Sorry if this entry seems kinda thrown together. I'm trying to bang this out between jobs. My goal for the first 10 or so entries is to try to put one out a day in order to get a feel for what I like as far as format and such. With this specific entry I am going to outline 3 aspects of the Rangers as The Ugly, The Bad, and The Good. (And I just noticed that Jayson Stark has a similar series of blogs...but he sucks and is a Phillies fan so who cares). I think this will be a theme I bring back when I feel fit, and I feel it fit to fire the first one up.
The Ugly- Joe Nathan. No two ways about it. Nathan came into last night's game with a two run lead. There will be loses (I refuse to say "You can't win 'em all" seriously), I understand that. But the problem I have is that Nathan was one of the best closers in the league up until last year, out thrown by Rivera and very few others. It seems weird that the Ranger's closer has more losses than all of the starters combined. Now I understand that we are a whole week into the season, but he has both losses. He has lost 2 out of his 3 appearances this year. Now, do I believe we need to jump ship, move him to middle relief, and move Adams to closer? Not exactly yet. He might just need to get back that feel for the ball, and it may take just a little more time. Wash might need to monitor Nathan more closely in games in which he pitched the night before. They're paying this guy $14 mil to do a job, and Wash is not one to normally make brash decisions. I say that, but a switch of Nathan and Adams at this time in the season would be about a few weeks earlier (I could be a little off) than two years ago when the Ranger's did the same thing with Frank Francisco and Neftali Feliz. I say sit the guy tonight, and possibly tomorrow against the Twins, then see what he's got. Showing faith with give Nathan confidence, and that may be all he needs to get everything back together.
The Bad- Ranger's Run Manufacturing Abilities. Ok, well its not really that bad, but just something I've noticed. As of today the Rangers have 11 homers scoring a combined 18 runs. The reason why I am bringing this up is because the team is going on the road now and one of their stops is The Motor City. It is known as one of the most hitter-unfriendly parks. I would like to see more ropes to left, and bloops for base hits. It will show that they Rangers can move around the bases and get runs from something else besides the long ball. One stat that I think shows how they have not been getting on base and getting a good amount of runs in is stolen bases. They are at 3. This team has the speed, or at least they did last year. The weird thing is it took them 6 games to get a stolen base, which happened last night. The crazy part is it was done by their catcher. Mind you there were 2 more steals today, so that is going in the right direction. But it seems like this team is becoming the team of the 90's, but with pitching. Now, I am not trying to complain and say stop hitting homeruns, I'm just saying this could be a concern if there is no flexibility within this club when it comes to hitting.
The Good- Starters. A few days ago, I would have said the relievers. But, we've already touched on one reason why they are not in this portion. The starters have pitched 3 shutouts in their starts in 6 days. I also believe that every starter has gone at least 6 innings into the game, except Yu (5 2/3). Also, every starter, omitting Darvish again, has has got a quality start, 6 innings pitched with 3 or less earned runs. They good. We are seeing the veteran, Colby Lewis, step up and try and change his habit of giving up a ton of homers and getting pop-ups to stay as close to the infield as possible. Dutch had a slightly rocky first game but has improved with todays start. Matt Harrison threw a great game, keeping the bats off the ball by only allowing 4 hits. Darvish showed his stuff, maybe a little later in his first appearance than would be wanted, but he will hone in on it and be great. Neftali showed that he can stretch out and go deeper than 5 innings. I know this is a very early assessment of the starting rotation, but its looking very good so far.
Well, I am having to cut this one off here in order to not be too late to work. Last night's game was fun until...well...you know. Wish i could have ended my Ranger's 4 game attending in a row thingy with all wins, but things happen. At any rate I plan on skipping the Yankee's series completely due to the obnoxiousness of their fans and will probably catch a couple Rays games. Until next time...
FYR
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
If it ain't broke, go ahead and fix it
Went to last nights game, which was my 4th this season and third in a row. This was the first game I bought a ticket for this year. I was really looking forward to seeing Neftali in his first start as a MLB pitcher.
When I bought the ticket, probably about a month and a half ago or so, I asked my old roommate if he wanted to go. Knowing he is a pretty good Rangers fan and that he lived in Abilene, I knew that he would pony up some cash to get pretty good seats. So I checked the hub and got tickets for section 15, row 2 for 40 bucks each after all was said and done and we were very pleased with the selection.
