The first camp puts the blame on the coaches and manager, Ron Washington: The players are not hitting because of Dave Magadan, and the game is being mismanaged by Ron Washington.
The other camp is putting it on the players, although I only usually see a few names attached to this belief.
I do not belong to the first camp, because I find it hard to believe that Magadan somehow took away the hitting groove of all the players (it's everyone, not just a few, but we will get to that). Next, the complaints I've seen about Ron haven't played out to prove the points. The first major complaint over a month ago was that, "Ron needs to figure out this lineup, we have the wrong person in the two hole." Since then we've seen the lineup play musical chairs, and never found the "winning" magical combination.
I do belong to the second camp, although I think the fault is on more of the players than a few.
The team is not performing and it is frustrating and hard to watch.
I don't fault anyone for having upset and angered emotions about watching their team crumble.
However, I do think you should remove some of the knee-jerk reaction and include some facts to see why we are where we are.
First: Injuries
Wash has been in some tough spots injury wise and it has caused us to play some players that we really shouldn't be playing.This is almost a 25 man roster of injuries:
Date | Player | Status | Injury |
07/12/2013 | Justin Grimm | Day-to-Day | Left game - sore right forearm |
07/07/2013 | Lance Berkman | 15-Day DL | Left hip inflammation |
07/07/2013 | Yu Darvish | 15-Day DL | Upper back strain |
07/06/2013 | Nick Tepesch | 15-Day DL | Right elbow inflammation |
06/21/2013 | Craig Gentry | 15-Day DL | Fractured left hand |
06/13/2013 | Jeff Baker | 15-Day DL | Sprained right thumb |
06/07/2013 | Nelson Cruz | Day-to-Day | Hamstring |
06/07/2013 | Michael Kirkman | 60-Day DL | Cutaneous lymphoma in right triceps |
06/06/2013 | Alexi Ogando | 15-Day DL | Right shoulder inflammation |
06/06/2013 | Mitch Moreland | 15-Day DL | Strained right hamstring |
06/01/2013 | Adrian Beltre | Day-to-Day | Left game - Left hamstring tightness |
05/18/2013 | Ian Kinsler | 15-Day DL | Right intercostal strain |
05/16/2013 | Alexi Ogando | 15-Day DL | Right biceps tendinitis |
05/06/2013 | A.J. Pierzynski | 15-Day DL | Strained right oblique |
04/20/2013 | Nick Tepesch | Day-to-Day | Left game - right arm bruise |
04/11/2013 | Justin Miller | 60-Day DL | Recovery from right elbow surgery |
04/07/2013 | Matt Harrison | 60-Day DL | Inflamed nerve in lower back |
04/07/2013 | Yu Darvish | Day-to-Day | Left game - blister |
03/24/2013 | Neftali Feliz | 60-Day DL | Recovery from right elbow surgery |
03/22/2013 | Joakim Soria | 60-Day DL | Recovery from right elbow surgery |
03/22/2013 | Colby Lewis | 60-Day DL | Recovery from right elbow surgery |
03/22/2013 | Martin Perez | 15-Day DL | Cracked ulna bone, left forearm |
Who are some who helped fill in the gaps:
CATCHER | |||||
Name | AVG | OBP | SLG | wOBA | |
Robinson Chirinos | 0.247 | 0.318 | 0.384 | 0.31 | |
First Base | |||||
Name | AVG | OBP | SLG | wOBA | |
Robinson Chirinos | 0.247 | 0.318 | 0.384 | 0.31 | |
Jeff Baker | 0.266 | 0.315 | 0.441 | 0.329 | |
Chris McGuiness | 0.232 | 0.308 | 0.369 | 0.299 | |
Second Base & Short Stop | |||||
Name | AVG | OBP | SLG | wOBA | |
Jurickson Profar | 0.253 | 0.322 | 0.39 | 0.313 | |
Leury Garcia | 0.248 | 0.285 | 0.33 | 0.271 | |
Third Base | |||||
Name | AVG | OBP | SLG | wOBA | |
Jurickson Profar | 0.253 | 0.322 | 0.39 | 0.313 | |
OutField | |||||
Name | AVG | OBP | SLG | wOBA | |
Jurickson Profar | 0.253 | 0.322 | 0.39 | 0.313 | |
Leonys Martin | 0.273 | 0.327 | 0.419 | 0.325 | |
Jeff Baker | 0.266 | 0.315 | 0.441 | 0.329 | |
Engel Beltre | 0.254 | 0.292 | 0.356 | 0.284 | |
Starting Pitchers | |||||
