The Rangers have optioned pitcher Kason Gabbard to Triple A Oklahoma and recalled Robinson Tejeda. Doug Mathis is expected to stay in the rotation and Tejeda will pitch out of the bullpen... More on the website.
I think this is a prime example of why the Rangers have historically been unable to develop starting pitching. Gabbard has had all of three bad starts, and he is sent to OKC. Three.
Some teams let their players work through adversity, and see if they can grow and fight through the tough times. Many of them are called playoff teams. 'Battle-tested' is a term that comes to mind when describing these teams and their players.
Our team seems much too eager to jerk the rug out from under young players when they struggle. Their confidence is affected, as well as their approach - the youngsters put too much additional pressure on themselves knowing that if they struggle they will get the quick hook, when the reality is that very, very few players come to the majors and succeed immediately. I think I am talking about a realtively straightforward and common progression here: After a pitcher gets a few starts in the majors, the advance scouts feed information back to the opposing teams. These teams then adjust their batting gameplan when facing the pitcher. If these adjustments are successful, the pitcher then struggles, since what was successful when he first got to the majors is no longer getting him wins. Now it's the pitcher's turn to make adjustments.
Except in this case (as is too often the case for our team), Gabbard doesn't get to stay around for his chance to make adjustments. He's in AAA facing lesser hitters, and he can go back to doing the same old thing he was doing and be successful. He's already conquered AAA! This is accomplishing little, if anything at all. This is not terribly different from the Jason Botts approach. At the first sign of struggle, we demote you. If we do this enough, when your options run out we have to cut you or get what we can for you, because we still don't know if you are someone we can count on full-time or not.
How many other players do we have to do this with before we figure out this flaw in our developmental approach? Edinson Volquez and Armando Galarraga are two recent examples of guys who ran out of time and had to be moved before the Rangers knew what they had. I'm confident there are other examples out there.
I would very much like to see this team challenge its young players at the major league level when they are deemed ready to come up, and stick with them (dare I say commit?) through their struggles. This is the ONLY way these guys are going to make full-time pitchers. It is also the ONLY way we are going to know if they are keepers or not. Anyone else remember a rookie pitcher for Detroit that had 18 or 20 losses during their rebuilding? Now that's committment. While I believe that was a little extreme, I do not understand why the Rangers can't find a middle ground between these two approaches and give Gabbard (and others) more opportunity to work through their struggles in Arlington.
Oh yeah, now I remember why. Baseball man is our manager, and we've got to win now. Just like the managers before him. And the cycle continues........
Amen!
Exactly! The ancient Romans could enjoy the spectacle of christians being thrown to the lions, so why can't we be allowed the chance to watch young pitchers with obvious problems being destroyed in the big leagues? I suggest The Rangers do away with their AA and AAA teams altogether and bring up a steady stream of pitchers from A ball. It won't happen, of course. They'll persist with this mamby-pamby approach of "protecting" their poor young arms, when we could be enjoying some mayhem now! Heck, I was present at the ballpark when David Clyde played his first game, only a week after he was pitching in high school. That kid had talent! It took a full two years before he was finished. The present pathetic bunch would be good for only a few months each, but so what? The draft is coming up, and I hear that there's a kindergarten in Dallas with a couple of fantastic 4 year olds. Each would be good for a couple of weeks....
Consistently walk batters, go to triple AAA and get your control back. Good message.
I totally disagree with you, Briant77. It’s a little more than just the matter of his last 3 starts. On the season he’s averaging less than 5 innings per start. Unacceptable. Going back to April 21st, he’s thrown 230 strikes vs. 210 balls. That’s 48% of his pitches missing the strike zone over the course of 6 games. Unacceptable. He hasn’t made it beyond a 6th inning in any of his last 8 starts. Unacceptable.
Rebuilding or not, this is still big boy baseball and that 'deer in the headlights/I don’t know if this next pitch is going to be a strike or not' act in his last 2 starts needs serious work. I can’t think of a better place to put that work in than triple-A.
If/when he gets it straightened out I look forward to having him back. I like that big old curveball, but you have to throw more strikes than that to pitch in the big leagues.
I expected some disagreement. Actually I would have been disappointed if there wasn't any. Good points, too.
David Clyde was, as you pointed out, anthony, right out of high school. There is no way anyone can justify the handling of that kid. But he was a kid. Kason Gabbard is 26. That's the same age as Jake Peavy and Carlos Zambrano, and older than Tim Lincecum and Huston Street. He may be brittle, and possibly not suited to hold up over a full season, but he is in no way too young to be brought up and kept up to see if he is for 'keeps'.
