Suffice to say that fortunately, the Rangers seem to have finally shaken off the muck they where floundering in during June and gotten themselves back on track here at the start of July. They've won 5 in a row after taking two more from the hated "Los Angeles" Angels of Anaheim (whom they now have a 5-1 record against on the season) and setting off their own fireworks this Fourth of July weekend with a sweep of the reigning AL champs, the Tampa Bay Rays (who, until encountering the Rangers, had entered the weekend as the Major League Leaders in wOBA).
Now they head into a week that could very well set the tone for the second half this season: three games against our co-division leader Angels and four against the third-place Seattle Mariners. It's a golden opportunity for the Rangers to snatch the division lead and make the Mariners less of a factor in the division race heading into the all-star break... with the alternative being coughing up the lead to LA and possibly drawing the Mariners in to make it a three-team battle after the break.
Back just in time for the last hurrah of the second half is Josh Hamilton, who comes off the DL tomorrow against the Angels... while perhaps leaving just in time is Chris Davis. As confirmed last night by Evan Grant, the Rangers have finally pulled the plug on their struggling young first baseman, sending him down to share time at DH and first base with fellow first base hotshot Justin Smoak at AAA Oklahoma.
The all-to-familiar Davis debate has raged all season, it would seem: for every kneejerker who wanted to send him down in mid-May there appeared someone to preach patience with Davis, pointing out his age and his first base defense. As you might know, I was in the latter camp for much of the first half, but even I'll admit at some point you've got to run out of leash (which for me was probably when he broke the 100 strikeouts barrier back in mid-June).
The numbers tell the story all too well: he ends his first half with a .202/.256/.415 slash line (a 671 OPS) and a mere .288 wOBA. The young slugger did show the occasion flash at the plate, such as at the end of interleague play a week ago when he had a short 7-for-14 stretch. Those all-too-infrequent lightning strikes always seemed to actually make matters worse by instilling hope that maybe Davis was figuring things out... only to be followed by another week or more of 0-for's. Whether it was timing, mechanics, strike zone judgment, lack of confidence or all of the above (and it did seem like all of the above) it has become painfully clear Chris Davis's problems weren't going to be fixed in the majors.
Furthermore, at the time of this long-awaited demotion, Davis' UZR (the one saving grace about his game early in the season) had even declined to below replacement level: -0.6 in standard UZR and -1.1 runs in UZR/150. Whether that was just increasing sample size showing us the real Davis or his poor play at the plate influencing his play in the field, he wasn't even offering the major league team anything of defensive value anymore, and the Rangers wisely chose to demote him before his -0.8 WAR dipped to a full game or more below replacement.
Obviously, Hank Blalock will take over first base in Davis's stead for now - and for those of you who would point out his platoon inadequacies (he has a .247/.298/.526 slash line against lefties this year) and call for the premature promotion of Justin Smoak, please note that Smoak hit an even worse .196/.268/.314 against AA-level left-handers this year. He'll get his turn, but for now lets see how he handles his recent promotion to Oklahoma first.
Speaking of promotions... here's one I've got a bit of an issue with. As you may have forgotten, unless you pay careful attention to the dugout shots during Ranger broadcasts, Julio Borbon has been in the majors for about a week now. When he was called up last Monday, he DH'd, and for some reason hit 6th (which was eyebrow-raising in and of itself, but we won't get into that) and it was proclaimed the next day that Ron Washington didn't intend for him to "sit and watch games".
Here we are almost one week later, and Borbon has made exactly zero starts and collected exactly two plate appearances since his debut. And the two plate appearances he did get (one of which netted him his first big league hit and RBI) only came in a game that Nelson Cruz was removed from in the 6th inning due to back stiffness. The only other time he's even stepped on the field was a token inning as a defensive replacement in the 9th during the 12-4 thrashing of the Rays on Saturday.
Now the story apparently is that Borbon is a pinch runner off the bench:
Washington said Julio Borbon was kept up because “he gives us some speed off the bench. I have another guy on this team that can go up and bunt if I need."
I have a huge problem with this, myself. I understand that Murphy and Byrd have really picked up their game over the last week, but Julio Borbon is your top outfield prospect, and quite possibly the #2 position prospect in this system right now, behind Justin Smoak. And now you're relegating him to a marginal bench role that could easily be filled by a player who matters less in the long run like Greg Golson? So much for "not here to sit and watch games" I guess.
To me this is just robbing Borbon of AB's he could be putting to better use further refining his approach in OKC, and could very well stunt the progress he was making down in the minors if he's going to be relegated to the bench for an extended period of time. One would think that there has to be another roster move coming sometime this week, otherwise this premature waste of a promotion will become more of glorified demotion for young Julio.
One last order of business for today: thanks to the might of the evil Red Sox nation, and likely the general stupidity of those who don't look past batting average when trying to determine a players value, Ian Kinsler not only got snubbed from starting at second base in St. Lous, he might get snubbed from the all-star game entirely if he doesn't win "The Final Vote". Part of me really can't believe I live in a world where Dustin "I'm short and gritty!" Pedroia beats out Ian Kinsler while Josh Hamilton gets voted a starting spot for basically doing nothing in the first half, but I suppose I expect too much logic out of All-Star voting sometimes.
The good news is, the Giants fans from the SBN blog The McCovey Chronicles have made Lone Star Ball a proposal... they'll try and help get Kinsler in if Rangers fans try and help get Pablo Sandoval in. I say they've got a deal... what about you?
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