Thursday, July 16, 2009

Pitchers needed, inquire with Texas Rangers

The Texas Rangers once again enter the second half of the season looking like they are in contention for the AL West crown. And while the Rangers of the past of welted away with the August heat, this year's squad looks like they can be right in the thick of things with the Angels and possibly the Mariners until the end. That is if the Rangers will make a move to their pitching staff.
The downfall of the Rangers could be because of their starting rotation. While the Mariners have the best staff in the West and the Angels staff continues to get healthier, the Rangers starting rotation has been a roller coaster ride.
Kevin Millwood and Scott Feldman have been the two bright spots in the rotation, however neither can be considered a No. 1 ace, which both Los Angeles and Seattle have. Millwood started off the season great and is 12th in the league in ERA but has struggled as of late, losing three of his last four decisions. The worry on Millwood is the innings he already has put on his arm. He has thrown an AL high 130 innings and Millwood has only pitched over 200 innings once in the last five years. Can his arm stand up as the innings continue to mount and the Rangers make a push.
Feldman has had an impressive season, especially after not being two impressive his first four years with the Rangers. Feldman came into this year with seven career wins and a 4.97 ERA. In his second year as a starter, he has already surpassed his career win total (8-2 this season) and has a 3.83 ERA. But Feldman has never pitched 150 innings in a season (he is at 96.1 at the break) and has never pitched in the pennant stretch.
The Rangers also have Vicente Padilla, who has a decent 4.53 ERA but can he get through the rest of the season without another injury. Tommy Hunter has been a nice fill in but he has only started four games, is 1-1 with a 2.35 ERA, not enough of a sample to know what the Rangers are going to get the rest of the year. Then the combinations of Matt Harrison, Derek Holland and Dustin Nippert have done nothing to really help the winning cause in Texas.
The Rangers need to be players in the trade market for a pitcher if there are any hopes of making the playoffs for the first time in this decade.
The trade market for a pitcher is not very big with so many teams in contention, but there may be some names out there and of course the big one is Roy Halladay, and this is where the Rangers should make a play. First off , Halladay is not just a rental player as he has another year left on his contract. And the Rangers have the farm system to be able to possibly give the Blue Jays enough for the ace. The Rangers may not get the chance to get Halladay, but if they do they cannot balk at it. A few years back, Texas had a chance to get Josh Beckett from the Marlins, but did not want to give up Hank Blalock. How many would make that trade now? The Rangers are going to have to take some risk because they cannot be content to stay where they are and hope their pitching staff will magically get better down the stretch, especially through the hot and humid months of July and August.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

The All-Star blunder

Another installment of the MLB All-Star game tonight and once again, another All-Star blunder by those who run the show at MLB. Like the recent past, this year, the All-Star game "means something", or at least that is what we are trying to be brainwashed with. As we all know, the league that wins the All-Star game gets home field advantage in the World Series - and that is the All-Star blunder for the ages.
No All-Star game should have any impact on the rest of the season. This is suppose to be an exhibition game of the best of the best in the league but there should not be a price tag on the result. But after the "debacle" in Milwaukee in 2002 when the All-Star game finished in a 7-7 tie in 11 innings. The result of the game came from poor managing, where pitches were only used for one inning each and by the 11th, both teams were out of pitchers. But instead of just saying, this was a one time thing and making changes to make sure that a game would not be tied again, like adding more pitching, the brass of MLB decide to do the worst thing possible - make the game mean something.
The game is suppose to mean having fun, seeing Albert Pujols face Roy Halliday and other great matchups. But the problem in both those names and the other top names are going to be out of the game by the fourth inning, meaning they have no bearing on the final results, when it actually means something.
When Pittsburgh's Zach Duke is pitching to Baltimore's Adam Jones late in the game, are either player going to be thinking about, I need to do something so we can host the World Series this year? There are playing late in the game that should not have any bearing on where the World Series is going to be played now having that bearing.
Major League Baseball used to decide who hosted the World Series by switching off each year with NL one year and AL the next. That makes no sense, but it is still better than what we have now.
Take a page from basketball or hockey, the team with the best record hosts the World Series. That is how baseball does it with the divisional and league series, so why not the World Series.
While fans are allowed to vote on who plays in the All-Star game and players do not even go more than two or three innings during the game, than the All-Star game should have no deciding factor on anything to do with the rest of the season.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

No snub for Kinsler

Since the All-Star rosters were announced Sunday, there has been a small outcry for the snubbing of Texas Ranger second baseman Ian Kinsler.
While Kinsler still has a shot to be an All-Star depending on how the fans vote for the final spot, he did not deserve to be named to the team. Despite having a stellar start to the season, Kinsler has cooled down considerably and is now the third best second baseman in the American League behind Boston's Dustin Pedroia (who was voted to the All-Star starting lineup) and Aaron Hill (who was picked over Kinsler).
Kinsler got out of the 2009 gates faster than any other player and that is what the outcry is about. During the first month of the season, he was on fire, hitting .322 with seven home runs. During that span, he had a 6-for-6 game against Baltimore and had nine multiple hit games in the month.
But since that time, Kinsler has come back to reality and coming into the series against Seattle, is hitting a season-low .252. After the first month of the season, Kinsler has only eight multiple hit games after having nine in the first month alone.
Pedroia was the opposite of Kinsler, getting off to a slow start, but has been much more consistent than the Ranger second baseman. Pedroia only had five multiple hit games in April, but since then, he has tallied 22 multiple hit games.
Even with Pedroia edging out Kinsler in the fan voting, Toronto's Hill may be the best second baseman in the first half of the season. Hill has a higher batting average and OPS (on base plus slugging percentage) than the other two second baseman and has matched Kinsler in the home run department and trails the Ranger by one RBI.
Maybe it was Hill who got snubbed as he should be the starter for the AL with Pedroia on the bench. But in the end, Kinsler is where he should be, still battling to make the All-Star team.