Monday, July 29, 2013

Unbreak the Rangers

There are two camps on why the Rangers are not performing.
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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