MLB 2013 season
- Thread starter supertouch_sl
- Start date
Probably because Washington is the worst tactician in baseball and they missed the playoffs by one game for the second straight year. This game pretty much summed up his tenure with Texas: bat AJ Pierzynski 5th against a lefty, pulled his starter who was rolling after 85 pitches and put in a reliever he's used for 4 consecutive days who then promptly gave up a run, had a player bunt at the worst moment.
Muurloen
Pronouns: zie/zhem/zer
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And set the single season team strikeout record.
Strikeout Records set by Teams : A Baseball Almanac Record Book
Strikeout Records set by Teams : A Baseball Almanac Record Book
None of that mattered, because David Price was dealing. It was absolutely the right call to pull Perez there with Longoria coming up - and Ogando had been pitching well. Their other relievers had pitched 4 days in a row leading up to the game and he didn't want to stretch them past 1 inning each.
He isn't going to be fired - the reason the Rangers are where they are were from things Washington has no control over.
1) Not replacing Hamilton/Napoli/Young (not saying there were any good options out there, they definitely tried to get Stanton, etc.), this was the 2nd worst offensive club in 40 years of Ranger history. Yu Darvish lost four 1-0 games.
2) 2 of the 5 starting pitchers (Colby Lewis, Matt Harrison) lost for the year and a 3rd (Alexei Ogando) also out for huge swaths of the year. Guys they brought up, Grimm/Tepesch, did step up early in the year vs. weaker teams and Martin Perez has definitely proven he can be a #3 starter like he was projected to be.
3) Nelson Cruz, their best slugger, gets suspended for 50 games. Rangers offense didn't go into a ditch immediately because they got to play a weak part of the schedule and Beltre was carrying them - but as soon as it toughened up in September the offense flatlined and they lost 15 of 20 before winning their last 7 against Astros/Angels just to get into a tiebreaker.
4) Matt Garza sucked after leaving the Cubs
That they still got to 91 wins with one of the worst offenses, basically on the back of 2 starters and a great bullpen, is pretty amazing.
taebin
Same trailer, different park
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Agree with everything you said Mano. Supertouch has hated Ron Washington for years, and pretty much blames him for every single thing wrong with the Rangers front office / GM fuckups. Yes, he made some questionable managerial decisions sprinkled throughout the year. But I think he brings a lot more to the table that the players buy into and wasn't the issue this year.
What "fuckups" has the front office been responsible for? Ron Washington is literally the worst manager in the game and when you miss the playoffs by one game for two consecutive years, you can look back at the season and see how his fucking around for 162 games cost them. If you use a struggling Michael Young as a fucking MOTO bat for the entire year, you're an incompetent piece of shit.
Lance Berkman - Rangers had no DH for most of the year because the guy JD picked up couldn't stay healthy. No DH in the American League!
He used what he was given - and don't say he was given Jurickson Profar - that wasn't until late in the year and he was fresh call-up with no big league exp.
In-game tactical moves are overrated, at most he may have cost them 1 game over the course of a season. The majority of his "gut" decisions are either correct or are correct enough to not cost them a game. It's not like he's flying by the seat of his pants - he's taking advice from Maddux on pitching changes so unless you think Maddux is a terrible pitching coach you don't have much to stand on here.
The only place where I can see a tactical genius manager making a difference is in a low payroll place like Tampa Bay where a manager needs to use his full roster and micro manage his pitching staff just to compete because his front office is too cheap to give him a major league lineup outside of their few homegrown talents.
What the fuck? Texas doesn't have a stacked lineup that can be managed on autopilot like the one they had in 2011. Washington ignores basic strategies like platooning and pinch hitting and it makes a difference over the course of a season. We're not talking about a 5-game sample here. Furthermore, having an over-the-hill player on the roster doesn't mean you get to bat him in the middle of the lineup all year and play him in the field every chance you get.
Grimmlokk
Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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Halfway there with a Bucco Blast!
edit: Ohhh snap, there's 2-0 on another.
The fans might have broken Cueto with their savage chanting.