The Ron Washington Wish List
Over the last several years, manager Ron Washington has made it something of an ingrained ritual to leak his end-of-season "wish lists" to the local press, leaving not a trace of ambiguity as to exactly what he believes his team needs going forward. Whether those desires will go unfulfilled is another matter altogether.
Aside from his persistent pining for the retention of free agent-eligible outfielder Marlon Byrd, Washington -- via MLB.com's T.R. Sullivan -- believes that Texas needs a "veteran starting pitcher, a right-handed hitter and a left-handed relief specialist." Wonderful. So how does Texas go about satiating Washington's winter appetite?
Barring the acquisition of an injury-devalued starting pitcher (e.g. Ben Sheets, Justin Duchscherer, etc.), that first wish-list component likely won't be acquired through free agent channels ... and if by "veteran starting pitcher" we're talking about a viable, sturdy No. 4 starter on a pennant-contending team and not the fringe-riding Kris Bensons and Sidney Ponsons of the world, then Texas is probably going to have to sacrifice some upper-level pitching in order to make a trade for such a valuable entity.
[Wait, why not forgo that pitching depth-paring plan in favor of trading some offense? Well, given that the Achilles' heel of this 2009 squad has been the offense (as further evidenced by Wednesday evening's pathetic one-hit shutout in Anaheim), dealing away a Nelson Cruz or a David Murphy in the interest of acquiring more starting pitching doesn't sound quite so appealing as it might have 12 months ago. Tapping into the prospect reserves is another option, but so much of the farm system is either "untouchable" or accelerating through the lower levels that it's still going to take some upper-level talent to pull off such a swap.]
Snapping up an adequate lefty-hurling specialist shouldn't prove too terribly challenging; the Rangers' professional scouting department has proven itself adept at identifying potential bullpen jewels in the rough, as reflected by the immensely successful Darren O'Day acquisition. There are cheap options in the free agent pile. There will be non-roster invitees in abundance to sort through. I don't ordinarily advocate using spring training to decide "roster battles," but if ever there was such a competition to be decided by performance in exhibition games, the second-bullpen-lefty battle is one of them.
Insofar as the search for a right-handed hitter is concerned, money figures to be a prominent obstacle (as does the fact that there are few remotely appealing free agent first basemen, which is something Washington apparently covets), but there are two names that I suspect we'll see linked to Texas in print in the coming months, even if only in passing: Xavier Nady and Reed Johnson, both of whom are impending free agents and roughly .310/.380/.470-level hitters against southpaws in their careers.
The only possible catch? Both are coming off majorly debilitating injuries, with Nady in particular possibly being limited to DH-only duties ... but if that serves to depress their contractual demands into the Rangers' price range, it might just prove fruitful.
Injury News: First basemen Hank Blalock (mild concussion) and Chris Davis (strained hamstring) and outfielders Marlon Byrd (hip capsule strain) Nelson Cruz (injured ankle) are all day-to-day.
Quick Hits: Wednesday evening's 5-0, one-hit defeat at the hands of the Angels signified the Rangers' 13th shutout loss of the 2009 season -- a feat which hasn't been managed since 1992 (14 shutouts) ... Jim Reeves of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram extols pitching coach Mike Maddux for the marked improvement of the pitching staff ... Left-hander Matt Harrison plans to toss roughly 40 innings for the Arizona Fall League's Surprise Rafters.
Industry publication Baseball America recognized Robbie Ross (No. 7), Miguel Velazquez (No. 10), Tommy Mendonca (No. 11) and Braden Tullis (No. 20) as being among the top 20 prospects in the short-season Northwest League ... Jim Colborn, the Rangers' director of Pacific Rim operations, scouted 18-year-old Japanese southpaw Yusei Kikuchi on Monday; expect a more detailed post on this latest Far East object of intrigue sometime Friday.
11 Comments | in Analysis, Game Recaps, Rumors, The Season
Reader Comments (11)
I haven't actually seen these last few games. Are they essentially mailing it in?
Not to go hyper-critical on Wash, but I would prefer the manager to focus on closing out the season strong. Offseason wish lists can wait till the offseason in my opinion.
Who does he think will be pushed into a situation that they haven't already been through? Does he think Feliz is not ready to start? Maybe Holland need more time in the pen. I guess Hunter is not quite ready.
"We need one with experience that could help our younger kids move along," said the Texas manager, "so we don't have to push them into situations they're not ready for or can't handle."
Wow. The fact that they now have to fight to retain 2nd place makes me want to toss my cookies.
Wash certainly isn't winning any body over with his recent comments. About 2 weeks ago, I created a little game here at work on who was going to win end of year hardware. I projected Wash to win AL manager of the year... now I'm wishing I hadn't...
