| Friday May 9: Rangers 5 Indians 9. I got to see some great young pitchers of AAA last night so be sure to check out the live section. Of all of the Rangers pitchers, I did not think that I had to worry about JT, but last night he looked just as bad as the youngsters. He only went two and a third and gave up 7 ER. In the Ranger Class A affiliate Clinton, they use what is called a split starter system. That is they have two starters scheduled each day and both pitch about 4 innings. The reason they do this is because it is so hard to find young arms, they just throw a bunch of kids out there and see if they develop. The reason I bring this up is that the Rangers appear to be going with a split starter system by default. The actual starters (Drese, Benoit, Thompson, and Lewis) never get as far as the 5th so the long relivers (Dickey, Shouse, Van Poppel and Yan) have to go another 4 innings. But the Rangers did make a move today to maybe help this. |
| Alan Benes was acquired from the Cubs for a player to be named. (I could have thought of a handful of Cubs pitchers that I would rather have, but I can not be picky right now) To make room, Ryan Drese was sent down (Thank goodness). Benes, of course, is the brother of former major leaguer Andy Benes. Alan was once seen as a cant miss prospect. He was the Cardinals #1 prospect in 94 and 95. In 96 he went 13-10 with a 4.90 ERA. He followed that year with a 9-9 record and an impressive 2.89 ERA. Then came all of the arm problems and pitched in only 2 games in 99, 7 games in 01 and 9 games in 02. In 2002 he went to the Cubs after the Cardinal were tired of dealing with the arm issues. A former starter, Benes was used out of the bullpen for the Cubs. This year he has appeared 3 times with a 2.16 ERA. Look right about now I am ready to try anything in the starting staff so lets see how this works
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Scatter-shooting while wondering what happened to Warren Newson...Former Ranger Dave Elder came in and walked both batters he faced. His ERA is only 40.50. I dont the the Rangers should be too upset about letting him leave...Ryan Christenson finally got back in the lineup and went 0-4...Gerald Laird got his second hit in his second AB. I say that he should get a start until he makes an out...I said look out for Brandon Phillips and he had two doubles in the game...Hank continues to crush the ball (I am sounding repetitive)...My man C.C. Sabathia goes for the Indians tomorrow and he is 4-0 lifetime against the Rangers. You gotta love C.C.'s pimp juice.
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| Thursday May 8: Rangers 6 Blue Jays 8. I am still amazed by the Mavs tonight. I truly did not think that they had that in them. Do they now have a shot for the series? OK back to depressing news. I bet the Rangers are getting so tired of being behind early before their second AB's (I know that I am). Ryan Drese usually has one inning where he couldnt get single A hitters out. He gave up a solo shot to Greg Myers and Shannon Stewart hit a 3 run homer in their 2nd. It is still very exciting to watch these guys play because they are really never out of any game. They were down 8-2 after the stretch and Raffy came up in the last at bat with a chance for #500 and a tie. It is probably these two line-ups, but I havent seen the ball jump this much at the Temple ever. Brian Shouse came in for Drese in the 4th to face the three lefties Delgado, Myers, and Hinske. I have liked what I have seen from Shouse this year, but today was definitely not his day. All three batters crushed the ball (even though Hank was given an error). Shouse got yanked without getting an out and 3 runs came in to score. |
| Buck finally is acting upon a trend that I didnt want to bring up. The last two nights Ryan Christenson has not started. When he first stepped in for Doug Glanville, I though that Ryan had a shot to be the everyday center fielder. In his last 8 games, however, he has gone O-fer in seven of them. I am not giving up on him yet and I hope that the Rangers havent either. But with Everett playing much better in the field, it is much nicer with that extra bat in the batting order. |
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Scatter-shooting while wondering what happened to Kevin Reimer...I went and listened to Newberg speak at the SABR. It was very good and I have been looking into the SABR...In conjunction with that I am going to pick up one of the Bill James books and get into the SABRmetrics...I have to say that Juan made a great running catch on a play where he was hustling...On Fox Sports Net they have a Rangers promo with Kevin Mench. Someone should tell them that he is back in AAA...I love the fact that Vernon Wells went out of his way to toss a ball into the stands at the end of every inning. I bet he remembers sitting at Arlington Stadium and wishing that Incky would have done that...Finally a couple of examples that sum up Teixeira's first base issues. Late in the game, he robbed a shot down the line that took a bad hop. This shows how good his reflexes are and that he will do just fine. However, in the first there was a slow roller that would have gone straight to Mike Young. Instead Tex made a diving stab at it half way between 1st and 2nd. This shows that he needs just more actual game experience that he can not by taking fungos from DeMarlo Hale.
