Rangers Notes: Left-Hander Derek Holland Going To Bullpen, At Least For Now

ANAHEIM, Calif. -LHP Derek Holland may be the Rangers’ most exciting starting pitching prospect in years, but for now, the club will send Holland back to the bullpen.

Manager Ron Washington said Tuesday that Holland’s turn in the rotation would be skipped this time through and that he will probably remain in the bullpen throughout the final week of the first half. RHP Dustin Nippert moved into the rotation Tuesday and would probably pitch Sunday’s first-half finale at Seattle. Washington said the Rangers would re-evaluate the starting rotation at the All-Star break.

Holland, 2-5 with a 6.18 ERA, picked up his first win as a starter on Saturday when he went six innings against Tampa Bay. He is, however, just 1-4 with a 6.23 ERA as a starter and has struggled to find a balance in his mix of pitches. He has relied heavily on his fastball and teams have teed off on it the second and third times through the lineup.

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Showdown At The Big A Depot: Angels-Rangers Live Game Blog, News, Notes And Musings

7:23: Chlorinated the pool this morning, so it’s fresh and clean and waiting for your arrival. Here is who the Rangers are sending out against Angels RHP John Lackey: 2B Ian Kinsler, 3B Michael Young (29-for-76, 2 HRs vs. Lackey), CF Josh Hamilton, DH Andruw Jones, 1B Hank Blalock (20-for-61, 2 HRs vs. Lackey), RF Marlon Byrd (6-for-19, 2 HRs vs. Lackey), LF David Murphy, C Jarrod Saltalamacchia, SS Elvis Andrus and pitching for the Rangers, making his 2009 debut … RHP Dustin Nippert.

7:37: Don’t forget about our statistical look at the first half of the season this year compared to 2008. I think the numbers are significant. Sweeping improvement in both pitching and defensive categorites. I spent a lot of time on all these charts today. I’m expecting heavy readership!

7:42: Also, today’s question is about Roy Halladay and trying to figure out what the Rangers might give up for him – if they had any financial flexibility, that is.

9:31: Some notes for your perusal. We lead with Derek Holland’s transfer back to the bullpen.

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Half Time: A Look At The Texas Rangers At The Season’s Halfway Point Compared to 2008

ANAHEIM, Calif. – The Rangers reached the halfway point of the 2009 season in Monday’s 9-4 loss to Los Angeles. As soon as tonight’s game becomes official, there will be fewer games remaining in the season than have been played. It’s a good time to look at some numbers to see exactly where the team is better and where it is worse. Not surprisingly in virtually every pitching category and every defensive measurement, they are significantly better. Offensively, mostly they are worse.

What follows is a statistical comparison between the 2008 team and the 2009 team along with some commentary on statistical categories that particularly stand out. Your thoughts, as always, are welcomed and encouraged.

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The AL West Showdown Homer Pool, Day 2

Playing blind until I can get a lineup. But please feel free to enter. There is no lifeguard on duty, however.

UPDATE, 7:34 p.m: Here is who the Rangers are sending out against Angels RHP John Lackey: 2B Ian Kinsler, 3B Michael Young (29-for-76, 2 HRs vs. Lackey), CF Josh Hamilton, DH Andruw Jones, 1B Hank Blalock (20-for-61, 2 HRs vs. Lackey), RF Marlon Byrd (6-for-19, 2 HRs vs. Lackey), LF David Murphy, C Jarrod Saltalamacchia, SS Elvis Andrus and pitching for the Rangers, making his 2009 debut … RHP Dustin Nippert.

Question Of The Day: Let’s Play Pretend On Roy Halladay

DISCLAIMER: There is more chance of me signing a movie deal while here in Southern California than there is of the Rangers getting involved in the Roy Halladay mania that is about to sweep trade and message boards. A team that is up for sale with buyers yet to submit bids can in no way commit to taking on more than $20 million in remaining salary for the next two seasons. So, it’s a pipe dream. But J.P. Ricciardi is now saying he’s got to listen to offers for Halladay and Fox’s Ken Rosenthal has already run down a potential list of suitors that does mention the Rangers (although he shoots them down as quickly as he mentions them). And I should point out that Richard Durrett at the DMN has already thrown out this question.

It didn’t stop dear reader Zack, who admits it won’t happen either, from sending along his proposed deal:

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From Rangers PR Machine: Win FREE STUFF!! By Cramming Online Ballot Boxes For Ian Kinsler

This just in from Rangers world PR headquarters, where John Blake sits behind his computer all day and spins things:

Arlington, Texas—Texas Rangers fans can register to win a pair of great prizes simply by helping to send second baseman Ian Kinsler to the 2009 Major League All-Star Game, which takes place a week from tonight in St. Louis.

