Kuzul

The Texas Rangers have embarrassed the New York Yankees in the Bronx over the last two days and are on the verge of a pennant.

The Yankees sent A.J. Burnett to the mound, hoping to even the ALCS at two games apiece but one pitch doomed him and his team.

The Rangers’ Tommy Hunter didn’t do a bad job but didn’t last long, leaving it to reliever Derek Holland to get the job done.

Texas scored a little early and a lot late, eventually putting the Yankees away and taking a 3-1 series lead. Here’s a report card breaking down the Rangers’ 10-3 win on Tuesday night.

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Through three innings of Game One of the American League Division Series between the Tampa Bay Rays and Texas Rangers, the Rangers own a 3-0 lead thanks to major production from the bottom half of their lineup. Nelson Cruz, Jeff Francoeur, and Bengie Molina have notched early RBI against Rays starter David Price, who is making his debut as a starting hurler in postseason play.

The real danger signs for the Rays, though, are on the other side of the ball. After two tough innings in which he threw a combined 42 pitches and allowed four base-runners, Rangers ace left-hander Cliff Lee has settled in, needing just seven pitches to retire the Rays in order in the third inning.

Lee is finally using his whole repertoire, offering the Rays at least three distinct fastballs, a changeup and a curveball. Tampa cannot lay off the deceptively tough Lee heat, which registers only in the low 90s but is located perfectly. Lee is getting more and more calls on the corners as the umpires watch him paint the black, and the Rays may be in real trouble if he has another clean frame in the fourth.

Keep an eye on Lee’s pitch count from here on out: He never exceeded 119 pitches in regular-season play, and the high pitch counts in the first two frames could be as damaging as they were surprising and uncharacteristic. For a man who averaged over seven innings per start this regular season, it could mean an early exit.

Will Ron Washington stretch out his ace to earn a crucial Game One win? Will Lee simply continue his efficient third-inning pace? Only time will tell. The Rangers may allow Lee to take it easy if they continue their barrage on Price: They have just scored again on a Molina homer to make the score 4-0 through three and a half innings.

Matt Trueblood is a student at Loyola University Chicago and B/R Writing Intern. Follow him on twitter.

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The notion that Tim Lincecum’s woeful performance in August was prompted by rookie catcher Buster Posey tipping pitches is utterly ridiculous.

Of course, the desperate search to explain how poorly Lincecum has pitched lately leads fans to suggest he cut his hair and has manager Bruce Bochy saying the two-time Cy Young Award winner needs to work harder to get in better condition during the offseason.

Lincecum’s not been above looking for answer in odd places. Before he dropped Friday night’s game to Arizona, 6-0, he opted to change the look of his uniform and wear black stockings with orange stirrups.  There’s more chance that Lincecum just needs to tweak his uniform or trim his hair than there is that he hit the skids because he and Posey don’t work together, as well as the right-hander worked with veteran catcher Bengie Molina.

If Posey is guilty of tipping pitches to the point that he gets Lincecum hit all over the park, why isn’t Matt Cain getting jacked around by opposing hitters?  Why haven’t opposing hitters been hammering closer Brian Wilson’s fastball in every outing? Posey’s catching those guys, too.

Posey might make rookie mistakes like touching the ground with his glove when he wants the pitcher to keep the ball particularly low.  However, the only way that type of thing is the cause for Lincecum’s problems would be if Posey coincidentally worked an entire game without making such mistakes in Lincecum’s few solid outings in recent months.

When Molina was initially traded to the Texas Rangers, simply to make room for Posey behind the plate, media types and the Giants were gleefully reporting that Posey had immediately meshed with the starting pitchers, including with Lincecum.

Lincecum had some good outings with Posey behind the plate, in between his two prolonged slumps this season.  So, Posey didn’t start tipping pitches or making rookie mistakes until after he’d put down fingers for Lincecum in a couple of victories?

Posey’s not to blame for Lincecum’s struggles. Lincecum would be struggling even if Molina were still catching his starts.  Remember, things have gone so poorly for Lincecum that he has altered his wind-up and delivery, at one point in the middle of the game.

It’s doubtful something as simple as changing catchers is the problem if a Cy Young Award winner feels the need to mess with a pitching motion that enabled him to take baseball by storm in 2008 and 2009.

Bochy might be onto something, though.  Bochy’s a baseball guy, through and through. If he says Lincecum’s just tired, and that he’s tired because he didn’t work hard enough in the offseason, the manager is most likely right.  Bochy never calls out his players, let alone a veteran and one of the game’s brightest young stars. For the veteran skipper to flatly state that Lincecum’s tired and lacking cardiovascular and lower body strength, it must be the gospel truth.

