Series Thread: Horrid Halos Head to Hollandless Texas

[saddles]

I was totally on board with the Garza move and that turned out to be a rather large pile of manure. So I'm not criticizing each move. JD got the best guy he could and with some luck, he might have thrown us over the top. Didn't happen. But again, I was all in for that move.

The only reason I was against the Garza move was that we were lacking on offense and Garza didn't help us there. I thought we needed two bats and one pitcher to compete and we still wound up two bats short. To me it was another case of JD needing to decide to go all in or stay out completely. In my opinion we needed too much for Garza to be of any help no matter how well he pitched. I also hated giving up CJ Edwards.

 

[donaldson79]

Just heard on Hitzges show that Martin is seeing the fewest pitches of any player, in the AL to date. Yikes.

Yeah. Just an example. There are more and could not think of them all. Who was the poster from Atlanta? Good poster.

I think you're referring to BLeslie (??).

There was a time when I very much enjoyed his posts. Then he said something which I thought was horseshit and I told him so. And he went completely bat-shit on me.

Honestly, in my mind he acted like a 16 year old girl who didn't get asked to the prom. He was screaming, "well, just block me then." With 3/4 exclamation points. So I did.

But like I said, I honestly enjoyed his post, until this. But anyone who would so overact to one disagreement isn't someone I'm real interested in, long term. Maybe that's just me.

 

[DT LUNA]

The problem I have is if it was a specific problem, then we could address it. But look at all the various aliments which have befallen this team.

MM and Choo - ankles which had nothing to do with training, Profar got hurt sleeping and he choose a conservative approach to his recovery, and so far hasn't worked. Adducci broke a finger (twice). Holland falls down some steps, now has an upper shoulder problem. Soto got hurt while playing and was a knee problem. Harrison has a bad back.

My point is, many if not most of these problems are not training/care related IMO.

Thanks for expounding on the point I was wanting to make.

 

[Windingmywatch]

Obviously that one specific example from a few days ago, no.

But if you look at the entirety of the Rangers situation over the past year and change, it's not a thundering criticism to suggest that the medical/training staff would benefit from some additional evaluation and/or oversight.

I didn't want to take the time to add up the contracts for Darvish, Holland, Harrison, Perez and ... who am I forgetting and figuring out the cost per inning in value that TEX is missing (or lost) from production the last two seasons. It is a huge amount. In conventional public business this loss of production would be accounted for on a company's SEC filings. In private business -- ownership will drill just as deep to figure out the problem and fix it.

It can't be all bad luck that that many pieces of the rotation have been or will be out of action at the same time. In business when you have that many pieces that aren't working in your organization compared to your competition over an extended period of time -- you don't chalk it up to bad luck -- you figure out what you are doing different than others.

Looking at this morning's injury report from MLB ... three teams stand out ... OAK has 5 of 7 on its injury report who are pitchers, TEX 7 of 10 and TBR 6 of 9. For all of the AL 42 of 65 (64%) on the injury report are pitchers. OAK, TEX and TBR possess 18 of the 42 pitchers who are out of action (42%). TEX alone accounts for 7 (17%). (Scanned the NL and no NL team approached the number of injured pitchers that these 3 AL teams experienced).

There are 5 AL pitchers out for the season ... 2 are TEX pitchers. There are 11 AL pitchers on the 60Day ... 3 are TEX pitchers. Other teams may have pitchers on the 15Day who you would think based on their projected return would be on the 60Day but the small number keeps them from having to make a roster move, unlike TEX.

The number of roster moves a team has to make increases the operating cost. Last year unprogrammed roster moves and potential moves still to be made this year for pitchers and position players cost TEX considerably higher operating cost than the budget planned.

Baseball is business. While not for the posters on some sports board to figure out the problem -- but management and ownership of business ought to figure out why Darvish, Holland, Harrison and Perez went out of production due to injury. It can't be just bad luck when considering the numbers across the league.

What is TEX (and OAK & TBR) doing or not doing in selecting and preparing its pitchers?

 

[Windingmywatch]

The only reason I was against the Garza move was that we were lacking on offense and Garza didn't help us there. I thought we needed two bats and one pitcher to compete and we still wound up two bats short. To me it was another case of JD needing to decide to go all in or stay out completely. In my opinion we needed too much for Garza to be of any help no matter how well he pitched. I also hated giving up CJ Edwards.

Bennie gave you a Winner Star already ... but I couldn't agree with you more. The Garza move was bad business from a field production standpoint. It may have made the fan base think you were making the one move needed -- but field managers under estimated what they would get from the existing offensive pieces. So we can chalk up losing CJ Edwards to a bad business decision driven by poor field management's estimate of production or game moves.

I think this was a core issue that quite a few here held for a lot longer time than it took for that problem to be identified and resolved.

 

[DT LUNA]

I didn't want to take the time to add up the contracts for Darvish, Holland, Harrison, Perez and ... who am I forgetting and figuring out the cost per inning in value that TEX is missing (or lost) from production the last two seasons. It is a huge amount. In conventional public business this loss of production would be accounted for on a company's SEC filings. In private business -- ownership will drill just as deep to figure out the problem and fix it.

