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2011 WS Preview: Texas Rangers

Posted by on 18 October 2011, 7:32 am
CJ Wilson of the Texas Rangers pitching

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The 2011 World Series kicks off on Wednesday night, with the St. Louis Cardinals hosting the Texas Rangers to start this best of seven series.

Which team has the advantage?

I have watched both teams throughout this postseason and they match up well. So instead of going stat crazy, below are my cut and dry observations on the Texas Rangers.

TEXAS RANGERS:

The Good:

The Rangers bullpen is one of the best in baseball, thanks to the mid-season upgrades of Mike Adams, Koji Uehara and Mike Gonzalez to complement Scott Feldman, Darren Oliver, Alexi Ogando and Neftali Feliz. Also, moving Ogando out of a starting roll gives the Rangers depth as he can pitch multiple innings out of the bullpen if needed. The Rangers have the type of bullpen that turns games into a six-inning affair, which makes an opponent’s job all that much harder.

Ian Kinsler and Elvis Andrus have 67 steals combined on the season, so look for both to be running machines

The Bad:

Just like the Cardinals, the Rangers starters have to be better, specifically the three lefties CJ Wilson, Derek Holland, and Matt Harrison. Wilson and Harrison gave up just 16 and 13 homers respectively and can shutdown the homer-happy St. Louis bats if they can get back on track. Wilson is supposed to be the ace, so his 0-2 record and 8.04 ERA this post season is unacceptable. Wilson will face Cardinals ace Chris Carpenter in Busch Stadium in Game 1 and the Rangers need a big performance from him. The Cardinals righty dominate line-up is a .500 team against lefty arms, so it could be a big advantage if they can step up and thus far that has not been the case. Continue reading ‘2011 WS Preview: Texas Rangers’ »

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2011 MLB Team Preview: Baltimore Orioles

Posted by on 10 February 2011, 7:02 am

Over the last 13 seasons, the Baltimore Orioles have been the bottom-feeders of the AL East; often referred as “the toughest division in baseball.”

The O’s started last season 2-16, which added to an already the diminishing fan base at Camden Yard.

Looking for an answer, the O’s made three managerial changes. I guess three times a charm, as on August 1st, Buck Showalter took over in Baltimore and they O’s finally got their man.

Under Showalter, the team went 36-23, the best record in the AL East. The pitching staff made 36 quality starts and the bats averaged .300; so whatever Showalter was cooking, the O’s players were eating.

So, how do the Birds look heading into 2011?

The Positives:

Showalter could not have been a better fit, as his confidence became infectious, proved by O’s ending the 2010 season winning. The fans started showing up again at the Yard and the O’s displayed resilience.

The O’s needed a power bat at third base, so they sent some prospects to the Diamondbacks and got 3B Mark Reynolds in return. Reynolds averaged nearly 35 homers for the last three seasons, but the tradeoff is his 200+ strikeouts each season.  The O’s enhanced their infield defense by signing 1B Derek Lee and trading with the Twins for shortstop JJ Hardy.

The O’s finished their off-season just like they did the 2010 season, as without question the $8 million one-year deal with future Hall-of-Famer and perennial All-Star Vladimir Guerrero was their biggest upgrade. Vlad had a .300 batting average, with 29 homers and 115 RBI last season with the Rangers. Bringing in Vlad makes a statement not only at the plate, but also with his influence. This move was owed, as the O’s have one of the best fan-bases in sports who needed a jump and Vlad’s name does that.

The Birds have young pitching with a lot of promise; so adding veteran SP Justin Duchscherer even with his injuries makes a lot of sense. Also, adding two Blue Jays, Jeremy Accardo and Kevin Gregg solidify their bullpen.

The O’s made a lot of moves this off-season, paying attention to detail in filling the major holes for the immediate season. They were already above average in the outfield with Adam Jones and Nick Markakis, so focusing in on players to surround 2B Brian Roberts was exactly what the doctor ordered. Continue reading ‘2011 MLB Team Preview: Baltimore Orioles’ »

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ALCS 2010: Why the New York Yankees Lost

Posted by on 23 October 2010, 5:20 pm

Let me start by saying congratulations to the Texas Rangers.