Tom and hefe - there is no argument here that the guy needs to throw more strikes. Y'all are right - he does. He is throwing too many pitches/inning as a result. Here's what I think, though. Young pitchers know that there is a greater likelihood of having a mistake pitch end up in the cheap seats in the majors as compared to the minors. A guy just doesn't stay in the majors throwing strikes down the middle of the plate unless he has overpowering stuff. With a fastball in the low 90's, Gabbard has to stay on the corners to be effective. The difference between the black and just off the plate is not a whole lot. There is a tendency to pick at first, while doubting one's stuff. This is just part of the growth process, getting comfortable and developing confidence in one's stuff when facing the 'big boys'.
Ultimately, if Gabbard throws down the middle, he gets pounded. If he misses off the corners, he gets demoted. I know that ML pitchers are expected to hit the corners, but as I stated earlier, very, very few players experience nothing but success in their first full season. We hear it often - the game is all about making adjustments. Let them have a chance to make them. I do not believe he has been given ample time to do so. We've supposedly got a pitching coach to help these guys make them....
As for averaging less than 5 innings per start, if you take out a game against Boston where he came out early with back spasms and a game where Richie Sexton came out to the mound to introduce himself (he didn't give up a run in either shortened start), he does average slightly more than 5 innings per start. Before tonight, he had only pitched 7 innings less than the team's ace, and only a couple less than the surprising Sidney Ponson. Kind of a lame argument, I know, but he has made every start he was scheduled for this season.
An aside: big hit by Brandon Boggs as I type.
We hear managers talk about seeing how guys respond to adversity. I'd like to see them given more of a chance to do so. Not in AAA where they can overpower lesser hitters, but in the majors where we can determine once and for all if the've got staying power, or if they need to be moved/released because they can't make the adjustments. I'm thankful that we are finally building a minor league system where we will have guys ready to step in if players like Gabbard show that they cannot be relied upon full-time. This is another trait of playoff teams.
Another aside: nice win tonight.
Ultimately though, I'm not defending Gabbard so much as I am questioning the development approach. Thanks for the discussion, all.
briant77, you bring up solid points, especially regarding the development process. I'm all for letting players refine their game at the major league level, but in Gabbard's last 2 outings he's looked completely and utterly lost as to how to find the strike zone. It looks like something is either seriously wrong with his mechanics or he's possibly inured. He's got to get this whatever it is worked out, and I'd rather Doug Mathis start while Kason Gabbard works on his game in Oklahoma.
Robinson Tejeda is back up now. Is that good? We'll see. I have a feeling that all 3 of these dudes are 4/5 starters or middle relievers. Finding their role may be a little painful along the way. So it goes. Moving Benoit from being a starter to being a long man to being a middle reliever to being a set up man was a long process, but if he can mantain his control, like tonight, it's worked. He's been a solid set up man for the last 3 years, but it took some time for him to carve out that niche for himself. I'm rambling. I'll shut up now. I always appreciate the banter.
Gabbard is probably hurt. He just won't say it. Boston was probably right about him not being too durable. My problem is when the guy is on, he is tough and knows how to pitch. Some of his problems can be traced to the strike zones of some of these home plate umpires. I am all for authority figures, however, as a 15 year police veteran, i know that these figures can some times get caught up in their "power". The computer program on TV clearly is showing that some balls are being called strikes and some are strikes are being called balls. At this point, why not, just have the computer call the balls and strikes on each batter, this would be way more accurate and fair. The Home plate Ump could call people safe or out at home plate. But back to Gabbard, I think he can pitch and they have plans for the future for him as a starter. So he will be back. We need him.
Gabbard needs to go back to the minors. When you watch him on the mound it just looks like something just isn't right. Watching him consistently miss the strike zone just made you cringe and feel bad for the guy. He has great stuff when he is "on," but the problem is when he is "off," it's horrendous. He is pitching right now without much confidence, and it's not about his stuff but more about his mentality. He needs to get mentally tough and learn how to pound the strike zone. I don't question the move on sending him down to Triple A. It would be a disservice to him if we left him up here. For one of the first times we are having pretty good options down n the minors to bring up. Tejada has been lights out in Oklahoma and he deserves a chance to come up. He has done everything we have asked him to and now its his chance to display it. He knows he is running out of chances so I'm expecting Benoit '07 type of stuff. Mathis out dueled Sabathia in his last start and deserves another start and a chance at the rotation. The Rangers pitchers are showing some bright spots and for the first time I think it's because pitchers are being given than just one or two chances. Look at Ponson, Feldman, and the Mathis case. They have all been given multiple chances to prove that they belong here in the majors.
