More Musical Chairs For Texas Rangers Bullpen

ARLINGTON - Gas up the I-35 shuttle again. Manager Ron Washington said the Rangers will probably need to bring in another arm from Triple-A Oklahoma after the bullpen was needed for another 6.2 innings to get through Wednesday night’s 13-5 loss to Detroit.

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Post-Game Show: Tigers 13, Rangers 5

D-tails
• Boxscore, Standings
• Scoreboard watching: Angels 9, Indians 3

Three Up
• 3B Michael Young continued his strong second-half production with a two-run double that momentarily helped the Rangers climb from an 8-1 deficit to 8-4.
• DH Andruw Jones had a pair of homers, giving him 17 for the season. He homered in the second and ninth.
• The game ended with no known casualties.

Three Down
• RHP Scott Feldman was guilty of bad timing. His first poor start of the year came on a night when the bullpen was already exhausted and his 2.1-inning start put heavy strain on the relievers. The Rangers find themselves going into an important series with Seattle with a dead-tired bullpen.
• The Rangers struck out 18 times to run their season total to 804. They lead the AL and are on pace for a franchise record of 1,316.
• C Taylor Teagarden is looking more and more overmatched at the plate. He is 1-for-21 since July 10 and his season batting average has fallen to .191.

Some Rangers Notes To Nosh On

ARLINGTON – Rangers GM Jon Daniels addressed the media about the club’s pursuits Wednesday afternoon. This is how he summed it up:

“Just take everything I said yesterday and reprint it,” Daniels said. “We’re in the same spot we were yesterday and a week ago. We will see what the next two days bring.”

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Playing The What-If Game (Ranger Version) On Philadelphia’s Acquisition Of Cliff Lee

Action: The Phillies acquire LHP Cliff Lee from Cleveland on Wednesday.

My reaction: To wonder what the Rangers would have had to offer to obtain the 2008 Cy Young Award winner.

I’m no minor league expert, so trying to match up the Rangers talent for the talent Philadelphia gave up for Lee and OF Ben Francisco is something of a shot in the dark. But here’s my best guess with the former Phillies prospect and then the closest I can come to a Rangers comp in parentheses.

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The Depot: Rangers-Tigers Live Blog, News, Notes And Fishing Conditions For Area Lakes

5:28: The homer pool is open. And updated with a lineup that is sans 2B Ian Kinsler. His left hamstring strain appears to be minor, but he said he’d have to “guard it” if he tried to play tonight. Could be a one-day thing; might keep him out until the weekend. But not a DL-type injury, it appears.

5:56: In the wake of the Phillies acquisition of Cliff Lee, I’ve tried to take a guess at what might have been a comprable Rangers offer.

7:24: Ruh-roh! Feldman loads bases in first.

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Rangers Option Doug Mathis, Recall Joaquin Arias

With 2B Ian Kinsler’s hamstring an issue, the Rangers optioned RHP Doug Mathis, who started yesterday and would probably not be available until Sunday anyway, and recalled INF Joaquin Arias from Triple-A Oklahoma City.

Pool Party!

You know the drill. This little sentence is what we call a space-holder. It is here because I do not have tonight’s lineup yet. When I do, I will update the post with the lineup.

You take guesses at who hits the Rangers’ first homer. Or how many runs the Rangers score if you choose to select no homers. We ask for the homer, the inning and the men on base. For tiebreaking purposes, we ask for the distance and the count. Thanks so much for your time. And enjoy your afternoon at the home run pool.

UPDATED, 5:24 p.m.: I am a bit delayed tonight because I’ve been investing significant seconds, maybe even minutes, trying to research a comparable offer the Rangers could have made to Cleveland for Cliff Lee. Lee was traded to Philadelphia today. More on that in a few. In the meantime, here is your Rangers lineup: 2B Omar Vizquel, 3B Michael Young, LF David Murphy, CF Marlon Byrd, 1B Hank Blalock, DH Andruw Jones, RF Josh Hamilton, C Taylor Teagarden, SS Elvis Andrus and pitching for the Rangers … RHP Scott Feldman.

Jim Leyland Not Happy With Jason Grilli’s Pitch Location In Rangers 7-3 Win Over Tigers

We gave you the Rangers perspective on last night’s brushback skirmish already. Here are the thoughts of Tigers manager Jim Leyland.

The abridged version of Leyland:

“We felt Grilli threw a purpose pitch after Thomas hit a loud foul. And the purpose pitch was at his head, not at his knees or at his belt. It looked suspicious. … We were trying to send a message back. We weren’t trying to throw the ball behind Kinsler. We were trying to throw the ball down-and-in to get him to move his feet. I’d do it again.”

What next? Will umpires issue a pre-game warning? Will there be any more “purpose-pitching”? How many question marks can I get in one paragraph?

Linkin’ Park: Lurking Around The Web For You

Six weeks ago, a 3-0 2nd inning deficit with a spot starter on the mound likely would’ve been game over for the Texas Rangers. Asking that Ranger offense to score more than three runs against a pitcher with a 2.22 ERA was like asking a chicken to fly: it seems to have the parts, but they don’t quite work right. Yet after struggling through June with a record of 11-15, the Rangers stand at 15-7 for July with three days left in the month. About the only bad thing to come out of last night’s game was a hamstring injury to Ian Kinsler that could keep him out a few days. But the win allowed Texas to keep pace with the streaking Angels and pushed record to 8-1 in their last nine games. Their overall record of 56-42 ties their best start through 98 games since 2004, and if they can complete the sweep of Detroit tonight, they’d surpass their ’04 mark through 99 games.

