Toronto takes on a struggling and desperate Ranger squad now on the fringe of the AL West division race. Texas won ten games in a stretch of fourteen in August; meanwhile, Oakland, Anaheim and Boston each won thirteen of fourteen. Losing three games in the standings while playing .714 ball seems to have sucked some energy out of the Rangers, as they have lost nine of the last eleven. The Jays have the opportunity to drive a few more nails into the Ranger coffin before Texas finishes the season with twenty straight against division rivals.
On to the Advance Scout!
* While the Rangers probably won’t be playing past October 3, four of their minor-league affiliates are enjoying the postseason right now. AAA Oklahoma defeated the Iowa Cubs Thursday night 4-2 to knot the best-of-five at one game apiece. AA Frisco swept former affiliate Tulsa and will challenge the Round Rock Express for the Texas League championship. High-A Stockton is tied at one in its battle with San Jose. Low-A Clinton swept its best-of-three against Cedar Rapids and moves into the second round to face Peoria or Kane County in the Midwest League playoffs.
* Toronto will not have the pleasure of facing John “Way Back” Wasdin or rookie Chris Young over the weekend. They will face the top of the rotation, such as it is.
* Ryan Drese takes the mound Friday night. Drese had an ERA of 3.35 in mid-August but has suffered through three consecutive subpar starts, allowing sixteen runs in sixteen innings. Never a strikeout master at the big-league level, Drese finally acknowledged as much in 2004 and relies heavily on a terrific sinker that hitters pound into the dirt in front of home plate. Drese has a wonderful ground-fly ratio of 2.35 and has been quite successful despite striking out fewer than four per nine innings. Does his four-plus months of success portend his future? Texas has considered offering him a long-term contract and must decide whether Drese really has taken a permanent step forward.
* Drese’s performance has taken some of the bitterness off the trade that sent Travis Hafner to the Indians. Following the 2002 season, Texas sent Hafner and pitcher Aaron Myette to the Tribe for catcher Einar Diaz and Drese. Diaz batted about as well as anyone not named John Hart would have expected, while Hafner currently offers an OPS of .987. Hart can spin the trade however he wants, but the fact is that Drese was a throw-in (along with Myette) who didn’t garner more than a passing mention in the newspapers at the time. That Drese magically transformed into a competent pitcher doesn’t give Hart a free pass.
* I can’t find the quote online, but I remember Bill Bavasi (or perhaps Bob Melvin) deriding those who criticized Scott Spiezio’s poor performance, saying that judging him was premature because he had a three-year contract. By that logic, I suppose the jury is still out on Chan Ho Park, currently finishing the third year of his five-year deal. Park will start Saturday night. He performed admirably in his first two starts off the Disabled List but reverted to his all-too-familiar wretchedness Monday night.
* Sunday brings the ageless Kenny Rogers. Rogers isn’t gifted at keeping the ball in the park, doesn’t strikeout many batters, and allows a .290 average against him. On the other hand, he’s not terrible at anything, either. In Texas, that makes him the ace. Texas generously bestowed a two-year contract on a pitcher who will turn 40 in November, but so far he has earned his keep. 200 innings of league-average ERA is easily worth $2.5 million on this squad.
* Texas has struggled since the All-Star break, winning 26 and losing 27 despite playing 31 of those games at home. Ah, the weak pitching finally caught up with them, you say. Actually, Texas has a 4.33 ERA since the break, good for 4th-best in the American League.
I’ll let that sink in.
The rotation has performed as expected since the break (17-23, 5.13 ERA). Its duty is to keep the team in the game, not necessarily to win it. Texas relies heavily on a retooled bullpen, which has a 9-4 record and 3.13 ERA since the break. Francisco Cordero, Ron Mahay, and Frankie Francisco all have sub-2.00 ERAs during this span.
The real culprit in the second-half demise is the allegedly awe-inspiring Ranger offense. Before the All-Star break, Texas batted .280/.340/.477 and led the AL in runs scored. Since the break, Texas is batting .241/.309/.424 and is 12th in the AL in OPS and 11th in runs scored. Teams can thrive despite a ragtag rotation; Texas won 95 games in 1999 with no regular starter posting an ERA below 4.79. That team featured a tremendous bullpen and hit the cover off the ball all season long. Now, half of that equation is missing, and as a result they trail Oakland by six games.
* Whither Hank Blalock? On U.S. Independence Day, Blalock sported a line of .314/.377/.594. Since then, his line resembles a kryptonite-laden Rob Deer:
SPAN G AVG OBP SLG R HR RBI BB SO
>7/04 57 .194 .315 .350 27 7 32 33 53
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