I think this is a prime example of why the Rangers have historically been unable to develop starting pitching. Gabbard has had all of three bad starts, and he is sent to OKC. Three.
Some teams let their players work through adversity, and see if they can grow and fight through the tough times. Many of them are called playoff teams. 'Battle-tested' is a term that comes to mind when describing these teams and their players.
Our team seems much too eager to jerk the rug out from under young players when they struggle. Their confidence is affected, as well as their approach - the youngsters put too much additional pressure on themselves knowing that if they struggle they will get the quick hook, when the reality is that very, very few players come to the majors and succeed immediately. I think I am talking about a realtively straightforward and common progression here: After a pitcher gets a few starts in the majors, the advance scouts feed information back to the opposing teams. These teams then adjust their batting gameplan when facing the pitcher. If these adjustments are successful, the pitcher then struggles, since what was successful when he first got to the majors is no longer getting him wins. Now it's the pitcher's turn to make adjustments.
Except in this case (as is too often the case for our team), Gabbard doesn't get to stay around for his chance to make adjustments. He's in AAA facing lesser hitters, and he can go back to doing the same old thing he was doing and be successful. He's already conquered AAA! This is accomplishing little, if anything at all. This is not terribly different from the Jason Botts approach. At the first sign of struggle, we demote you. If we do this enough, when your options run out we have to cut you or get what we can for you, because we still don't know if you are someone we can count on full-time or not.
How many other players do we have to do this with before we figure out this flaw in our developmental approach? Edinson Volquez and Armando Galarraga are two recent examples of guys who ran out of time and had to be moved before the Rangers knew what they had. I'm confident there are other examples out there.
I would very much like to see this team challenge its young players at the major league level when they are deemed ready to come up, and stick with them (dare I say commit?) through their struggles. This is the ONLY way these guys are going to make full-time pitchers. It is also the ONLY way we are going to know if they are keepers or not. Anyone else remember a rookie pitcher for Detroit that had 18 or 20 losses during their rebuilding? Now that's committment. While I believe that was a little extreme, I do not understand why the Rangers can't find a middle ground between these two approaches and give Gabbard (and others) more opportunity to work through their struggles in Arlington.
Oh yeah, now I remember why. Baseball man is our manager, and we've got to win now. Just like the managers before him. And the cycle continues........
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Amen!
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Exactly! The ancient Romans could enjoy the spectacle of christians being thrown to the lions, so why can't we be allowed the chance to watch young pitchers with obvious problems being destroyed in the big leagues? I suggest The Rangers do away with their AA and AAA teams altogether and bring up a steady stream of pitchers from A ball. It won't happen, of course. They'll persist with this mamby-pamby approach of "protecting" their poor young arms, when we could be enjoying some mayhem now! Heck, I was present at the ballpark when David Clyde played his first game, only a week after he was pitching in high school. That kid had talent! It took a full two years before he was finished. The present pathetic bunch would be good for only a few months each, but so what? The draft is coming up, and I hear that there's a kindergarten in Dallas with a couple of fantastic 4 year olds. Each would be good for a couple of weeks....
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Consistently walk batters, go to triple AAA and get your control back. Good message.
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I totally disagree with you, Briant77. It’s a little more than just the matter of his last 3 starts. On the season he’s averaging less than 5 innings per start. Unacceptable. Going back to April 21st, he’s thrown 230 strikes vs. 210 balls. That’s 48% of his pitches missing the strike zone over the course of 6 games. Unacceptable. He hasn’t made it beyond a 6th inning in any of his last 8 starts. Unacceptable.
Rebuilding or not, this is still big boy baseball and that 'deer in the headlights/I don’t know if this next pitch is going to be a strike or not' act in his last 2 starts needs serious work. I can’t think of a better place to put that work in than triple-A.
If/when he gets it straightened out I look forward to having him back. I like that big old curveball, but you have to throw more strikes than that to pitch in the big leagues.
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I expected some disagreement. Actually I would have been disappointed if there wasn't any. Good points, too.
David Clyde was, as you pointed out, anthony, right out of high school. There is no way anyone can justify the handling of that kid. But he was a kid. Kason Gabbard is 26. That's the same age as Jake Peavy and Carlos Zambrano, and older than Tim Lincecum and Huston Street. He may be brittle, and possibly not suited to hold up over a full season, but he is in no way too young to be brought up and kept up to see if he is for 'keeps'.
