Goat of the Week: Justin Verlander

05/18/2013

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Tim Heitman, USA TODAY Sports
by Eddie Middlebrook

As the resident villain of SDI, I will have a new series where I feature a guy who receives the lion share of grief for the week whether it be a Ranger or their opponent.

The Darvish vs. Verlander pitching matchup was built up as baseball’s version of Ali vs. Frazier, but crashed and burned more than a Jim Knox bit on “Bark at the Park” night. Sure, Yu didn’t have his best stuff, but Verlander is the one that failed to show.   

We all waited several days for this matchup and some of us enjoyed the game in unique ways like Jason Parks (via Baseball Prospectus chat):

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Wash Is Just Gonna Wash

05/17/2013

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by Jeff Johnson

I love false narratives.
  
As Peter Ellwood pointed out in the introduction of a recent article seen here, at SDI we take pride in digging deeper than most to make sure no stone is unturned and that what you think is happening on the field is actually  happening. With this in mind, I have been paying close attention recently to one  narrative in particular from last season to see if things have actually changed.  

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All My Exes

05/17/2013

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image found at masnsports.com
By Eddie Middlebrook

The offseason saw the departure of Ranger greats Michael Young, Mike Napoli, Josh Hamilton and the bearded one (Scott Feldman) among others. This season, we have painfully watched Chris Davis become one of the most feared power hitters in baseball and seen Ryan Dempster find a resurgence in Boston. 

So I began to wonder what a 25-man roster made up of ex-Rangers (active) would look like, and this is what I came up with:

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Yu Darvish and the 130 Pitches That Aren’t a Big Deal

05/17/2013

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image found at bigstory.ap.org
By Peter Ellwood

Yu Darvish is the Rangers Ace. More than that, Yu Darvish is an Ace. There are less than ten of those in baseball now, and probably at any one time, always. Aces are precious jewels, rare gems, treasures to be held onto and cherished as they sparkle and shine. That is what Yu Darvish is for the Rangers. He came with a hefty price tag, but he is well on his way to be worth every single dime. 

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Lazy Comps: Mitch Moreland

05/16/2013

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Ft. Worth Star-Telegram
by Dan Allsup


Disclaimer and Explanation:

Lazy Comps are comparisons, and they are lazy because it’s not really in-depth scouting.

Previous Lazy Comps:

Martin Perez
Leonys Martin
Nelson Cruz
Engel Beltre

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Slap Hits

05/16/2013

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image found at sports.yahoo.com
By Peter Ellwood

Normally when I write, I like to focus on one topic and fully explore it to the best of my abilities. I think that is a healthy model, particularly for this site. When you come to this site, we expect that you have a base level knowledge of baseball, and the Rangers. Rarely do we dumb things down to tell you exactly what is happening on the field, because there is a built-in assumption that 1) you can tell for yourself, or 2) get your fill of that elsewhere, or 3) you’re here for something meatier than that. This particular piece won’t be quite such a deep-dive, but instead will touch on several current topics of interest for the Rangers. This was an introductory paragraph, which is now plenty long enough, so let’s get to the interesting part of these words.

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I Got 99 Problems But Mitch Ain’t One

05/15/2013

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Mike McGinnis/Getty Images
by Eddie Middlebrook

It has been well documented that I’m not a part of the Mitch Moreland Fan Club. I don’t receive their newsletters, have a “Get ‘Er Done” bumper sticker or watch King of the Hill reruns. It’s not that I don’t like the guy, in fact, I love his glorious hair, but I’m simply not a Moreland believer.   

I echo many of the sentiments that Peter Ellwood touched on a few days ago in his article. I even touched on Mitch last week in my Derek Holland post. In the here and now, Moreland is not the problem. The question was even posed to me on Twitter by my good friend Daniel Stark:

Would I be happy with Mitch accumulating 2 WAR this season?

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What is Normal?

05/14/2013

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Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images
by Mike Luna

By the end of a 162-game season, you usually have a pretty good idea of which baseball players are the best and which are the worst. Last year the best player was either Miguel Cabrera or Mike Trout (depending on who you ask). The worst player was either Jeff Francoeur or Justin Smoak or Michael Young (again, depending on who you ask).

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Let’s Talk About Mitch Moreland’s Hot Streak

05/13/2013

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image found at dallasnews.com
By Peter Ellwood

Mitch Moreland is a fun player to cheer for. He does all of the cosmetic things that we like to see out of ballplayers. He hustles, he is polite and intelligent when talking with the media, and if we squint and have an over-developed image of our own physique, he looks like us and that helps us associate with him. And because Moreland is on a team where he isn’t required to be the biggest run producer, when he is generating offense from the bottom of the lineup it is an extra bonus, a real pick-me-up to the rest of the team.

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One Year Since Forever Ago

05/12/2013

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Keith Allison/Flickr
by Mike Luna

It’s been roughly a calendar year since we saw one of the greatest weeks of baseball that any of us will ever see. I’m referring, of course, to the last week that Josh Hamilton looked anything like Josh Hamilton.

Before we go on, let me state clearly that this is not an anti-Josh article. I could write one of those -- or even a hundred of those -- but that’s not what I’m going for. More than anything, I’d like to look back on good....no, great times from the not-too-distant past.

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