I have a wish list too. AT the top of it get a new manager he cannot in game manage. Maybethe players like him too much.l He needs to get in their faces once in a while
Do you think Nelson Cruz could get more playing time at 1st base?
I've been incredibly supportive of Wash even before this year; however, some of his in-game decisions and his current thoughts on what his roster needs have started to change my mind. I'm not calling for his head yet, but I'm not really high on him right now.
Okay, well I don't think I can stomach an entire off-season of bitching and moaning about Washington, blaming him for every loss and for their missed playoffs this season. This blog is the best around, because at least here people aren't taking racist pot-shots at his afro like on DMN blog - but even on BBTIA.com the repetitive scapegoating gets old. So I guess I'll just delete this bookmark and give it a rest for the sake of my sanity. Have a good one, fellas.
Wash wish list is exactly mine. Also, w/about $25 mill. coming off the books, I don't think going out & getting 1-2 players is not a stretch. Here are mine top 3-5 needs/players:
1) Trade for Adam Dunn. He plays 1B & OF. He can hit clean up & give some protection for Hamilton.
2) Sign Ben Sheets. (2 yrs - $14 mill, $5 mill the 1st year)
3) LH relief pitcher.
4) Re-sign J. Benoit & J. Grilli. Can't have enough bullpen depth.
5) Milddle infielder.
6) Possibly M.Byrd if you have to trade Cruz or Murphy.
You can NEVER have enough pitching depth. Lack of success & injuries are going to happen, always have. If they don't you have ammunition for a trade @ the deadline or to get A. Dunn.
"Do you think Nelson Cruz could get more playing time at 1st base?"
I think it would be pretty counterproductive to take an above-average defensive outfielder -- and yes, his reads and routes and throws are not always the sharpest, but let's be candid in acknowledging that he IS above average -- and stick him at first base, but that didn't stop the Rangers from trying such a trick with Andruw ... actually, this is the sort of thing I could see Texas trying if Byrd were to be re-signed. Heck, the Rangers already tried to convert Cruz into a pitcher during '08 spring training.
Fred: Most of that newfound capital is likely to remain uncommitted -- frankly, we're probably looking at a $55-60M payroll next year, if not a little bit less. And Sheets will likely be doing well to command one-tenth of that sum in guaranteed money.
Here's the thing about Washington: if you move to replace him, you had better have some damn good candidates in the interview pipeline ... irrespective of what we think of Washington and his (admittedly odd) remarks, some respect is going to be lost for management and the skipper's successor if he's fired after an 87-88 win season. We can say that it doesn't matter what the players think, that they're paid to suit up, go out there and play baseball, but cultivating that sort of closed-door, hostile culture is going to hurt you when you're in the midst of a heated competition to sign a good player, or trying to convince a NTC-wielding player you're trying to acquire to green-light a deal. It's not good business.
If you're going to fire Washington, you absolutely must ensure that his successor is a better all-around manager. How many viable candidates does that leave?
Frankly, talk of firing is unwarranted in my opinion. In a development year, the team has exceeded expectations. The manager deserves credit for that. Is everything perfect? No. But as the team has improved, so has the manager and he deserves to return. But they had better not stumble out of the game again.
Further, with the winning overall record I hadn't realized that the team had 4 losing months out of 6. That speaks to consistency. My take on Washington has been that the true talent of his roster often overcomes his deficiencies as a manager, the former in effect masking the latter. The same is true with this season's record, it masks the inconsistency.
In my support of Jaramillo this year I've referred to the relative youth and inexperience of his charges as the root of their underperformance relative to their ability. Well, the same holds for Washington. I'm not his biggest fan, and I frankly would have severed ties with him last year, but to this point he's done nothing to merit losing his job. That said, hopefully in his own year end evaluations with Ryan/Daniels the subject of consistency, in game pitching management, and overall game "strategery", is front and center.
I obviously don't think Wash is going to get fired or needs to get fired but you can't deny the fact that he makes some very questionable managerial decisions. Could I do a better job? No. But we hold the manager to a higher standard and look for someone to take out our frustrations on when the team does bad. Is it warranted? Sometimes yes and sometimes no.
A. Stephens makes a good point in that Wash has improved from last year... along with the team. BUT... if they don't finish better next year... Wash will have a dotted line around his neck.
BTW... I don't think that BBTIA writers or readers scapegoat on Wash as Jim says above. I I feel the only critisism is constructive. Part of being a fan of any team is getting emotionally involved and passionate about what happens. If your not allowed to have a constructive opinion about how things should be done then what's the fun in that? Comparing the discussion that happens on BBTIA even remotely to the DMN blog is insane. Good luck on finding another Ranger blog worth half the intelligence of this one Jim.