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Post-Game Show: Rangers 11, Twins 1

• Box score • A.L. wild-card standings • A.L. West standings

Story of the Game

The Rangers displayed their many talents in the 11-1 clubbing of Minnesota on Thurday night that sent them on the road with a series split. Home runs to all fields. Diving catches in the early innings while the outcome was in doubt. Julio Borbon’s first career homer. Neftali Feliz’s almost mystical ability to record two outs on two pitches. (“When you have a weapon on your shoulder like he has,” manager Ron Washington said, “you can be cool.”)

But another story was told in the bottom of the eighth, the Rangers owning a 10-run lead for only the third time this season. Marlon Byrd could have called it a night, given his third career multi-HR game and his diving catch in the third inning. Instead, he followed a leadoff nubber to the mound by charging down the line like he was near the end zone back at Sprayberry High in Marietta, Ga. And Hank Blalock did likewise despite only his second three-hit night of the year, his first since July 1. With two out, his attempt for a fourth hit ended with him sliding and tumbling over the bag. Both were outs but surely sent a message to the growing collection of fuzzy-cheeked Texas talent.

“Hopefully, they’re watching,” Byrd said. “If you watch the Yankees, you watch all the teams that have won … Jeter … It doesn’t matter what inning it is. It doesn’t matter what the score is. He’s running full speed down the first base line. That’s what type of team we have. I believe the maturation of this team over the past three years since Wash has come in … it’s a different mindset here now.”

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The Winner & Leader In Training: 10 Good Minutes With Elvis Andrus

Magical. I’m beginning to think that the guy on the right is actually the lost son of the guy on the left. The energy he brings to the field every day. The fun. The electric smile. The sense that he’s just going to win. Somehow. Just because that’s what he does.

Make the jump to spend a few minutes visiting with the Rangers’ Human Highlight Reel, bottle of energy and leader in training.

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Winning Combination: Rangers Improved Pitching, Defense On Display Throughout 6-0 Homestand

Pitching. Defense.

After years of digging the long ball, the Rangers are finding that pitching and defense are two good things that go great together. They’ve become one and the same. The only thing that can pry them apart is a conjunction.

The Rangers spent an entire homestand demonstrating their two new loves and the result was perfection. Sunday’s 3-0 win over Los Angeles, highlighted by sharp starting pitching and a third straight day of a web-gem worthy, game-saving defensive play, completed the homestand sweep. Winning all six games against AL West opponents extended the club’s winning streak to seven games and its lead over the now-hated Angels to 4.5 games. No wonder 37,146 people were on their feet at the end of Sunday’s game: It’s only the eighth season in the Rangers’ 38-year run in Texas in which they’ve had a lead that big.

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Weekend Reader: Texas Rangers Are Making A Fashion Statement In The A.L. West With Higher Quality Leather

ARLINGTON - As the Rangers peer down from high atop the A.L. West, note that they are among the major league leaders in “defensive efficiency” according to the minds at Baseball Prospectus. And for that, Rangers fans should provide a round of applause to Bud Selig.

The commissioner has been the driving force behind the establishment of the World Baseball Classic. Squeezing chapter two of the event this March led to spring training being extended by almost another week to enable participating players to get acclimated to their teams after playing for love of country.

“It was perfect for us,” said Dave Anderson, the Rangers’ new first lieutenant of infield play. “A young shortstop. A new third baseman. Basically a second-year player at first base in his first full season. It was great.”

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Crunchy Numbers: Rangers Defensive Metrics

You know the old joke about how a team wasn’t very good but they made up for it by not trying very hard? Well, I’m not accusing the Rangers of not trying hard, but while the 2008 Rangers suffered from horrible pitching, but they made up for it with wretched defense.

Earlier this month, Evan talked to John Dewan, creator of the Fielding Bible, about the chances for improved Rangers defense in 2009 and this is a follow-up or expansion on that piece.

I generally agree with Dewan that the Rangers defense should be much better in 2009, but I do see one pretty big problem (and Nolan Ryan seems to agree with me on this).

I’ll warn you before you make the leap. This pushes the envelope for baseball geekyness. Though I study this stuff, I rarely try to write about it because it’s too esoteric for most people to fight through, and that’s not exactly what we’re going for here.

But if you are interested in this stuff or if you just want to take a peek inside the brain of a truly pathetic baseball dork, then by all means make the jump.

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Getting Defensive: Author John Dewan Discusses Michael Young’s Move to Third and Defensive Statistical Analysis

Three years ago, John Dewan, a disciple of baseball stat guru Bill James and one of the founders of the statistical treasure trove STATS, Inc., published the first edition of The Fielding Bible. It was the first publication that aimed to truly quantify the importance of fielding.

Dewan used plenty of complicated sabermetric formulas to come up with a “plus/minus” system to determine what kind of impact fielders had on the game. Among the theories presented by Dewan was one that suggested Rangers then-shortstop Michael Young was the worst defensive shortstop in the game.

It took Dewan three years to come up with a second edition and it’s a far more complicated, far longer book. In it, he tries to get closer to definitively measuring the impact of fielders. In this year’s book, he ranks Young, who has since moved to third, 25^th among 35 shortstops.

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A Projection on Michael Young’s Defensive Impact

Later this week, I’ll be speaking with John Dewan, author of the Fielding Bible, which tries to measure defensive efficiency and ability. In Dewan’s first Fielding Bible, way back in 2005, he ranked Michael Young as the worst defensive shortstop in baseball. That ranking, I think, helped create the perception that Young was a below-average fielder at short. Never quite bought it. But that’s beside the point.

Just got an email from DeWan’s publicists with an excerpt from the book. Interestingly, he tries to answer the question at the top of my interview prep sheet: How much of an impact will Young have at third base. According to Dewan, he’ll be worth about four wins. Click on, my friends to find Dewan’s explanation

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