And The Beat Goes On: Aug. 24th

Today's track (courtesy K-Mart) is "Cosmic Girl" by Jamiroquai:

● T.R. Sullivan writes that Colby Lewis isn't too disappointed with last night's shelling, because he was still able to pound the strike zone. Yorvit Torrealba goes into further detail on what went wrong:

"It wasn't the Colby we saw the last couple outings," catcher Yorvit Torrealba said. "He wasn't able to expand the zone, especially late in the count with two strikes. He was hanging a couple of breaking balls, and against such an offensive ballclub, they weren't missing them. It was more about executing his pitches, and he wasn't able to. There were a lot of hanging pitches."

Lewis was able to hang around for six innings. That at least kept the Rangers from going to the bullpen early with long reliever Scott Feldman still unavailable after throwing 4 2/3 frames Sunday. The last thing Washington wanted was a short outing from one of his most reliable starters.

"That would have destroyed my bullpen," Washington said.

● Jean-Jacques Taylor has a column on the struggles of Koji Uehara and Mike Adams, and says that the bullpen will be fine. Tim Cowlishaw has a piece up behind the paywall about how the Red Sox could be a favorable playoff draw for the Rangers in the playoffs ... I think. Or it could be about pulled-pork nachos. Evan Grant says the Rangers can't let the "recent poundings" weigh on their minds, which I find vaguely odd because I don't think this team would let either of those last two games weigh on their minds anyway.

● C.J. Wilson was on with Ben and Skin yesterday, and, well ...

On qualities that would make him a good future investment for the Rangers:

C.J. Wilson: There's not a lot of mileage on my arm. The fact that I've had a pretty healthy track record. Because of the lack of a night-life issue, I'm probably younger than my age in a lot of ways. I tend to pitch well in the hot weather, which is a good indicator of being in good shape.

I'm going to give this Wilson kid 5 years, $100 million. You good with that?

C.J. Wilson: I think you're gonna have to run that by Nolan before you make that offer.

● Baseball Prospectus lists some of the worst acquisitions ever, and the Juan Gonzalez trade makes the list:

The summer of ‘99 had ended, Historic Tiger Stadium had closed its doors for the last time, and Ernie Harwell had turned off the lights at the Corner of Michigan and Trumbull. The Tigers were moving to spacious Comerica Park, and general manager Randy Smith was looking to make a “splash.” The splash he made nearly crippled the team as he traded away the farm for Juan Gonzalez. The only thing that saved the Tigers was the ego possessed by Gonzalez, which prevented him from taking the Tigers’ record breaking 8 year, $140-million contract extension.

The disaster wasn’t in the trade itself but rather in the assumption by the Tigers GM that Gonzalez was ready to sign the extension at his introductory press conference and even further that Gonzalez, with the GM as his puppet, made a mockery out of his time in Detroit. The worst part of it all was that Smith believed his offer for Gonzalez—who would be 38 by the end of the contract—was a fair deal for both sides: "This guy is one of the best players in the game. His consistency is phenomenal. He's always been productive. We think this is a good offer for a great player." It was quite lucky that Gonzalez didn’t believe it was fair and turned it down."When you have a player of this caliber—on his way to Cooperstown—he's going to be expensive," Smith said. "But we think he's worth it, especially if he stays consistent."

The mockery of the Tigers continued as they tried to trade the depressed slugger at the deadline to the Yankees for Drew Henson only for Gonzalez to reject the deal and force the Tigers to keep him for the remainder of the year. Mercifully, the Juan-Gone era in Detroit would end early due to an injury that summer. The once “future Hall-of-Famer”, instead of making $140-million until age 38, would be out of baseball at age 35 as a cellar dwelling Kansas City Royal. Randy Smith almost killed the Detroit Tigers with Juan Gonzalez; thankfully Juan Gone was too egotistical to let that happen. 

● StadiumJourney.com shares a great review on BB&T Coastal Field, the home of the Rangers' High-A affiliate, the Myrtle Beach Pelicans. 

