Linkin Park: ESPN’s Tim Kurkjian on Rangers offense

Ian Kinsler started the game with a bang, but the Rangers struggled for runs after that (Photo: R.P. Washburne)

The big question that arose from the Rangers 4-3 loss to Chicago Friday night was all about the decision to remove RHP Scott Feldman, who had allowed one hit through five innings, and replace him with rookie Derek Holland with the game on the line.

You could spend hours debating the question.

It was not, however, the big issue.

That issue, the one with long-term implications, is why a team built for runs is having so much trouble scoring them without Josh Hamilton in the lineup.

The Rangers, who were hitless with runners in scoring position for the second straight day, have held opponents to four runs in all four games they’ve played this week. They are, however, just 2-2.

“We get that from our pitching, we are going to be in great shape,” 3B Michael Young said. “They are absolutely doing a great job. We’ve got to find a way to peck away. We’ll get it. We will make some adjustments. We will get better.”

The biggest difference in the offense this week has been the absence of Hamilton, who was placed on the DL Friday but hasn’t played since taking a pinch-hitting appearance on Monday. Even though Hamilton struggled with his swing before injuring his rib cage muscle on April 21 in Toronto, the lineup had a decidedly different presence with him in it. The Rangers average 6.1 runs per game when Hamilton starts; 4.7 when he doesn’t. The Rangers will be without Hamilton at least through next week. He is eligible for reinstatement on May 12.

Young has filled in admirably for Hamilton in the three spot, but is more of a rally-starter than a run-producer. The guys who should be picking up on run production haven’t.

That was evident again on Friday when the Rangers had their last, best chance to rally in the eighth inning. Young doubled with one out – his third hit of the game – but Andruw Jones and Hank Blalock followed with one pitch at-bats. While Jones drove a ball to center moved Young to third, Blalock grounded out to end the inning. It extended the Rangers hitless streak with runners in scoring position to nine at-bats over the last two losses.

Blalock is 0-for-3 in those games, having seen a total of seven pitches in those three at-bats. For the week, he is 2-for-8 with runners in scoring position. He’s seen five pitches in each of the at-bats that produced hits and averaged 2.8 pitches in the at-bats that didn’t.

“There’s not one specific thing we have to adjust,” Young said. “We’re going to keep swinging it. We’re going to have more disciplined at-bats. We’re going to capitalize on opportunities.”

With Young in the third spot and Jones hitting cleanup, Blalock has hit fifth and Nelson Cruz sixth. After a hot first two weeks of the season, Cruz has cooled off. He was hitless in four at-bats Friday and is 7-for-31 (.226) for his last nine games. After six homers in the first two weeks, he doesn’t have an extra-base hit in those 31 at-bats. He’s 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position since Hamilton left the lineup.

And Cruz is the last line of defense before the Rangers get to trouble city, otherwise known as the bottom third of the order. Those three spots are hitting a combined .232 for the season, so if opposing pitchers can get through the fifth and sixth spots, they can take a breather at the bottom.

Nevertheless, the Rangers had a 3-0 lead going to the sixth on Friday and that’s when things got interesting. Scott Feldman retired the first 11 hitters of the game. After a single by Carlos Quentin, he retired the next six, having two outs in the sixth as he headed into a third trip through the White Sox lineup. Feldman threw just 71 pitches through the first five innings.

But Derek Holland got up in the sixth, perhaps underscoring the Rangers belief that Feldman is best suited to be a spot starter/long reliever and not a full-time starter. Much of that is based on his splits last year as a starter. He held opponents to a .267 average the first two times through the lineup, but it jumped to .333 the third time through.

So after consecutive two-out singles, pitching coach Mike Maddux made a visit to the mound. And after Feldman walked Quentin, manager Ron Washington went to go get him and brought Holland into the game with the bases loaded to face Jim Thome. Thome doubled off the left field wall, missing a grand slam by a foot.

Washington twice mentioned the third trip through the lineup in his post-game press conference. But when asked if the third trip was a particular issue for Feldman, he said no.

“Batters figure out what’s going on and Thome is no dummy,” Washington said. “That’s why he has 500 home runs. It’s the same with other pitchers. I thought Holland could get him.”

The decision made for all kinds of interesting baseball debate.

