I’m late, but I like to review the season in 10 game spans. It’ s a nice breakdown and ratio when it comes to MLB, as there are 162 games in a season, and if you quarter those it breaks down to 40. Quarter those and you look at things in a ten game span.
where are the power numbers
Typically this allows a glance at two starts per starting pitcher. It also gives you a good glimpse at the bullpen and covers three series.
So let’s look at the Rangers during the first sixteenth of the season…
They went 5-5. That’s a positive as you don’t want to get buried early in the season (Baltimore, Houston). It also means you are playing competitive ball to some extent, yet also treading water and showing some sign of inefficiency. It really indicates that you are a team on the cusp of either a winning or losing season. (i.e. the division leader is playing 7-3 and playing good ball). So how does this team break down?
At a closer look, that 5-5 record is indicative of a few bad things. Francisco is blowing save opportunities and his efforts on the rubber are often times resulting in blown saves, and more critically, losses. At his pace, which I know is bloated, he alone will amass 36 losses and 24 blown saves. Yet kudos go to head coach Washington and pitching coach Maddux for demoting him. In pressure filled-close games he just sucks, and needed to be removed. Give Feliz a chance to succeed, and do a bullpen-by-committee if need be.
The hitting is…where? Other than Cruz early, the team is piss poor when it comes to hitting. Borbon is batting at a .146 clip, Josh Hamilton is sitting on one home run and Vlad is slugging an eye brow raising low .418. We need Kinsler back and quick.
The defense is shoddy, if not lousy. It’s not just the errors, but lack of fundamentals. Poor fielding kills a pitcher’s effectiveness, and translates into added runs for the bad guys. This is happening too frequently, and is a bad trend. A team’s success is directly proportional to defense.
The pitching is laughable, if not scorable. Other than Wilson, the starters look ineffective. And the bullpen is worse. If you only go five innings and give up crooked numbers, multiple hits and your BB/K ratio blows, then you give your team no hope. Period. Also, if you pitch six strong innings it doesn’t mean anything if the 7th and 8th inning pitchers come out and throw fungos. Or if the setup works, but the closer allows 2 runs over the course of four outs, then what good are they?
Finally, the owner. Hicks, due to his complete incompetence, is killing the team. He is so broke (insert punch line), he can’t even sell the damn franchise! Bad news on top of everything.
All in all, I have said before and I will say again that this market is TOO LARGE to support such a mediocre franchise. The Rangers need to get busy building a play-off contender. They have the talent in the minors that is the envy of all organizations. They should be able to attract big name free agents. Yet nothing they do at the big league level gives hope to the faithful. We are left yet again it seems to wallow in misery this 2010 MLB season.
After 10 games, I expect the team to finish at 81-81 and approach cellar dweller status once again.