Kinsler is one of the five players in contention for the 33^rd and final spot on the American League team. That All-Star is being selected in on-line fan balloting in the 2009 All-Star Game Sprint Final Vote on texasrangers.com/allstar that continues until Thursday, July 9 at 3:00 p.m. CT.

To encourage fans to vote for Kinsler on-line, the Rangers are offering a pair of All-Star sweepstakes prizes:

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About Last Night: Sometimes Rangers Are The Windshield, Sometimes They Are The Bug

ANAHEIM, Calif. – Sometimes, you simply play – or pitch – a bad game. Sometimes even it’s a very bad game.

After hours of introspection and a few minutes of research that seems to be the best answer to what happened to the Rangers in a 9-4 swamping they suffered at the hand of the Los Angeles Angels Monday night. The loss, of course, dropped the Rangers a game off the AL West lead. Kevin Millwood was awful, which is news in and of itself, because he hasn’t come remotely close to having a bad game this season.

For the first time this year, Millwood did not come out for the sixth inning and he probably shouldn’t have been forced to get through five, but that’s one small contribution he made to keeping the bullpen a little bit more fresh for Tuesday.  Millwood, who pitched into the seventh five days earlier against the Angels, left pitches in the hitting zone and the Angels pounced. Millwood allowed nine runs, tied for the most he’s allowed as a Ranger, in his five innings of work. His ERA rose more than a half a run from 2.80 to 3.34, pushing him down from fifth in the league to 10th.

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Talking Sports While Watching Sports: Skin Edition

Last night, I decided it would be big fun to chat up the Dallas Mavericks summer of 2009 with my friend and sports colleague, Skin. It is a complete and total coincidence that Skin was in the news yesterday and even though I did ask him all about the career changes that are underway in his world, that was not something I wanted to share with the class. Those of you who do care which station or what time many of us talk into a microphone have Barry Horn and Richie Whitt to follow, but Skin has some things on the horizon that sound pretty cool.

Anyway, on the Mavericks landscape, he is generally as dialed in as anyone, and I wanted to pick his Mavs brain and see what I found as we exchanged Mavs IM’s for 60 minutes last night while watching Kevin Millwood blow up in Anaheim:

Sturm1310: ok- let’s get this party going- 60 minutes of Mavs talk in your face.
Sturm1310: So, tell me, how is this Mavs summer feeling to you?

skinnyfresh25: I think it’s off to a good start. Actually saw J Kidd and his three kiddos at the Mac store today off of Knox and he was in a great mood. Says cuban isn’t done yet. That was obviously the first domino. How are the P1s reacting to Gortat?

Sturm1310: I think most people see a big man who is: A) Big, B) White, and C) Foreign and the masses get worried. But, I like it. I think he is at that perfect age for a breakout and I also like that Morey and Popovich wanted him. And, Orlando hates to see him go, too. I am bullish on this. Very much so. You?

skinnyfresh25: I’m pretty pumped about it too. It’s not like I’ve seen the dude play a ton, but I feel like he’s a dude that goes hard which is the number one knock against Big Damp. He also has nice hands which is the second biggest knock on Big Damp. And the money is right. I don’t think he’s a post scoring threat, but he’s not an offensive liability either because he can catch and finish so slip picks and on the ball screens become weapons with him. Mavs need his size and motor. And as you said, the age is right. but this off-season hinges on trades…

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Road To Arlington: Rangers Minor League Report (7/7)

Kasey Kiker in Surprise

I just wanted to take a moment to suggest that Kasey Kiker is panning out to be a very good draft pick.

Here were the top prep pitchers on the board when the Rangers took Kiker in the first round, 12th overall, of the 2006 draft: Kyle Drabek (5-0; 2.70 in Double-A), Colton Willems (1-4; 7.40 in Advanced-A), and Jeremy Jeffress (1-3; 7.57 in Double-A and now serving a 100-game suspension on a second “drug of abuse” violation). On talent alone, most experts had Drabek as a top-five talent but he slid because of concerns about his makeup. Some viewed Kiker as a bit of a reach pick at 12.

At age 21, Kiker’s 2.79 ERA and 8.25 K/9 .222 opponents batting average all rank in the top 10 among starting pitchers in the Texas League. He’s still got some kinks to work out and a long way to go before he’s ready for prime time, but it would be unreasonable to expect just a whole lot more out of Kiker at this stage of his career.

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