It can't be all bad luck that that many pieces of the rotation have been or will be out of action at the same time. In business when you have that many pieces that aren't working in your organization compared to your competition over an extended period of time -- you don't chalk it up to bad luck -- you figure out what you are doing different than others.

Looking at this morning's injury report from MLB ... three teams stand out ... OAK has 5 of 7 on its injury report who are pitchers, TEX 7 of 10 and TBR 6 of 9. For all of the AL 42 of 65 (64%) on the injury report are pitchers. OAK, TEX and TBR possess 18 of the 42 pitchers who are out of action (42%). TEX alone accounts for 7 (17%). (Scanned the NL and no NL team approached the number of injured pitchers that these 3 AL teams experienced).

There are 5 AL pitchers out for the season ... 2 are TEX pitchers. There are 11 AL pitchers on the 60Day ... 3 are TEX pitchers. Other teams may have pitchers on the 15Day who you would think based on their projected return would be on the 60Day but the small number keeps them from having to make a roster move, unlike TEX.

The number of roster moves a team has to make increases the operating cost. Last year unprogrammed roster moves and potential moves still to be made this year for pitchers and position players cost TEX considerably higher operating cost than the budget planned.

Baseball is business. While not for the posters on some sports board to figure out the problem -- but management and ownership of business ought to figure out why Darvish, Holland, Harrison and Perez went out of production due to injury. It can't be just bad luck when considering the numbers across the league.

What is TEX (and OAK & TBR) doing or not doing in selecting and preparing its pitchers?

Appears you are addressing injuries mostly to pitchers and you make a good point. Although we may have a definite problem with pitcher preparation, I do not believe the same preparation applies to all the other injuries this team has encountered i.e. Rua and that was the point trying to be made.

 

[darrylgann]

Yeah. Just an example. There are more and could not think of them all. Who was the poster from Atlanta? Good poster.

Good ole Les. I've called him out a time or two.

 

[saddles]

I didn't want to take the time to add up the contracts for Darvish, Holland, Harrison, Perez and ... who am I forgetting and figuring out the cost per inning in value that TEX is missing (or lost) from production the last two seasons. It is a huge amount. In conventional public business this loss of production would be accounted for on a company's SEC filings. In private business -- ownership will drill just as deep to figure out the problem and fix it.

It can't be all bad luck that that many pieces of the rotation have been or will be out of action at the same time. In business when you have that many pieces that aren't working in your organization compared to your competition over an extended period of time -- you don't chalk it up to bad luck -- you figure out what you are doing different than others.

Looking at this morning's injury report from MLB ... three teams stand out ... OAK has 5 of 7 on its injury report who are pitchers, TEX 7 of 10 and TBR 6 of 9. For all of the AL 42 of 65 (64%) on the injury report are pitchers. OAK, TEX and TBR possess 18 of the 42 pitchers who are out of action (42%). TEX alone accounts for 7 (17%). (Scanned the NL and no NL team approached the number of injured pitchers that these 3 AL teams experienced).

There are 5 AL pitchers out for the season ... 2 are TEX pitchers. There are 11 AL pitchers on the 60Day ... 3 are TEX pitchers. Other teams may have pitchers on the 15Day who you would think based on their projected return would be on the 60Day but the small number keeps them from having to make a roster move, unlike TEX.

The number of roster moves a team has to make increases the operating cost. Last year unprogrammed roster moves and potential moves still to be made this year for pitchers and position players cost TEX considerably higher operating cost than the budget planned.

Baseball is business. While not for the posters on some sports board to figure out the problem -- but management and ownership of business ought to figure out why Darvish, Holland, Harrison and Perez went out of production due to injury. It can't be just bad luck when considering the numbers across the league.

What is TEX (and OAK & TBR) doing or not doing in selecting and preparing its pitchers?

To me it seems more than just bad luck, but I am not smart enough to figure it out one way or another. If I was in the Rangers organization I think I would do my best to find someone that could figure it out though. Something appears to be off kilter.

 

[True Rangers Fan]

It can't be all bad luck that that many pieces of the rotation have been or will be out of action at the same time. In business when you have that many pieces that aren't working in your organization compared to your competition over an extended period of time -- you don't chalk it up to bad luck -- you figure out what you are doing different than others.

Couldn't agree more. Let's say it is all coincidence and the worst run of injuries to ever hit a MLB franchise... would it hurt things at all to evaluate the medical/training department and see if there's possibly things that can be done to be better informed and prepared to prevent future injuries? Obviously, with the understanding that it's possible anything and everything is already being done towards that end.

If I'm a member of the Texas Rangers ownership, I'd at least take a quick pass just to see if there's anything that could be done to improve things in any way.

 

[donaldson79]

Couldn't agree more. Let's say it is all coincidence and the worst run of injuries to ever hit a MLB franchise... would it hurt things at all to evaluate the medical/training department and see if there's possibly things that can be done to be better informed and prepared to prevent future injuries? Obviously, with the understanding that it's possible anything and everything is already being done towards that end.

