Monday Morning Manager...Memorial Day Theories as to what's gone wrong.

1. I wrote in January that to win this division, we needed 32 wins out of KM and VP. They have four through a third of the season. Whoops.

2. I shouldn't comment on this, because I think I put too much emphasis on defense as it is. Unbelievably ugly.

3. Yep.

4. Yep.

5. Guilty as charged.

One thru four are 100% correct. On #5 - I had really low expectations coming into this season, so that isn't true for me.

At least the Yankees are struggling too, getting swept by the Angels. Join me on my mini-ballpark tour currently in progress.

Unlike our 6 ballpark tour last year, we are doing an smaller tour to Yankee Stadium, Fenway Park and Shea Stadium. One of the questions we are seekling to answer - a neutral look at whose fans are most obnoxious. Here is the first installment:

http://hitlesswanderings.mlblogs.com/

Tom Houk

This might be unfounded, but my theory is that you can't just "purchase and add leadership" to a team, and hope it will gel as instant oatmeal.

Despite the fact that Kenny Lofton and Sammy Sosa have been among this year's few bright spots, their presence, along with Ron Washington himself, might have caused our organic leaders (the ones we were "growing") to lose their identity.

I think RW is going to be great in time, but one of his growing pains may have been caused by changing a product before getting to know it.

I once heard that Henry Ford used to interview potential top employees over dinner, and not hire them if they salted their food before tasting it.

In the meantime, perhaps trading our artificially-added stellar pair of 40-year-old outfielders for solid prospects would allow the natural cream on this team to rise to the top in due time.

p.s. We need to take a lesson (a la V Wells) from Toronto regarding Teix. Be generous in our offer, but bold and unhesitating if he chooses not to extend his deal now.

Mike, or "Summer House for Rent," in St.Helena

Can't argue with any of the theories - #4 maybe the big the single biggest "offense" by the players and GM that has hurt this team.

http://emc.mlblogs.com

1) Millwood and Padilla have the talent, stuff, makeup and track record to say they will turn it around. Problem is, mainly, they have stunk. And a rotting fish starts at the head and works its' way down. I agree TR--this is a chief problem.

A Very safe, happy Memorial Day, and Never Forget Omaha Beach, Iwo Jima, Baghdad, and all the battlefields that are littered with blood from valiant men trying to keep us free.

2) The "vaunted and much heralded" Manager's focus this year, defense, has proved to be a real stinker. I don't blame Ron or the coaching staff in the least--the players look like the Keystone Cops--(if anyone can remember this bumbling group). I don't see any signs of life for the Defense. Let me say, what the Rangers did on opening day, in the famous words of Perry Mason, "The defense rests." And has all season. Seems more players would be throwing chairs and hitting the wall by now. Where is the outrage? Could it be the Player's Association rearing it's ugly head again, with guaranteed contracts of 5 years and a salary of $50 million, WHY would anyone hit the walls in disgust? The players don't turn in their salary for non-performance now do they? They should, symbolically, as a group, give the money back to the fans for deceiving the public with a fraud. The players can return to their mansions in Southlake or Highland Park, and only worry about counting their greenbacks. Do you guys not have pride? Where is your indignation? After all, this is your man, Wash, now...not the beleauguered and banished Buck.

3) As to TR's stats about our going down 1-2-3 too often: Rudy can preach and teach, but it is still up to the players to perform; make a pitcher throw more pitches, work the count, put a bat on a good pitch to foul it off, then wait for your pitch. Could it be the players are unteachable or maybe it is the influence of the guaranteed contracts, meaning no one wants to sacrifice, when they can hit a 3-run homer and boost their stats. Ego or greed I blame. Rudy is obviously proven as a teacher, but are they listening?

4) Offense from the outfield is: When Sammy plays the outfield. Period. End of story. Cruz has his moments in the sun. Only moments. But he is a future building block. He needs to play every day. Sorry Cat. Bye Wilkie. Lofton is okay as a one-year fill-in, and looks great running the bases when he gets on base. Overall, Sammy IS the outfield. I Thank the Good Lord everyday that JD signed him, despite many bloggers objections, which have proven wrong.

