|  | | The Farm Report -- 11/13/2008 | | By Scott Lucas November 13, 2008 | ROY Doesn’t Matter
Chris Davis and David Murphy received not a solitary third-place vote in the 2008 Rookie of the Year voting. No matter. The ROY award is a pinpoint in time, not the future, and plenty of players receiving minimal or no consideration have surpassed the winner as soon as the following season. I’m not suggesting that Davis will upstage Evan Longoria, who is obviously a keeper, but if it happens, it wouldn’t be the first time. For example:
2003 AL ROY: Angel Berroa
5th Place: Mark Teixeira
2002 AL ROY: Eric Hinske
4th Place: John Lackey
1998 AL ROY: Ben Grieve
5th Place: Magglio Ordonez
1995 AL ROY: Marty Cordova
2nd through 6th: Garret Anderson, Andy Pettitte, Troy Percival, Shawn Green, Ray Durham
1995 NL ROY: Hideo Nomo
2nd Place: Chipper Jones
1994 AL ROY: Bob Hamelin
2nd Place: Manny Ramirez
3rd Place: Rusty Greer
1992 AL ROY: Pat Listach
2nd Place: Kenny Lofton
1998 NL ROY: Chris Sabo
2nd Place: Mark Grace
5th Place: Roberto Alomar
1984 AL ROY: Alvin Davis
3rd Place: Kirby Puckett
6th Place: Roger Clemens
(Davis did have a solid, if not lengthy, career)
Chatting
Baseball Prospectus’s prospect guru Kevin Goldstein held court on Wednesday and offered the following on the Rangers (http://www.baseballprospectus.com/chat/chat.php?chatId=546, available to non-subscribers):
Joey Matschulat (Tyler, TX): Feeling any better about Elvis Andrus after his steady second half?
Kevin Goldstein: Another guy I'm not as high on as others. Decent average, great speed, no other secondary skills, good defense. He's almost Royce Clayton for me, but I also think Royce Clayton is underrated.
My comments: 1) Joey Matschulat runs the fine blog Baseball Time In Arlington: http://mvn.com/baseballtimeinarlington. 2) Andrus batted .312/.367/.401 after returning from a broken finger. 3) The Clayton comparison is apt, though Andrus may have an edge in contact skills. Clayton never batted higher than .288 anywhere, at any level. Andrus hit .295 this season.
Dennis (Chicago): Neftali Feliz - Top 5 prospect overall?
Kevin Goldstein: I'm not only driving the Feliz bandwagon; I practically built the thing. That said, top 5 overall is more than a little strong.
My comment: Goldstein did indeed drive the bandwagon, ranking Feliz first in the Texas system last year.
newsense (DC): Would any of the Rangers' catchers be worth the Red Sox trading Bucholz or Masterson? If not, do the Rangers have anything that could even out the deal?
Kevin Goldstein: The Rangers have one of, if not THE best system in baseball, so they have enough to even out pretty much any deal you can think of. I'd be willing to part with Masterson if I was Texas, but I wouldn't sell low on Buchholz.
My comment: I think Goldstein means “if I was Boston,” but otherwise it speaks for itself.
Arizona Fall League
Justin Smoak (.366/.469/.585 between Surprise and Peoria) went 4-4 soon after I posted my last report, doubled and walked on Friday, and drew two additional free passes Wednesday. Julio Borbon’s walk rate stands at 17% after jogging to first twice on Tuesday. Borbon (.295/.415/.423) has 16 walks in 21 AFL games after drawing 29 during the entire 2008 regular season. Bizarre. Chad Tracy (.178/.213/.422) homered and walked on Tuesday, while the devastating cold streak of John Whittleman (.085/.173/.149) continues unabated.
The AFL hurlers endured a tough week. Willie Eyre got hammered Wednesday (3.2 IP, 7 R) to raise his ERA to 7.03. Beau Jones’s recent one-inning, three-run outing left him with an 8.10 ERA. Jones has fanned 14 in 13.1 innings. John Bannister (5.74 ERA) gave up five runs in one frame on Wednesday. Andrew Laughter (2.77 ERA, 1.38 WHIP) suffered only moderate damage: two innings and two earned runs.
Liga Dominicana
Nelson Cruz joined Gigantes del Cibao and homered twice in his third game, giving him an early line of .455/.462/.1.000. Reliever Warner Madrigal (14.40 ERA, 3.00 WHIP. Really.) has five consecutive scored-upon appearances. Dustin Nippert (3.38 ERA, 1.46 WHIP) yielded three runs in five innings with five Ks on Monday. Jose Vallejo hasn’t played other than PH/PR duty lately.
Liga Mexicana del Pacifico
Brandon Boggs (.171/.318/.286) appeared on the inactive list after an 0-4 last Friday. Obregon teammate Luis Mendoza was activated recently and pitched a scoreless, two-hit inning on Tuesday.
Liga Venezolana
Monsieur Andrus (.268/.333/.352) is 5-15 with a double, triple, and two walks since I last wrote. OF Ben Harrison extended his hitting streak to 16 on Tuesday and his line to .316/.409/.526. Though Max Ramirez (.222/.344/.500) lost his six-game hit streak the same day, he did reach twice on walks. Ramirez is splitting time between catcher and DH lately after a couple of early games at first.
Texas resigned pitcher Kendy Batista, who has a 10.13 ERA and 2.07 WHIP in 10.2 innings for La Guaira.
The Rest
John Rheinecker won’t be back. Kason Gabbard is the new John Rheinecker.
The DMN’s Mike Hindman has a lengthy update on Eric Hurley (http://tinyurl.com/6etqmz). Back in July, I analyzed Hurley’s pre-injury starts using MLB’s pitch/fx data (http://www.rangers.scottlucas.com/archives/2008/07/pitchfx_on_eric.html).
MLB.com’s T.R. Sullivan discussed the 182 candidates for the 2009 bullpen (http://tinyurl.com/5nxjoc). Signing a premier free-agent closer is unlikely.
I will again be writing about the Texas Rangers for the 2009 Hardball Times Baseball Annual. I have also begun a rigorous conditioning program in anticipation of the 2009 blogging season.
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| NEWS FLASH! 9/2/2010 3:28:17 PM- Magic number drops to 20, and we pass the savings on to you.
Read | NEWS FLASH! 9/2/2010 7:10:21 AM- Column on TexasRangers.com and footage from the Game-Watching Party.
Read | |
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 Scott Lucas Scott Lucas was born in Arlington, Texas, to Richard and Becky Lucas. He lived mostly in Arlington before moving to Austin, where he graduated from The University of Texas. Scott works for Austin Valuation Consultants, Ltd., and has published several boring articles about real estate appraisal and environmental contamination. He makes a swell margarita and refuses to run longer than ten kilometres. |
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