About yanking Feldman: Is it in line with the club’s announced desire to push starters a little harder? Or was it a percentages play based on Feldman’s past track record after two trips through the lineup?

About bringing Holland in: If the Rangers desire is to break Holland in with the best chance for success, is the right move to bring him in with the bases loaded to face a future Hall of Famer?  On the other hand, Holland made his major league debut with the bases loaded and rallied after allowing a single.

It was a debate that could last all night.

The bigger issue – scoring runs without Hamilton in the lineup – could last a lot longer than that.

It’s another Ranger doozy, alright.

This one goes something like this: How do you fashion a five-man starting rotation and a seven-man bullpen from a group that includes six adequate starting candidates and perhaps fewer than five adequate relievers?

“We are going to leave here with our 12 best pitchers,” general manager Jon Daniels said this week. “We are going to figure out who those guys are and go with them.”

Figuring out the 12 best may not be nearly as hard as figuring out how to best deploy them, especially since April is such a critical month for the Rangers.

As the club prepared for its most significant evaluation meeting of the spring, these were the things they had to consider:

• Is comeback candidate Kris Benson one of the Dirty Dozen and if so, is the best fit for him the starting rotation?

• If it is, which starter gets sent to the bullpen: Scott Feldman or Brandon McCarthy?

• Are the Rangers willing to potentially let another Twenty-something pitcher – or two- with great arms and a lack of big league success potentially walk away with nothing return ala Armando Galarraga last year?

Daniels said no decisions were reached Saturday night, but there was plenty of “healthy discussion.” He did not disclose details of those discussions.

But you can bet much of the discussion focused on how the Rangers will answer the three major questions about the pitching staff.

If the Rangers elect to keep Benson, who has not pitched in the majors in the last two years due to injuries, it will be as a starter. He’s 34 and has pitched in 195 major league games in his career, all of them as a starter.

If the club adds Benson, who could be sent to the minors for a month before he could ask for his release, then it has six starters for five slots. Because of the clause in his contract that requires a one-month minor league commitment, this discussion might have been moot if not for a lack of reliable bullpen arms. But nobody – nobody – has stepped up to grab one of the four open middle and long relief jobs in the bullpen. Because of it, the Rangers are looking at contingency plans.

The most likely of those contingencies is adding Benson to the rotation and moving one of the other starters with relief experience to beef up the bullpen.

Feldman, who allowed six hits and four runs in five innings against Kansas City on Saturday, would be the most likely choice. He was a reliever until the Rangers changed his arm angle last year. He has proven to be durable and versatile. He’s also done everything that’s been asked of him as a starter.

“Nobody has told me anything,” Feldman said. “I plan on starting. That’s what I’ve been preparing for.”

The general perception on Feldman is that he’s come a long way as a starter in a short time, but that on a championship club he’d be a valuable piece as a middle/long reliever who could occasionally make an emergency start.

Prospect Derek Holland, however, is considered a potential starter for a championship team. It’s possible that even if Feldman starts the season in the rotation, he’d be asked to move back to the bullpen sometime before the All-Star break if Holland proves he’s ready for the majors.

Washington said this week he expects both Holland and Neftali Feliz, the other top starting prospect in the organization, to pitch in the majors this year.

This is the kind of problem of which the Rangers have always dreamed – too many legit contenders for the starting rotation.

And they are hoping that “problem” can also be a solution to a batch of bullpen woes that have team officials down right scared.

The club entered camp with four jobs in the bullpen open and about eight candidates for those jobs. While candidates have dropped out due to injury (Dustin Nippert) and ineffectiveness (see the released Brendan Donnelly and the optioned Luis Mendoza), nobody has grabbed any of the open spots.

For example, there is Josh Rupe. If anybody should have the inside track on a job in the bullpen, it’s Rupe, who led the AL in relief innings last year and who is out of minor league options. But Rupe had problems throwing strikes in the second half of last season and has been inconsistent in camp.

The Rangers finally sat down with Rupe last week and explained just how tenuous his situation was. They also implemented a slight change in his set up, moving his feet a little more to the first base side on the pitching rubber in an effort to help him better command the strike zone. On Friday, Rupe had perhaps his best outing of the spring, getting three ground balls from three hitters.

“It was a step in the right direction,” pitching coach Mike Maddux said.

