings these starters get, because even though they are pitching well now it is still just April. The Rangers will need these guys healthy come September and October and it will be interesting to see how much Wash rides his guys these next few weeks until the bullpen is fully healthy.
The 8th inning is an issue. The Rangers lost 2 of 3 to the Mariners over the weekend primarily because of 8th inning struggles. On Friday Neal Cotts was called upon to protect a 3-2 lead and get it to Soria in the 9th. Cotts though in 20 pitches did not retire a single hitter and allowed 4 runs and the Mariners ended up winning 6-5. Sunday was worse. The Rangers had a 5-0 lead in the 4th and a 5-3 lead that it handed to Alexi Ogando in the 8th. Ogando proceeded to allow a 2-out rally that concluded with Ranger-killer Kyle Seager hitting a 3-run home run that gave the Mariners the lead. Last year Tanner Scheppers was a dominant 8th inning guy and was almost always able to hand it over to Joe Nathan. This year though it has been a constant struggle. I am sure that once Scheppers is healthy he will resume that role, but until then Cotts and Ogando will have to do a better job of making their pitches and getting people out.

Now the Rangers come back home for a another important series against the A’s. After this series there will only be 13 more games remaining between what looks like the top 2 teams in the AL West. The Rangers really made a statement with that sweep last week. All of those games were very hard-fought and the A’s will try to get some of those wins back in Arlington this week. The matchups will be Yu Darvish vs. Sonny Gray today, Martin Perez vs. Scott Kazmir, and Robbie Ross vs. Jesse Chavez. Should be 3 very competitive games. The games get started tonight at 7:05.

Rangers Win in the 9th Again!

Posted on April 23, 2014 by colonelsportsnation

Josh Wilson scores go-ahead run

The Texas Rangers once again won with a dramatic 9th inning rally. This team has faced adversity by losing multiple players to injury, yet here we are on April 23rd and with a win today they will be in first place and have the best record in the AL. I can’t wait to see how well this team plays once they have their full compliment of players. This attitude of never quitting is the best attribute that Ron Washington imparts to his team. Washington is no Tony Larussa or Buck Showalter as far as a tactician, but his teams always play hard and never stop trying until the final out is recorded. Time and time again this season we have seen that. In actuality this team should not be 13-8. They still are missing 2/5 of their starting rotation, 2nd baseman Jurickson Profar, 3rd baseman Adrian Beltre, left fielder Shin Shoo Choo, and last night they lost back-up 3rd baseman Kevin Kouzmanoff. Despite all of that Ron Washington has them playing and believing that they can still win games. It is like those Real Texas Baseball commercials where Washington says, “We are going to win, because that is what we do”. It is a cheesy line, but the players have bought into that and are playing like that every night. The expectation now is to just win and they are doing just that.

Last nights game as mentioned above was another example of this attitude and belief that has permeated among the team. We are just going to fast forward to the 9th inning. The A’s had a 4-3 lead and closer Luke Gregorson on the mound. Mitch Moreland, who had been sitting due to a lefty on the mound, pinch-hit and led off with a double that got past Coco Crisp. It looks like if the Rangers execute they should be able to at least tie the game. Robinson Chirinos then bunts Moreland over to third. So, one out and Leonys Martin coming up to try to drive him in. All it would take is a deep fly ball or a base hit, but instead Martin bunts and Moreland gets a late break and is thrown out by a mile. Now there are two outs with Martin on first and little to no chance to win the game. After the game Washington revealed that there was some miscommunication and that Martin was not supposed to be bunting there. At the time it looked like it might cost them the game. Martin then stole second to give himself a chance at scoring with a base-hit. Josh Wilson was up at the plate trying to extend the game. Wilson had made an error earlier in the game at third that allowed the A’s to be able to score the go-ahead run. He was certainly looking for redemption from his mistake. He got it as he lined a ball to deep left field off of the wall and Martin scored to tie the game. Wilson got a double from it. Then, two pitches later Michael Choice singled up the middle to give the Rangers the lead. Incredibly the Rangers went from their final out and final strike to having the lead in a matter of minutes. It was a remarkable turnaround. Joakim Soria then came in to close it out and he was able to go 1-2-3 and the Rangers somehow won this game. With the win the Rangers improve to 13-8 and the A’s fall to 13-7. They also won their fourth straight series and continued their winning ways.