The Rangers are the ALCS Champions and well deserve to be just that after winning Game 6 against the New York Yankees, 6-1.

It is a first World Series appearance for the Texas Rangers organization. Texas will face either the Philadelphia Phillies or the San Francisco Giants, who are still battling it out in the NLCS.

After dominating the Minnesota Twins in the ALDS, the Yankees had eight days off till the ALCS started down in Texas.

The Yankees could have won this series, but you have to play baseball in order to win.

Let’s look at the three factors, hitting, pitching and managing for the Yankees in the postseason to figure out what happened:

1) Hitting, a word that became unfamiliar to the Yankee batters. If you do not score runs, you will not win ball games. Maybe if a team had Cliff Lee, Roy Halladay, The Freak or CC Sabathia in the same rotation, you could afford not to hit, but even that Cy Young foursome would lose a game or two.

A-Rod continued his horrible 2010 postseason, coming into Game 6 with three hits in 17 at-bats, with a .176 batting average. Last year, A-Rod hit six home runs, batting a .365 over 15 postseason games. His slump was a HUGE problem and reason the Yankees struggled so much.

It’s not as if the rest of the Yankees were much help anyway. Swisher’s batting average was .194 and Teixeira (pre-injury) was even worse, hitting .148 in the postseason. Both regular season sluggers lost their swagger completely for the second postseason in a row.

2) Shockingly, the pitching was second to the hitting, because if you can’t score runs, the game is over no matter who is on the mound. Otherwise, the pitching was almost as terrible as the batting, following the ALDS where the pitching was phenomenal.

Sabathia got the job done winning both his ALCS starts, even though he grinded in both games against Texas. CC is an ace and that is why he gets the title. Sabathia had an ERA of 5.63 over 16 innings and struck-out 15 batters. The Yankees won all three games CC started, which is the only stat that matters in the post season. Continue reading ‘ALCS 2010: Why the New York Yankees Lost’ »

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2010 ALCS: Three Reasons The Yankees Will Mess With Texas

Posted by on 15 October 2010, 7:31 pm

On Monday night up in the Bronx, fans will crowd into Yankees Stadium with pits in their stomach.

The Yankees will be returning from Texas for Game 3 in the ALCS, and for New York Yankees fans it will be the first one played at home.

An ideal homecoming for the Yankees would be a 2-0 lead on the Rangers, before facing the surreal arm of Cliff Lee Monday evening.

Is this realistic?

Yes. The Yankees are the better ball-club. It is the Yankees ALCS to win or lose.

Here are top three reasons why:

  1. The Rangers made it to the ALCS, but Cliff Lee beat the Rays. Game 5 of the ALDS, Lee pitched better than ever. The fact that Lee is slated to start on Monday night in New York is a huge mistake by skipper Ron Washington. It gives the Bombers an open door to win the first two games and with that newly found Rangers confidence will be squashed upon entering the Bronx. The Yankees know they have capitalized this gift. What the Twins couldn’t do, the Rangers can and that’s to come out swinging with Lee in Game 1. The Yankees get pretty scary and will shake that confidence right out of Texas that could cost the Lone Star state the series. It’s a lot of pressure for CJ Wilson to carry, considering he was a closer till this season and the Yankees killed him as a starter.
  2. The Rangers have Josh Hamilton and Michael Young, but Hamilton is the team’s leader who has been broken ribs and he sat most of the last two weeks of the season. When Hamilton is hitting the line-up responds and against Tampa he was a non-factor. This is a problem in games that are not started by Cliff Lee, as the Rangers closer Neftali Feliz has been shaky lately and the Yankees will crush the rookie’s arm. The Rangers line-up is good, but the Yankees across the board have the most lethal line-up in baseball.
  3. Experience is relentless in the postseason, which the Yankees have more than anyone can swallow. Texas is in its first ALCS in franchise history. Yankees players who are rusty in age know what to expect and how to win, which is a total advantage. Rangers need Vladimir Guerrero and Bengie Molina know the Yankees veterans from when they were Los Angeles Angels. The Angels were the only team New York feared up until this season, Molina and Vlad were major contributors back then and if they can lead by example. It might help in making up for Washington’s managerial mistakes.
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Inter-league Games Between Two Unequal Leagues

Posted by on 11 June 2010, 5:08 pm

The Yankees are back home, not much has changed in regards to catching the Tampa Bay Rays who have held onto first place in the AL East all season. The Yankees are still two games behind, but continue to keep themselves the wild card team.

