D

@all: Happy Fourth from Reno

Let’s hope the Rangers are, too.

Still waiting for Wonderboy;s first offspeed pitch…

Happy 4th to all.

Well, i was about to say there’s a little sign of things to come for those who want to see Hank more at first base. But, he got away with it.

Hey guys, happy 4th.

He is not very good on the bases, you normally want someone who can steal to start the game.

Good patience at the plate!

Boom goes the dynamite

Speed is not that big-of-deal out of the leadoff spot– getting on base, hitting for avg, and making the pitcher work are.

MY has adequate speed. I’ve long believed he should be in the leadoff spot.

OKC in rain delay again.

I think it depends on what kind of game the team plays. If they tend to be speed-oriented, lots of hit-and-runs, SBs, sac bunts, aggressive base running, then I think speed at the top is important. Not sure we are that way, in the sense that the Angels are, for instance…Also think it’s more important for NL teams to have a speedster leading off.

Strike zone is looking fluid tonight.

Nope, not in the AL it’s not.

And making the pitcher works is mutually exclusive from speed. And it’s MY we’re talking about here, not Vlad or something. His speed is decent enough, esp with the way he handles the bat.

I doubt josh will be back til next week some time.
His timing is not good right now.

yeah, MY’s a bit of a tweener with the bat– prob with him at 3 or 5 is the lack of power. Prob with him at #1 is a perceived lack of speed. So, yep, #2 it is.

The only reason I’d suggest him at leadoff is until Ian gets it together. Ian is certainly looking more like 5 to me than a leadoff hitter this year.

Loving the walks. Come on Ian, take a strike here

Hamilton only has one hit at OKC so far.

Very good AB for kins there.

awesomeness

They said putting him at AA while only 19 was setting him up to fail.
They said skipping AAA was setting him up to fail.
They said he would be great defensively but would struggle offensively in the majors.
He seems to thrive in pressure situations, exactly what you want in a leadoff guy.

Hoo yah!

The bats are out tonight or is it Price and his control?

Just let him be a major league rookie. This is not AA or AAA. Hey, and in this lineup, we need the bottom of the order to hit.

If he’s destined to be a top of the order hitter, he’ll end up there.

If we looked only at Elvis’ errors we would assume he is not ready for SS but we have seen as many plays no one else would have gotten to. Sometimes numbers don’t tell it all.

Wash seems hell-bent in keeping Ian at the top. So it’s moot anyway.

If the rotation had stayed healthy and Holland been allowed to stay on-plan out of the bullpen, I think his results would be much different.

With his fastball, he’s plus out of the pen, but obviously still learning as a starter.

@ JD he’s duncans lil brother.

adiosmofo- agreed.

But look at his starts – he’s scuffed and clawed and managed to keep us in every game except for the Padres, and even there he hung into the 5th or 6th and KOed 8. The guy is a tremendous competitor. Once he refines the change/breaking ball, he’ll be a #1,#2 starter. I like him learning in the rotation. Don’t want him learning in 2010 here. Hunter too.

@jackdaddy: i agree. they need to do their learning this year.

I want holland in the rotation pitching every 5th day and learing how to pitch up here.
If he was getting shelled every game you might put him back in the pen but as long he is keeping you in games you let him start.

how did longoria not swing at that 1-2 slider? that was a nice one

Listen – i think Salty has been AMAZING this year behind the plate and his development has been to me, one of the great stories of the 1st half. BUT, I would really like to see TT work with Holland for the next few starts.

maybe it wasn’t just price … maybe the bats are coming alive.

obagain – i’m very intrigued by smith and mooreland. they’re conservative advancement (just now at AA) somewhat runs contrary to our usual agressiveness on promotions. Boy they can rake.

Nice AB by TT. Very nice.

That should be a learning AB for elvis, he normally goes the other way to get the run in.

Part of moreland is they tried to make him a pitcher last year, he is more valuable with his bat but he had no position but is a great athelete.
I think they finally decided to just let him hit and worry about how to get him in the majors later.
I can see smith and moreland as big trade chips.

Holland likes pitching with a lead. He’s looking good.

If you read more on that rays blog they are also wanting to get rid of longoria.

Fred, in the box it just shows a pitching change, not an injury change.
In hickory they have some strange games because they have more pitchers than innings to pitch so you see some strange substititions like that.

not happy with the rays flipping Garza for Niemann tomorrow. Garza is the kind of pitcher that gives us fits.

