Former A's pitcher & ESPN analyst thinks Rangers must do this

When Mark Mulder was pitching for the Oakland Athletics and in his prime there were few left handers as smooth, or as much fun, to watch. His career was cut short by a major arm injury and today he is an MLB analyst for ESPN.

We spoke today in a phone interview and I asked him about the Texas Rangers, and specifically their rotation and whether it needs another arm.

Mark Mulder: "It depends. I know they are getting Alexi Ogando back, but what about Colby Lewis? I don't see how the Rangers can't go out and not look at another starting pitcher. I don't know how confident I would be going into a five or a seven-game series and saying, 'We have this and this and this.

' 
"Yu Darvish for sure is a No. 1. Derek Holland has been good at times but there are times when it seems like he just doesn't show up. He goes five innings and gives up five runs and you say, 'What just happened there?' He has too good of stuff to let that happen.

"This is a streaky offense and the only one with shut down stuff is Darvish and Holland. Maybe Ogando. If you are going into a seven-game series you are going to need at least one more arm."

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Time to let Nelson Cruz walk

We knew this day was coming, it is a bit of a surprise, however, that it took until early June.

ESPN's Outside Lines is Reporting that the man who ran the "anti-aging" clinic in South Florida that supplied what apparently are dynamite anti-aging drugs that help players hit home runs in Major League Baseball games is ready to name names.

That includes Texas Rangers outfielder Nelson Cruz, as well as number of other big name MLB players, including New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez.

Expect Cruz to be suspended for 50 games, and then expect him to appeal it which will delay when he will have to sit. The best move is to think that Cruz will sit 50 games, and be back some time in early August to resume what should be the final two months of his career with the Texas Rangers.

It's too bad - he was on pace to hit 40 home runs with 114 RBI this season. Sitting 50 games may slow that production down juuuuust a bit.

Cruz is going to be a free agent after the season, he will be 33 in July, and with a handful of prospects ready to take an outfielder spot - Mike Olt, Leonys Martin - the timing seems right to let Boomstick go.

His age, contract ($10 million this season) and the prospects have more to do with his departure than his attachment to PEDs. 

He has been an important part of what has been the most successful stretch in the history of the franchise, and supplied a number of highlights - most notably the walk off grand slam against the Detroit Tigers in the 2011 ALCS.

But when the season ends the timing seems right that he will be going elsewhere.

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Jon Daniels actually made a bad trade once

This seems impossible to comprehend now, but there was a time when Texas Rangers general manager Jon Daniels made a dumb trade. It was the time when dinosaurs roamed the earth, when gas was afforable and when we could turn on the TV without watching a singing talent show. 

No, I'm not talking about the Adam Eaton deal.

On Dec. 23, 2006 Daniels thought he pulled one on Chicago White Sox GM Kenny Williams when he sent left-handed prospect John Danks for righty Brandon McCarthy. There were some others involved in the deal, but those two pitchers were the primary components. 

McCarthy could never stay healthy when he arrived with the Rangers, while Danks developed into a decent starter.

McCarthy (2-3, 4.36) is scheduled to face the Rangers at Rangers Ballpark tonight as a member of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

In three seasons with the Rangers, McCarthy was 13-15 with a 4.68 ERA in 221 innings. He was not re-signed after 2009 season.

The thought was that at 6-foot-7, 200 pounds he could not stand up to the pounding of a 35-game start type of season. That he was pretty good, but not durable.

But then he "found it" with the Oakland Athletics where in two seasons he was 17-15 with a 3.29 ERA. He signed with Arizona in the offseason.

Danks, meanwhile, was a pretty consistent innings eater from 2007 to 2011. He made at least 26 starts in all five of those seasons; he was at his best from '08 to '10 when he was 40-31 with an ERA in the 3s every season.

Last season was the first time he was a total dud; Danks suffered a season ending shoulder injury in May of last season, and is only now about ready to return.