As I predicted, the Toronto Blue Jays have fallen to behind the Red Sox to fourth place, and this is a trend that will continue for Toronto.

The Blue Jays don’t play small ball at all, which is what comes in handy when team is slumping. Hitting home runs alone isn’t enough, but the Blue Jays pitching have allowed them to look more dominant.

This weekend begins inter-league play for all teams. Many feel it is unfair, as the American League has bullied the National League since these games were incorporated in 1997.

Why is the AL always better?

The AL is much more competitive because the designated hitter is a power bat, compared to having the pitchers bat.

NL pitchers almost get a break with every ninth batter being a pitcher, instead of facing the likes of a David Ortiz, Vladimir Guerrero or Hideki Matsui.

Matsui was the World Series MVP as the Yankees DH last season, which clearly proving it a significant position. Continue reading ‘Inter-league Games Between Two Unequal Leagues’ »

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ALCS Game Three: Home Is Where The Walk-Off Is

Posted by on 20 October 2009, 3:27 am

Tonight the Angels status went from zero, back on in this ALCS,  with the team’s walk-off win.

The Yankees are still a game up but the dream of a sweep and an easy way out from the L.A. ghosts of playoffs past  got taken back down to reality in game three’s loss.

Everyone was disappointed but no one was surprised by the Angels winning back at home.

The Yankees have been preparing for a fight and never expected this series to be any different. The Yankees could fluff their cushions by taking game four before heading back to the Bronx leading the series by two.

The game started on a high with our Captain blasting a solo shot into right field. Following Jeter was Arod and then Damon giving the Yankees a 3-0 lead.

Angels Vladimir Guerrero had been hitless for his last 11 plate appearances in a row. Guerrero’s 12th time was a wake-up call by hitting a 2-run blast.

Safe to say that this chump is out of his slump.

After Guerrero, the game was tied as Howie Kendrick hit a home-run the inning before so the game was 3-3.

The fourth Yankees solo homer, by Posada tied the game leading into extra innings.

Pettitte pitched well and should not take any heat because the Southpaw did his job. A solid performance for Pettitte overall. Continue reading ‘ALCS Game Three: Home Is Where The Walk-Off Is’ »

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Rain, Rain Go Away: Yanks Finally Make Angels Pay

Posted by on 15 September 2009, 4:20 am

The Yankees and the Angels are likely to be seeing one another down the stretch in the post season. A place, over the years, that the Angels have surely been the dominant team.

The Yankees got swept out of LA back in late June. And that was by a Angel ball-club without Tori Hunter and Vladimir Guerrero on the roaster.

The make-up game gave the Bombers an opportunity to send a message that the big, bad Angels were not going to scare the Yankees anymore.

The game went down to the wire. In the eighth our hero, Phil Hughes, had to get three outs was his most unsettling performance to date. Hughes is vital to the team’s future success and he remained confident.

Posada seemed to want Hughes to only throw his fastball which overall is smarter then a curve ball. Made me think that maybe would have thrown the batters to swing and miss. With a younger arm in Phil, his curve would have to be perfect or it would result in a bomb giving the Angels a lead.

The defense did their job in helping Hughes with some beneficial plays. One run did score to tie the game but overall a good outing for young Phil. He faced the best of the Angel line-up in our friend Bobby Abreau, the fastball assaulting Vladimir Guerrero together with Tori Hunter who is one of the best.

Giradi made a smart move having Gardner pinch-run for Tex in the bottom of the eighth. On a double rob to third, Gardner scored on a throwing error to secure a W.

Joba pitched well throwing 41 of 67 for strikes. Swish smashed his 27th homer and Tex went 3-4 to send the Angels back home not as tough as when they arrived.

Before next week’s series back in Anaheim country, the Yankees know that the Angels pose the biggest threat if both end playing October baseball.

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