2012 season thread

[guitarmy21b]

Once I get settled I should be able to watch the team on mlb.tv now that I'm out of the blackout area. What sucks is that now I'm an hour ahead and I have to wake up at 5AM every day. Small price to pay to be in bomb tech school I suppose.

 

[Windingmywatch]

Once I get settled I should be able to watch the team on mlb.tv now that I'm out of the blackout area. What sucks is that now I'm an hour ahead and I have to wake up at 5AM every day. Small price to pay to be in bomb tech school I suppose.

Dang ... sure makes those west coast trips a pain for you.

 

[guitarmy21b]

Dang ... sure makes those west coast trips a pain for you.

Yeah I doubt I'll even try to watch those

 

[jaar01]

Newberg's report:
Four more strikeouts in four official at-bats for Josh Hamilton last night. Since June 2, he’s hitting .188/.278/.388, an 90-plate-appearance stretch that includes 32 strikeouts (I won’t drill it down to what’s happened over the last six games, as I try to keep this stuff PG-13 at worst).

Compare the first 90 plate appearances that Albert Pujols had in his historically bad start this year – .226/.278/.310 with 12 strikeouts.

Michael Young’s numbers are way down across the board, as are Mike Napoli’s.

Like Young, Ian Kinsler is putting up a career-low OPS, and Kinsler has already matched his 2011 error output and his career high in failed stolen base attempts.

Nelson Cruz is having his least productive season since becoming a full-time player, and he’s regressed defensively.

Mitch Moreland, like Elvis Andrus and David Murphy and Craig Gentry, has taken a significant step forward offensively, but a hamstring strain planted him on the disabled list, where he hangs out with Rangers pitchers Derek Holland and Colby Lewis and Alexi Ogando and Neftali Feliz and Koji Uehara, all of whom were injured in the last five weeks.

A stretch during which the Angels have gone 24-8.

Texas is not a better team without Moreland and Holland and Lewis and Ogando and Feliz and Uehara – the kind of shrewd observation that you’re welcome to Favorite – but get this:

In the 35 games Feliz has missed, the Rangers (who have a .618 win percentage for the season) are playing .600 baseball.

In Holland’s 19 games on the disabled list: .684.

Ogando’s 14: .786.

Uehara’s 11: .818.

Moreland’s six (and, to round things out, Lewis’s three): .667.

A battered, decimated Rangers club, with three-fifths of its rotation shelved and several of its key hitters scuffling and the defense playing beneath its capability and five rookies on the current pitching staff, has won six straight series, matching the season-opening high.

Has won 10 of 12, 13 of 16, and 14 of 18.

Has three wins out of four starts from eighth and ninth starters, which is three wins more than Cliff Lee has in his 12 starts.

Has its best-ever record after 76 games.

Has the most wins in baseball.

And has allowed Los Angeles to creep only 3.5 games closer over that 24-8 run.

Over the next five weeks the Rangers will get a lot healthier (with some potentially positive residual effects of all the down time for its sidelined pitchers), and they’ll also get stronger another way, when Jon Daniels pulls the trigger on a key trade or two.

There’s a lot to be bitter about, if that’s your thing. Pitching injuries and offensive regressions and botched rundowns and bat hurls can be irritating, but what club owners and general managers and the ticket-buying fan base pay for are wins, and if a night on which a newly acquired veteran starter gives up a career-high number of hits and the defense provides a few hi-def moments of ugly and certain cogs in the offense continue blazing a trail of abject hacktasticness still ends up with daps in the middle of the infield, you take that and look forward to the next game, the next opponent, the next opportunity to keep this thing on the rails, firing well on the cylinders that are still in service, every day drawing closer to the time when impact roster reinforcements should arrive, in more ways than one.

 

[jaar01]

With a healthy rotation and if the bats come back around in the second half (MY, Nap, Kins, and Cruz), we should be in business come October. Its pretty amazing we are sitting at 47-29 with the injuries and offensive issues we've had this season.

 

[jta4437]

With a healthy rotation and if the bats come back around in the second half (MY, Nap, Kins, and Cruz), we should be in business come October. Its pretty amazing we are sitting at 47-29 with the injuries and offensive issues we've had this season.

No offense, but now we're doomed, you've posted something positive about the Rangers

 

[romeo212000]

No offense, but now we're doomed, you've posted something positive about the Rangers

My sentiments exactly. But props for the positive post.

 

[romeo212000]

ESPN MLB Mark Lowe on 15-day DL, Tateyama recalled

Now Lowe to the DL. Our pitching staff is just falling apart. We just need to keep our head above water till the all star break.

Perez is also slated to start Saturday.

 

[Windingmywatch]

Tough luck for Lowe. Strained intercostal muscle is not something that takes 2 weeks to get better. Scheppers just got a longer look.

Mark Lowe becomes latest Rangers pitcher to land on disabled list

Mark Lowe matched his career high with a three-inning outing on Monday, and then landed on the disabled list Friday with a strained right intercostal muscle.

Lowe becomes the sixth pitcher from the Opening Day roster on the disabled list, joining Neftali Feliz, Derek Holland, Alexi Ogando, Koji Uehara and Colby Lewis.

Reliever Yoshinori Tateyama was recalled from Triple A Round Rock.

Lowe has posted a 2.30 ERA over 26 relief appearances this season. He is eligible to return on July 11.

Lowe has had a history of injury issues throughout his career. Last season, he suffered a Grade 2 left hamstring strain on Sept. 21, and did not appear again until the World Series. He was on the DL for most of the 2010 season recovering from lower back surgery. Elbow injuries plagued him in 2006 and 2007.