● Mike Napoli says that the switch from Thad Bosley to Scott Coolbaugh has helped his production. Sullivan has some notes on Adrian Beltre's rehab progress, and Ron Washington's impressions with Jarrod Saltalamacchia. Drew Davison has a column on Rick Carlisle's cameo at the Ballpark, and some notes on the rotation's workload and Matt Harrison's recent unhappiness with himself. Jeff Wilson talks about Saltalamacchia's life in Boston.

A Poll On FSNSW's "FOXTRAX"

So, last year, FSNSW unveiled a new high-angled camera in center field, and I, of course, loved it -- which naturally meant that it got axed, and that I then wrote a snippy blog post about it being abolished.

Last night, FSNSW apparently debuted FOXTRAX (or what I'm guessing is a FOX-labeled derivative of MLBAM's Pitch f/x system) as a full-time feature during its game broadcasts, and I couldn't be happier about the decision:

So, while this isn't the most elegant solution to the entire problem of not being able to easily/accurately discern the location of incoming pitches on the horizontal plane, and while I'd still prefer a straight-behind-CF camera, it's a fairly decent compromise -- the viewer gets instant feedback on exactly where each pitch is crossing into the strike zone, and we no longer have to rack our brains and/or guess haphazardly and/or trouble ourselves with pulling up MLB.com/ESPN/Yahoo in order to have each pitcher's pitch count at our disposal. It's a step in the right direction.

My informal Twitter poll on this last night seemed to suggest that the majority of Rangers fans dig this new feature, but I also got a bit of negative feedback on it, so here's a nice poll question on the issue:

Today's .GIF Of The Day

As if there was ever even a modicum of doubt about what this would be.

Click to read more ...

Dear Lance Berkman ...

Berkman, after last night's loss (which included a moth wedging itself deep within Matt Holliday's ear canal, necessitating his removal from a game which the Cardinals eventually lost by one run):

The Dodgers rallied in the ninth to beat St. Louis. The Cardinals fell nine games behind Milwaukee in the NL Central.

"It's no more disappointing than the others we've lost in similar fashion," said Lance Berkman, who led off the second inning with his 29th home run. "A loss is a loss. They're all disappointing."

Berkman, seven months ago:

"I felt like if they didn't re-sign Cliff Lee that they were going to be an average team and I feel that's probably what's going to end up happening," Berkman said Thursday. "It's all about your pitching. I feel like last year was one of those special years where you kind of catch lightning in a bottle and they got hot and they had some guys that I felt like were pitching better than their talent level and consequently they had a great year."

Berkman contemplated retirement this offseason before telling his agent that he'd play for one of five teams: Houston, Atlanta, Colorado, St. Louis or Texas.

He said he got the most interest from the Rangers and Cardinals and ended up signing a one-year deal worth $8 million to be in the St. Louis outfield. Berkman said the Rangers were interested in him because they wanted someone with more versatility in the designated hitter role and didn't think Vladimir Guerrero could handle playing the field.

"They were itching to spend some money," Berkman said. "I probably could have gotten the best deal out of them, especially in light of what they gave Adrian Beltre, which I think is pretty much of a reach for him."

I've always liked Lance Berkman. Still do, in fact. And the failings and mishaps of this Cardinals team -- which is still above .500, but is getting trounced by the front-running Brewers and needs a miracle to reach the playoffs -- can't be traced back to Berkman, who is hitting an absurd .290/.404/.578 with 29 home runs in just 450 plate appearances this season and has posted up 3.9 wins above replacement even with a severe penalty imposed on his baserunning and fielding numbers.

I don't harbor any ill will or any kind of grudge against Berkman, either ... but, apparently, Berkman picked the wrong "average" team to sign with, and now he's bummed out about it.

To quote the great Nasir Jones, "life's a b----, and then you die."

And The Beat Goes On: Aug. 23rd

Let's take it all the way back to 1994 this morning, with Zhane's 1994 R&B hit "Hey Mr. D.J.":

● T.R. Sullivan recaps last night's throttling of the Red Sox (who were, admittedly, without David Ortiz, Kevin Youkilis, and Jacoby Ellsbury), and notes that their 15 team shutouts are the most logged by a Rangers team since the 1977 Rangers logged 17 team shutouts, as well as the fact that the Rangers are now 17-6 against Boston since the beginning of the 2009 season.

