SB Nation User Blog: LBrooks

It's The Pitching Stupid

LBrooks — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 19:24:27 -0000

Let's see...........

August 2nd, JohnBoy fires his pitching coaches. The team ERA is 5.27. Almost 2 months later with Andy Hawkins the team ERA is around 5.43. Hmmmmm.....Junior is running out of scapegoates for this pathetic franchise.

He fired the only manager to put a competitive team on the field in the last 9 years (Buck Showalter).

After 3 years he will show a team this year that has the WORST ERA in all of baseball. Is the WORST fielding team in all of baseball. His crack pitching staff will lead the league in walks and have the least amount of strikeouts.

There are 3 elements to the game - Pitching, Defense, and Offense. Offense is the easiest. Fantasy players can put an offense together. Teams like Tampa, LAA Angels, Minnesota, win with pithcing and defense. Something this team does not have.

Galloway wrote an article the other day suggesting that Nolan can Daniels. I'll go one further than Galloway..........

I predict Nolan's first order of business in the off-season is to send this boy back to the basement. How do I know this?

At the break, Junior made no moves, to either sell off or improve the team. I figure that Nolan put a muzzle on the boy, due to his track record of trades. He simply does not have a clue.

Let's look at 2 groups of pitchers:

Group A

Eaton, Otsuka, Padilla, Tejeda, Millwood, McCarthy, Gabbard, Harrison, Wright, Jennings, Mendoza, Ponson, Gagne, Fukimori

Group B

CYoung, Danks, Volquez, Galarraga

Cripes..........I'd trade ALL of group A for group B right now.

John Daniels is in WAY OVER his head as a Big League GM. Not saying the boy doesn't have talent......but let's limit him to his so-called specialty - prospects.

It's The Pitching Dummy

LBrooks — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 14:08:35 -0000

Rangers offense is the best in the League - whoopee!!!!!!

They're scoring 5.5 runs per game..........unfortunately, they're giving up 6.0 runs per game.

Pitching and Defense........isn't that what Ron Washington said when he came here? I'm sure he was right in line with Junior Daniels. Too bad our pitching is 29th in all of baseball when it comes to ERA, WHIP, walks, and runs given up.

Not to mention that our Defense is the worst in MLB.

We've played 98 games. We've scored 540 runs - we've given up 579 runs.

Think about this:

Our 2 main guys are Millwood and Padilla - that leaves our 3, 4, and 5 guys. Those guys have been Feldman,Gabbrad, Ponson, Mendoza, Jennings, Harrison, Hurley, Murray, and Mathis.

Those 3, 4, and 5 guys guys have given up 232 runs.

Now, think about this:

John Danks, Endison Volquez, and Armando Galarraga have combined to give up 111 runs.

Wait a minute........we got Josh Hamilton for Volquez.......yeah, the guy that is one Budweiser away from re-hab. He's got 96 rbis.

Let's look at it this way:

Say, we take Hamilton's offensive production and cut it in half - IOW - 48 rbis.

Then we throw out the 9 starters we have had this year and substitude with Danks, Volquez, and Galarraga.

We would then have an offense that averages 5.0 runs per game and a pitching staff gives up 4.7 runs per game.

Which would you rather have?

It's stuff like this that shows how totally INCOMPETENT John Daniels is a GM.

Fukudome, Santana, Bedard

LBrooks — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 22:06:21 -0000

9 prospects

40 million

Santana
Bedard
Millwood
McCarthy
Padilla

With the money the franchise is capable of spending and with a loaded farm system full of prospects I don't understand why we couldn't have done something like this.

Oh.....wait a minute.....that's right.....this is the Rangers.

Signifigance of Nolan Hire

LBrooks — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 18:01:02 -0000

Weigh in on your opinion.

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Poll

Nolan's Role as Team President

2. Actively involved in baseball operations

17 votes

3. Pre-cursor to a change of ownership

9 votes

1. Strictly a Figurehead

20 votes

46 votes | Poll has closed

I'm So Excited

LBrooks — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 16:36:04 -0000

Looking at our starting rotation going into 2008 based on what they did in 2007:

W-L = 25/43
IP = 539
Runs = 319
ERA = 5.33

Boy, I'm so excited......pump me up sheep!

OT - Poll

LBrooks — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 19:54:13 -0000

Vote on who you think is the worst franchise in sports between these 3 organizations.

