The Dallas/Fort
Worth Metroplex started its week trying to decide if they were Nolan guys (and
girls) or JD (Jon Daniels) guys…that was before the reported fist fight between
the team CEO and its General Manager.
Gone are Jackie Moore
– a guy with fifty years of baseball experience – and Dave Anderson,
only one year removed from his demotion from third to first. Ron Washington
meanwhile sits on a one year deal waiting to see if Jon Daniels renews him or
not, but the issue is sitting right there in the General Manager’s office.
I know, I
know…Jon Daniels is a baseball God. He
knows more about baseball than most people who played the game for fifty years
because his vast experience involved with the little league game fully prepared
him to play the stats geek to the high school players who were about to be
drafted, but let’s look at the year and understand the Rangers over achieved.
First off, I
predicted 86 wins and no playoffs. The
team hit 90 wins and while not in contention to do anything in the playoffs,
was on the cusp. Remember, they didn’t
have Neftali Feliz
in the rotation, i.e. who should have never been there. Matt Harrison
went out early and Colby Lewis was
never ready from injury. Between the
three, I have to imagine they would have found at least five extra wins, but
let’s face it, they didn’t need five extra, they needed one regular season win
more and they would have been in the post season. With all three, I think you have to wonder if
the AL West doesn’t end a little different.
Certainly, Cleveland or Tampa Bay comes to Arlington. So, it was a rough season.
At least Jon-boy
as there. He was good enough to bring us
Lance Berkman.
Hey, I can’t lie. Nothing says
dedication like begging a guy from his hospital bed to come play for your team
like JD apparently did with Berkman. And
for $10 measly million dollars we got an over-the-hill 1B/DH who produced a
wannabe ginormous six bombs and a .242/.340/.359 slash line while he joked
about bombing Wrigley Field less than twenty–four hours after the Boston
Marathon bombing. Brilliant pick up there JD…no power, no
average, and just like school in July, no class!
I know JD is
supposed be the Greek god of Baseball GMs, but let’s look at the career. This was Daniel’s first year as GM on his
own. Every other year he has had the
leadership of Nolan Ryan looking over his shoulder guiding him. Everyone brings up the Elvis Andrus trade where the Rangers got Andrus and everyone
else for Mark Teixeira, but who was looking over his shoulder making sure that
the trade wasn’t a Livan Hernandez for Mark Teixeira trade? Also, while we give JD all kinds of credit
for deals like that, what about Adrian Gonzalez who was sent to San Diego
for…who?
I know, I
know…what’s in the past is in the past, but JD did zero for the team this year. Alex Rios was an okay pickup at best and Matt Garza
was a net negative.
Alex Rios did at
least add another six homers in almost half as many as Berkman and hit a
respectable .280/.315/.457 while only drawing a $13M dollar salary. Meanwhile, Garza made only thirteen starts
for the Rangers and could only win four of them, while losing five, and drawing
no decisions in the other four only requiring $10.25M per.
The granddaddy of
all bad decisions though had to be forcing Jurickson Profar
up to the majors and playing him all over the place while he contributed almost
zero to the team.
Everyone calls
Profar the next Jose Reyes, but in his first 300 at bats, he hits only
.234/.308/.336 while making eight errors.
Really? Everyone was talking
about trading him straight up for Miami’s Giancarlo Stanton. Ha! It
would appear now that, you couldn’t get a healthy Brian Roberts for him – as
maybe he aint that special – yet JD had to force him up and expose it to everyone.
For Rangers fans,
I think you might want to consider that you missed the playoffs this year and
have some giant holes to fill. First,
designated hitter, and a catcher if AJ Pierzynski departs for the press box. Then there is the question of can the
rotation do again what it did this year, i.e. I am hoping no one is buying World Series tickets for next year or the year after because I think you are in full blown rebuild mode at this point.
To the questions, can the rotation repeat its success, I am guessing no,
as even Mike Maddux is looking for a reason to leave and is
considering the job
he wouldn’t interview for a few years ago.
Keep in mind that as good as the pitching was, they were only ninth best
in batting average against and tenth best in ERA. As far as Quality Starts go, they ranked
twenty-fifth, only allowing three or fewer runs in the first six through less
than half their games. There are only
thirty teams. What? Hello?
Do you hear the phone ringing there JD?
I am guessing it is the bullpen phone with that kind of performance out
of starters.
Meanwhile the
team batting average was a very good .262, seventh best in the majors, yet were
still behind the Los Angeles Angels. For
some reason they could not deliver when they had to yet the excuse was always
if only the offense would score more runs.
Well, they did score runs, but the overall team was wrong.
The game belongs
to Wash, but the team to JD. Who messed
up the stew Mr. Daniels?
This would be
what we call bad: no ‘when it counts’ offense, no plate setters, and no
pitching to go with. All of that makes
it very difficult to claim your personal greatness Mr. Daniels, when the results are
anything other than a World Series win. Let's face it, if you don't win the last game of your season, it isn't a good season. No matter what.
This is all
before we get to the middle infield issue of Kindler-Andrus-Profar. Well, the Rangers decided it was a good idea
to pay Ian Kinsler $15M a year for a guy who wasn’t that good a 2B, then signed
Andrus long term to play SS all while having Profar in the wings who now
plays…where?
The answer to the
question above: why western lawmen (aka Texas Rangers) are no good on a sinking
boat…because they don’t even tread water well, except when they are on their
high horse which for the Rangers I just don’t see anytime soon.
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