● Jeff Wilson talks about the Chris Davis situation that I touched upon in yesterday afternoon's Clubhouse post, and says that Adrian Beltre, who ran the bases at limited speed yesterday, not only hasn't been cleared for a rehab assignment yet, but also doesn't have a hard target date to return. Wilson also says that Andres Blanco is swinging a bat and his health is improving, but the Rangers don't want to bring him back before September 1st. Also, Andrew Miller will be starting in place of Tim Wakefield on Thursday.

On a related note, Nolan Ryan said yesterday that a mid-September return could be "realistic" for Beltre, as could a return by September 5th.

● Professor Parks chimes in with his "best of the best" prospects list at each position, which includes this update on Jurickson Profar vs. Manny Machado, with Profar/Machado ranking as the two best prospects at shortstop in the game:

Profar are Machado are a coin-flip for me at this point, as I view each prospect as a future first-division player at the major-league level. Profar has established himself as one the top prospects in the game, showing the necessary polish and promise to become this year’s model. Machado has struggled with some injuries and some inconsistencies in 2011, but the offensive upside remains. Gun to my head, I’d rank Profar higher on a prospect list because of the age/level/production. But when looking at the bigger picture, I still go back and forth on which prospect tickles my fancy with more persuasion.

● Jon Daniels doesn't anticipate the Rangers making a waiver-period trade, but Darren O'Day, Michael Kirkman, and Tim Wood could have September call-ups in their future.

● Four years ago yesterday, the Rangers scored 30 runs, and I wrote something about it that I can't even find in the archives. Huh. Imagine that. If it's any consolation whatsoever, I doubt whatever I wrote back then was even worth reading.

● David Thomas has a story on the wave vs. no-wave battle being waged at the Ballpark right now, which includes this quote from our own Chuck Morgan:

"One guy thought we were infringing on his constitutional rights for freedom of expression," said Chuck Morgan, the Rangers' senior vice president for in-park entertainment.

The Dallas Morning News has a story up about this as well, but since you can't read it anyway, I'm not going to bother linking it. What do you think about that, America? Do you know who I am?

● Jon Daniels says that Jered Weaver's deal "could be an indication" of what C.J. Wilson pulls down this winter, but also throws down this quote: ""Everybody is different and there are different circumstances, but at the end of it, when you negotiate contracts you always consider the universe of contracts. I would imagine everything will be discussed."

● Chris Jaffe shares a highly entertaining story about this being the 40th anniversary of a legendary blow-up by Ron Santo. Yeah, I'd still put him in the Hall of Fame.

● MILB.com's Ashley Marshall talks about Will Lamb outdueling Stephen Strasburg last night. Louie Horvath tells you everything you ever wanted to know about the Rangers' groundscrew, but were afraid to ask. And Ben Revere is better at playing center field than everyone on this earth ... except David Murphy:

Sullivan: Rangers May Consider Reworking Chris Davis Trade

Per MLB.com's T.R. Sullivan:

Rangers general manager Jon Daniels talked with Orioles GM Andy MacPhail when he heard that Chris Davis was sidelined with a strained right shoulder. The two sides have not had serious discussions about reworking the deal but Daniels said that might be revisited in the future.

Davis told the Orioles that the shoulder started bothering him while he was still with the Rangers. But he never told the Rangers or asked for treatment. The Orioles have not blamed the Rangers for concealing the injury.

Sullivan goes on to remark that the Orioles still want Davis and hope that he will make a full recovery, and notes Daniels saying that MacPhail doesn't have any issues with the way the deal went down, but that it might be something the two clubs revisit at some point.

I'm guessing a hypothetical reworking of the deal would entail Texas sending over an extra prospect or two as compensation, even though there's no apparent wrongdoing or impropriety on the Rangers' part ... since there isn't any evidence of that kind, and since the Orioles don't outwardly appear to hold the Rangers accountable for concealing information of an injury, we can guess this is one of those deals where the Rangers aren't obligated to do anything, but may end up doing something just because "it's the right thing to do," and because it would help keep the Rangers in good standing with the Orioles (and other teams) if/when further trade opportunities present themselves.