5) Pre-season bluster from the manager, and the players having "their man" in place now, seemed the perfect salve to all of the ineptitude the past 35 years (not counting the glory days of Melvin and Oates). I, sadly, predicted a World Series win, as I, too got caught up in the optimism. Many did as well. There are always people who will say, "I told you so," and I wish I could, but I was swept up in Ron-mania. Tom Hicks needs to find a local buyer, someone who won't sell the beloved Ranger franchise, and move them to Memphis or Indianapolis or points far...but Mr. Hicks needs to go to the game only he knows so well--the sport that won't permit you to use your hands. (Which cannot be called a "sport") Sell Tom, please. Take one for the team. The fans already have.

A safe and happy Memorial Day to all, and NEVER forget Iwo Jima, Normandy, Baghdad, or any other of the battlefields which are splattered with our valiant soldier's blood. Never forget these valiant men who attempted to keep us free.

1. Millwood and Padilla are not #1 & #2 pitchers. Millwood's best years came when he was a 3 or 4 in ATL behind the BIG Three or in CLE behind Sabathia, Lee, Westbrook ect... and Padilla can be solid at times, but championship teams don't win with "solid" in the #2 spot! A solid pitcher should be in the #4 or 5 spot in the rotation if your a true contender.
2,3. Our defense and hitting have been hurt by the losing. Everyone knows baseball is a mental game, and it's hard to catch OR hit the ball when your beat up by all the losing. It's the domino effect.

4. I've been the first to say, give Cruz more playing time! But he's been playing more of late and I don't see any improvment. I understand Botts isn't having a great year in AAA, but he's already proven himself there. If he can't get his shot NOW, this year, in this outfield, then what's the point of spending years developing players?

5. And about the pre-season exuberance, if we can't have hope, or expectations to win and have a good year BEFORE we start to tank, then when can we??

1. Agree completely
2. Agree completely. This team does not make good defense plays like turning double plays or hitting the cutoff man.

3. The offense just isn't that good

4. This is the reason why

5. Very good point

THANK YOU KEVINHAWTHORNE790 FOR YOUR POST! I completely concur, and have been saying so here and elsewhere for sometime. The Rangers need a true ace or a real #1 - someone they can hand the ball to every 5th day and count on to give the team a win about 60-70% of the time. Someone who stops loosing streaks, starts winning streaks and by taking the #1 spot, makes 2-4 and the bullpen better.

But, the Rangers have proven they can't develop a prospect into an ace (K. Brown is the only exception in 35 seasons) and they can't buy a free-agent ace because the word is out on the Ballpark and the organization's toughness on pitchers.

So, and I'll keep saying this until it happens, they need to trade for an MLB-proven pitcher who has ace capacity. The D-Train is my current target of choice, and if the rumors were true that he was available for an offer the Marlins couldn't refuse, then Danks, Massett, Cordero, Nix, and Mench should be in Florida right now.

So, we better see Daniels get a top-shelf arm for Tex.

More here:

http://rangersorrobbers.wordpress.com

1. Well agree and disagree...Millwood and Padilla were at beast a 2 and a 3 starter but in fact they did let us down. The other 3 would be 5th (or 6th) starters for anyone with a decent pitching staff. Which we don't have.
2. In the defense's defense...how would you like to play behind Padilla...tedious and worse.

3. I find it difficult to blame the offense. Michael has been slow and we needed him to lead the team in clutch hits. We need Diaz and Cruz to be consistent...and everyone should have better pitch selection...goodness they looked foolish against Wakefield

4. But when you start off with W ilkerson, a 39 year old and a 38 year old what could you expect?

5. I was worried about starters from the get go but I just wanted them to win. I thought maybe the offense would carry...that Rudy would work his miracles and Washington was a leader.

We were let down all right by Hicks, Daniels and Washington...and good gosh Goose Connor too!