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| Wednesday May 7: Rangers 5 Blue Jays 4. I would say that the main story of this game would be Joaquin Benoit. After the first four batters of the game, the Jays had scored three runs. Buck then promptly went out to the mound, waved away A-Rod and Diaz, and began to chew on Benoit's ass. From that point on, Benoit was very good including striking out the next two batters. Benoit started to then work at a faster pace and he was definitly helped out by a large strike zone. He ended up going 5 innings and not giving up any more runs. Carlos Delgado has just been on a torrid streak. Since he plays up in Canada, I dont think that he gets nearly the repect he should as one of the best first basemen in the league. Just form comparison, over the past 6+ season, Delgado has more HR's than Jason Giambi. |
| A very interesting night for the reigning Rookie of the Year Eric Hinske. He was the only Jay not to get a hit in last night's 15 run explosion. He has in an 0-13 streak until he hit a shot that droped in the right field corner. He thought that he had a double when the Rangers appealed to first and Hinske was called out for missing first base. In a later AB, Hinske drilled a ball down the left field line and Everett robbed him on an outstanding defensive play. Speaking of Everett, he got the start in center field and was the Rangers lead off man. How many times has a hitter that lead the league in slugging percentage lead off. Well, Everett really adapted his game, as he took two walks and even stole a base. |
| Scatter-shooting while wondering what happened to Roger Pavlik...Tex got two RBI's last night even when he doesnt play for a week...Hank got his RBI on a ball that he had to golf out of the dirt...In addition to Everetts great D, A-Rod made some spectacular plays as well...I always like to point out good hustle and loafers. Ruben beat out an infield single which is impressive at his age. Also Frank Cattalanotto got two hustle doubles with Juan playing his usual poor right field...Coco Cordero came in an just blew three 97 MPH fastballs past Josh Phelps...I hope that Raffy hits #500 onto the center field hill. I am going to go ahead and predict that someone dies in the fight for the homerun ball.
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| Tuesday May 6: Rangers 5 Blue Jays 15. This was just an all around bad day in the metroplex. Around the break of day, the Stars were eliminated by a team who has a freakin duck as their mascot. Then the Rangers got drilled. To end the evening, the Mavs just lifted up their skirt to the Kings. The Mavs looked so bad that after they lose game 2, they should just forfeit games 3 and 4. If they dont, I am not sure that I am going to waste 4 hours of my life watching that sorry team play. |
| I was hoping that Colby Lewis would bounce back from a poor outing, but it just got worse. After the first Carlos Delgado homer, Lewis proceeded to plunk Josh Phelps. I am a huge fan of showing some sack and hitting batters, but I am not sure if that was very smart in that given situation. Putting Phelps on just led to more trouble and a deeper hole for the offense to try and get out of. Lewis' second was one of the worst I have seen in facing 8 batters. Delgado, again, led off the 3rd with a dong and Buck quickly went to the pen. Esteban Yan gave the Rangers nothing to write home about, and Jay Powell was his typical self, very bad. When I was at SMU, all of my Astro fans warned me about Jay Powell and his big bag of nothing. I can officially say that I have seen enough of him. Brian Shouse actually looked very good in 2 IP and even had a four-pitch inning. I am not down on the bullpen, just some of its members. |
| This Blue Jays team is doing to the Rangers what the Rangers normally do to other teams. Both these teams are the hottest hitting teams in the league and both have struck out the most. Be sure to check out my PROJECTS Page to see a little comparison between these two teams. |
| Scatter-shooting while wondering what happened to Manuel Lee...Hank has 6 home runs and they have all came at the Temple...Shout out to Gerald Laird on his first major league hit in his first AB. It was a double although Vernon Wells should have caught it...Speaking of firsts Jays OF Jason Werth (BA's #3) hit his first major league homer. He was playing because Fankie the Cat had a stiff back...Michael Young made a great defensive play in the 7th. It is great to see him still playing hard even when they are down by 10 late in the game. He is showing up night after night on Baseball Tonight's "Web Gems". Hopefully this exposure will get him the gold glove that he should have gotten last year...Be sure to check out the new Jim Rome show on ESPN. He has Mark Grace as one of his guests and he was so classic. |
| Sunday May 4: Rangers 1 Indians 3. John Thompson was good but big C.C. Sabathia was even better. My take on this game: In the words of Rasheed Wallace, "Both teams played hard." Sabathia, who got his first win of the season, gave up 0 ER and 4 hits in 8 innings. Actually A-Rod's double was the only extra base hit the whole game [Alex was quickly erased after a horrible (as Bill Walton would say) base running mistake]. Thompson had just one bad inning in which he walked two and gave up a couple of singles. This was very surprising because Thompson is near the league lead for least number of walks per 9 IP. Once JT got it going, he had a stretch where he delivered 23 straight strikes. So I have other worries about the pitching staff and am pleased with JT. The team was hitting .365 on the road trip, so they were due to cool off. I admit that I am a huge fan of well- pitched, quick games. This is probably because it is so uncommon for the Rangers. Every time I see this, I recall a non-Ranger game from the 2001 season. It was a Braves/ Dodgers game in which Jason Marquis beat Kevin Brown 1-0. This game took about an hour and a half and it was great. So I hope to see more like that, but I will not hold my breath. |