As far as Davis concealing an injury -- well, I don't really have anything to say about that.

Rangers Playoff Odds: Aug. 22nd

Courtesy Baseball Prospectus:

So, after winning three out of four in Anaheim and picking up two games, and then going right back out and losing two games in Chicago, this gives us some idea of the value of keeping the division lead static over that seven-game stretch ... it was four games going into Anaheim, and it's four games going into tonight, and we can see that subtracted 1.7 percent from the Angels' post-season odds.

If the Angels are still sitting at nine percent or lower after this brutal 17-day stretch, you absolutely have to consider that a victory for the Rangers.

And The Beat Goes On: Aug. 22nd

For this morning's track, here's a rarely heard Mos Def track from 1994-95 when he was first making his way as part of the short-lived group Urban Thermo Dynamics:

Paul Casella relieves the horror of yesterday's game, when Derek Holland failed to make it out of the fourth inning and the Rangers got four-hit on the day by Gavin Floyd. Ron Washington says the Rangers haven't run into a wall.

To quote something I wrote five days ago:

And so, public confidence in Holland has once again crested, particularly since he vanquished the Rangers' greatest present enemy and did so with the utmost ease, and he's getting much love this morning for exhibiting such maturity last night and such. I dig it, and I love it when Holland shows confidence in himself ... but in his previous start, he allowed 12 baserunners in six innings and narrowly averted disaster on multiple occasions. The start before that, he was rocked for six runs in 1.2 innings after failing to demonstrate even the slightest semblance of control. Like many other talented young pitchers, he's riding a pretty violent roller coaster, and focusing in too closely on each individual triumph and setback is a good way to end up with motion sickness. Appreciate the performance, and respect the fact that he's growing up, but don't get burned when he hits another nasty bump in the developmental road, because it's going to happen.

Yeah.

Ron Washington doesn't see any definitive signs that the Rangers' starters are running out of gas, despite their lackluster performance of late and the fact that most of them have met or surpassed their previous career highs in innings pitched. Drew Davison has some notes on Ian Kinsler, Scott Feldman, and Josh Hamilton. Elvis and Omar are still homies for life. Adrian Beltre will look to get the go-ahead from Dr. Keith Meister later today to resume running the bases.

Angels Sign Jered Weaver To Five-Year, $85 Million Extension

Per Jon Heyman. It's being reported (speculated?) that Weaver "badly wanted" to stay in Anaheim on the basis of the full no-trade clause, for what that's worth.

Weaver was probably going to bank $11-12 million in 2012, his final year of arbitration eligibility ... if you assume that figure, and assume that the Angels would have retained his services and not dealt him away/non-tendered him/sacrificed him to the volcano gods, the average annual value of this deal from 2013-16 -- or the years when he would have otherwise been under contract for another organization -- is around $18-19 million per season.

Now, there's bit of a discount built in there (as is usually the case with long-term deals -- that said, I don't think it's that much of one), and you also have to look at the fact that the Angels are paying for those FA-eligible years now, as opposed to after next season, when bidders would have had more information about Weaver at their disposal and wouldn't have had to absorb the additional risk of a major setback/injury to Weaver in 2012. Moreover, the Angels are paying for Weaver's age 29-33 seasons ... a five-year or six-year deal in free agency would have required a team to pay out the nose for his age 30-34 or 30-35 seasons, which obviously wouldn't have been quite as attractive of a proposition.

All things considered, though, this is a pretty decent looking deal, as he has consistently improved during his major league career, and is, at this point, a five- to six-win above replacement pitcher. I'm not sure what the long-term ramifications of this deal will be as far as the Angels' payroll and their ability to retain Ervin Santana and Dan Haren in 2013 and beyond, but from where I sit, it appears that both team and player are making out pretty well here. 