Forget the questions. Here is the answers. Fire every stinking one of them. The GM, the Manager, the coaching staff. Every stinking one. I personally don't think the talent is as bad as it is performing. This falls on the "LEADERSHIP" which i don't see much of. In fact Leadership is even more scarce than defense. Defense is just a word the Rangers throw around when they lose. In our defense, we just weren't lucky today. We played well. They throw to the wrong base, don't hit the cutoff man and make too many mental errors that major league players shouldn't make. Play DIAZ, CRUZ and BYRD. I called it before hand and predicted 10 games out by the all star game. I should have taken that to Vegas. Just call me Nostradamus. Nostradamus says Daniels will soon be fired, but plans to start his own fantasy league where he is expected to win the league.

Scrolling through the Archives, Nostradamus found Hondo, Fredrus, hefe and Bingo as predictors of a first place finish this year for the Rangers. Having said that how can these guys be trusted with any advice or blogging about the future of the Rangers? Nostradamus says you guys were dellusional!!!! Hey TR what happened to my previous e-mail. I thought that was pretty good. Sure looks like big brother is in action. We are all adults here. A Clock Work Orange is a good read for you if you haven't read that one. I believe it was written by E.G. Wells, a man before his time obviously.

Cruz is a 5 tool player, he should play every stinking day. We don't have that many 5 tool players out there. It is senseless for him to sit on the bench, is counter productive and idiotic.

All of the above.

Questions and observations from a fan.

When you consider how much of success in baseball depends on the mental game you may be on to something eightgleasons. And it may not be a conscious turmoil among the young leaders and the older generation. The older constituents of the team have been on championship teams. The young leaders have not.

I do, however, disagree with you on Millwood and Padilla. In ’04 and ’05 Millwood won only 9 games each season. Last year he won 16. Padilla had won 7 games in ’04 and 9 games in ’05 before winning 15 games for Texas last year. Daniels, Washington, and Ranger fans were foolish to expect big things from these two. Neither of these guys were ‘aces’ of any staff. And a phrase that keeps getting over worked is “quality start.” These quality starts are wearing us out.

I say why not blame Ron for the stinky defense? Do the coaches not have the responsibility to drill and teach and affect changes in the players? We talk about how great or terrific a Rudy Jaramillo, or a Perry Hill(wish we had him back) are for hitting and fielding. So when the defense is repeatedly making the same mistakes why not blame the coaching staff? In fact, why are we making the same mistakes game after game? What is going on in “practice”? How about the coaching staff getting mad and throwing chairs to get the attention of the players? How about doing what ever it takes?

If Rudy is such a proven teacher, then why are the normally dependable hitters doing so poorly? I keep hearing that you don’t want to make too many changes. I don’t see any. The hitting continues to stink. As much as I like Michael Young I don’t see him making “any” physical changes when he steps into the box. He does not move closer to the plate. He does not close or open his stance. In the first 5 to 6 weeks of the season pitchers were throwing so far outside to Michael that he could not reach those pitches with a long distance call. He struck out at the end of the game tonight(Monday) on just that kind of pitch. He could not reach it.

It also seemed that too many umpires were calling those way outside pitches strikes. But neither was Michael moving closer to the plate to pick up an inch or two on his swing. He wasn’t closing his stance and striding toward first base to have a better chance of solid contact. And he still isn’t. One of my biggest complaints about A-Rod is that he is so one dimensional as a hitter. Same setup and same swing every time. Yet there are so many differences between pitchers. Michael will at least hit to all fields, but he has to adjust to the pitchers he faces.

Shouldn’t we have hope in Spring Training? Sure. But we should all approach every season with guarded optimism kevinhawthorne. Until Hicks is willing to pay out the money that will bring to Texas the real aces we need to begin to compete. Until he is Daniels is not going to get a “top shelf arm.” It has to start with the pitching. If not, then as you say the guys taking the field every game get tired of playing from behind. Get tired of coming from behind and taking the lead. Only to have a reliever repeatedly make a pitch location mistake and give the lead away.

I get confused when I read comments about the Rangers need to wait for better pitches. I watch these games and time after time the opposing pitcher throws a fastball over the plate and the Rangers’ bat remains on his shoulder. So, opposing pitchers start with a count of 0-1, or 0-2. What are they going to see after that? Off speed breaking stuff. Anything that does not come in straight. And certainly not over the plate. Don’t ball players study opposing pitchers any more? Don’t they study what pitchers are likely to throw in given situations? Guess not.

