The Official Texas Rangers Thread (pitching, game, Red Sox, team)

[kingdomcome1]

Seven pitchers in mix for Rangers' last two spots in rotation | Texas Rangers | Texas Rangers... (http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/03/15/2924481/seven-pitchers-in-mix-for-rangers.html - broken link)


My money is on Harrison and Holland.

[filihok]

Originally Posted by kingdomcome1

Not expecting Teagarden to be the next Pudge, but his hopefully his numbers will improve with more playing time.

No reason to really think that, though you can certainly 'hope' it.

He only has about 800 minor league plate appearances, so there is a chance he could improve, but his inability to make contact is very real.

Originally Posted by kingdomcome1

Seven pitchers in mix for Rangers' last two spots in rotation | Texas Rangers | Texas Rangers... (http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/03/15/2924481/seven-pitchers-in-mix-for-rangers.html - broken link)


My money is on Harrison and Holland.

The seven:
Neftali Feliz: Should certainly be one of them. Clearly he has the best stuff of any of the guys being considered. Obviously his fastball is his goto pitch. He's thrown it 79% of the time in the bigs. His curveball is good too. He throws it about 16% of the time. The change up is the question mark. He needs that third pitch to succeed as a starter. He only throws it about 5% of the time as a reliever and with poor results (-1.36 runs per 100 pitches).

Feliz pitching 200 innings a year is much more valuable than Feliz throwing 70 innings a year.

Derek Holland: Looks like the real deal. His minor league numbers are outstanding. Averaged well over a strike out per inning in the minors while posting good walk rates. He hasn't pitched poorly in the majors either with 195 innings, 7.41 K/9, 3.27 BB/9. His ERA is an ugly 5.52 but his FIP and xFIP are much better at 4.78 and 4.39 (remember that FIP and xFIP predict ERA better than ERA does). The reason the ERA is so ugly was some serious home run issues in 2009 when he gave up 1.69 HR/9. His minor league HR/9 number were miniscule so I wouldn't expect him major league home run rate to be that high. Holland is a good pitcher.

Matt Harrison: Harrison isn't as good as Holland. In 225 major league innings Harrison has a K/9 of 4.87 and a BB/9 of 3.71. Compare that to Holland. It isn't close. His minor league number show the same thing. K rates of around 6/9 and walk rates of 2.5 - 3.0.

Dave Bush: Not sure there's anything left in the tank.
YEAR: FIP, WAR
2007: 4.57, 1.9
2008: 4.93, 0.8
2009: 5.07, 0.3
2010: 5.13, 0.1
The trend is pretty clear.

Eric Hurley: Is a tougher case to gage. He was a pretty highly rated prospect a while ago, but injuries shut him down in 2009 and 2010. His minor league numbers are pretty similar to Holland's (8.3 K/9, 3.1 BB/9).

But in the last two seasons he's only thrown 25 innings. And those innings were in rookie ball. And those innings weren't that good. 5.11 K/9 and 3.28 BB/9. I can't imagine that he's ready to jump back to the big leagues yet.

Alexi Ogando: Are they really trying him as a starter? Ogando's only started 3 games in the minors. He'd be my pick to replace Feliz as closer. He shot up the Rangers system in 2010 after missing 2008-2009 with injury.

I don't know much about Ogando except he was the Rangers' second best reliever last season. He relied on his fastball (64.3%) and slider (30.8%) in his 42 innings last season. He also threw a change about 4% of the time. Like Feliz, if his change is major league quality he'd be more valuable as a starter, but I can't imagine they'd give a guy with 3 minor league starts a spot in the rotation.

Michael Kirkman: Interesting arm. Not ready for the big leagues. He's put up some ok minor league K rates. But some ugly walk rates. As a reliever in the bigs last season he struck out 8.8/9 and walked 5.5/9. Send him to the minors to work on that control.

It's got to be Holland and Feliz.

[kingdomcome1]

Originally Posted by filihok

No reason to really think that, though you can certainly 'hope' it.

He only has about 800 minor league plate appearances, so there is a chance he could improve, but his inability to make contact is very real.