Last year he beat us twice (8 IP, 4 hits, complete game, 2 hitter) and we beat him once (4 IP, 3ERs)

I was about to switch over to “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”, but guess I’ll have to hang on a while.

Right in the center of the plate with another fastball. This is the ‘learning’ part that can be painful

Derek Holland’s PDA: “Note to self, do not throw pitches straight down the middle of the plate.”

the bottom of the order got DH, but he is getting the top of the order.

Would be awesome if Harry gets healthy and Hunter keeps doing what he’s doing, because Derek is exectly what we need in 7th-8th inning out of the pen.

Attaboy

I agree. We need to keep running him out there and letting him learn.

Good gut check there by Holland! Yeah I am with you all on keeping him in the rotation.

Tim smith walks with the bases loaded for his 7th RBI, they are in the 4th inning.

Just silly to call Holland an ace. He might become one someday, but has a long, long way to go.

Little home-field advantage for us there, or away-field disadvantage for Upton!

Anyone catch who is reading this speech?

Pete O’Brien

It would set DH back to finish the year in the pen. He needs to learn how to get through the lineups multiple times. Out of the pen he would use his FB 90% on the time.

disappointed with the 1-2 pitch to navarro that he hit out. didn’t need to pound FB there. the slider and curve and change have actually looked decent and that’s when you want to test it.

Loved the 1st and last pitch to Pena.

Evan is dead on – 70-75% range on FB is too high. Needs to be 55-65%.

BBTiA has a great piece on fastball velocity and the correlation with effectiveness. They tied it to frequency of using fastball vs. secondary stuff.

Here are 2 paragraps that bang it home and they scream Derek Holland (as a 22 year old rookie)

“Of the 21 pitchers with fastball velocities above 91 mph who were ranked outside the top 30 in FIP in 2008, the majority have relatively little major league experience. Matt Garza, Ricky Nolasco, Felix Hernandez, Ubaldo Jimenez, Justin Verlander, Matt Cain, Manny Parra, Nick Blackburn, Ian Snell, Johnny Cueto, and Edwin Jackson are presumably still trying to figure out how to be effective against major league hitters. Consistent with that notion, Hernandez, Jimenez, Verlander, Cueto, and Jackson are all having very good 2009 campaigns.

Interestingly, there is not a lot of variance in pitch use by any of the groups of pitchers. Major league pitchers tend to average 58 percent fastballs, 30 percent breaking balls, and 12 percent change-ups regardless of whether they are top- or back-of-the-rotation types. An exception is the group of pitchers with fastballs that average greater than 91 mph but whose FIPs place them in the bottom half of pitchers. The high-velocity, ineffective pitchers averaged 72 percent fastballs in 2008, suggesting that ineffective secondary pitches are likely limiting their ability to succeed.”

They finish with a summary of the Rangers pitchers. Here is what they say about Holland:

“Of the current Rangers starters, Derek Holland (93.2 mph), Vicente Padilla (91.9 mph), Scott Feldman (91.0 mph), and Matt Harrison (91.0 mph) are all averaging at least 91 mph on their fastballs.

(1) Holland’s fastball ranks in the top 20 among starters in the majors. He is using his fastball too much (75 percent), so developing his slider and change-up will likely be the key to becoming the top-of-the-rotation type that his fastball suggests that he can be.”

I don’t get how it would be a setback, since the plan for him when he was called up was to work out of the pen for the year.

Bradford just bowled one

@Bob Brower: (Assuming you are the real Bob Brower!), I didn’t remember that you played for the Yankees in 89, just saw that on your stats. What was that like? Must have been pretty interesting, they had a collection of characters eh?

Adios, the plan was to get him in the pen and settle in before moving to the rotation to finish the year, not stay in the pen all year.

Hey, Fred–
Could you please add an initial or a number, or something so folks don’t get us confused?
Thanks.

@Jack Daddy: Thanks for the link, very interesting read

Love watching this kid pitch, even with the learning process he’s going trough.

We’ll see. At some point you have to think of the needs of your first place team

92 pitches – does wash let Holland go back out for the 7th?

I dont mind saying i love Hollands potential and would almost bet my salary he becomes an ace.

Put him back out there!

@jackdaddy: I agree with everything you just said!

I second that Jack Daddy.

It sure is nice to see some offense!

I don’t think our offense could get any worse than it was. It is nice to see that we weathered the storm and are still in good shape.

