Friday: Pudge Then vs. Pudge Now

In their annual publication the year after Pudge left the Rangers in 2002, Baseball Prospectus wrote this quip under Einar Diaz's stats in 2003 (which, confusingly enough, appeared in the 2004 edition):

"It's not too often that a team replaces one of the best catchers in baseball history with one of the worst."

He's without a doubt one of the best catchers to play the game. If you're like me, you didn't really follow Pudge closely in his post-Rangers days. When we reacquired him, I found myself wondering, "How has Pudge been doing since he left?"

Here's a quick summary of some important stats which give a partial answer to the above question (along with Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Taylor Teagarden's performances this season for comparison):

AVG/OBP/SLG:

Pudge with the Rangers (1991-2002): .305/.342/.489
Pudge with everyone else (2002-2009): .291/.328/.442
Pudge the last 2 years (2008-present): .265/.302/.389
Salty this year: .236/.293/.375
Teagarden this year: .194/.264/.364

Average Games Played:

Pudge with the Rangers (1991-2002): 123.25
Pudge with everyone else (2002-2009): 125.86
Pudge the last 2 years (2008-present): 104
Salty this year: 83
Teagarden this year: 39

CS%:

Pudge with the Rangers (1991-2002): 49.8%
Pudge with everyone else (2002-2009): 38.5%
Pudge the last 2 years (2008-present): 32.3%
Salty this year: 24%
Teagarden this year: 41%

Note: What would make this more interesting would be how the all the Rangers catchers from 2003-present have done in his absence. I've scoured the internet, but can't seem to find this data. If anyone knows where I can find it, let me know.

Source: Pudge's baseball-reference page

Texas Rangers: "Steroid Sluggers"

I am growing weary of digging around for Rangers news and finding only clippings about steroids. So I am going to write about all the steroid issues in a single post, and, barring some other future steroid-related embarassment, I'll be done with it.

As expected, the news about Alex Rodriguez has everyone spouting off and casting doubt upon the Rangers teams of the early 2000s. An article, entitled "Rangers Organization at Heart of Scandal" just warms me up on these cold offseason days. Lucky for us, accusations towards the teams of the early part of this decade are easy to shrug off, since those Rangers teams sucked anyway. It was much more difficult to swallow when the buried truths about players like Juan Gonzalez, Pudge Rodriguez, and Rafael Palmeiro started to be unearthed--those teams included the only three playoff teams in Rangers history. To make sure to rub this in, the Dallas Observer comments on the Rangers "steroid sluggers".

Unfortunately, some people are starting to ask questions about players that played with A-Rod. A particular theory out there says that since Hank Blalock played next to Alex Rodriguez and is having a tough time with injuries, that he must be on steroids. This is frustrating to me. Blalock may very well have used steroids, we don't know. But the fact that he's drawing speculation because played 40 feet to A-Rod's right? I don't buy it.

Tom Hicks also claims to be irate, commenting that he is "shocked" about Rodriguez. I think this is a classic case of an owner trying desperately to convince everyone that he was as clueless as the fans about the whole steroid issue. The question is, does anyone really believe him?

Perhaps the most disappointing facet of this entire debacle: we are considered by many to be one of the most steroid-infested organizations in this era, and we don't have anything to show for it. That's it: the Rangers aren't even good at cheating.