If you can find a down side to the Rangers’ recent run, it might be the pressure it puts on the front office. With the trade deadline looming a little more than two days away, Jon Daniels has been searching every avenue to find ways to bolster an ailing rotation and an atypically anemic offense. The Rangers front office has the unenviable task of trying to make an impact trade without straying from the plan of a promising future, but if they fail to make a move they could be accused of sitting on their hands while the Rangers put together one of their best seasons since the nineties. But their job might be made a bit easier, or incalculably harder, by one simple fact: they’re broke.

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Long And Middle Relievers, Supposed Soft Spot Of Bullpens, Have Been Anything But For Rangers

ARLINGTON - Turns out a number of the Rangers relievers enjoy TV’s “Dirty Jobs.”

How appropriate.

Because if host Mike Rowe, who plods through stinking filth every week as Geoduck Harvester or Cow Inseminator or Road Kill Remover, were to ever get down and dirty in a baseball uniform, it would be as a reliever. A long or middle reliever to be exact. These are the jobs nobody wants. There are no real glamor stats to justify your existence. They rarely start and almost never finish a game. They are as likely to enter with their team trailing as with the lead. They do the thankless work that few ever recognize and that nobody wants to make a career of. And if Mike Rowe wanted to do a segment on just how somebody does this with grace, elegance and success, he’d go spend some time with the Rangers crew. In the last week, they’ve demonstrated very vividly just how vital good long/middle relief work is to a playoff contender.

On Tuesday, long man RHP Doug Mathis stepped in as a last-minute starter in the Rangers’ 7-3 win over Detroit when scheduled starter RHP Vicente Padilla was still too weak after a bout with the flu to pitch. After Mathis gave the Rangers four adequate innings, RHP Jason Grilli and RHP Guillermo Moscoso, who has shuttled frequently between Triple-A Oklahoma City and a long relief role in Arlington, were part of a quartet of relievers who pitched five scoreless innings.

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Bill James Vs. Scott Feldman

On the left, you will see the cover of one of my favorite baseball books of all-time. It is “The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract”. Printed in 2003, I likely have not read this great thing cover-to-cover, but I reference it all of the time.

I always find it interesting how polarizing Bill James can be to people. The reason I find it curious, is that when he has an opinion that seems controversial, he then demonstrates why he believes what he believes about the great game of baseball. When he demonstrates his cases, it always includes the miles of research that appears to cement his thoughts. Once you have a mountain of evidence that supports his claims, then it no longer is a claim. Based in facts, one’s opinions seem to carry much more substance. And that is the way Bill James seems to operate in his book.

The essay that he wrote about studying young pitchers and trying to figure out how to project a pitcher’s success rate is called “Bird Thou Never Wert” from pages 289-294 of the book. If you would like to read the entire essay, you should be able to read it here .

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Cowboys ’08: Week 2 Vs. Philadelphia

Here is the 2nd of our 16 part series that leads us to the pre-season opener in Oakland. Each day, we are reviewing 2008 in a “as it happened” sort of way. I will reprint word-for-word my post-game reports from each of the 16 regular season games of last season, and we can see the good, the bad, and the ugly of a season that started very, very promising.

This game was the Week 2 hope opener, the Monday Night Football clash with the Eagles. I couldn’t help when reviewing this last night that the late Jim Johnson is featured in this review. Phenomenal stuff and even further indications of a great season coming down in 2008.

But, not so much…

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Texas Rangers Benefit From Andrus’ Mind Games

ARLINGTON - On the day the Cowboys arrived at training camp, the explanation for Elvis Andrus’ recent hitting resurgence harkens back to the performance of 1974 Cowboys rookie quarterback Clint Longley.

The “Mad Bomber” came off the bench for the first time ever and rallied Dallas past Washington on Thanksgiving Day, prompting guard Blaine Nye to call his unlikely heroics “the triumph of an uncluttered mind.” Likewise, the Rangers’ rookie shortstop said he has stopped thinking at the plate. He hit his first bomb since late May in his first three-hit game since early May in Tuesday night’s 7-3 victory over Detroit. Also got picked off first and ended up on third.

Likewise, the Rangers are trying not to think too much about pulling within 1.5 games of Boston in the A.L. wild-card race and staying within two games of Los Angeles in the West. They have won eight of nine for the first time since mid-May and have clinched their third consecutive winning series.

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Road To Arlington: Rangers Farm Report (7/29)

Miguel Velazquez

Toolsy RF Miguel Velazquez (.295 / .341 / .538) went 3-for-5 with a double and a homer to drive in three runs for Spokane last night. He’s probably the most underrated player in the Rangers system right now and if I had it to do all over again, I’d move him up in my rankings from the low-30′s to somewhere right around number 20.

This might be the right-handed power the Rangers have been looking for. After a couple of lost seasons due to suspensions and legal issues at home in Puerto Rico, the 21 year old Velazquez could move fast as the organization tries to get him caught up. Had he not lost so much time due to off the field issues, it’s fairly likely that the 2006 19th rounder would have reached Frisco by now.

Indians beat writer Greg Lee, from the Spokane Spokesman-Review published a story on Velazquez yesterday. I encourage you to check it out.

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Rangers-Tigers Exchange Some Questionable Pitches, Some Choice Words Tuesday Night

ARLINGTON – Born in Michigan to a father who played for the Tigers, Jason Grilli has pitched more games for that franchise than anybody else during his career. Detroit’s decision to turn him into a reliever revived his career. He went to a World Series there.

He really enjoyed his time there. Really.

So just how does he keep ending up in these brouhahas with Tigers and especially manager Jim Leyland?

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