-- Drew Davison

Read more here: Foul Territory: Mark Lowe becomes latest Rangers pitcher to land on disabled list

 

[guitarmy21b]

 

[Windingmywatch]

Nice ... especially CD's. He actually had to pitch 2 innings and get guys out. Even had 2 K's. That's ironic.

 

[guitarmy21b]

Saw that game. Struck put Adrian Gonzalez with a nasty breaking ball LOL

 

[scotsman1948]

man i can't get over our being 50-29 and 6.5 ahead of the Angels with the banged up pitching staff we've got. i'm still concerned we can keep it going and from this so is JD:

With four starting pitchers on the disabled list, the Rangers are scouting both Zack Greinke and Cole Hamels prior to the trade deadline according to Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports. In a video, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports says he's heard that Rangers GM Jon Daniels "is not messing around."

 

[Windingmywatch]

TEX is definitely looking at getting better and if teams that aren't in the hunt are willing to talk ... JD is sure willing to watch.

No telling if/when Holland returns and he's not going to be in a mid season groove when he does. Ditto Colby. Feliz potential return is over the horizon and if Uehara doesn't come back strong TEX needs Ogando back in the BP ... and TEX doesn't know when he's returning either. Then there is Oswalt whose back may hold out for the rest of the season ... going into hot July and hotter August. So there are lots of roster spots that have to be backed up doubly from here on out.

So Scotty ... I bet reports are accurate that you quoted. JD is very very serious. With LAA nearly matching win for win now ... and nothing assured going into post season ... there is no next year to wait for Perez ... or Ramirez ... or Grimm either.

TEX is going to make a deal between now and the deadline for a top SP ... and I wouldn't be surprised to see it happen as early as they got Lee on Jul 9, 2010... so something may go down in the next 2 weeks.

 

[romeo212000]

man i can't get over our being 50-29 and 6.5 ahead of the Angels with the banged up pitching staff we've got. i'm still concerned we can keep it going and from this so is JD:

With four starting pitchers on the disabled list, the Rangers are scouting both Zack Greinke and Cole Hamels prior to the trade deadline according to Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports. In a video, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports says he's heard that Rangers GM Jon Daniels "is not messing around."

You forgot to mention the part where a Rangers official told Gammons they weren't in on Greinke.

That said, that means nothing. Once again, if there's one thing we know for certain it is that none of us have any idea what JD has planned or how he'll pull it off. He's certainly something of a wizard at making deals.

 

[romeo212000]

TEX is definitely looking at getting better and if teams that aren't in the hunt are willing to talk ... JD is sure willing to watch.

No telling if/when Holland returns and he's not going to be in a mid season groove when he does. Ditto Colby. Feliz potential return is over the horizon and if Uehara doesn't come back strong TEX needs Ogando back in the BP ... and TEX doesn't know when he's returning either. Then there is Oswalt whose back may hold out for the rest of the season ... going into hot July and hotter August. So there are lots of roster spots that have to be backed up doubly from here on out.

So Scotty ... I bet reports are accurate that you quoted. JD is very very serious. With LAA nearly matching win for win now ... and nothing assured going into post season ... there is no next year to wait for Perez ... or Ramirez ... or Grimm either.

TEX is going to make a deal between now and the deadline for a top SP ... and I wouldn't be surprised to see it happen as early as they got Lee on Jul 9, 2010... so something may go down in the next 2 weeks.

I think Holland a Lewis will come back firing. However, the concern over Oswalt's back is definitely legitimate. We'll see if they get anything huge done. If they do you can bet it will be for a true TORP to pitch in game 1. Problem is, if you do that you do eventually create a logjam with Lewis, Holland, Yu, Harrison, and Oswalt. If all those guys get healthy and stay healthy I don't see any of them being booted from the rotation. And don't say 6 man rotation. That's not going to happen.

 

[Windingmywatch]

All true ... but JD works to ensure for double or triple redundancy. Holland and Lewis may come back firing but what if Holland and/or Lewis don't come back "on schedule" and what if they aren't at top form? JD has to plan for that possibility. And as you agreed the potential for Oswalt's back to blow out is not a small one.

Nolan used the age old line the other day "you can never have too much pitching". That should tell us all we need to know about what JD is doing. Maybe he's looking for an upgrade at C and a LH hitting 1bman too with the possibility that Mitch's return is delayed ... but I bet the first and last hour of every day JD is working to upgrade the pitching staff.

There is no next year.

 

[scotsman1948]

All true ... but JD works to ensure for double or triple redundancy. Holland and Lewis may come back firing but what if Holland and/or Lewis don't come back "on schedule" and what if they aren't at top form? JD has to plan for that possibility. And as you agreed the potential for Oswalt's back to blow out is not a small one.

Nolan used the age old line the other day "you can never have too much pitching". That should tell us all we need to know about what JD is doing. Maybe he's looking for an upgrade at C and a LH hitting 1bman too with the possibility that Mitch's return is delayed ... but I bet the first and last hour of every day JD is working to upgrade the pitching staff.

There is no next year.

totally agree. JD could be looking at C and 1st base but i think his 1st priority is always going to be pitching especially with the injury bug this season.

 

[guitarmy21b]

Had a dream last night that the Rangers beat the Royals in game 7 of the world series by pinch hitting a Frost Giant for Cruz. Seems legit.

 

[Windingmywatch]

Had a dream last night that the Rangers beat the Royals in game 7 of the world series by pinch hitting a Frost Giant for Cruz. Seems legit.

Sounds like a case of bad mushrooms ...