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Deal Or No Deal? (7/30)

Just emptying out my trade deadline brain of some of the thoughts that have been going through my mind this week. We’ll get to the Roy Halladay stuff after the jump.

Former Rangers great Justin Duchscherer appears to be a week or two away from being ready to return to action after a scintillating rehab appearance for Sacramento on Sunday where Rangers scouts were on hand. He is scheduled to pitch another rehab on Friday. Of course, players on the DL can’t be traded, but it might possible that Oakland could activate him for a day and then immediately trade him. This is Duke’s walk year and his salary the rest of the way (less than $2 million) is something the Rangers might be able to take on. Just file that away.

Another former Rangers great, Doug Davis, is just sitting there. He’s owed about $2.75 million the rest of the way and is a free agent this winter, so adding him is probably not precluded for financial reasons. Davis has a big fan in Mike Maddux who resurrected his career in Milwaukee. In two of his past three seasons, Davis has done his best pitching in September. There’s no reason for Arizona to hold on to him.

The Diamondbacks would also make Jon Garland available, but he’s like, you know, really bad and RBiA has been very unkind to him.

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Armchair GM Roundtable: Trade Deadline Edition

Back by popular demand, another mind-tingling edition of Armchair Roundtable and once again it’s huge.

Yesterday morning, I assembled Our Leader (Evan Grant), the Godfather (Jamey Newberg: The Newberg Report), and The Wonder Kid (Joey Matschulat, founder of Baseball Time in Arlington) in a chat room to kick around the Rangers options at the trade deadline.

Make the jump for an explosive edition of Armchair Roundtable where I think we manage to illustrate just how difficult the decisions will be for the Rangers as they engage in trade discussions this week.

Plus, we find out what kind of ice cream Jamey, Evan and Gerry Fraley favor.

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New York Blogger: Cure For The Mets Is Hiring John Hart, Buck Showalter

A guy in New York has a very long treatise on rebuilding the Mets. His solution: Hire John Hart as GM and Buck Showalter as manager. (Hat tip to AJM for having already linked to it).

Form your own opinions.

Armchair Farm Director Roundtable

And it’s huge. I gathered up a couple of my best baseball-talkin’ buddies for what turned out to be about a two-hour discussion of the Rangers farm system yesterday.

The truth is that I engage in these sessions with Jason Parks from Baseball Time in Arlington and Jason Cole, who commands lonestardugout.com , at least two or three times a week via IM sessions, but never for this long at one time and never with all three of us gathered together in one chat room.

I have enormous respect for both of these guys. If you are into the farm system and you aren’t reading their stuff, you are really missing out, as you will quickly realize after you make the jump to take in more prospect talk than anyone ought to want or need in one sitting.

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Homestand Helper: Rangers Vs. Oakland

Arlington is a nice six-day layover for the Rangers in between trips to the coasts. After spending a week in Toronto and Baltimore, the Rangers return home for six games before heading out to Seattle, Oakland and Seattle. Weather permitting, the Rangers are in a stretch of 20 consecutive days with game – the maximum allowed by the collective bargaining agreement – that ends on Mother’s Day (May 10) with a game at Chicago.

Tuesday: Rangers vs. Oakland, 7:05 (KRLD-105.3 FM, Ch. 27)

Probable starters: Rangers RHP Kevin Millwood (1-2, 2.10 ERA) vs. LHP Brett Anderson (0-2, 5.89 ERA)

Worth noting: The Rangers begin play against the AL West. Thirteen of the next 19 games are against division foes. Last year, the Rangers went 30-27 within the division, only the second time they have won as many as 30 intradivision games since the league went to an unbalanced schedule in 2001. Ownership of the A’s, manager Ron Washington’s old club, accounted for the difference. The Rangers were 12-7 against Oakland last year and are 22-16 against the A’s under Washington.

Giveaways/Promotions: None

Ticket deals: Free Kid Tuesday. Tickets for kids 13 and under are free in all seating sections, excluding All You Can Eat Seats.  One free child ticket is available with every full-price adult ticket purchased.

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Pitching & Defensive Inefficiency

Following up on my look at the Rangers defensive metrics, I decided to take a closer look at the impact that the defensive inefficiency of the 2008 Rangers had on the pitching staff.

I start off with a fairly detailed look at Kevin Millwood and then look at the staff more generally and uncover something that underscores just how important it was for the Rangers to make improving infield defense a high priority for 2009.

Here’s a hint: You know the prevailing theory that it helps to be a ground ball pitcher at RBiA? Turns out, not so much. It just might be possible that the Rangers — by adding Elvis Andrus to the mix — have made one of the most important pitching upgrades in years without making a single significant addition to the staff.

I ask your forgiveness in advance for the acute case of tired-head I’m about to plague most of you with, but I’ll invite you to make the jump for more baseball staty stat-dork goodness nonetheless.

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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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Farm Futures: Back from Surprise

I always come home a bit disappointed in who I didn’t get to see in action (Neil Ramirez, Wilmer Font, Blake Bevan, Kasey Kiker this time), but then again it’s always interesting to come across a standout I didn’t expect (Derek Holland & Kennil Gomez last year; Ian Kinsler in 2004; Edinson Volquez in 2005).

After the jump, I’ll empty out my notebook of thoughts and observations on who stood out and why during my four days in the desert.

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The Very Tricky “First Post”

First, I realize I am moving in to your apartment building here at this new blog, so I will try not to get too carried away with my normal dogmatic ways in the early going. Then again, I am sure I will go back to being me at any second.

Some of you might listen to Sportsradio 1310 the Ticket and might be familiar with my particular program (BaD Radio), and if so, you already know that I am ready to debate anything and everything under the sports sun. I also will spend a good amount of time trying to win those debates (because what fun is a debate if you lose?)

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Today’s Watch List

1.The game vs. the White Sox. It’s on FSN Southwest at 2:05 p.m.  with Josh Lewin and Tom Grieve. I got Josh warmed up for Seinfeld references yesterday with some talk about his favorite Seinfeld lines. I’m relatively certain Josh will share his with you.  Mine: “Bad chicken, man. Mess you up.”  In second: “I’ve got the Kavorka.” Oh, by the way, this was for your watch list. I’ll actually be at the game.

2. Always entertaining when White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen and Rangers starter Vicente Padilla match up. Guillen basically thinks Padilla is an insane mound assassin. This all stems from Padilla hitting three batters in a pair of starts against the White Sox in 2006.

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My “To Watch” List for Today

1. Brandon McCarthy’s performance in the “B” game against Kansas City this morning. The starting rotation is essentially set with Kevin Millwood, Vicente Padilla, Matt Harrison, Scott Feldman and McCarthy. The only thing that could force a change is an injury and McCarthy has, to date, been the most fragile of the bunch. McCarthy said yesterday that his bit of shoulder stiffness was nothing out of the ordinary, just the typical stuff that gets worked out over the course of a spring. But given his history – he’s pitched just 121 innings for the Rangers the last two seasons – the club felt it being overly cautious was the better way to go.

2. Andruw Jones 10 or so at-bats. He’ll lead off each of the seven innings of the “B” game and then play nine innings in the “A” game. I incorrectly reported his “out” date yesterday – it’s actually March 20, not March 15 – but that’s still just two weeks away. Jones can afford to grope for his swing for another day or two, but he’s got to start showing some degree of “getting it” again quickly. If not, the Rangers will make the decision about his “out” day for him.

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