Are we turning into the Texas Cubs, or the Texas Royals? Naaa!

Dgod..lighten up! Perhaps many of us did pick the Rangers to win...we're called fans...and that's why we're upset now with the lacadasical play. I doubt that many of us actually believed our own prognostications...after all we're not trying to win a contest...just root for our team. But ...if you check me out in the archive you will note that I qualified my enthusism with a dismissal of the starting pitchers. I said we were undermanned and last night is another example.

And one last thought lose the personal comments...we're here to talk about baseball.

Good answer fredr - couldn't agree more on every point.

http://emc.mlblogs.com

Hey Dwiregod, in checking my predictions of a pennant this year, I already ate crow and said I was caught up in Washington-mania, as a tide of optimism swept over my keyboard. Shouldn't we look forward to some optimism, especially in the Spring. Thus far, concerning my prediction of pennants, for that, I am very sorry. It does not preclude me from expressing my disgust for this team, if we want to call it that. Hey, we are in every single game: it's zero to zero at the outset of the game. It's from there, we go downhill. Just for the record.

I also was one of one or two who predicted Sammy Sosa's signing would be a real good deal, and he has proved beyond the shadow of a doubt to be the best hitter we have. I also predicted Robinson Tejeda would be better than advertised, and that Brandon McCarthy would be better and better as the season went wrong. WHAT I DID NOT KNOW, was how rancid our defense would be, how outright putrid our outfield would be, how terrible Padilla and Millwood would pitch, how many injuries would be striking us-seemingly at the same time, how continually awful Wilkie would be......etc. I did predict all these, so I'd say my prognostication was good. I gave Ron and staff the benefit of the doubt, and figured the players would be downright giddy to cast Buck out into the street now that they have Mr. Rose-colored glasses, the player's manager.....so, blaming the fielding coaches, or hitting coaches is misdirected...the real blame for ALL of this futility and embarrassment lies with the players-but we all know the Player's Association and agents get huge, huge dollars pumping up their clients...so how could these precious players bear any responsibility? I blame the players. If some want to blame the messenger (coaches) rather than the message (players), that's your choice. Wrong, but your choice. Yes, our heroes are very disappointing this season. Like I said in a previous blog, I pity poor Eric Nadel, who has to actually form words with his mouth to describe the futility on the field, and must watch the ineptitude night after night. Eric should win a Purple Heart.

*****above correction*****

"I also predicted Robinson Tejeda would be better than advertised, and that Brandon McCarthy would be better and better as the season went wrong." It should have stated, "as the season went along." Freudian Slip...sorry.

Ole Bllue Eyes...I love the freudian slip...definitely a lol!

You're right there is a mental side to this game and the players surely aren't in the right place mentally. Who gets the blame for that. I'm almost 60...and in my years as a fan I've seen plenty of owners say the manager. Case in point...do you think Torree will last out the season...I don't think so. Right or wrong I think the management has to take some of the blame...Do it this way: What if Vince Lombardi or Tom Landry were tha manager of this team..do you think this apathy would continue? There is a bad chemistry on the team and the cheapest people to get rid of are the manager and coaches. But you're sure right about Nadel, Guzie, Grieve et al. they sure must be biting their tongue!

Hey Fredrus, you guys need to lighten up. There is nothing wrong with you guys being fans, nothing wrong with you guys picking them to win. That is what we fans do. I too am a fan and want the Rangers to win. I just don't see a plan to make that happen. We are going to lose a 100 games this year! That is a fact. I don't mind if that happens if their is a plan where we are going to come out on the other side better off. There isn't one. So i am miserable, tired of losing and guess i will have to start watching another team. Rangers stink and it is getting worse. Nothing is being done, nothing can be done. Don't feel too bad for Nadel, he is getting paid a hefty salary and gets to watch other teams beat up on the Rangers. Has anyone asked him who his favorite team is, i can guarantee you it isn't the Rangers.