If I'm a member of the Texas Rangers ownership, I'd at least take a quick pass just to see if there's anything that could be done to improve things in any way.

.....from the standpoint of, if I'm the Rangers, what's the downside of researching this "potential" problem.

It may just be the numbers are falling our way right now, and over the next 4 seasons we don't have any. But again, as Bennie/you pointed out, why not do your diligence and look into it. Can't hurt, can it?

 

[Windingmywatch]

Appears you are addressing injuries mostly to pitchers and you make a good point. Although we may have a definite problem with pitcher preparation, I do not believe the same preparation applies to all the other injuries this team has encountered i.e. Rua and that was the point trying to be made.

I concentrated on starting pitchers because that's where TEX injuries most apparently differ from the rest of MLB.

In any case -- Ryan Rua makes $509k. Carlos Peguera makes $493k as his fill in. A sprained ankle and heel bone crack are outlier conditions not significant in numbers across the league or in lost time. Peguera's cost was already factored into production budget too in factoring the number of COFs TEX needed for the season. So from a business standpoint not significant in adverse production impact (measured in WAR).

Of more significance is that if Yu ($10mil), Harrison ($13.2mil), Holland ($7.4mil) and Perez ($1.3mil) were in production ... would TEX have had reason/need to acquire Yovani Gallardo ($14mil for 1 year) and Ross Detwiler ($3.5mil for 1 year)?

Yu and Holland were supposed to be in production when Gallardo was acquired to somewhat replace Harrison's and Perez' production. Their season WAR contributions would have totalled 4.6WAR based on career WAR/IP and a 200IP 2015. Gallardo is projected to achieve a 0.9 WAR for a 200IP 2015 campaign.

Gallardo costs TEX $14mil ... while Harrison and Perez cost TEX $14.5mil .. but Gallardo falls far short of even half of what Harrison and Perez production numbers would predict. Detwiler's career numbers project a 1.3WAR based on 200IP which is generous since his past RP numbers skew his value. But you can see he does not match Perez alone.

My point in all this is that when you have to make corrections or repairs in your production plan ... short term costs are much higher and may not deliver the results they are replaceing.

Bottom line -- Considering their cost ... I don't see Gallardo or Detwiler being part of TEX 2016 program so are basically just innings eaters in 2015. They are unprogrammed costs and ineffective in replacing the pitching value lost. This is the impact on the bottom line and the standings at the end of the season when 4/5 of your rotation is injured.

and ... thank goodness for Colby Lewis.

 

[romeo212000]

.....from the standpoint of, if I'm the Rangers, what's the downside of researching this "potential" problem.

It may just be the numbers are falling our way right now, and over the next 4 seasons we don't have any. But again, as Bennie/you pointed out, why not do your diligence and look into it. Can't hurt, can it?

I certainly don't have any issue with that. It's called due diligence, but to suggest the training staff is at fault for everything is pretty foolish. I know you didn't, but others have strongly hinted at that. Mostly out of frustration I'm sure.

 

[WastinSomeTime]

I was totally on board with the Garza move and that turned out to be a rather large pile of manure. So I'm not criticizing each move. JD got the best guy he could and with some luck, he might have thrown us over the top. Didn't happen. But again, I was all in for that move.

I was too. He just fell apart. He was better off pitching for a cellar dweller with no pressure as it turned out.

 

[True Rangers Fan]

I certainly don't have any issue with that. It's called due diligence, but to suggest the training staff is at fault for everything is pretty foolish. I know you didn't, but others have strongly hinted at that. Mostly out of frustration I'm sure.

If you're referring to me, I'll reassure you that was not my point.

 

[donaldson79]

I certainly don't have any issue with that. It's called due diligence, but to suggest the training staff is at fault for everything is pretty foolish. I know you didn't, but others have strongly hinted at that. Mostly out of frustration I'm sure.

Lordy, sometimes my brain can't communicate the easiest of thoughts (i.e. DUE diligence).

And on the second part, yeah, me too.

 

[donaldson79]

I was too. He just fell apart. He was better off pitching for a cellar dweller with no pressure as it turned out.

Some guys are like that. Big fish little pond, or play their best when nothings at stake kind of player.

See it a lot really.

 

[Windingmywatch]

If I am JD am going to write down in my notebook:

Only trade with winning teams. There are reasons losing teams are losing teams. Never ever make another trade with the Cubs or acquire a guy who just came from there. .

 

[Windingmywatch]

Evan Grant ‏@Evan_P_Grant 4m4 minutes ago
Rangers lineup per @RangerBlake 2B Odor DH Moreland 3B Beltre 1B Fielder RF Choo SS Andrus LF Peguero CF Martin C Chirinos

YESSSSS! Odor leading off!

 

[RevSader]

Would it be better with a "C" like Hamels or Porter?

Yes....Spelling names like Caleb or Cole with Ks is ridiculous.

 

[saddles]

I asked Evan earlier about the progress of Perez and Harrison. Here is his answer:

Both are headed back to Arizona this week. I think Perez will start to throw batting practice by the end of the month and Harrison, if schedule holds, should be 2-3 weeks behind that.