The closest thing to a “lock” for one of the four open jobs is Warner Madrigal. But after three impressive weeks at the start of the exhibition schedule, he’s allowed seven hits, three walks and eight runs over his last two outings (three innings).

The other contenders still include:

• Derrick Turnbow: At times he’s looked like the guy who dominated the NL for 39 saves in 2005. Other times he’s looked like the guy who has the highest relief ERA in baseball over the last three years. In other words: Wholly unpredictable. That’s a bad scouting report for somebody who would be asked to protect leads or keep games close in the sixth and seventh.

• Jason Jennings: Jennings worked 3.2 scoreless innings on Saturday and actually got his fastball above 90 a couple of times. He has been a pleasant surprise this spring, but he’s made just one relief appearance in his eight-year career and there are concerns that the bullpen load would be too much stress for his troublesome right arm.

• Jimmy Gobble: He would be more of a one-batter specialist against lefties, but did himself no favors by walking lefty Alex Gordon on Saturday.

• Doug Mathis: Still hanging around, though perhaps more as insurance than anything else. A big problem with Mathis (along with Turnbow, Jennings and Gobble) is that he is on a minor league deal and would have to be added to the 40-man roster to make the team. The Rangers are looking at adding at least five players to the 40-man roster and are going to have to remove a couple of guys to accommodate them. The more guys the Rangers have to add, the more they’ll have to remove.

• Willie Eyre: He’s allowed one walk and two runs (one earned) in six innings this spring, but he complained of a strained groin on Saturday and will take at least a couple of days off.

Still plenty to figure out before the Rangers can feel comfortable in their answer to: “What plus what equals a 12-man pitching staff?”

Wednesday, he showed off some of what he learned in that six week strength and conditioning course.

He dribbled a ball down the third base line. He did it on purpose.

Yes, folks, Josh Hamilton, all 6-4, 240 pounds of him, bunted for a hit in the Rangers’ 9-4 win over San Diego.

“That could be a weapon for him,” manager Ron Washington said and with a straight face. “I hope he’s smart enough to use it whenever they give it to him and we need runners. I’m not looking for it out of him, but if it presents itself in the right situation, you take it.”

Asked if he planned to break out his new tool – perhaps making him the first six-tool guy in history – a couple of times this season, Hamilton looked aghast.

“A couple of times?” he asked rhetorically. “How about as many times as they play back and we need to get something started? I’m going to do whatever it takes. I’ve been playing around with it for a while and I figured out I’m a pretty good bunter. The object is to win games and if this helps us win some games, then so be it. Who cares how you get on base? Why can’t I be different? Why can’t I be a trend-setter?”

It’s all well and good for Hamilton and the Rangers to swing softly and talk big right now. It’s all well and good for him to do it during the season. Once. Maybe twice.

With Hamilton, the value is not in him actually bunting, but in making opponents think he’s willing to do so.

If Hamilton displays a willingness to bunt this spring, perhaps it finds its way into advance scouting reports, which might force teams to play him honestly and straight up. No shifting or cheating.

If the spring charade doesn’t do the trick, one or two bunts during the regular season might just get the message across that Hamilton and the Rangers are crazy enough to bunt if you let him.

Hey, even Barry Bonds and his grotesquely enlarged skull bunted for hits three times in his final 10 years. Washington said Bonds single-handedly beat Oakland one game during his time as an A’s coach by bunting for a hit, stealing second and then scoring the winning run.

Beyond announcing the threat, though, there really is no point in having a player like Hamilton bunt. If there are men on base, who better to drive them in than the guy that led the AL in RBIs last year? If it’s a tie or one-run game, Hamilton is much more likely to give the Rangers the run they need by himself than by bunting and relying on two more hits to get him home. If the club is down by a bunch of runs, he’d be just as well-served to start a rally by trying to work his way to a walk rather than laying one down.

If nothing else, Hamilton got people talking about his bunting on Wednesday. They were talking about his bunting on a day when he also laced a pair of doubles. And they are bound to keep talking about it for a while. Whether he does or doesn’t use it during the regular season, the thought that it’s a possibility might just be dangerous enough.

“When I saw him set up, I was like ‘Are you kidding me?’,” said Rangers starter Brandon McCarthy. “I guess those guys in the lineup just want to show that they can do everything. I don’t know who they are trying to impress. If they aren’t hitting homers, they are bunting and stealing bases. Scary.”