Leonys Martin

Game 131 a Win But Yet Not

Those pesky A’s. They just won’t go away. Aided by a very weak schedule (although who thought the Red Sox would be this weak), their usual good pitching and suddenly off the hook hitting, we just can’t shake them. So while we took the game last night 5-3, the A’s were right there. Who knew they would be the ones neck and neck with us at the end. Thirty one games to go and we still have a handful of games left with these very A’s. That’s why it is important for us to stay on the Tribe as they try to snap out of a month-long funk.

Ryan Dempster was good again last night and now deserving of consideration for Game One starter status. Harrison and Darvish still lead him, but if he remains the consistent one, he has to be in the running. No dramatic stuff with the offense (outside of Adrian Beltre being RIDICULOUS right now), but just got the job done off of a pitcher who owned us in his previous match up with us.

Speaking of consistent, Scott Feldman has been anything but lately. After rattling off several very good starts, he has inspired a big “meh” from me. We’ll see tonight. I know he doesn’t want to be the one to allow the Indians to snap their current six game losing streak.

The biggest news were our Sept. 1 roster moves last night. It looks like our new utility man will be #1 prospect Jurickson Profar. While I am sure it has happened before (but I don’t remember it), Profar became a bench player the last week in Frisco to kind of get ready for being used sporadically. After a not so hot start, he hit .296 the rest of the way there and had a streak of fifty straight games getting on. That’s what he brings to the table. While he won’t dazzle you Mike Trout style, he gets on base so the rest of the guys can do their thing. He is now the youngest player in the Bigs. I do think, with a handful of at-bats and his good eye, he could surpass Elvis Andrus in homers for the season in the last month. It might put the finishing touch on Andrus time in Arlington.

The Rangers also added Martin Perez, Yoshi Tateyama, outfielder Leonys Martin and utility player Brandon Snyder from Round Rock. They’ve all been here. They join Mike Olt and show the rest of the majors how strong our organization is.

 

Road Trip Woes Continue

Nothing says “trying too hard” like twelve strikeouts against inferior pitching. That’s right, it’s no secret that the Blue Jays are known for hitting, not pitching. I don’t know what the problem is. One of the reasons I quit tagging my recaps with a tease of the opposing pitcher is because a: I am superstitious and b: because I quit trying to analyze the upcoming pitcher because when they are not going well, they always seem to dominate us. Such was the case with the hapless J.A. Happ. He struck out every Ranger but Josh Hamilton. We’re just back in a bad place offensively again. Tonight it wasn’t about leaving runners in scoring position. It was about not getting them there. We’re now 1-4 on this current trip and are slowly removing ourselves from the home field advantage conversation. After our recent trip to New York, I don’t even want to think about that.

It was a shame really. One day after his twenty-sixth birthday, Yu Darvish looked as sharp as he has in months. This Toronto team is no pretender when it comes to hitting a baseball and except for one mistake to Edwin Encarnacion, Darvish was on it tonight. I know, I know, everybody says we’re tired. Guess what? So is every other team in baseball. It’s August. Get over it.

Nothing else really noteworthy tonight except for maybe the second hardest hit ball of the night. It was off the bat of Mike Olt and please keep him sequestered from the other players so this funk doesn’t rub off on him.

Some roster moves today. Ryan Dempster is out this weekend sue to “personal reasons” (lord don’t let that be something weird). Roy Oswalt will take his spot and the team called up the suddenly red-hot Leonys Martin. He only hit .189 in limited play for us when he was here before, but he was on fire for the Express. Granted it was in offensive friendly stadiums, but his performance was really more about pure hitting than home runs. I say play him early and often for now.

I hope Wash reminds them of what he said on the air the other day. Fatigue is a state of mind.

If You’re Not Hitting Anyway, King Felix Will Own You

Felix Hernandez more than handled the Texas Rangers tonight. We managed just three singles off of Hernandez, while the lowly Mariners blew up Yu Darvish in the first inning. Darvish has been nowhere near the pitcher he was to start the season and seems very uncomfortable on the mound. He no longer has that “new Yu smell”.  The silver lining is that the Angels dropped another to the Yankees today and have lost two straight after the break. I say again that getting all of our pitchers healthy again is not going to help our anemic bats. Leonys Martin is hitting .176 and Yorvit Torrealba .216. Michael Young has shown signs of life, but there have been no big innings, no fireworks.