I was also excited to find out last week that Nefty would be going up against fellow Irving, Tx product Blake Beavan. That kid looks like he is going to have a great career, and will go far as long as he gets away from the Mariners. I really want to see Justin Smoak do well. I have a soft spot for him, I think just because he was supposed to be our saving grace from Chris Davis. He was exciting two years ago to watch, especially with his first homer in the all you can eat seats, but never really got his BA high enough to be deadly. He will be good one day.
Anyways, Neftali came out of the gate with stuff that reminded me of the previous night with a walk to start off the game. Nefty quickly was able to gain control of his fastball and get it over the plate. He walked Ichiro, putting Figgins on second. But soon after Smoak got the GIDP and ended the inning. He then sat down the next 8 batters in order. He good.
I think I read somewhere that he threw his fastball something like 70% the first time through the order, then only threw it 40% after that. I'm not going to bore you with numbers from the game, but I find this facinating. Feliz's goto pitch when he was a closer was of course his fastball. He relied on it because he could blow it by the batters at 98 or higher consistently. My worry going into this season with Neftali starting was his secondary pitches. The fact that he started mixing in more changeups and his slider is fantastic. Shows his versitility.
Another fact about the game that got me floored with Feliz is that he threw 108 pitches. Being a closer last year he would throw 1 inning for normally around 15 pitches, give or take. Be able in 4 months to build your stamina to handle the work load of a seasoned starter is very impressive. I am aware that Neftali did start in the minors, and was damn good. But I heard a few writers say how difficult it could be moving from throwing a ton of pitches, to closing, then going back to starting. Another thing I take away from this pitch count is that Wash has faith. I think that may be huge for Neftali's confidence. When Nolan came into this organization, he said that this team will no longer put pitchers on a pitch limit, and that they were done when they were finished. Seems like everyone is on board with that philosophy, which shows with letting Nefty, and Darvish for that matter, go as long as he did.
Aaaaand finally, to talk about the other performing portions of the game real quick. The only run was scored by Mike Young on a Murph hit. Mike got a double with Beltre already on base. Beltre got caught in the run down going from second to third, allowing Young to get on second. Young moved over to third on a wild pitch. Then Murph did what he's done more than half the time this season, get a hit. I've always viewed him as clutch, but he has really stepped it up to another level this year it seems. And speaking of another level, there is our bullpen. Adams, one of my two favorite Ranger's (Beltre's the other), came in and shut down 3 in order. Joe Nathan did the same. So far in this season, Nathan is the only pitcher to give up any earned runs, just the one homer. This gives the Texas Ranger bullpen a .63 ERA. They good.
This team looks complete, and I am very pleased with it. They have the same goal, with the same intensity. Things are working.
FYR
When I bought the ticket, probably about a month and a half ago or so, I asked my old roommate if he wanted to go. Knowing he is a pretty good Rangers fan and that he lived in Abilene, I knew that he would pony up some cash to get pretty good seats. So I checked the hub and got tickets for section 15, row 2 for 40 bucks each after all was said and done and we were very pleased with the selection.
I was also excited to find out last week that Nefty would be going up against fellow Irving, Tx product Blake Beavan. That kid looks like he is going to have a great career, and will go far as long as he gets away from the Mariners. I really want to see Justin Smoak do well. I have a soft spot for him, I think just because he was supposed to be our saving grace from Chris Davis. He was exciting two years ago to watch, especially with his first homer in the all you can eat seats, but never really got his BA high enough to be deadly. He will be good one day.
Anyways, Neftali came out of the gate with stuff that reminded me of the previous night with a walk to start off the game. Nefty quickly was able to gain control of his fastball and get it over the plate. He walked Ichiro, putting Figgins on second. But soon after Smoak got the GIDP and ended the inning. He then sat down the next 8 batters in order. He good.
I think I read somewhere that he threw his fastball something like 70% the first time through the order, then only threw it 40% after that. I'm not going to bore you with numbers from the game, but I find this facinating. Feliz's goto pitch when he was a closer was of course his fastball. He relied on it because he could blow it by the batters at 98 or higher consistently. My worry going into this season with Neftali starting was his secondary pitches. The fact that he started mixing in more changeups and his slider is fantastic. Shows his versitility.