Lincecum won’t bounce back this season. He’ll win some games down the stretch, but long gone is the time that the Giants could imagine one of his starts being an automatic victory.

Barry Zito got his fastball back, so Lincecum can get two, three, or four mph back, as well. He just won’t do it this year.  And, while the kid continues to struggle, it won’t be Posey’s fault.

Ted Sillanpaa is a Northern California sports writer and columnist. Reach Ted at tsillanpaa1956@gmail.com.

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Thanks to Marty Lurie of KNBR, I got the idea to write just how good the Giants are and how well certain players are performing compared to previous seasons.
As August begins, the Giants begin a difficult two months to catch the first place Padres. Starting off the second half going 8-1 in the division and 13-4 overall, they’re the hottest team in baseball. Giants’ players are peaking at the right time and this team is having fun again as they fight for a post-season berth.

It’s been an incredible year so far, and fans have a lot to look forward to in the coming months. Although we all hope to see the Giants keep winning and overtake San Diego, the Giants can also fall back. Up to this point, this team has far exceeded expectations.

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What do Craig Biggio, Pablo Sandoval, and Neil Walker have in common? All three saw a significant amount of time behind the plate in the minors but found new positions in the big leagues.

The trend of moving young catchers to other positions because of their defensive deficiencies behind the plate or to increase longevity has left fantasy owners with a diluted pool of catchers from which to choose. 

The rankings that follow are designed to help you get as much value as possible at the shallowest position in the game. All percentage of ownership numbers are from ESPN Fantasy Baseball leagues. Stats through 7/18/2010.

Tier One

Joe Mauer (100 percent owned)- Mauer owners might have expected a decrease in power numbers this season (28 HR, .587 SLG in 2009 and just 4 HR, .433 SLG in 2010), but few could have expected his on-base percentage (.372) to fall to what it was in his first full season in the majors. 

The power outage can be explained by the fact that about one out of every five Mauer fly balls left the yard last year while only about one out of every 20 is leaving the yard this year.  As for the on-base percentage, Mauer is simply chasing more balls outside of the strike zone. 

All that said, only Miguel Olivo was better than Mauer in the first half, so Mauer must still be considered the top option at catcher. 

Brian McCann (100 percent owned)- McCann provides great value at the catcher position, not only because he produces, but because he produces consistently. His home run totals the last four seasons are 24, 18, 23, 21, and he is on pace to finish this season in that range.  Although McCann is currently hitting .270, he is a career .291 hitter, and it is entirely possible he finishes the season close to that mark.

Buster Posey (96.2 percent owned)- Since his call-up on May 29, all Posey has done in 145 at-bats is hit .352 with 7 HR, 23 R and 26 RBI.  If you scale those numbers out to a full 162-game season, he would be on pace for 28 HR, 93 R, and 105 RBI. Sure, you are likely to see some regression from the young hitter, but to this point, Posey has done nothing but prove that he is the real deal.

Carlos Santana (92 percent owned)- In 125 big league plate appearances, Santana has walked a very impressive 25 times.  Add the fact that he has only swung at 22.1 percent of pitches out of the strike zone, and it looks like the kid who might now be the best athlete in Cleveland has the ability to succeed against big league pitching.

Tier Two 

Miguel Montero (78.8 percent owned)- Chris Snyder is cutting into Montero’s playing time a bit, but Montero is hitting .308 since his return from the DL after hitting .294 with 16 homers last season. 

Kurt Suzuki (50.3 percent owned)- Suzuki is basically a poor man’s Brian McCann. He has just a little less power, will probably end the year 15 to 20 points behind McCann in average, and trails McCann in counting numbers (R, RBI) simply because he hits in a weaker lineup. 

Geovany Soto (59.8 percent owned)- Lately, Soto has been ceding less time to Koyie Hill than he was earlier in the year.  That is probably because he is hitting more like Geovany Soto circa 2008.  In the last 30 days, Soto is hitting .309 with 4 HR, 8 R, and 15 RBI. 

Miguel Olivo (90.4 percent owned)- So many things point to a significant Olivo regression in the second half.  He is currently hitting .325, but he has never hit better than .263 in his career.

He also has a BABIP of .396 (Batting Average on Balls In Play; generally, above .300 means a hitter has been lucky, and below .300 means a hitter has been unlucky). However, no other catcher has been better to this point, so it may be worth it to try and ride the hot bat. 