What’s worse, it appears to me (I watch almost every game) that they are missing a pep in their step that they have had for almost two seasons now. Would a Justin Upton and or Cole Hamels fix this? Sometimes a team gets picked up by getting re-enforcements and love from the front office. But with Nolan and Jon Daniels there, you could hardly accuse them of being passive. I know they say “it’s just one game” but there have been quite a few “just one games” in the last 30 days.

It just appears to me (and others if you read Tweets and Message boards)that something ain’t right. Sorry Wash, “funks” don’t last for over a month. Earlier this season the Angels fired batting coach (and former Ranger) Mickey Tettleton. Maybe it’s time to move Scott Coolbaugh elsewhere in the organization. Like that? I didn’t say fire. Rudy Jaramillo is available again. Remember he left the Rangers for more money. Maybe it’s as simple as that.

Rudy! Rudy! Rudy!

Here Come the Tigers

So we won another series. That’s the good news. The bad news? Well maybe it’s not all that bad. Matt Harrison left his start early with what was first called hip pain. Now they are saying it’s his back. Judging by the way he hopped the guard rail on the dugout, after Joe Nathan survived a scary ninth to finish a 4-2 Ranger win, was slow, but didn’t appear to be hampered. The big news on offense yesterday was Leonys Martin. I sure would love to see him create a “problem” for Wash when making out the lineup card. His jumps and angles in the outfield are still not All Star caliber, but they are good enough to keep Josh in left field. I know Craig Gentry has been carrying a hot stick lately, but Martin has a little more pop in his bat than Craig does. We’ll see.

Next up? The schedule gets a little tougher, with the Tigers in town, then the troublesome A’s. They really aren’t that good this year. Unless they are playing us. They seem like giant killers then. Speaking of, they did manage to kill the Giants this weekend. The Tigers are an unbelievable 2 games under .500 and have yet to really get it going this year. They are sitting in third place in the AL Central, three games out. Verlander pitched yesterday, so we won’t see him this time around. That’s good news. The Tigers are a -14 in run differential. The Rangers are +95.  The Rangers will send out young Justin Grimm for his second start, while the Tigers have Rick Porcello. Porcello is coming off a nice start last week vs. the Cardinals that saw him go 7 strong and give up only 2 runs. But he took the loss. His OBA is a whopping .319 this season.  We can work with that. When we faced him in Detroit, we hung an 8 spot on him and chased him in the first inning. I like a good start.

Shhhhh….We’re On a Roll

But to keep it in perspective, let’s call it a mini-roll.  Tonight was particularly satisfying because of our newest addition, one Roy Oswalt. Wow. The guy looked like he had been with us since the spring. I had no idea what to expect because of his minor league outings, but it was just an outstanding performance. Because of his grit and general demeanor while on the mound, I expect that to have a positive influence on the rest of the staff.

Some bad news today. Mitch Moreland goes on the DL with the hamstring injury sustained in San Diego. It appears we will make do with Young and Napoli at first base. Craig Gentry appeared to tweak his ankle tonight. We do have Martin standing by still.

Seven games in a row and as I write this the Dodgers are leading the Angels. A nice night. So far.

Josh in the Hospital- Roster and Batting Order gets Shuffled

The roster merry-go-round is still in full tilt. Today Josh Hamilton was admitted to a hospital with a recurring intestinal virus. It has hampered him for quite sometime and you can tell by his diminishing numbers.  So here’s how it shakes out. Koji Uehara was put on the DL to clear a spot for Leonys Martin, who has recently returned from a thumb injury. He was really on the upswing before he was hurt. We still have to clear a spot before tomorrow for Justin Grimm to come up and start Saturday’s game. Martin is in the lineup tonight and bat ninth. Michael Young will bat third. On the message boards and Twitter, it appears not to be a popular move. I have a hunch I know why this happened. I have felt like, because of roster decisions and such, Michael has come out of Spring Training with a real fire in his belly. He had no such fire this year as it was clear what his role would be on the team. I think Wash moved MY into the three spot to fire Michael up. Like I said, just a hunch.

We weren’t challenged in this way last season. We were relatively lucky on the injury front. We did lose Josh for a spell. We lost Nellie and Beltre to hamstring injuries too. But they seemed to have happened in a better time when all players were in the zone. That is not the case this year. Let’s see how the rest of the guys respond.