Rangers Pepper 6/17: Texas Must Start Hitting Em Where They Ain't

by Dustin Copening

“#RangersThoughts” on Twitter can be seen by following me @dfwfanconnect, but those thoughts evolve every few days from 140 characters into what I have dubbed as  “Rangers Pepper”. Along with a Ron Washington pep talk (NSFW), maybe the Texas offense just needs a case of ice cold Dr. Pepper:

Happy Days Are Here Ag...Soon? - The Rangers are playing their worst baseball since?

The answer to that question varies depending on who is asked. Some will point to September 12th to 20th in 2009. Texas went 2-9 in an 11 game homestand against the Mariners, Athletics, and Angels. They averaged 1.7 runs per game, hit .204 with a .558 OPS, and allowed a 5.11 ERA and 1.432 WHIP. Kissing goodbye any chance they had of catching the LA Angels for the AL West crown.

Some will suggest just 266 days ago, when Texas started a 2-7 stretch to finish the 2012 regular season and end their two year run as AL West champs. The Rangers hit the ball better than in the 2009 skid (.240 and .700 OPS), but pitched worse (6.04 ERA and 1.570 WHIP).

Which brings us to the team’s current dismal play in June. It’s gone from ugly, to beyond ugly, to comical, to beyond comical, and is on the verge of reaching an indescribable level of suck if they don’t manage at least a split against Oakland over the next 4 games.

In June, the Rangers are batting .219 with a .645 OPS, and their 4.57 ERA and  1.374 WHIP has fans dreading the next start not involving Yu Darvish. It all adds up to a 4-11 spell that has even the most optimistic observer wondering if this is more than a momentary slide. Perhaps the makeup covering up the warts is melting away as the game time temps heat up.

The doom and gloom mentality is understandable during the darkest times of 162 games season, but there are signs that this period of dreadful play is only a pothole. Not the impassable canyon it feels like.

Texas’s BABIP (a stat that can be used to determine good and bad luck, for lack of a better term) is .248, good for second worst in all of baseball. That’s coming off of an AL best .324 BABIP in May , and a .285 mark in April that was much closer to the league average.

So are the Rangers unlucky, or are they finding fewer gaps because they’ve lost patience at the plate?

Here’s a comparison of the plate discipline Texas has shown from month to month:

Month	O-Sw%	Z-Sw%	Sw%	O-Con%	Z-Con%	Con%	SwSt%
June	28.7	62.1	43.5	70.4	88.2	81.7	7.9
May	29	63.5	45.3	67	88.1	81	8.4
April	29.9	62.2	44.5	70	88.2	81.5	8.1

A look at the glossary for the stats listed will bring some clarity, but long story short, Texas has not drastically altered their strategy at the plate to swing away in June. If anything they have taken more pitches, since their swing and swinging strike percentages are down a tick.

They are however hitting more ground balls in June (50.2%) than they did in May (47%) and April (43.7%). Something to be expected with Mitch Moreland and Ian Kinsler both missing significant time this month, while power challenged hitters played in their place.

Now Kinsler is back, with Mitch Moreland not too far behind. The trade deadline is around the corner, where Jon Daniels has usually been able to address his team’s most glaring weaknesses.
Better days are ahead. Texas just hopes that “ahead” begins tonight.