Danks has been the better pro while McCarthy just has not been able to string it together for long enough to say that Daniels didn't whiff on this one.

 

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A Big Gulp of Gloat on Mitch Moreland

ARLINGTON, Texas - Since this happens as frequenty as an Olympics ... told ya. Mitch Moreland can play.

Nobody thought he could do it! It was him against the world. Nothing but haters for poor Mitch.

Back on April 12, I declared the Texas Rangers had to stick with their young first baseman for a full season and he would produce.

At the time he was batting .194 with eight strikeouts and seven hits. He was Mitch the Meek.

"I knew I was hitting it hard and still seeing pitches and told myself to stick it out," Moreland said after Thursday's win against the Detroit Tigers.

Today he is Mitch the ... (rhymes with Mitch).

Moreland is now batting .296 with 11 doubles, nine home runs and 21 RBIs. He hit a pair of doubles in an 10-4 win against the Detoit Tigers on Thursday night, drove in three runs, and made some nice defensive plays at first.

This means he has adjusted to the adjustments that were made on him, and thus his production has a far greater chance of holding.

"We're trying to stay out of his way and let him work," Rangers manager Ron Washington said after the game.

Moreland says the biggest difference is that he no longer fears for his job. That does wonders for a man's confidence to know that every day he comes to work he will play, and can hit his way out of a slump.

"When I walk in and know that my name is going to be in the lineup every day that helps a lot," Moreland said.

Right now Moreland is projected for 33 homers and 83 RBI. That's a likely bit much for this season, but now the Rangers know this is in him and he can do this. 

They have a first baseman.

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What do YOU want to ask Orel Hershiser?

Never done this before and it may be a total flop but ...

I am scheduled to talk to former Los Angeles Dodger pitcher and ex-Texas Rangers pitching coach Orel Hershiser on Thursday. He is now working for ESPN and will be in town to help call the Rangers - Detroit Tigers game on Sunday night at Rangers Ballpark.

Hershiser is one of the brighter and more well spoken men in professional sports I have ever come across.

If YOU have a question for Orel, please pass it along in the comment section here, or email me at tengel@star-telegram.com, or the Twitter thing or Facebook. 
I gotta get on MySpace. 

Just please be tasteful.

 

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Video: Galloway & Big Mac don't miss Josh Hamilton

 

 

 

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The worst team in Texas needs to lose more

Just when you thought some of those God-awful Dallas Mavericks teams of the '90s were the very worst, the Houston Astros are in a serious battle of "we can be the worstest".

In their first year of the American League, the Astros are 8-25 for an impressive .250 "winning" percentage. The Astros did not play on Monday night, but still lost 5-3 in extra innings.

The Astros simply must lose more if they want any hope of challenging the 1899 Cleveland Spiders for the supremacy of crap. The Spiders were 20-134, a .120 winning percentage, the worst in pro baseball history. What the final record does not reflect is that the Spiders were in a lot of those games, and needed just a few calls and they could have won as many as 25 games.

At the very least, the Astros are hard at work trying to at least be "worser" than their garbage year of 2012, when they finished 55-107 (.340).

BTW - The worst season in the history of the Texas Rangers was their first in the state, 1972, when they finished 54-100.

The sad part is there is no way for the Astros to post a winning percentage bad enough to distinguish itself as the very worst in the history of pro sports in this great state.

The Dallas Cowboys were 0-11-1 in their first season. The Houston Oilers had a few one-win seasons.

The Astros can't challenge winning .000 percentages like that because they play too many games. But for sheer quality of badness, these Astros could challenge the 1992-'93 Dallas Mavericks (11-71, .134) as one of the worst in the history of the state.

The odd part is that normally teams that suffer through seasons such as the one by the Astros normally are in their early part of the existence. The Astros have been around since 1962.

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Former Texas Rangers busted for crack possession but it wasn't his

The name "Otis Nixon" does not exactly conjure up a lot of great memories for Texas Rangers fans. He played the 1995 season for the Rangers where he batted .295 with 21 doubles and 50 stolen bases. That is the third most steals by a Ranger in franchise history.