Name | K/9 | BB/9 | HR/9 | BABIP | |
Josh Lindblom | 7.4 | 3.6 | 1.3 | 0.298 | |
Ross Wolf | 5 | 3.3 | 1.1 | 0.314 | |
Matt Harrison | 6 | 2.9 | 1 | 0.301 | |
Relief Pitchers | |||||
Name | K/9 | BB/9 | HR/9 | ERA | |
Neal Cotts | 9.7 | 4.1 | 0.8 | 3.63 | |
Cory Burns | 8.2 | 3.5 | 0.8 | 3.77 | |
Joe Ortiz | 6 | 2.5 | 1.2 | 4.33 | |
Wilmer Font | 9.8 | 6.2 | 1.3 | 4.8 | |
Kyle McClellan | 5.5 | 3.1 | 1.3 | 4.86 | |
Ross Wolf | 5 | 3.3 | 1.1 | 5.08 | |
Josh Lindblom | 7.4 | 3.6 | 1.3 | 4.25 |
Second: Performance
I think you have to put our teams performance directly back on the people walking up to the plate and taking the at-bats. The biggest thing that stands out to me is the inability for the team to string together any sort of offense. During a game, you will see moments of offense: the base hit, the kinsler double, a Cruz or Beltre homer. Unfortunately, these are rarely chained together to manufacturer any sort of offense. We have the 3rd highest GIDP in the American League, and have also left 710 on base. That's a whole lotta runs that just never came to the plate.GIDP:
# | Name | GDP |
1 | Adrian Beltre | 13 |
2 | Nelson Cruz | 13 |
3 | Elvis Andrus | 13 |
4 | Mitch Moreland | 11 |
5 | A.J. Pierzynski | 9 |
6 | David Murphy | 9 |
The truth is currently, no one on the team is having a year including those we count on the most.
Is it possible for an entire team to slump at the same time?
Recent Performance (Since All Star Break)
# | Name | G | PA | H | HR | R | RBI | SB | AVG | OBP | SLG |
1 | Elvis Andrus | 10 | 42 | 12 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 0.333 | 0.415 | 0.389 |
2 | Craig Gentry | 4 | 13 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0.4 | 0.462 | 0.7 |
3 | David Murphy | 9 | 24 | 7 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0.304 | 0.333 | 0.435 |
4 | Geovany Soto | 3 | 11 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0.333 | 0.455 | 0.444 |
5 | Engel Beltre | 3 | 12 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0.333 | 0.333 | 0.417 |
6 | Jeff Baker | 4 | 10 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.5 |
7 | Jurickson Profar | 6 | 20 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.313 | 0.389 | 0.313 |
8 | Ian Kinsler | 10 | 44 | 9 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 1 | 0.237 | 0.295 | 0.342 |
9 | Leonys Martin | 9 | 29 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0.231 | 0.25 | 0.308 |
10 | Adrian Beltre | 10 | 42 | 9 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0.225 | 0.262 | 0.325 |
11 | A.J. Pierzynski | 10 | 41 | 9 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0.22 | 0.22 | 0.293 |
12 | Nelson Cruz | 9 | 39 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0.171 | 0.256 | 0.343 |
13 | Mitch Moreland | 10 | 39 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0.056 | 0.128 | 0.139 |
The funny thing about the numbers since the All-Star Break, is the players I see fan tweets saying "DFA ___" or "Why does Wash still putting him in the lineup?" are some of our folks who are performing the best since the ASB.
How to Unbreak the Rangers
So what's the answer?Other than keep doing the right things and the right things will eventually pay off, I don't know.
In my opinion, we have some serious bats in our lineup that just aren't performing. When 2/3's of your lineup is not producing and causing inning ending outs and double plays with RISP, that's a major problem.
We need to bring in a new bat or two who haven't caught the "slump disease", and then break up the regular faces in our current lineup that are causing the Flyout, ground out, strike out cycle that we are seeing after we get a runner or two on.
Two days left until trade deadline, Let's see what JD brings in!
That's the way the baseball go.
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