Tom and hefe - there is no argument here that the guy needs to throw more strikes. Y'all are right - he does. He is throwing too many pitches/inning as a result. Here's what I think, though. Young pitchers know that there is a greater likelihood of having a mistake pitch end up in the cheap seats in the majors as compared to the minors. A guy just doesn't stay in the majors throwing strikes down the middle of the plate unless he has overpowering stuff. With a fastball in the low 90's, Gabbard has to stay on the corners to be effective. The difference between the black and just off the plate is not a whole lot. There is a tendency to pick at first, while doubting one's stuff. This is just part of the growth process, getting comfortable and developing confidence in one's stuff when facing the 'big boys'.
Ultimately, if Gabbard throws down the middle, he gets pounded. If he misses off the corners, he gets demoted. I know that ML pitchers are expected to hit the corners, but as I stated earlier, very, very few players experience nothing but success in their first full season. We hear it often - the game is all about making adjustments. Let them have a chance to make them. I do not believe he has been given ample time to do so. We've supposedly got a pitching coach to help these guys make them....
As for averaging less than 5 innings per start, if you take out a game against Boston where he came out early with back spasms and a game where Richie Sexton came out to the mound to introduce himself (he didn't give up a run in either shortened start), he does average slightly more than 5 innings per start. Before tonight, he had only pitched 7 innings less than the team's ace, and only a couple less than the surprising Sidney Ponson. Kind of a lame argument, I know, but he has made every start he was scheduled for this season.
An aside: big hit by Brandon Boggs as I type.
We hear managers talk about seeing how guys respond to adversity. I'd like to see them given more of a chance to do so. Not in AAA where they can overpower lesser hitters, but in the majors where we can determine once and for all if the've got staying power, or if they need to be moved/released because they can't make the adjustments. I'm thankful that we are finally building a minor league system where we will have guys ready to step in if players like Gabbard show that they cannot be relied upon full-time. This is another trait of playoff teams.
Another aside: nice win tonight.
Ultimately though, I'm not defending Gabbard so much as I am questioning the development approach. Thanks for the discussion, all.
Report any abuse or spam
briant77, you bring up solid points, especially regarding the development process. I'm all for letting players refine their game at the major league level, but in Gabbard's last 2 outings he's looked completely and utterly lost as to how to find the strike zone. It looks like something is either seriously wrong with his mechanics or he's possibly inured. He's got to get this whatever it is worked out, and I'd rather Doug Mathis start while Kason Gabbard works on his game in Oklahoma.
Robinson Tejeda is back up now. Is that good? We'll see. I have a feeling that all 3 of these dudes are 4/5 starters or middle relievers. Finding their role may be a little painful along the way. So it goes. Moving Benoit from being a starter to being a long man to being a middle reliever to being a set up man was a long process, but if he can mantain his control, like tonight, it's worked. He's been a solid set up man for the last 3 years, but it took some time for him to carve out that niche for himself. I'm rambling. I'll shut up now. I always appreciate the banter.
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Gabbard is probably hurt. He just won't say it. Boston was probably right about him not being too durable. My problem is when the guy is on, he is tough and knows how to pitch. Some of his problems can be traced to the strike zones of some of these home plate umpires. I am all for authority figures, however, as a 15 year police veteran, i know that these figures can some times get caught up in their "power". The computer program on TV clearly is showing that some balls are being called strikes and some are strikes are being called balls. At this point, why not, just have the computer call the balls and strikes on each batter, this would be way more accurate and fair. The Home plate Ump could call people safe or out at home plate. But back to Gabbard, I think he can pitch and they have plans for the future for him as a starter. So he will be back. We need him.
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Gabbard needs to go back to the minors. When you watch him on the mound it just looks like something just isn't right. Watching him consistently miss the strike zone just made you cringe and feel bad for the guy. He has great stuff when he is "on," but the problem is when he is "off," it's horrendous. He is pitching right now without much confidence, and it's not about his stuff but more about his mentality. He needs to get mentally tough and learn how to pound the strike zone. I don't question the move on sending him down to Triple A. It would be a disservice to him if we left him up here. For one of the first times we are having pretty good options down n the minors to bring up. Tejada has been lights out in Oklahoma and he deserves a chance to come up. He has done everything we have asked him to and now its his chance to display it. He knows he is running out of chances so I'm expecting Benoit '07 type of stuff. Mathis out dueled Sabathia in his last start and deserves another start and a chance at the rotation. The Rangers pitchers are showing some bright spots and for the first time I think it's because pitchers are being given than just one or two chances. Look at Ponson, Feldman, and the Mathis case. They have all been given multiple chances to prove that they belong here in the majors.
Report any abuse or spam