Tier Three

Matt Wieters (49.9 percent owned)- My Wieters man-love knows no bounds, but he was one of the bigger disappointments of the first half and is likely to miss a week’s worth of games in the second half.  If you still believe, go ahead and stick with him, but you might be wise to temper your expectations.

Victor Martinez (100 percent owned)- If he were healthy, Martinez would undoubtedly be a top-five catcher option the rest of the way.  However, he has only recently become able to squeeze a baseball without feeling soreness in his thumb.

There is just too much uncertainty about how much time V-Mart will miss in the second half for him to be considered the elite fantasy option that he usually is.

Mike Napoli (79 percent owned)- The sub .250 average is not ideal, but at the end of the day, you know Napoli is going to hit for power as he averages a home run every 17 at-bats for his career.

John Buck (42 percent owned)- Buck’s 2010 numbers look great: .272, 13 HR, 27 R, 41 RBI.  The problem is that in the last 30 days Buck has only contributed 1 HR, 3 R, and 6 RBI to those season totals. 

Tier Four

Bengie Molina (35.3 percent owned)– The move to Texas has to make Bengie more valuable.

Jorge Posada (92.4 percent owned)– Yeah, he is healthy now, but how long is that going to last?

Ryan Doumit (59.8 percent owned)– Doumit may lose some playing time because he has been abysmal defensively.  His caught stealing percentage is easily the worst in the league, and he leads the league in passed balls.  However, as long as he keeps hitting while he is back there, Doumit is a viable fantasy option.

A.J. Pierzynski (9.3 percent owned)– To date, Pierzynski’s BABIP is fairly low (.245), and he is striking out less than he has in previous years.  There seems to be some potential for a better second half.

Tier Five

Russell Martin (58.6 percent owned)– Martin has no business even being discussed as ownable in a 10-team league, but in deeper formats, he has value simply because he plays alm ost every day.  Among catchers, he ranks third in at-bats behind Jason Kendall and Mauer.

Jason Kendall (7.4 percent owned)– To reiterate, Jason Kendall leads the league in at-bats with 309. Add his .269 average and six steals, and it is clear that Kendall is a nice option in deeper league and AL-only formats.

Jonathan Lucroy (0.1 percent owned)– Lucroy is likely to receive the majority of the playing time in the second half for the Brewers, and he is hitting a respectable .280 with two homers and two steals so far this season.

Chris Ianetta (2.9 percent owned)– Ianetta could see increased playing time if Miguel Olivo does actually regress. His ISO (Isolated Power measures a hitter’s raw power based on his ability to get extra base hits) indicates that if he does see more ABs, he might be able to do some serious damage with them.

Just missed the cut: John Jaso (1.7 percent owned)

Agree or Disagree with the rankings? Leave a comment and let us know, or reply to us on Twitter@TheFantasyFix.

Article written by Brett Talley exclusively for TheFantasyFix.com

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Bengie Molina didn’t win the the San Francisco Giants’ Willie Mac Award twice because him teammates liked how he looked in his uniform. He was, obviously, a very popular and respected teammate.

Let’s put the idea that his departure to the Texas Rangers will spell doom for Giants pitchers to rest immediately, however.

Molina calls a great game. Tim Lincecum admits often that he feels he should share his Cy Young Awards with the veteran catcher. So, since the pitcher won’t do it, someone should mention that the right-hander should share half of the difficulties he has experienced in the last two months with Molina, too.

Matt Cain struggled early, went through a period where he was the best right-hander in the National League, but has had a couple of rough outings. Cain acknowledges how valuable Molina was to his development as a pitcher and to his success. Again, let’s point out that Molina was doing his job exactly as he did during Cain’s hot streak when Cain pitched poorly.

The Giants pitchers, who have been so fabulous for so long, have hit their first group slump in two years. So, if the hard times continue — let’s remember that Molina was on hand and calling pitches when the starting staff began to pitch like mere mortals, OK?

It’s going to be really tempting, with the Giants at the point where being swept in Colorado could turn them from NL West contenders to division longshot, to look back in two weeks and mumble, “What were the Giants thinking trading Molina? Cain and Lincecum haven’t won a game since he left? Buster Posey can’t handle this staff…”

Buster Posey and veteran Eli Whiteside can handle the staff. The catcher suggests the pitch and the location. The pitcher has to deliver the pitch to the spot where the hitter can make solid contact. And, even though they are still young in baseball years, Lincecum, Cain and Jonathan Sanchez have a good idea of what they need to throw and when to throw it. Sanchez, actually, has had Whiteside catching him most of the season. Barry Zito calls his own game.