| I love the style that Sabathia brings to the mound. He has big baggy pants and wears his hat cocked to the side. I am sure that the baseball purists are really bothered by the hat, but I think that it is great. I actually would like to see baseball gain popularity in the African-American culture and bring more players to the Majors. With apologies to Cedric the Entertainer, I can't wait until ballplayers come out with wave caps on and Timberlands. Oh, we joke (Fake Norm reference). |
| Planning on a lengthy SS, so lets get to it. Scatter-shooting while wondering what happened to Cecil Espy...I think that Donnie Sadler can be a valuable player off the bench. He can't play all the positions that Mike Lamb can play, but he provides speed on the base paths...Speaking of speed, I love how aggresive Buck is as far as the stolen base...I am tired of beating a dead horse, BUT coming into the season Teixiera had only played 86 games of professional baseball. As much as I want him to play everyday, he should be in AAA if all he is going to do is sit...Tonight on 'Baseball Tonight', Harold Reynolds did a great piece on how well the Rangers bullpen has pitched...In the 4th a ball was fouled into the Ranger radio booth. Vince Cotroneo retrieved the ball and threw it back down to the crowd and hit a fan in the back of the head...The two guys I like to bash the most gave me some more fuel. Einar Diaz and Juan hit into inning ending DP's in the 6th and 7th to kill any rally...You could not ask for anything more than Raffy up with the game on the line in the 9th. This time he just didnt get it done...Just to make RRReport readers sick, Doug Davis made his first start with the Blue Jays. He picked up the win going 6 innings giving up one run.
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| Saturday May 3: Rangers 6 - Indians 5. After a great start to today's game (10 straight balls by Todd Van Poppel), they still came out with a W. I dont know how the Indians only came up with one run in the first but I guess that is called damage control. With this offense, are we happy with 4 IP, 5R (granted on 3 earned)? I know that will not get it done against good pitching but the Rangers should be able to score. In the second, the Rangers scored four runs. The impressive part was they sent 8 batters to the plate with NO HOME RUNS and a lot of the damage done with 2 outs. The Indians announcers used the term "timely hitting". I haven't heard that used with this team in a long time and I love it. |
| I know I have said this before, but I am still wondering what John Hart and Grady Fuson have in store for the Rangers center field. I like what Ryan Christenson has done so far. His average is only .222, but it seems like he has come up with some important hits (10 rbi's). I have been really impressed with his defensive ability. He can really track down balls especially in the spacious Ballpark outfield (needed with liabilities like Juan and Ruben). The Ticket's Greg Williams says that he would like to have a center fielder that can play D and does not care if he hits at all. He even was fine with Calvin Murray as the long term CF (Speaking of Calvin Murray, make sure to check out the live thoughts section.) I have to temper my Christenson excitement with the thought that he couldn't even make the Brewers club. When Doug Glanville gets back, I am pretty sure that Buck will stick him back out there and we will not be seeing much of Ryan. Glanville is not the future, but it is unclear who is. |
| Laynce Nix is going to be the best player of the systems center fielders. I have gathered that he is not suited to be a true center fielder, and his best fit is probably in right. Although I have heard Buck say that he is not so quick to make that switch. Next week I will see him live and make my own judgment of Nix's projection. From last year I was pleased with what I saw from Ryan Ludwick. He is the Rangers #7 prospect according to Baseball America. I though that he might have a shot at this year's starting job, but a poor spring put him in Oklahoma City. Ludwick, who, of course, came over from Oakland in the Pena trade, is hitting .269, .358, .484. (But has been heating up of late) Finally, I have heard talk of moving 2B/SS Drew Meyer to the outfield. Meyer was the Rangers first round pick (10th overall) in last years draft. I have read mixed reviews on Meyer and some have even called him a bust. This year in Stockton, he has been hurt but is off to a poor start (.238, .287, .400). |
| Scatter-shooting while wondering what happened to Geno Petralli...Urbina seemed fine tonight after his little problem last night...I am a big fan of Mike Lamb off the bench. I bet it is hard to come to grips with the fact that you are a "utility man", but I have confidence with him in the PH role. [Also, look for him sometime in his career to play all 9 positions (but probably not under Buck)]...Hank continues to just crush right handers...The Indians have a new spare outfielder named Jody Gerut. The reason I bring him up, is that he does something that I did back in my glory days. Gerut and Juan Pierre are the only players I have seen that wear their cap under their batting helmet. That is a great look!
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