The seven:
Neftali Feliz: Should certainly be one of them. Clearly he has the best stuff of any of the guys being considered. Obviously his fastball is his goto pitch. He's thrown it 79% of the time in the bigs. His curveball is good too. He throws it about 16% of the time. The change up is the question mark. He needs that third pitch to succeed as a starter. He only throws it about 5% of the time as a reliever and with poor results (-1.36 runs per 100 pitches).

Feliz pitching 200 innings a year is much more valuable than Feliz throwing 70 innings a year.

Derek Holland: Looks like the real deal. His minor league numbers are outstanding. Averaged well over a strike out per inning in the minors while posting good walk rates. He hasn't pitched poorly in the majors either with 195 innings, 7.41 K/9, 3.27 BB/9. His ERA is an ugly 5.52 but his FIP and xFIP are much better at 4.78 and 4.39 (remember that FIP and xFIP predict ERA better than ERA does). The reason the ERA is so ugly was some serious home run issues in 2009 when he gave up 1.69 HR/9. His minor league HR/9 number were miniscule so I wouldn't expect him major league home run rate to be that high. Holland is a good pitcher.

Matt Harrison: Harrison isn't as good as Holland. In 225 major league innings Harrison has a K/9 of 4.87 and a BB/9 of 3.71. Compare that to Holland. It isn't close. His minor league number show the same thing. K rates of around 6/9 and walk rates of 2.5 - 3.0.

Dave Bush: Not sure there's anything left in the tank.
YEAR: FIP, WAR
2007: 4.57, 1.9
2008: 4.93, 0.8
2009: 5.07, 0.3
2010: 5.13, 0.1
The trend is pretty clear.

Eric Hurley: Is a tougher case to gage. He was a pretty highly rated prospect a while ago, but injuries shut him down in 2009 and 2010. His minor league numbers are pretty similar to Holland's (8.3 K/9, 3.1 BB/9).

But in the last two seasons he's only thrown 25 innings. And those innings were in rookie ball. And those innings weren't that good. 5.11 K/9 and 3.28 BB/9. I can't imagine that he's ready to jump back to the big leagues yet.

Alexi Ogando: Are they really trying him as a starter? Ogando's only started 3 games in the minors. He'd be my pick to replace Feliz as closer. He shot up the Rangers system in 2010 after missing 2008-2009 with injury.

I don't know much about Ogando except he was the Rangers' second best reliever last season. He relied on his fastball (64.3%) and slider (30.8%) in his 42 innings last season. He also threw a change about 4% of the time. Like Feliz, if his change is major league quality he'd be more valuable as a starter, but I can't imagine they'd give a guy with 3 minor league starts a spot in the rotation.

Michael Kirkman: Interesting arm. Not ready for the big leagues. He's put up some ok minor league K rates. But some ugly walk rates. As a reliever in the bigs last season he struck out 8.8/9 and walked 5.5/9. Send him to the minors to work on that control.

It's got to be Holland and Feliz.

Felix will probably stay in as our closer....Ogando still has a ways to go

[kingdomcome1]

Rangers' Washington: Supporters 'saved my career' | Texas Rangers | Texas Rangers News and Vi... (http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/03/16/2927654/supporters-saved-my-career.html - broken link)


Nice to see how Ron has grown as a mgr and a man.....

[kingdomcome1]

Rangers send eight players to minor league camp | texasrangers.com: Official Info

Texas drops down to 41....

[kingdomcome1]

Neftali Feliz to close as Rangers name starting rotation | MLB.com: News

Looks like Harrison and Holland made it, as I predicted

[filihok]

Originally Posted by kingdomcome1

Neftali Feliz to close as Rangers name starting rotation | MLB.com: News

Looks like Harrison and Holland made it, as I predicted

Still not the right move

[kingdomcome1]

Originally Posted by filihok

Still not the right move

So says you We'll see how the season plays out and go from there.

[kingdomcome1]

Rangers' bullpen competition remains open | Texas Rangers | Texas Rangers News and Videos | S... (http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/03/25/2950949/rangers-bullpen-competition-remains.html - broken link)


Bullpen still open to changes.....

[Visvaldis]

Originally Posted by kingdomcome1

Cannot wait for the 2011 regular season to begin. If last year was any indication of the future, I am ready to embrace it

What happened? They played a great season then played dead for the Giants.