Friday Happy Hour at the Elysian Fields Bar & Grill
* Welcome to the Elysian Fields Bar & Grill: official watering hole for those on medical rehabilitation assignment.
* Milton Bradley on starting in the All-Star Game: "If they had said, to make the team you have to shine the shoes, I would have shined the shoes."
* Rangers manager Ron Washington on second baseman Ian Kinsler: "He's just done everything. If you had to say who's the MVP of the first half, I'd say Kinsler. He makes our engine go. When he's got it going, he makes everybody go."
* General manager Jon Daniels on the Rangers overcoming their slow start: "It's a long season. A lot of people wanted to take a snapshot of our start in April and assume that's how the season would play out. It's not that easy."
* Washington on Bradley: "As I was saying all the time, even before Milton showed up in Spring Training, the key is health. If he's healthy, he can do some damage. We've kept him healthy and he's playing around a great bunch of guys. It helps him relax and be productive. Everybody keeps saying he has talent, now he's finally putting together the type of year where he can get recognized for what he's doing."
* Vladimir Guerrero is hitting .315 in his last 24 games against the Rangers. That's how many games they've been using the big shift on him with three infielders on the left side of second base. But he has just one home run and a .435 slugging percentage in those 24 games. Prior to the shift, he was hitting .440 with an .812 slugging percentage in 56 games against the Rangers.
* Washington on Jarrod Saltalamacchia's play since Gerald Laird went down: "I thought every game he played he got better and relaxed more. I don't know if at the beginning he felt he had something to prove but he's been getting better: blocking the ball, throwing the ball, swinging the bat. It's a process you have to go through and he's coming out of it on the other end."
* Just for the heck of it: Dave Valle
* John Lackey told Angels reporters after giving up 15 hits to the Rangers on Thursday: "I definitely didn't have my best stuff tonight. But they're swinging the bats. They're a good team here. It's a tough place to play. One positive, they're about as hot as they can get and they got no ground (in the standings)."
* Josh Hamilton has 91 RBI, tied for the fifth most before the All-Star break in club history. Hall of Famer Hank Greenberg had 103 in 1935 and Juan Gonzalez had 101 in 1998. Hamilton probably won't catch them but has a shot at Carlos Delgado (Toronto, 2003) and Manny Ramirez (96 in 1999). Hamilton is tied with Hall of Famer Harmon Killibrew and Preston Wilson.
* One Rangers club official on Triple A outfielder Nelson Cruz: "As far as physical ability, he's the closest thing we have to Josh Hamilton."
* Babe Ruth made his Major League debut on this date in 1914 for the Boston Red Sox. He was a pitcher and beat the Indians, 4-3. The Red Sox actually pinch-hit for him in the seventh.
* July 11, 1980 is also the date the Rangers purchased Charlie Hough from the Dodgers.
* Gary Matthews Jr. had 307 total bases as a leadoff hitter for the Rangers in 2006. That's the most ever for a Rangers leadoff hitter. Ian Kinsler is already fifth with 209 and on pace to finish with 364.
* Reds pitcher Edinson Volquez on his hero Pedro Martinez: "As a pitcher, I watch and learn from Pedro. The changeup is one of his better pitches, and it's a pitch I've added recently. He has a great idea of what to do with his changeup, so I talked to him about it for a couple of minutes during winter ball. He told me to keep it going, to keep working hard and that I have good stuff."
Odd game last night. The usually consistent Feldman was anything but and the usually dominant Lackey gave up 15 hits.
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Josh Hamilton's has done a magnificant job. But, comparing his RBI totals "by the All-Star break" is meaningless, due to the starting date of the season, and the changing date of the game. His total needs to be compared to the others based on total games played. By the way, this is not to diminish his job, just to compare oranges to oranges.
Also, I agree with Washington that Kinsler has been the 1st half MVP of this team. He has been the spark that has kept the team going, through a season of mediocre pitching, as well as significant injuries.
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RBI totals depend a lot on luck and on your teammates being on base for you to drive them in. One thing worth noting about Juan Gone in 1998, he had 101 RBIs at the break and looked like he might threaten some all-time records. In the 2nd half, all he did was bat 60 points higher, slug nearly 100 points higher, and get on base at a clip nearly 80 points higher. At the same time, Tom Goodwin and Rusty Greer, the guys who most frequently batted 1st and 3rd in the lineup before Juan, both improved their numbers in the 2nd half as well, and Will Clark, who regularly batted 5th behind Juan, was pretty consistent in both halves. Knowing all that, you'd have guessed that Juan continued to crank out RBIs in the 2nd half, and probably at an even higher pace than in the 1st. But with all that going for him, with all his teammates hitting ahead of him picking up their game (except for Mark McLemore, the most frequent 2nd hitter, who batted .201 in the 2nd half), and with Juan himself hitting .353 with a 2nd half OPS of 1.097, he "only" managed to get 56 RBI in 67 2nd half games.
So there goes to show you how luck can play a big part in RBI numbers. It's hard to think of how much better Kinsler, Young, and Bradley could possibly play in the 2nd half after what they've done already, so if history is any guide, it would be reasonable to suggest Hamilton won't quite be setting the world on RBI fire after the break the way he has been so far.
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