Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
April 08, 2007
Taking Rangers

Evan Grant notices the selectivity of the Rangers hitters:

The game-time temperature was 38 degrees, the coldest in the park's 13-plus seasons, and it only turned colder as the night wore on. Had the Rangers not eventually lashed out 14 hits, you might have suspected they weren't swinging for fear of stinging their hands.

Not so. The Rangers were simply following the pattern that has made Oakland so successful. They took no swing before it was time.

"The more pitches we see, the better we become," Washington said. "We start seeing pitches better and getting better pitches to hit, and we start hitting them."

Just like with the A's, it often looked like they were wasting opportunities. Maybe so; they did leave 12 brave men stranded to fend for themselves in the hypothermic conditions. But they also created enough chances to make those wasted opportunities simply look as if they were setting up the Boston pitching staff.

So far, they're drawing a good number of walks, making their OBA 100 points higher than their team batting average. They just need to raise their batting average from a Mendoza like .203.


Posted by David Pinto at 12:39 PM | Offense | TrackBack (0)
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