Madison Bumgarner’s 20 years old. Posey knows him better than any catcher in the Giants organization. The Giants coaching staff should know every National League hitter Bumgarner and Posey will face. There’s not a reason in the world for Bumgarner’s progress as a big leaguer to be hindered if the guys who get paid to help the players do actually help Posey figure out NL hitters.

This is the point in a season where it’d be really easy for a team to make excuses for losing. Worse, it’s a time when the Giants are fading and really could be looking for one reason to say, “OK. That’s it! We give up!”

That holds for Pablo Sandoval, too. He’s failed to perform at the same level he did a year ago. He hasn’t been the lovable, run-producing Panda all season. So, there’s no reason in the world for anyone to point to Sandoval’s performance going forward and say, “He really misses Molina. The club never should’ve traded the guy.”

The Molina trade is not, and should never be, used as an excuse for any failure the Giants pitching staff experiences. If he had that much to do with the staff success, the staff wouldn’t be struggling today, right? And, Sandoval might miss his good friend — but, Molina apparently wasn’t able to get him going with the bat this season either.

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Ted Sillanpaa is a Northern California sports writer and columnist. Reach Ted at tsillanpaa1956@gmail.com

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The Bengie Molina trade has been getting a lot of attention on the Internet, I assume because Bengie was once a big star and because people have wildly varying opinions of his value as a ballplayer.

I saw on mlbtraderumors.com that the player to be named later the Giants will likely receive is Michael Main, a 21-year-old RHP, whom the Rangers selected with the 24th overall pick of the 2007 Draft. 

If Main is the PTBNL the Giants do, in fact, receive, he’s worth the $2 million in salary for Molina the Giants are sending to Texas.

Main is currently a starter for Bakersfield in the Class A+ California League.  He’s 5-3 with a 3.45 ERA and a line of 91.1 IP, 87 hits, 14 HRs and 21 walks allowed, and 72 Ks. 

The home run total is too high, but the rest of the numbers are pretty good for a 21-year-old starter pitching in the hit-happy California League.

Bengie has been something of a lightning rod the last few seasons.  The stat-heads (of which I would consider myself an out-lying member), argue that Bengie is way overrated because his on-base percentages are terrible, he’s dead slow, and his defense behind the plate has slipped considerably in recent years.

As a Giants’ fan, I’ve gotten a good look at Bengie in his tenure in San Francisco, and I don’t entirely agree. 

Yes, Bengie’s OBP is terrible, but it’s comparable to an awful lot of other regular and semi-regular catchers in MLB, and most of them don’t have Bengie’s power.

Yes, Bengie’s only hit 20 home runs in a season once, and it was exactly 20 that one year (2009), but he’s hit between 14 and 19 HRs in six other seasons.  That has some value.

Bengie’s offensive inadequacies were exacerbated by the fact that Giants manager Bruce Bochy insisted on batting him cleanup much of the last few seasons. 

That’s not Bengie’s fault—he’d have made a fine sixth- or seventh-place hitter.  Sadly, the Giants didn’t have a whole lot of significantly better options.

My personal observations were that Molina did a good job managing a young pitching staff.  The numbers, however, suggest that perhaps Bengie didn’t make much of a difference.

The Giants’ team ERAs the last four years (including 2010) were 4.11, 4.28, 3.74 and 3.46 when Bengie was catching, compared to 4.19, 4.38, 3.55 and 3.46 overall.  That looks like a wash, although Bengie was overwhelmingly the catcher behind the plate for the Giants in those years.

Much of the problem with Molina’s inability to throw out base runners as a Giant was the result of a pitching staff unable to hold runners and move quickly to the plate. 

For example, I doubt any of the Molina brothers, even the young, spry Gold-Glove-winning ones, would throw out a high percentage of base-stealers with Tim Lincecum on the slab.

Of the National League’s top 20 starters the last two seasons, Lincecum has been the worst at holding runners to their bases. 

Fortunately, he doesn’t allow a lot of hitters to get on base and can rely on the strikeout to keep runners from advancing.  The rest of the Giants’ pitching staff isn’t a whole lot better (Brian Wilson in particular is the second-coming of Robb Nen).

Mychael Urban of CSN Bay Area, while I don’t necessarily agree with his contention that this is Brian Sabean’s biggest deal of the last few years, makes a particularly good point that Bengie is a veteran player who feels like he’s put in the time to deserve to play every day, even if he isn’t performing. 

Bengie had subtly made it clear that he would not be happy if he lost his starting job to Buster Posey.  That meant Bengie had to go.