Another fact about the game that got me floored with Feliz is that he threw 108 pitches. Being a closer last year he would throw 1 inning for normally around 15 pitches, give or take. Be able in 4 months to build your stamina to handle the work load of a seasoned starter is very impressive. I am aware that Neftali did start in the minors, and was damn good. But I heard a few writers say how difficult it could be moving from throwing a ton of pitches, to closing, then going back to starting. Another thing I take away from this pitch count is that Wash has faith. I think that may be huge for Neftali's confidence. When Nolan came into this organization, he said that this team will no longer put pitchers on a pitch limit, and that they were done when they were finished. Seems like everyone is on board with that philosophy, which shows with letting Nefty, and Darvish for that matter, go as long as he did.
Aaaaand finally, to talk about the other performing portions of the game real quick. The only run was scored by Mike Young on a Murph hit. Mike got a double with Beltre already on base. Beltre got caught in the run down going from second to third, allowing Young to get on second. Young moved over to third on a wild pitch. Then Murph did what he's done more than half the time this season, get a hit. I've always viewed him as clutch, but he has really stepped it up to another level this year it seems. And speaking of another level, there is our bullpen. Adams, one of my two favorite Ranger's (Beltre's the other), came in and shut down 3 in order. Joe Nathan did the same. So far in this season, Nathan is the only pitcher to give up any earned runs, just the one homer. This gives the Texas Ranger bullpen a .63 ERA. They good.
This team looks complete, and I am very pleased with it. They have the same goal, with the same intensity. Things are working.
FYR
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Disclaimer!!!
This is kind of a test of sorts. I have thought about a blog for the last few years to kind of thought about creating a blog of sorts about the rangers. Recently by buddy, Eric, over at www.baseballbalk.blogspot.com said it would be cool to post on his blog. After trying to bang out a few complete thoughts, I figured I should go ahead and make my own blog and not take up his space. So, here it is.
To go ahead and warn you, I favored my math classes in school much more than English, so I apologize for the number of fragments, run ons, and various other grammatical errors you will encounter during this blog.
The reason I have thought about blogging about the rangers as of the very recent is because I love talking to my friends about them. Big duh reason I understand. But I feel that if a friend reads a topic or game or whatever I ramble out on here they might want to elaborate on the topic. Which is my main goal, that and to have something to go back and read about what was going on with me in the past, until blogspot decides to go offline (ie. geocities.com, rip).
As far as the name of the blog goes, it's kind of a thing I coined at the beginning of last year after ranger's wins. You (see what I didn't do there? #darvish) can figure out what the acronym FYR is. I try to keep my online content around PG, just to make sure everyone is happy. But, for some reason the acronym has kind of stuck with me, and I enjoy saying after wins, and a few friends dig it, so I guess it stays for now until something better pops in my head.
At any rate, I appreciate you even reading this. I will be posting a blog in the morning about tonight's game and about what I think about it, which I am looking forward to. I would try and work something out tonight but after my 3rd game in a row, I'm pretty tired, dog tired.
Again, thanks for reading it friends, and be excellent to each other!
FYR
To go ahead and warn you, I favored my math classes in school much more than English, so I apologize for the number of fragments, run ons, and various other grammatical errors you will encounter during this blog.
The reason I have thought about blogging about the rangers as of the very recent is because I love talking to my friends about them. Big duh reason I understand. But I feel that if a friend reads a topic or game or whatever I ramble out on here they might want to elaborate on the topic. Which is my main goal, that and to have something to go back and read about what was going on with me in the past, until blogspot decides to go offline (ie. geocities.com, rip).
As far as the name of the blog goes, it's kind of a thing I coined at the beginning of last year after ranger's wins. You (see what I didn't do there? #darvish) can figure out what the acronym FYR is. I try to keep my online content around PG, just to make sure everyone is happy. But, for some reason the acronym has kind of stuck with me, and I enjoy saying after wins, and a few friends dig it, so I guess it stays for now until something better pops in my head.
At any rate, I appreciate you even reading this. I will be posting a blog in the morning about tonight's game and about what I think about it, which I am looking forward to. I would try and work something out tonight but after my 3rd game in a row, I'm pretty tired, dog tired.
Again, thanks for reading it friends, and be excellent to each other!
FYR
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