Update: Tom Tango looks at the deals signed by King Felix and Justin Verlander in the not-so-distant past, and wonders if Weaver isn't selling himself short by about $8 million or so. I do think that's a fair point, and I think it's easier to call this a team-friendly commitment than it is to call it player-friendly ... but it also sounds as though Anaheim was the only place that Weaver really wanted to be, and I'd like to see the rest of the contract details before passing further judgment on the attractiveness of this deal for Weaver (which, again, I have no doubt he finds very attractive).

And The Beat Goes On: Aug. 21st

So I was listening to this jam on Turntable.fm's trip-hop room the other day, and I figured I'd throw it down here this morning:

● Paul Casilla discusses Alexi Ogando coming back after a rough start to yesterday evening, and the absence of the Rangers' offense beyond Ian Kinsler's two solo shots. Drew Davison explains that Koji Uehara wishes he would have thrown a splitter to put away Alex Rios in the eighth inning.

Kinsler, incidentally, is now the first player in franchise history to log three separate 20-homer, 20-steal seasons (2007, 2009, and 2011). The only other Ranger with even two such seasons is Toby Harrah.

● Assistant general manager Thad Levine feels honored by the rumblings that he could be up for the Cubs' GM vacancy, but he isn't exactly chomping at the bit to depart Texas (or at least isn't indicating as such):

"It's always an honor to be on those [lists]," Levine said. "But we have a very serious season going on right now, and I'm singularly focused on that. As most know, this is a really good organization, and I'd like to think I'm part of the fabric of it. I'm supremely happy here. It's not distracted me one bit."

Earlier this year, Levine signed an extension with the club through 2015, but his contract has no restrictions to prevent him from pursuing career advancement.

● Jeff Wilson touches on some of the labor issues facing baseball and the MLBPA before the expiration of the current collective bargaining agreement in September, and there's one thing in particular that continues to bug me to no end:

Commissioner Bud Selig is a proponent of a hard salary-slotting system for players selected each June in the First-Year Player Draft. The deadline to sign players from this year's draft just passed last week, and teams handed out a record amount in bonuses.

The theory behind hard-slotting is that small-market teams can more easily acquire the best young talent for far more reasonable bonuses, and players with high demands won't be passed up by small-market teams and fall into the hands of the big-market clubs.

MLB teams combined to spend a record $236 million on bonuses plus guaranteed contracts to amateur players during the past draft, which naturally didn't sit too well with the commissioner's office. At this point, their only real recourse is barking at an offending team's scouting director, the GM, the ownership, and the mascot -- and, of course, the asinine little game of "don't announce over-slot deals until the last moment" that results in months upon months of wasted developmental time for bright-eyed draftees who can't begin reaping the benefits of professional instruction as soon as the player or the team would like.

I get the hard-slotting theory, but by placing an artificial cap on the amount of money that amateur players can make, you're creating a host of entirely new problems -- the most significant of which may be the disappearance of high school signees outside of the first couple of rounds of the draft, as those players would rather opt for college than accept a low-ball deal, and, as Kevin Goldstein theorized once upon a time, some of those same players may end up defecting to other sports in the process. In all my time trolling the baseball blogosphere and the various and sundry minor league publications, I'm not sure I've ever seen a good, logical defense for the hard-slotting system. That's telling.

● Ron Washington talks about the decision to roll out a weakened lineup against the White Sox last night, and says that it's merely a function of needing to get various guys some time off. Yoshinori Tateyama has been dominant since the All-Star break, and he attributes in part to catching a flaw in his delivery that was leaving his arm angle slightly higher than it had been in the past. Drew Davison writes about the ascendance of Mark Hamburger -- acquired in the waiver-period 2008 trade that sent Eddie Guardado to the Twins -- through the organization's minor league ranks. Adrian Beltre hopes to resume running the bases once he returns to Arlington, and Andres Blanco will apparently undergo more tests with regard to his lower back inflammation soon, because, in his words, "something's wrong." 

And The Beat Goes On: Aug. 20th

How about a classic this morning from Common's "Resurrection?"