His biggest contribution to the Rangers record books is that he was caught stealing a major-league leading 21 times that season, which remains a franchise single-season record.

Nixon played for nine teams in a 17-year career that ended in 1999, and now he appears to have hit some hard times. By hard times I mean, "Why are you carrying crack cocaine?" hard times.

Nixon was busted in Atlanta over the weekend, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution. There were reports that his car was driving erractically on the highway when he was pulled over. Authorities reportedly found that Nixon was carrying crack cocaine, but according to Nixon it was not his.

It's weird because he had some crack cocaine, that wasn't his, his in pants' pocket. This gets better.

Nixon told the cops that crack cocaine and the pipe belonged to his son, thus proving once again that nothing can compare to the love between a father and a child.

 

 

 

 

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Ian Kinsler, Rudy Jaramillo & the most overrated positions in baseball

ARLINGTON, Texas - Ian Kinsler, please allow me to test a theory: All batting coaches are the same.  Of the 13 position players carried on a major league roster, the most a batting coach can genuinely affect or make a dramatic difference with is maybe two. If that.

"That sounds about right," Kinsler told me. 

The Rangers second baseman is killing it right now, batting .333 with eight doubles, six homeruns and 19 RBI. This has nothing to do with the fact the Rangers have yet another hitting coach, Dave Magadan.

Batting and pitching coaches are routinely changed with preposterous idea they are going to make a difference. If a guy can't hit, the batting coach is screwed. If the pitcher can't pitch, the pitching coach is toast.

This theory anchors around the notion that former Texas Rangers batting coach Rudy Jaramillo was a savant. The man has his own DVD on hitting and was once one of the highest paid batting coaches in baseball. To Rudy's credit, he parlayed the success of those monster (steroid?) Rangers' bashing clubs he worked for into a reputation as one of the very best in the business.

His hitters loved him, and he is a decent man and a true professional, but this team did not stop hitting after he left the club a couple of years ago.

He was fired in June of 2012 from the Chicago Cubs because the team sucked. That's not Rudy's fault. It's the nature of the job - you can only do so much.

The counter to this is current Rangers pitching coach Mike Maddux. Since his arrival, a team once known as one of the worst pitching franchises in baseball is now one of the best. Is that Maddux, or the fact he has guys with ability?

Go with the latter, but Maddux is not a dummy who merits no credit.

The only coach I can think of who appeared to have magic dust was Tony LaRussa's long time friend, Dave Duncan. The man was a wizard, like one of the Harry Potter characters ... only different.

I asked long time major league pitcher Derek Lowe if he ever came across any bad pitching coaches.

"A bad pitching coach?" Lowe asked rhetorically before he sat there and thought for several seconds. "A bad one? I'd say no."

Lowe is 39, and been in the majors since he was 23. He has been around a looooot of pitching coaches. He figured the last time a pitching coach made a major difference with him was when he was in Double A.

"A good pitching coach (at the major league) is about making in-game adjustments," Lowe said. "This is your job and you have to be able to adjust, at this level. The scary part is that I have seen over time is the unwillingness of the pitcher to make an adjustment or change."

He said if a guy is struggling the people players usually lean on the most are the coaches from their past - high school, college, A ball, maybe a dad - someone with whom they have a much closer relationship with before they became a big leaguer.

A "bad" position coach apparently wills his approach on an individual player. At the major league level, that's not going to fly which is why no position coach embraces this method. 

"Rudy was the closest to a philosophy but he changed it hitter to hitter," Kinsler said. "He had a five-step way but he never changed a guy's natural way of hitting. He was really good at the mechanics of hitting. A hitting coach is not a swing coach like in golf. He's more of a psychologist and it's more fine tuning all the time."

A position coach can reach maybe one or two guys to the point where the batting average or the ERA makes a noticeable move. The rest are on their own.

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