Kuzul

The Texas Rangers‘ outfield had their third trip to the DL Saturday, as Julio Borbon held the lucky ticket. That makes the trifecta complete. All three opening day starting outfielders are currently on the DL.

First came Josh Hamilton on the infamous slide in Detroit April 12.

Next was Nelson Cruz on May 3. Cruz left the game with “tightness in his quad.”

Borbon left the game Friday due to a “pull in his hamstring.”

The Rangers still won the game 4-1, but losing your best defensive outfielder will take a toll on the workload of the bench.

Craig Gentry was recently called up to replace Cruz. The Rangers called up Endy Chavez from AAA Round Rock (Tex). Chavez is 33 and has nine years of big league experience. He is a career .270 hitter who had to miss part of the 2009 season due to a torn ACL after a violent collision with Yuniesky Betancourt.

He signed with the Rangers for the 2010 season, and started in AA Frisco. He posted a .545 batting average in 32 games and was quickly promoted to AAA Oklahoma City (currently Round Rock), but sustained an injury yet again.

For the 2011 season he is back, healthy, and like Brett Tomko, ready to play for a major league club again. The opportunity came when Borbon was placed on the DL.

This begs the question: Would highly touted prospect Engel Beltre have been called up if it weren’t for his trashcan throwing fiasco?

Beltre is ranked as the best outfielder in the farm system, and fifth best overall prospect for the Rangers. According to BaseballAmerica.com, he has the best outfield arm and is the best overall defensive outfielder for the Rangers.

From the San Antonio Express News:

“Frisco RoughRiders outfielder Engel Beltre has been suspended indefinitely by the Texas League for his role in an altercation with fans after Tuesday’s game against the Missions.

The suspension likely will be for 10 days, but a definitive ruling is scheduled to be announced today, a spokesman for the league said.

Beltre was identified as the player who tossed the trash can into the stands moments after the RoughRiders’ 7-6 loss to the Missions.

The Texas Rangers, Frisco’s major-league parent club, also disciplined the outfielder, placing him on the temporarily inactive list and optioning him to the team’s extended spring training site in Arizona.”

Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/default/article/Frisco-player-suspended-as-a-result-of-melee-1355970.php#ixzz1MNXILuJc

It’s sad to see that high emotions cost a great young athlete a chance at making the big club. There was a good chance he could have been called up after Borbon’s injury. For his sake, i hope he learns from this situation.

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I called it at the beginning of the year. Neftali Feliz has yet to throw a pitch faster than 96. While that’s still blistering heat, he is used to throwing 100-plus mph. He is in the low-90s consistently, which, for the Rookie of the Year and All-Star, is awful.

Today, the Texas Rangers put him on the 15-day DL.

With the Rangers losing ground in a pitching dominated AL West, they need their bullpen more than ever. They’ve lost the last three series in a row, and at one point, the lead in the division.

General manager Jon Daniels seems to think it’s not a big deal.

“If he was 33 instead of 23, we may treat it a little differently,” Daniels said, “but given his age and what he means to the club, we’re going to play this one on the safe side, relatively conservatively. We very easily could have just given him a couple of days off and see how it goes. But we didn’t want to take any chances here.”

This is a very significant injury to the Rangers bullpen. It’s magnified much more when you look at the rest of the bullpens’ stats thus far.

With Alexi Ogando in the rotation for the injured Tommy Hunter, the bullpen has six right-handed pitchers consisting of Feliz, Darren O’Day, Pedro Strop, Mason Tobin, Mark Lowe and Dave Bush.

Feliz and Tobin are on the DL, cutting that list to four.

Lowe was sent down to Triple-A Round Rock, making it three.

O’Day has pitched in seven games, giving up six hits and walking four. This combined with a subpar spring training leaves very little faith in the once reliable sub-mariner. He is leaving balls up in the zone, and they are being driven far.

Bush has an ERA that doesn’t tell the truth about his performance. He’s had two appearances, five innings pitched, giving up five hits and walking four.

This brings us to our last RHP in the Ranger bullpen—Pedro Strope. He’s put up great numbers, but is he reliable? At the young age of 25, he’s only got 23 big league innings under his belt. He’s struck out seven and walked six in 5.1 innings this year, but he’s virtually unproven. The Rangers can’t rely on Strope to pick up the slack the rest of the right-handers have given him, and from the left side, well, the Rangers just look old.

What is less reassuring is Brandon Webb looking to come back from injury. He’s going to have to be the savior of the ‘pen when he returns. I’m not ready to put all my eggs in his basket (no pun intended, being Easter weekend.)

The state of the bullpen is not looking very bright in Texas. They can only hope that Feliz won’t be on the DL for long.

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Flukes—it’s a funny word to say, sounding more like a cereal than a sports reference, but it has a much deeper impact on sports than Wheaties.

There has been a lot of talk about the Texas Rangers world series run last year being a fluke; not even Cliff Lee could take the Rangers seriously when he signed with the Philadelphia Phillies.

It’s not hard to believe—after all there is reason to be skeptical.

With only three previous AL West division titles, they were always seen as the ugly stepchild by a dominant Anaheim Angels squad, a Billy Beane Oakland A’s team and even the Seattle Mariners have had some great years thrown in there.

This is the old AL West.

This year’s division is almost a complete turnaround from last year’s; that’s why it’s imperative C.J. Wilson of the Texas Rangers has to step up his game and dominate nearly every outing if the Rangers want to content for a second division title in as many years.

Can he do it? Yes.

Many people want to attribute Cliff Lee to the spectacular season the Rangers had. While he did help the Rangers in the playoffs, the real crutch the Rangers leaned on after the All Star Game was Wilson.

If you compare stats on the second half of the season, you’ll see that Wilson went 8-3 compared to Lee’s 4-5, he posted an ERA of 3.36 to Lee’s 3.79 and also gave up 19 less hits and 12 less runs.

Wilson is the type of ballplayer that doesn’t come around too often. We’ve seen so many tirades after an outing and even mid-inning, pitchers can crack under pressure.

Wilson is one of the most, if not the most, cool, calm and collected pitcher in baseball. If he gets in a jam, he can surely find a way out of it.

Wilson started the year last year with seven consecutive quality starts and no home runs in 87 2/3 IP. He gave up only 10 HR last year, none of which were hit by a left-handed batter and although he lead the league in walks at 93, he countered by inducing 21 double-plays, 12th highest in the AL. Wilson also ranked 14th with a 1.01 ground-out to fly-out ratio.

Wilson has the demeanor to dominate. He is too laid back to get stressed out over a bad call or a bad night on the bump. This is what will make him an “Ace.”

While Lee was on the team, the knowledge hungry Wilson picked his brain on a daily basis. He has learned so much in his one year of starting, that he can only get better.

There are only two things separating Lee from Wilson, only one of which he can control—Lee hits spots perfectly; Wilson hits spots, but there is a reason he walked 93 batters.

The other factor is Lee has been dominating for years now and umpires give him calls; he has earned a few more inches off the plate.

Once Wilson establishes himself and proves he can do this for a second year, and then a third year, he will get black and a little more.

That’s when Texas will have its ace.

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