Poll

Worst Franchise in Sports

Texas Rangers

13 votes

NY Knicks

22 votes

Oakland Raiders

16 votes

51 votes | Poll has closed

Pathetic

LBrooks — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 21:49:21 -0000

Liverpool Fans Seek $995 Million to Buy Soccer Club (Update2)

By Steven Downes

Jan. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Liverpool fans want to raise 500 million pounds ($995 million) to buy England's most successful soccer club from U.S. owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett.

Share Liverpool FC is asking 100,000 supporters to each contribute at least 5,000 pounds to the fund, which will be used to pay for the club and a 300 million-pound stadium.

``Thousands of Liverpool fans have already demonstrated their dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs,'' Liverpool University lecturer Rogan Taylor, one of three men heading the group, said in a statement.

The plan is based on the business model of Barcelona and Real Madrid, which are owned by club members. By using a Web site to generate membership fees, the group is seeking to tap into Liverpool's global fan base and the growing interest in English soccer in Asia.

Liverpool fans have protested against Hicks and Gillett's ownership at recent games, expressing concern at their clashes with coach Rafael Benitez.

``Reiterating what we said last week, Liverpool FC is not for sale,'' Jonathan Brill, spokesman for Kop Football Ltd., the Hicks and Gillett company that owns Liverpool, said in a telephone interview tonight.

18 Titles

Liverpool, which won the last of its record 18 English league titles in 1990, is winless in five Premier League games and is seventh in the top flight, 17 points behind leaders Manchester United and Arsenal. Last night, it lost 1-0 at West Ham.

Hicks, owner of hockey's Dallas Stars and baseball's Texas Rangers, and Gillett, owner of hockey's Montreal Canadiens, bought Liverpool a year ago for 174 million pounds, after competition from Dubai International Capital LLC. On Jan. 25 the pair secured a 350 million-pound debt refinancing that will allow the five-time European champion to build a 71,000-seat arena about half a mile (0.8 kilometer) from its Anfield stadium.

While adding an extra 11,000 seats, the revised stadium plans will cost an estimated 50 million pounds less than a design which was abandoned last year.

``Large amounts of debt often devolves on to newly purchased clubs, but the fans know that, in the end, it will be they themselves who will have to pay it off through increased ticket prices,'' Taylor said. ``In such a case, why not simply buy the club yourselves?''

Share-Purchase Plan

In addition to Taylor, Share Liverpool FC includes Phil French, the chief executive officer of Supporters Direct, a government-funded soccer unit, and lawyer Kevin Jaquiss.

A similar share-purchase plan by Manchester United fans failed to prevent the 790 million-pound takeover of the club by U.S. billionaire Malcolm Glazer in 2005, even after Nomura Holdings Inc., Japan's largest securities firm, offered Shareholders United a 100 million-pound loan.

Calls to Taylor and Sameer al-Ansari, the CEO of Dubai International, weren't immediately returned.

To contact the reporter on this story: Steven Downes in London sdownes1@bloomberg.net .

Last Updated: January 31, 2008 14:33 EST

I really wish Rangers fans would take the hint from the Brits and get the Rangers away from this asshole.

900 Run Offense

LBrooks — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 19:15:34 -0000

Just looking over this potent Ranger offense for the 2008 season.

And, what do I see?

We've only had 2 guys that have played over 130 games in the last 2 years:

Michael Young and Hank Blalock.

Then, I look at our great rotation that apparently is so good we don't need to look at pursuing trades for guys like Santana and Bedard.

In the last 2 years our 2 aces, Millwood and Padilla, are a combined 47-46 with an ERA of around 5.00 at the Ballpark. Geesh, that gets me pretty pumped up.

Then we have a guy was 2-9 last year with injury porblems and a 6+ ERA.

Then we have another guy who wasn't that good last year that spent time on the DL.

Round that off with Gabbard, and he's about the only thing I can get somewhat excited about.

But, I'm sure the 2 relievers we signed this off-season (Guardado, who hasn't pitched in a year and Fuku) will bring us some more nice prospects at the break.

JD seems like is doing a great job at building a AAAA, or should I say, a AAA team.

Hire Nolan quick Tommy Boy!

MYong on Galloway

LBrooks — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 22:54:33 -0000

I just listened to Michael Young on the Galloway show.

Randy asked him several questions about the team, and every response Michael gave had to do with himself and how he was preparing for the season and what his goals were.

He also indicated that he was unclear on what direction this afterbirth of a franchise was going.

Keith Foulke

LBrooks — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 20:44:20 -0000

I heard today that he is making a comeback. Was throwing out at Tempe, AZ and several ML teams were watching.

Sounds like a Junior special to me.