Notes from the Game

Nick Martinez started the game and pitched pretty well. He struggled and was very lucky to make it through the first two innings. The Rangers established him to an early 2-0 lead, but the A’s came back with 2 in the bottom of the first to tie it. Then in the second he walked two guys and had runners on second and third with only one out. It looked like he was just about to get pulled if he had walked another batter or allowed the two runners to score. He got Jed Lowrie to fly to medium center field and Leonys Martin then threw a laser to Robinson Chirinos and he tagged out John Jaso to end the inning. After that he settled down a bit and was able to get through 5 innings only allowing two more runs. He saved the bullpen for today by getting through 3 more innings. It was a successful start though and I imagine he will be back up at some point later on this season.
The Rangers lost 2 more players in this game. Kevin Kouzmanoff left in the fourth inning with what is being described as back tightness and Pedro Figureroa left after one pitch complaining about pain in his elbow. The Rangers have 2 wins in this series and 3 players lost to injury. Shin Shoo Choo will still be out today, but is expected to be back this weekend when the team travels to Seattle. There will be more news about Figueroa and Kouzmanoff later today.
In the 6th inning the Rangers were able to properly execute a wheel play. The A’s were threatening, but the Rangers were able to bait Eric Sogard into bunting to Josh Wilson. Wilson then turned around to fire it to Andrus who had run over to cover third and get the out and minimize the chance the A’s had at scoring.
The bullpen once again pitched very well. Aaron Poreda came in and pitched an inning, Shawn Tolleson came in and pitched an effective 1.2 innings, and then after Figueroa left with an injury Ogando came in and finished the 8th. Soria then was able to close it down. Washington has had to mix and match early on this season, but it doesn’t really seem to be affecting the bullpen. Everyone continues to pitch very well. The bullpen is becoming a strength of this team, much like it was last season.

Preview of Today’s Game

Today’s game will be an afternoon start at 2:35. It will be Martin Perez facing Sonny Gray. These two are among the best young pitchers in the entire AL. Perez has been outstanding early on this season. He has a 3-0 record and a 1.86 ERA. He also has thrown 17 consecutive scoreless innings. His last time out he threw his first complete game shutout against the Houston Astros. He will look to continue that success today against the A’s. In his career he is 2-3 with a 5.79 ERA against the A’s. He has made a lot of improvement since the last time he has played them. It will not be easy as the A’s will be looking to not get swept for the first time this season.

For the A’s it will be Sonny Gray. Gray has been as good if not better than Perez early on in the season. Gray is 3-0 with a 1.80 ERA. Gray was the A’s Opening Day starter and has won each time out. It will be Gray’s first start against the Rangers. It will be interesting to see how the Ranger hitters approach this matchup as they will have a scouting report, but not previous at-bats to call back on. I expect the first time through the order they will be feeling him out and the next two times they will have more success.

This will be a good test for both pitchers as they will be counted on to deliver in these types of situations throughout the year. The winner of this game will be in first place come tomorrow. Still a lot of baseball to be played, but if the Rangers continue to play hard and pitch well they will give themselves a shot to win late. That Michael Choice gets Game-Winning Hitis all you can ask for.

Rangers Strike First against the A’s

Posted on April 22, 2014 by colonelsportsnation

Darvish pitching against the A’s in game one of their series.

The Texas Rangers went on the road and won a hard-fought game against the division leading Oakland A’s 4-3. It was a game that saw both starting pitchers bend, but not break. That was highlighted mostly by Yu Darvish. When Darvish is going well, he is able to easily get through 6 or 7 innings with double-digit strikeouts and few hits allowed. Tonight was not one of those nights. Heading into the game Darvish was 1-6 with a 4.30 ERA against the Oakland A’s. He also has not won at the Colliseum in his short career. So the question became how would he do last night? It wasn’t a sure thing that he would pitch well, and early on it looked like that trend might continue.

