The Rangers started 2012 strong. The Angels did the opposite. Premature conclusions were drawn. Then the two teams' fortunes reversed. There are many reasons for this shift. One is the play of the teams' superstars. Another is the acquisition and emergence of a key arm in Anaheim. These aren't the only factors, but they are among the most intriguing and are the ones we'll focus on today.
Remember the “Rangers are running away with the American League West” narrative from April, when it appeared that they were, in fact, running away with the division? Well, that narrative broke and has been replaced by the ever-popular “it's a long season” and “that's why they play the games.”
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Josh Hamilton played some Baseball last night ....He barrelled up a 2 hopper line drive to the right center fence for a triple driving in 2 runs and then next pitch to Beltre tagged and scored an a very short ball to right that had Will Venable coming in hard .... Hamilton took about 7 strides to get down the line and when he slid across the dish safely he literally looked like a freight train coming to a stop as his pop-up happened 6 feet past it. The "Wow" factor was so strong his teammates rushed out of the dugout to greet him.
I am mid 40's and Josh Hamilton is the greatest talent I have ever seen play baseball. On the other hand Albert Pujols is the best right handed hitter I have ever seen play.
The Angel vs. Ranger battle is shaping up to be an Epic one of two heavyweights ... (Insert Rocky music here)
My eye test of Adams has been that he has lost a little confidence partly because his velo is down ... This is a huge issue because Wash is overly loyal to his guys roles sometimes and Adams has blown a few leads.
Freakieri is a max effort guy - wonder if he will be able to high leverage MLB over a 5 month period?
Joe Nathan fits right into this Texas clubhouse and has been nails.
The wildcard is how does Mark Trumbo..err I mean babe Trumbo, fight off a reversion to the mean over the rest of the season?
More to come on this showdown as the season goes on.
That Hamilton triple was well struck. Edinson Volquez picked a bad time to find home plate. I'm still trying to figure out how he walked Elvis Andrus after jumping ahead 1-2 with Hamilton on deck. Oh, that's right... he's Edinson Volquez.
In an obviously small sample size (he's a reliever), Frieri has gone from having a large platoon split in 2010-11 to a reverse platoon split in 2012 (especially when looking at skills like K/BB ratio and not just outcomes). Is there a reason why, or is it just random variation?
His fastball moves horizontally away from a LHB, but that's not a change from last year.
This is an excellent question worthy of further investigation. My knee-jerk reaction is to say it's SSS, but those changes are dramatic. It could be that his improvement against lefties is legitimate and sustainable, which would make him a better long-term asset than the Padres had envisioned.
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Surprise Me!
I was surprised that there wasn't one mention of Mike Trout in this piece.
Yeah, not this time; he's on my article to-do list.