Rupe clears waivers

Just when it looks like we need more bullpen help, the Rangers decide to move Rupe to starter? Is it true that the main reason the Rangers got rid of Gabbard was because he wanted to start? So Gabbard can start in beantown but not here? What a joke? That kid was and is a competitor and seemed to have a clue when he was on the mound. Should we really be dealing #1 pitching and #2 one who has the intestinal fortitude to believe that he should be a starter? Feldman should have had that same strength of personality and purpose. We haven’t heard the last from Mr. Gabbard, but hey whats new?

Gabbards only problem was getting injured. The Rangers evidently didn’t like his “attitude”. Hey they felt the same way about Kevin Brown and look what he did in his career after he exited stage left. I am not a baseball professional but the things they do out there just don’t make sense. Rule #1 is you can never have enough pitching or pitching depth. Over the past two years we have ran about 20 to 25 pitchers out to the mound. To trade Gabbard for cash, especially when he had decent stuff and is still pretty young is crazy. It just fortifies my argument that they are always giving pitchers away before they mature. I am sure Gabbard is in a better place now. I would like to hear him speak to the press about how he feels about the Ranger organization. Here is a guy who evidently thought he could help the major league team but wasn’t afforded the opportunitiy. In my book Holland should be starting and the further along that they wait, the more likely it is that he will struggle. He is gonna have to rebuild his strength up in reference to longevity because of his bullpen use. So lets put Padilla in the bullpen and move forward.

What caliber of player, Sullivanian, do you think they were going to get for Gabbard given his inability to throw strikes or stay healthy for over a year now? Throw in the fact that he’s 27 and never had sustained success in the big leagues and you’re probably looking at getting back a player similar to Elizardo Ramirez or Brian Gordon, who we already have at AAA. I agree that the ballpark was built for left handed pitchers, yet Gabbard had a 4.88 ERA in Texas and an atrocious 1.66 WHIP that would lead one to believe that there was some luck involved in that 4.88 ERA not being even higher, especially when you throw in the fact that he walked more than 5 batters per 9 innings while striking out less than 6 in his career.

While he may have had “the intestinal fortitude to believe that he should be a starter” he lacked the intestinal fortitude to throw strikes. I don’t know about Rupe starting in OKC. Maybe they want him to work on a new pitch and feel the best way for him to do that is getting regular innings as a starter. Just speculating. Even if he weren’t starting, I’m pretty sure that Rupe wouldn’t show up, disrupting the clubhouse, with the audacity to say he should be a starter while he’s walking 11 batters in 6 innings at Oklahoma. That’s what Gabbard did and that’s why he was sent, Shippin’ up to Boston. We’ll see how much starting he does in Beantown. Right now he’s in extended Spring Training in Ft. Meyers.

“So lets put Padilla in the bullpen and move forward.” – The bulldog of the roation?

Surely i could have done better, could i have done any worse. Which leads to this question. With Holland and Feliz recently having been named as our top two starting pitching prospects does that mean that they too will soon be having phenomenal success for other franchises. Have the Rangers truly learned not to deal their pitching prospects? Just last year Gabbard was penciled in as a starter but now he is traded for a bag of beans. Jon and the Beanstalk. Fee, fi, fo, fum, i smell the blood of an Englishman. Daniels just traded all of our horses for nothing. So don’t wait for the made for tv movie, just watch the non sense in Arlington, Texas it is being played out in reality. Now the Rangers have the #1 minor leagues. Just think how good our major league team would have been with Volquez, Danks, Galarraga, Young. And Hefe other than Harrison’s last start has he really thrown the ball that much better than what Gabbard did when he was healthy?

“Young, Galarraga, Danks, Volquez did i miss anyone?????” – You missed the post you made this spring about not bringing up these names hyper-repetatively, yet here we sit. Post after post of the same old thing because the Rangers sold a 27 year old who walked 5.3 per 9 innings. It seems to me that you’re a liar and that Gabbard lacked the intestinal fortitude to throw the ball over the plate. Harrison has walked 3.7 per 9, which is too high, but he’s 4 years younger. You’re such a blind hater of Daniels that you’re now convinced that Gabbard is going to be a big league starter in Boston. Nevermind that he’s never pitched 160 innings in any season, ever. Never mind that he walks almost as many as he strikes out. We’ll see how that one turns out.

Sad to see Gabbard go……Been a fan since the Red Sox days…….No, he hasnt pitched well this year or last but he was pitching injured last year ( so he said) and he is coming back from surgery……Seems like they gave up on him a little early. As far as the future for Gabbard, who knows? Will have to start throwing strikes though. Glad that Rupe made it through waivers……he was a trooper last year and I would like to see him regain his confidence and do well.