Darvish early on in the season has not gotten any run support and has not pitched with the lead in any of his prior 3 starts. That changed last night as Shin Shoo Choo led off the game with his second home run of the season to give the Rangers an early 1-0 lead. Yesterday, I had remarked that for the Rangers to win last night they had to score early, make Straily work, get to the bullpen early, and get timely hits. They did establish a lead early for Darvish, but he was only able to hold that lead till the bottom of the second inning. Brandon Moss led off the second inning with a home run. It was the fourth home run he has hit in his career against Darvish. The A’s would go on to add 2 more runs to the board on a Eric Sogard double and Coco Crisp single. Darvish early on was trying to establish the fastball and get ahead in the count and then work in his other pitches. He lacked his usual control though and so the A’s were just looking at those pitches or fouling them off making him work harder than he normally does. They were very methodically driving up his pitch count. Darvish said about that start, “Compared to last year, I think I’ve matured mentally to battle through these kinds of games”. That is certainly what he had to is battle. In Darvish’s previous starts he had been able to maintain control of his pitch count which has allowed him to go 7-8 innings in those starts. Last night that was not the case. This is where I credit Darvish and Chirinos for coming up with a different plan mid game. Yu doesn’t get a lot of credit for being as cerebral as he is. He is a very intelligent pitcher who just happens to throw hard. He knew that the A’s were sitting on his fastball and that he didn’t have the best control of it, so mid game he changed to more curveballs and off speed pitches. This midgame adjustment really saved the game. It caught the A’s off guard and allowed Darvish to get through the 6th inning. He had even told Wash, “I was going to get through six innings,”. In the 5th and 6th he was able to get more ground balls and facing his last hitter and his 115th pitch he struck out John Jaso. Washington said about Darvish, “He settled down and started making some pitches. He bent but didn’t break. He was good enough to keep us in the game.” When he left the game it was still 3-3.

His rebound from that 3 run second allowed the offense to be able to come back and tie the game. The main reason they were able to come back tonight was actually Prince Fielder tonight. Fielder has been hitting better lately, but tonight he actually looked very locked into the game. In his first at-bat he actually went opposite field. He drove a ball to deep left field for a double in the 4th. It is the first opposite field hit I can remember him getting this season. Kouzmanoff then followed with a single to the outfield that scored him and made it 3-2. Then in the 5th the Rangers were able to get a 2-0ut rally started when Elvis Andrus had a single to center. Rios then followed with a bloop single to right fielder Josh Reddick that moved Elvis to third. Fielder then finished it off with a hard-hit single to right field. The A’s decided not to shift there and that allowed one to sneak over the infield. That single tied the game at 3. The score would stay that way till the top of the 8th. Both team’s bullpens pitched really well. The A’s were able to call on Ryan Cook, Fernando Abad, Sean Doolittle, and Dan Otero. The Rangers called on Jason Frasor, Neal Cotts, Alexi Ogando, and Joakim Soria. The game remained scoreless through most of these pitchers. Then in 8th, Kevin Kouzmanoff led off with a double off the wall in right field off of Sean Doolittle. Doolittle is one the AL’s best left-handed relievers, but Kouzmanoff got the best of him last night. Then on 2 strikes Moreland was able to lay down a sac bunt that moved Kouzmanoff to 3rd. That caused Bob Melvin to bring the infield in for Donnie Murphy. Murphy proceeded to hit it right back up the middle against the drawn-in infield. That gave the Rangers a 4-3 lead. They would fail to score another run in the 9th with Choice at 3rd when Chirinos struck out. Soria came on in the 9th to try to close it out. He did just that, despite a throwing error by Elvis Andrus that put a run in scoring position. He kept the ball down, he kept calm and showed why he is their closer. This was probably his best save this early in the season. The Rangers with the win move to 12-8 and 1.5 games back and the A’s fall to 13-6.

