I was wrong about Ian Kinsler

U

Uncle Rico

1,000+ Posts
I've been unanimously voted in as the official hornfan talent evaluator
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and it pains me to admit that i've made a mistake. After last year I thought Ian Kinsler was just another Ranger talent who made it to the show by spraying the ball all over the field. He got to the bigs and all of a sudden tried to pull everything out of the yard a la Hank Blalock and I rated Kinsler as a sell/Jaramillo disaster. I wanted him to have a solid 1st half so we could trade him at the deadline for anything.

Dead ******* wrong. He is using the entire field, working the count and his walk total is significantly ahead of last year's pace. He's already stolen as many bases this year in 83 games has he did last year in 130 games.

This kid is starting to gain confidence and how many players in Ranger history have ever taken a game over in Yankee Stadium by themselves. Juan Gone is the only one. He is playing with an edge and that's something this franchise has been missing since it started. I'm not talking about Rusty Greer hustle and I'm not talking about practice (Iverson). It's not quite focusness because nobody is on Bill in SInton's level but Kinsler is on ******* fire.

I love baseball. I love the Rangers. I love playing for a sweep in Yankee Stadium facing Sid Ponson.

SWEEP THE YANKEES CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP!
 
I'm still not a Kinsler believer. There was no reason to steal third with no outs in the ninth. Had he made the first out of the inning at third, we wouldn't be seeing this post today. Couple that with his continued pitiful fielding, and I remain a Kinsler-skeptic.

But the guy can hit. Of that there's no doubt.
 
Ian deserves to start in the AS game, but it looks like he'll lose to Pedroia in the voting. The positive to that is he'll be playing in the later innings when the game could be on the line.
 
I'm no huge fan of stealing third in that situation, but Posada's sore arm makes it less of a risk than usual, I guess. I don't know the stats, but it doesn't seem, from the standpoint of a half-assed follower, that Kinsler is the buthcer in the field that he was lastyear.
 
Ian Kinsler more than makes up for his poor defense with his great leadoff batting including runs rbi's and sb's.
 
well kinslers error tonight proves to lead to 4 unearned runs on a 2 out grand slam.. shame.

now duran boofs a ground ball with 2 outs to keep 2 runners on base and giambi up to bat again
 
what a great 6th inning so far. 2 2-run homers. bye bye ponson, you sack of ****. sucks too cuz the rangers have only given up 1 earned run tonight out of the yankees 6 runs. and all of their runs have come with 2 outs.. ooh well, rangers retake the lead for now!

7-6 top of 6th.
 
And it looks like I got back and turned the TV on at just the right time last inning. We got done with our business in Marietta a bit earlier than planned, so I hightailed it to the Atlanta airport and caught the 5:35 flight back to DFW. Turned the TV on just in time to see Milton hit it out, then got to watch Chris Davis do likewise. We may want to keep that young fella...

HornHuskerDad
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will this be another benoit blow up? tune in.... 2 walks to start the inning.
gets damon to flyout. runners on 1st and 2nd w/ 1 out.
 
madrigal facing the yankees at NYC, with one run lead, # 2,3 and 4 hitters.

this could get good, especially since he has been a pitcher for less than 2 seasons and was in A ball one year ago.
 
WHOA. I wonder if Washington has even considered pulling this kid. Yankee Stadium against the heart of the order may have been a bad spot to throw him out there, d-bag. Now that the decision probably cost us the game, it could be wise to end this ******* embarassment.
0.1 IP 5H 5ER 1BB 1wild pitch; thousands of disgusted Ranger fans yet again amazed at how Wash manages a 'pen.
 
that was washingtons dumbest move in quite some time. and there have ben a few. what the **** was he thinking? having a rookie make his major league debut in yankee stadium against the heart of the order up 1 run late in a game? good God terrible ******* decision. i'm still ******* pissed..

going for your first sweep of the year and you bring in this kid? WAKE THE **** UP RON!
 
Washington irritates me with how long he'll leave a struggling pitcher in the game. When you have a chance to win a game, that is not the time to get someone to eat up innings to save the bullpen.
 
Pretty easy to toast Washington on this, but really he didn't have many choices. If he could rely on Benoit - but he can't. Look at it this way - his back was against the wall b/c he HAD to pitch a rookie, not b/c he wanted to put/keep one in there.

As to the OP: I agree with you. If Kinsler's not hitting and his fielding is spotty at best, it's pretty hard to condone keeping him. BUT...I spent time on the plane ride home this afternoon looking at AL Batting Averages - USA Today prints them as of "2 days ago." So at that point Kinsler was in 5th, so I was looking to see what he did yesterday and then going one by one to see what the others above and below him did and...at the end of all of that he had the leading BA in all the AL.

That's pretty f'ing cool. Go Ian. Now concentrate on the easy grounders and you'll be All-World.

Hook'em!!!
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Wash was out of options in the pen. After Feldman went 5 2/3 and Millwood went 5 we've thrown everyone we got. He had to go with Madrigal and Benoit.
 
the only thing I can think of is that at that point in the ball game you have to bring in J Wright and hope that he can give you 1 IP. If you get out of that then you have to deal with WM and JB. CJ's thrown in 3 straight games and you don't have not-so-everyday Eddie G. but if you are going to use Wright anyway use him then and get out of the jam and worry about what benoit and madrigal can do in the 8th/9th.

i'm still proud of this team. they came to win yesterday and to be honest our bully had given up 1 run in about 9 IP before that. something had to give.
 
In his Baseball Abstract, Bill James argues that a team should put in its closer in the 7th because that's where the most come-from-behind victories take place. He has some interesting statistical evidence to support the argument--evidence that I can't really summarize here.

I don't know that I completely agree with that. However, if there was ever an instance in which you would bring in your closer in the 7th, this was it: one-run lead over the Yankees at the Stadium with Abreu-Rodriguez-Giambi due up. I'll tell you the last pitcher you bring in in that situation: a guy who's never pitched in the Majors in his life and was playing A-ball a year ago.

Washington didn't give Madrigal a fighting ******* chance. Abreu-Rodriguez-Giambi.

****.
 
You make a good point LL. Theoretically though, if CJ were to get out of the jam in the 7th, you face the same **** in the 8th and 9th (if there is one) with those same pitchers.

The good news - those 18 runs could have only been 14 and the other 4 distributed over the previous two days and we would have been swept.
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Hook'em!!!
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I agree that it was tough for Wash and that's the problem with an overworked bully. If they didn't have to throw 12 IP per series the bully would be more rested and stretching them wouldn't be that bad. But when you have to dig into the well each series it limits your ability to use guys 4 straight days.
 
my word ignorance is bliss

our bullpen was dead...washington had to use Benoit and Madrigal

maybe some of you rode the short bus too long and dont realize this, but....pitchers cant throw every freakin day

he rolled the dice b/c he had to

our bullpen is toast right now b/c even when our starters have a good outing they only go six innings at best

as to the OP, i was one of the main people arguing with you that i love kinsler and dont want to see him go anywhere

his D isnt bad either, he can make great plays...he just lacks focus, that can be fixed....not to mention his offense easily makes up for it
 
BO 03,

Yes, you and a few others were telling me I was nuts to want to trade Kinsler. I love the using all fields Kinsler. I hate the trying to pull everything like Hank Blalock guy. I thought he was going to continue to regress but he's proven me wrong. I like being proven wrong in cases like this.
 
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