Poor Toby's Almanac...The Old Man and the Sea

"I would like to take the great DiMaggio fishing, the old man said. They say his father was a fisherman. Maybe he was as poor as we are and would understand."
Ernest Hemingway in The Old Man and the Sea, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize 55 years ago today.

Any dog can crunch some numbers

The RBI: Bill James is smartest than the rest of us. The TV show 60 Minutes said so as much a few weeks ago and how can a dog argue with Mike Wallace, Morley Safer and Andy Rooney.

James, of course, is the statistical guru who revolutionized baseball by crunching numbers and showing that the wisdom of the ages was totally wrong. Since the Red Sox have won two World Series since he showed up in Boston is further proof of his genius.

RBI are out, according to James, and it's all about on-base percentage, secondary average, power speed number, OPS and Win Shares. James is the one who said that Juan Gonzalez did not deserve his two MVP awards with the Rangers because there was too much traditional emphasis on RBI and not on other good stuff.

How silly of the great unwashed but how were we to know. Moneyball had not been published yet.

Look, we all know that it's about starting pitching, the Rangers have proved that over and over again and Rick Helling, Ken Hill, Aaron Sele and John Burkett have been as important to this franchise as anybody even though they won't ever be inducted into the Rangers Hall of Fame.

But allow a dog to have the audacity of challenging the Great One's theories.

The single most important offensive statistic in baseball is hitting with runners in scoring position. It's not any more complicated than that.

The Rangers hit .173 with runners in scoring position during their seven-game losing streak. They have hit .352 in their last eight games and have won six of those.

The runners are going to get on base. The opposing pitcher will see to that. Some offensive players will get on base more than others and the value of that can't be denied. But it's all about getting them home and any Red Sox numbers cruncher is going to look like a genius when David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez are hitting 3-4 in a lineup.

But nobody was better at getting them home than Juan Gonzalez when he was at his best. Will Clark and Rusty Greer were pretty good at it too and Michael Young has proven time and time again his ability to hit with runners in scoring position.

Pitching and defense are important, no doubt about it. But without spending a lot of time in a San Francisco hotel crunching numbers, experience says most close games are determined by which team is better at getting runners home.

The RBI still lives as an important number and if Nate Gold is going to drive in 103 runs in two straight Minor League seasons then somebody ought to be paying attention.

The Oracle of the Elysian Fields
If we were 51/2 games out on Sept 1st, people would be saying we're in it. But in May if you're 51/2 games out, people say the ship is sinking. I don't get it."
Shortstop Michael Young.

Toby's Top Five
1. Ramon Vazquez - The Rangers utility infielder continues to prove his quiet worth. He is 8-for-21 over the Rangers last eight games while helping ease the loss of Hank Blalock.
2. Brandon Boggs - A .438 batting average in his first week in the Major Leagues is pretty good.
3. Micah Owings - You have to like a pitcher who is asked to pinch-hit and hits a game-tying two-run home run
4. Brandon Webb - Anybody interested in knowing that the Rangers took Nick Masset five picks ahead of Webb in the eighth round of the 2000 draft. Dontrelle Willis also went in the eighth round this year. Six pitchers taken by the Rangers before Willis and Webb: Chad Hawkins, Randy Truselo, Christopher Russ, Gregory Runser, Matt Meisenheimer and Virgil Vasquez. They did take A.J. Murray in the 19th round.
5. Los Angeles Dodgers - Even hotter than the Rangers.

Ex-Ranger of the Week:
  Julio Franco has announced his retirement. Finally. Apparently he was playing for the Quintana Roo Tigers in the Mexican League this spring and told his team last week that he was retiring. He is 49 and played 23 years. He is the oldest player to ever hit a home run in a Major League game and the first of three Rangers to ever be named Most Valuable Player in the All-Star Game. His .341 batting average as the A.L. batting champ in 1991 is still the highest in Rangers history.

Pitching matchup of the Week:
Wednesday at Safeco Field: Vicente Padilla vs., Erik Bedard. That ought to be a good one.

Birthdays: Ben Grieve turns 32 today, still living in Dallas but still retired.

On Tuesday the greatest living baseball player of all-time turns 77. I saw him play in person just once in the first ever Major League game I ever saw: Game 1 of the 1971 National League Championship Series between the Giants and the Pirates. He doubled down the right field line.

Willie Mays.

Anniversary:
It was on May 5, 2000 that the Rangers overcame an eight-run deficit to defeat the Athletics 17-16. It's the largest comeback in Rangers history.

Last call:
"[Ron Washington] is irreplaceable, no matter what kind of team you have. That doesn't mean the [coaches] here haven't done a great job, but Wash would make any team better. He's the best teacher I've ever seen, and his personality and work ethic are infectious."
Athletics second baseman Mark Ellis.