Notes from the Game

Fielder did what I have been screaming for him to do all season and that is hit it opposite field. All season teams have been shifting on him and he just would continue to hit it right into the shift. If he shows he can do this, then he might not see such large shifts. His two hits though were huge. It looked like early on that this will be a 3-1 game that they lost, but Fielder’s opposite field double seemed to turn the tide. He did look way more invested than he has at times this season. He sometimes gives off an aloof feel, but tonight he looked locked in. That is the guy the Rangers need to be hitting 3 or 4 in the lineup.
I have never seen Darvish gut it out more than he did last night. In the past when he didn’t have it you could tell from his body language and then poor results would follow. Tonight he didn’t have it, but he kept battling and just found a way to make it through the 6th inning. That is what the best pitchers are able to do, is even when their stuff isn’t on they still find a way to get hitters out and last deep into the game. That is what Darvish did last night.
Kevin Kouzmanoff once again with two hits, including the rbi single to make it 3-2 and then the leadoff double in the 8th that helped to give the team the 4-3 lead. Kouzmanoff yesterday was named AL Player of the Week. That is quite the accomplishment for someone who wasn’t even expected to make the team this year. He has certainly earned himself a role and at-bats even when Adrian Beltre possibly comes back this weekend.
In the 9th inning Shin Shoo Choo turned his ankle trying to beat out an infield grounder. He was stretching out try to beat the throw and landed on the bag awkwardly. He will have an MRI today to see if there is any damage, but is likely out for the rest of the series. No word yet on who will move up to leadoff. The candidates are Elvis Andrus or Leonys Martin. Martin did hit some leadoff last year, but really struggled and so midway through the season Wash moved him back down the order. He has been hitting better this year, but Wash might not want to mess that up. I would not be surprise if he goes with Andrus-Choice 1-2 in the order. We will see later on today how Wash plans on handling this and how long Choo will be out for.
To me Joakim Soria really claimed the closers job last night. There has been this thought among Ranger fans that Neftali Feliz will be the closer at some point if he can regain his velocity and control. Unless Soria gets hurt the closer job is his. I know at some point he will struggle, but last night he was great. He showed he could come through in a hostile environment, 1 run lead, and the A’s best hitters at the plate. He is the closer, if Feliz does come up at some point maybe they can slide him in as the 7th or 8th inning guy.
Overall it was a great win. It is not September though yet. They still have 18 games left against the A’s. They will play 6 games total with this series and a series next week in Arlington. After these two series they will still have 13 left. It is nice to get a win though and show that even with all these injuries they are doing more than just surviving, they are playing good baseball.

Tonight’s Game Preview

Tonight it will be rookie Nick Martinez against Tommy Millone. Martinez who last pitched for the Rangers on April 5th against the Tampa Bay Rays will be brought up to pitch for Tanner Scheppers. Scheppers was placed on the DL last week due to an elbow issue. Martinez like last time will be brought in just for this one appearance. Last time out he pitched 6 innings and only gave up 3 runs. Hopefully he can do that again tonight. He had been pitching for AA Frisco and has made two starts with no decisions and has a 1.86 ERA. He will asked to try to continue that. Washington I am sure will have a short leash and will be ready to go to his pen at any moment. The A’s are going to try to make him work. They are going to make him throw strikes. To win he has to throw first pitch strikes, don’t nibble around the plate, and pitch to contact. If he does those three things he will have an opportunity to go deep into the game and give the Rangers a chance to win. On offense the Rangers have to survive the loss of Shin Shoo Choo. They still have to be patient at the plate and not be swinging at everything. Once again getting timely hits will be important. In order to beat the A’s the Rangers have to do the small things. They must get runners on, move them over, and drive them in. The A’s really require teams to be fundamentally sound. That is how they beat teams is by forcing them to make mistakes they normally would not make. Game once again is at 9:05 tonight.

Rangers Homestand Recap and Road Trip Preview

Posted on April 21, 2014 by colonelsportsnation

This gallery contains 1 photo.

The Rangers just concluded a very succesful 10 game homestand. They went 7-3 in the homestand and won all three series. They took 2 of 3 from the Houston Astros, 3 of 4 from the Seattle Mariners, and 2 … Continue reading →