Young players (as a group) are hungrier than veterans (as a group).  Young players just want to get in the line up and get a chance to play so they can prove themselves.

Veteran stars have a sense of entitlement that, even if they haven’t been carrying their salaries for a while and are old enough they probably won’t get back what they’ve lost with the passing of the years, they still feel they should be playing every day based on what they accomplished in the past.

That’s just not the way professional sports work.  Teams have now shown that they will eat a surprising amount of salary once they’ve decided a veteran star just doesn’t have it any more.

I wish Bengie all the success in the world in Texas, but now that the deal is done, I’m also hoping that Chris Ray turns out to the sixth coming of Juan Uribe, Aubrey Huff, Pat Burrell, Santiago Casilla and Denny Bautista: i.e. another American League wash-out who finds new life in the City by the Bay.

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Word of the San Francisco Giants trading catcher Bengie Molina to the Texas Rangers spread quickly following the team’s loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday afternoon. By Thursday, the deal became official.

Molina, who was still with the Giants on Thursday, will hop a on plane to Texas and be formally introduced as a Ranger.

In return, the Giants get RHP Chris Ray and minor league RHP Michael Main. Ray fly will to Colorado to join San Francisco while Main will head to Double-A Richmond.

Ray has a career record of 12-17 with a 4.01 ERA. He has accumulated 50 saves with 193 strikeouts in 226 games. While with the Baltimore Orioles, he served as the primary closer in 2006 and 2007. In 2006, he earned a career-high 33 saves in 61 games. This season, the 28-year-old has a record of 2-0 with a 3.41 ERA, one save, 16 walks and 16 strikeouts.

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While the MLB trade deadline is more than four weeks away, the San Francisco Giants and Texas Rangers swapped catcher Bengie Molina for reliever Chris Ray and a player to be named later on Thursday.

Although this deal may appear insignificant on the surface, it’s important to understand how this trade affects not only the fantasy values of the players involved, but others as well.

Molina’s move from San Francisco to Texas obviously boosts his value—not only because he’s now batting in a much more potent lineup, but because of the home ballpark factor as well.

While the eldest Molina brother has struggled this season (.257 batting average, three HRs, 17 RBI in 202 at-bats), his three-year averages (.278 batting average, 18 HRs, 85 RBI) suggest there may be something left in the soon-to-be 36-year-old’s tank.

Despite his .257 batting average, Molina boasts a ridiculous 89.1 percent contact rate (MLB average is 81.0 percent).

In Texas, Molina figures to play five days a week and bat eighth between Justin Smoak and Julio Borbon.

If you’re looking for a reason to be optimistic, consider this: In 2,579 career at-bats before the All-Star Break, Molina has hit a HR every 37.3 at-bats. Following the Midsummer Classic, however, he goes yard once every 28.2 at-bats.

He’s a decent deep league option, and is worth an add if you’re struggling to find a viable replacement for Victor Martinez.

With Molina out of the lineup in San Francisco, Buster Posey figures to settle in as the Giants everyday catcher. In 27 games this year, the 23-year-old former first-round pick has started just two games at catcher this season.

Although he hit well in his first two weeks as a major leaguer (.429 batting average), Posey has struggled since, posting a .146 average in his last 14 games. Still, he’s batting .289 with one HR and 10 RBI through 97 at-bats overall.

Posey projects as a Joe Mauer-type player with great strike zone awareness and the ability to hit for a high average. His power upside, however, is likely no more than 15-20 bombs a year.

With Posey moving from first base to catcher, Pablo Sandoval figures to move across the diamond and play first base. This likely opens up a spot at third base for the hot-hitting Juan Uribe , while Edgar Renteria and Freddy Sanchez will play every day at shortstop and second base, respectively.

In exchange for Molina, the Rangers will send reliever Chris Ray to San Francisco. Once thought to be Baltimore’s closer of the future, Ray underwent Tommy John surgery in 2007 and hasn’t been the same since.

After saving 33 games in 2006 and posting a 9.28 K/9 before his surgery in 2007, the now 28-year-old owns matching strikeout and walk rates of 4.55 in 31 2/3 innings this season.

Ray’s average fastball velocity is back up into the mid-90s, but his heater/slider combo hasn’t been as effective as it once was. His 3.41 ERA has been aided by a .214 BABIP, and his 5.88 xFIP suggests cloudy skies ahead.

While AT&T Park  may help Ray’s cause, he’s going to have a hard time finding meaningful innings in a Giants bullpen which has been pretty good this year. Ray should only be owned in deep keeper/dynasty leagues that count holds.

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