● Drew Davison looks at the heroics of Mitch Moreland and the bullpen in last night's come-from-behind win in Chicago -- a game in which the Rangers had absolutely nothing early, and then came charging back out of nowhere.

Don't look now, but Moreland is hitting .333/.411/.495 over the last 30 days after banging two home runs last night. Depending on how he ends up closing out the season, he could possibly lock in a starting spot against right-handers going into the playoffs, with Mike Napoli and Yorvit Torrealba splitting playing time behind the plate in some indeterminate way. 

Or, Texas could end up going with Nelson Cruz in left field, Josh Hamilton in center field, and Moreland in right field on a regular basis during the post-season, which would allow the Rangers to insert both Torrealba and Napoli into the lineup. I'm not sure which would be the more practical approach, at this point.

● Professor Parks has some good thoughts up about the Cubs' GM vacancy (behind the TFR paywall), and the potential for Rangers assistant GM Thad Levine to end up elsewhere after this season:

Despite being an excellent candidate for the position itself, Levine isn’t an excellent candidate for every opening, as each team will require specific qualities that will narrow the playing field. Levine is one of the architects of a World Series contending team, but his face isn’t on the poster, and his name lacks the sex appeal that large market teams often require. As qualified as he would be for the position, I highly doubt a team like the Cubs would hire an “unknown” candidate for the position, especially when industry standards like Josh Byrnes and Bobby Evans could be in the running.  This is just speculation, of course, but much like Rick Hahn, Levine is seen as a top-notch behind the scenes administrator, and Chicago might require a little more flash for their franchise.

● ESPN.com's "Dog Days" feature touches on the Rangers' competitive position going into the playoffs, and features a few paragraphs from yours truly. My latest edition of AL West: Divide and Conquer looks at the challenges the Angels, Mariners, and A's face in trying to knock off the Rangers over the next couple of years. The Rangers will be closely monitoring Alexi Ogando's innings down the stretch. Adrian Beltre is slowly improving, and could be able to resume baserunning activities as soon as today. Rangers first-rounder Kevin Matthews is adjusting to life in pro ball.

Today's Off-Topic Rant Of The Day

Non-baseball post. I may be the only person in the world who cares about this, but that's why I created the Clubhouse.

Embedded below is a video shot by a customer from the Silver Lining Tours storm-chasing tour caravan, which ended up at Joplin, Missouri during the EF-5 event back in May:

At 0:55, they drive past a Pizza Hut where two employees were killed. The store was leveled. 

From 1:05 to 2:10, the van occupied by the videographer sits at a stop light as the tornado bears down on their caravan from the west. They're sitting at the intersection of Range Line Rd. and E. 20th St., in the southbound lane. 

At 1:50, the caravan leader declares that they're in 'trouble' and need to seek shelter. At 1:55, somebody in the van raises the idea of taking shelter in the Home Depot on the opposite corner of the intersection. At least seven people died inside of the store, which was, again, completely leveled. 

At 2:25, the caravan leader clearly begins to panic, declaring that they need to "get the hell out of there." He panics even further at 3:15. Between those two points, the occupants of the van in question take notice of the power flashes, then the monster funnel tracking right towards the intersection that they were sitting at just a minute earlier. By the four- to five-minute mark, the tornado is causing catastrophic damage at that same intersection.

It strikes me as absolutely incredible that a storm-chasing tour responsible for the lives of a number of people would end up in that sort of position -- that is, driving down the main thoroughfare of a fairly populous city with a devastating tornado barreling through the city, and then ending up directly in the path of the storm at a stop light with less than five minutes to spare. Any kind of accident, or traffic jam, or non-functioning traffic signal, or car trouble, or anything else that could conceivably cause a delay, and everyone in that caravan is dead.

I don't know how something like that happens, but that is truly just about the closest call I have ever seen in any tornado video, and it is baffling to me that they managed to put themselves in such an incredibly dangerous position. I don't know how many people on that particular tour realize to this day just how close they were to dying because of an incredibly foolish series of decisions on the part of whoever was guiding the caravan, but I presume that those who do won't be putting their lives in the hands of a storm-chasing tour again anytime soon.