92 pitches is enough, let him end on a good note and let Jennings finish it out.

@adiosmofo – I hear you, but he’s not walking batters (not scared) and he’s keeping us in all the games. Here are his starts after Houston (which we won):

IP H ER BB Ks
05/27 NYY 5.0 10 5 2 5
06/06 BOS 4.2 6 4 2 5
06/14 LA 5.0 5 4 4 2
06/20 SF 7.0 4 1 1 5
06/27 SD 5.2 13 6 1 8

The NYY and SD starts were ROUGH, and he still made it past 5 and struck out more than a batter per inning. He matched Lester through 4 and got a bit rattled in the 5th, but it didn’t matter what he did that night. He matched Cain pitch for pitch.

This is our meal ticket. This isn’t Tommy Hunter or Scott Feldman or McCarthey or Harrison (all nice arms). This isn’t a “nice” arm. This is a bona fide, ace in the making, carry a team in October bad dude. Don’t be fooled by the “Opey” facade.

My point, is other than the SD game, he didn’t “cost” us any of those games.

Jennings isn’t available today.

9:17: Oklahoma City has been rained out and the Rangers have already announced that Josh Hamilton will play in Oklahoma City again on Sunday.So, Monday is the earliest he would return to the lineup.

OKC rained out tonight.

@JD– i prefaced my comment with if Harry gets healthy and Hunter keeps doing what he’s doing (not to mention everyone else staying healthy), then Holland to the pen makes sense b/c his arm is what that pen needs.

With all those ifs, having too many quality, healthy starters would be nice problem to have, not matter who ends up in the pen.

I do think at some point we have to admit we are in fact playing for this year.

Play for this year but dont hurt the future by doing so.

smith has a challenger, whittleman has 2 hr and 6 rbi.
They are in the 6th so each should get 1-2 more ab.

@scooper: You don’t need to worry about rentals this year. The Rangers simply can’t afford to take on any salary, so that’s going to significantly impact their ability to make a big deal.

I get the feeling the Rangers will probably bring Hamilton back very soon whether Josh has demonstrated readiness or not. I don’t really blame them; I probably would, too. But let’s not get our hopes up too high for some sort of breakout comeback.

or the ones we can bring up.

I hope they dont make a trade unless it’s to get rid of hank, aj or eddie.Play to win and for the future.

Just catching up on all the Holland discussion. My 2 cents:
Send him out every 5th day and let him learn. Agree on the obvious: needs to develop his off speed stuff, gain confidence in it and use it to set up the FB.

@obagain: I agree completely! If the offense were still struggling, it might be a different matter.

whoever it was who said Mathis needed some work was right.

@scooper: I’ll take credit for that Should let him finish it out here.

Blaze’s Butler burns Nuts……… Do you think that headline writer went home smiling?

Only thing better than the Rangers in first on the 4th of July is the Rangers in first after 162 games….

@scooper: I dunno, she’s been incommunicado the last few days…not sure if we’re playing that whole “3 day wait” thing, or if she changed her mind!

Josh and TAG were awful slow mentioning Smoak’s promotion. Evan really scooped them!

@beerguy: think positive! she’s just been really busy!

Happy 4th everyone!

@Jack: thanks for getting my entry in the pool yesterday.

Baltimore up 4-0. bottom 5th, but LA threatening bases loaded no outs

Yall think the crowd likes TT?

@DC: Sure! I like him, too.

@scooper: i hear ya!

my tickets to frisco are worthless now that smoak is now in AAA.

Davis at third – THAT’S interesting.

Davis is at 3rd! seems like he’s now riding the pine.

Ehren, go watch moreland and tim smith, they will both be in the majors very soon.

Angels score 3, It is now 4-2 O’s.

@ehren – should have some nice pitching in the second half. Beavan there now. Assuming Kiker and Poveda spend the whole year. Outside chance that Perez and Tim Murphy (who is starting to deal now) get pulled up. Could have a meaty rotation. Plus Smith and Mooreland. Finally, might be seeing Crush there in a few days.

beer guy, I am with you and would have left mathis in.

HELLO WIN COLUMN!!!

great catch to end it.
Come on O’s, I want sole posession of 1st.

I say outside chance on Martin Perez, but hey, Feliz went straight to Frisco from low A.

Steve Mcnair has been shot to death, espn is reporting.

He’s been shot. Just saw it on si.com

wow, girlfriend. he is married. makes it even more sad.