It would be incorrect to say that the Texas Rangers and the Houston Astros are franchises moving in different directions. Rather, you might say they are mirror images of each other. The Rangers, who made back-to-back World Series in 2010 and 2011, are a team perhaps past their peak, whereas the Astros surely have a brighter future than their current mess. But while the Rangers have just lost their second star to the Angels in as many off-seasons (first C.J. Wilson, then Josh Hamilton), and the Astros have been stockpiling prospects, the Rangers are the ones with the top-ranked rookies (Jurickson Profar and Mike Olt) while Houston is long on youth, but short on star potential.
The new divisional rivals make for an interesting pairing, not just because of the Texas connection. Both have experienced a bit of flux in their off-season…Houston because of an ownership and management change, and Texas because of a disappointing off-season (the lost out on the bidding for Zack Greinke and the Upton brothers), as well as turmoil at the top (it sounds like Nolan Ryan is being pushed out after a rather successful run as team president).
The Houston Astros are in almost every way a new-look franchise. New owner, relatively new GM (Jeff Luhnow enters his second calendar year running the team) and plenty of young players. There is reason to hope, Jim Crane can surely only be a better owner than Drayton McLane, and Jeff Luhnow ran one of the most successfully player development systems while with the Cardinals. Luhnow seems like a perfect fit for the collection of young players on the Astros roster. Jose Altuve and Jason Castro have top billing on the Houston side, but Alex White, J.D. Martinez, Chris Carter, Brett Wallace, Fernando Martinez, and Matt Dominguez were all considered top prospects at one time or another. Unfortunately for most of them, that time was quite a ways away. But you can hardly fault Houston for casting a wide net, and Luhnow seems to have a great track record of sorting the wheat from the chaff – under his tenure, no one was been better than the Cardinals at turning non-descript minor leaguers into viable major league contributors.
Meanwhile, the Texas Rangers face a very different set of problems. After establishing themselves as one of the best American League teams over the past four years, the Rangers now face significant roster turnover. Josh Hamilton, Mike Napoli and C.J, Wilson are gone, as well as the awkwardly placed face of the franchise Michael Young. However, an off-season which failed to land any big names doesn’t put Texas in as much trouble as one would expect. The core of Beltre, Kinsler, and Andrus remain, with Berkman and Pierzyinski providing adequate one-season stop-gaps. The pitching staff remains strong, even before accounting for Joakim Soria and Neftali Felix who could both return to action mid-season. Profar, Olt, Engel Beltre and Julio Borbon all provide depth from the minors if needed as well. Texas may no longer be the class of the West, but they are far from over the hill.
The Game
Texas 2
Houston 8
W Bud Norris (1-0)
L Matt Harrison (0-1)
SV Erik Bedard (1)
The first innings were pretty tight, with Texas getting the only real chances. But in the 4th Houston struck first on a two-run triple by Justin Maxwell which would have been a fly out in any other park (except Fenway). It bounced straight up off a railing, allowing Maxwell to stroll into third. Houston added to the lead with a nice rally in the 5th thanks to some shoddy defence and an RBI single from Altuve.
Norris ran out of gas in the 6th, which could have been a total disaster except for Beltre smashing one right into Norris’ glove with runners at 1st and 3rd. Singles by Murphy and Cruz would score those runs anyway and chase Norris from the game. Erik Bedard in a rare appearance as a reliever got out of the inning with a single pitch.
In the end Rick Ankiel sealed the deal with a pinch hit home run off of another veteran reliever, Derek Lowe (who I’m surprised is still in the majors, he’s looked toasty for a while now).
Norris pitched well until it all unravelled against the top of the order in the 6th. You can see why Houston pegged him as the Opening Day starter, his slider (or should I say his collection of sliders) do an excellent job of keeping hitters off balance (especially righties). But his fastball isn’t all that great and he has a tendency to leave it up. He got away with a few fastballs up in the zone to Kinsler, Beltre, and Berkman early in the game. He’s really just a two-pitch pitcher, but the variations on his slider make him maybe a two-and-a-half pitch pitcher? Either way, that’s not actually his problem…his problem is lack of fastball command.
SPOTLIGHTS
Jose Altuve – the diminutive Altuve (5’5’’), is the “face” of the up and coming Astros squad. At 22 he already has one full season, and an All-Star appearance, under his belt. However, there is cause for concern. The obvious comparison as a pocket-sized 2B is Dustin Pedroia, and at Altuve’s age Pedroia was struggling to keep his head above water at the major league level. But even the pint-sized Pedroia towers over Altuve, and the Astro star has rated poorly as a fielder thus far (where Pedroia is a perennial gold glove challenger).
It was a vintage performance by Altuve (who set the tone with a first pitch single off Harrison in the 1st inning). He got another crucial hit in the 5th, lining a pitch at his eyes into right field. It seems like he can turn any pitch into a line drive. Altuve was called out trying to advance on a ball that Pierzynski blocked, but he was technically safe…and I’d never hold it against a guy for challenging A.J.’s arm.
Chris Carter – the proverbial village bike, Carter was originally drafted by the White Sox, traded to the Diamondbacks for Carlos Quentin, then to the Athletics for Dan Haren, and finally to the Astros for Jed Lowrie. He’s always had prodigious power, and in 2012 he showed it off at the major league level for the first time. Playing him in the outfield is a bit of a bold choice for Houston (first base is even a bit of a stretch for him defensively), but I suppose now is as good a time as any for them to be experimenting with their roster. Carter and Pena should make an interesting 3-4 pairing in the lineup as they are twins from opposing sides of the plate…a ton of power, a ton of strikeouts, and not a lot else.
Carter was pretty much as advertised. In his first two at-bats he struck out on 7 pitches (one foul ball the second time around, so he saw zero balls until his third at bat). Carter subsequently popped out and hit a soft grounder to third. He wasn’t really called upon to do much in leftfield, so he didn’t do much for the team this game. Of course, that’s the kind of player Carter is. You’re likely to get a few games of nothing, punctuated by a three-run home run every once in a while.
Ian Kinsler – Kinsler finally put together two healthy seasons in a row, playing over 150 games in both 2011 and 2012. However, in 2012 the thirty year old did put up his first OPS+ below 100, and scored his worst defensive season in a while (which may just be noise in the data, but he wouldn’t be the first player to lose some range going into his 30s). Kinsler’s walk rate dipped to its lowest point since 2008 as he swung at slightly more pitches, but did slightly less with them.
Kinsler looked a bit sketchy in the field, bobbling the ball the few times it came to him, but I wouldn’t worry too much about that. Although he didn’t get a hit, he did draw a walk and scored Texas’ first run after some deft base-running (moving from first to third on a Berkman single).
Leonys Martin – the man who (at least partially) is stepping into Josh Hamilton’s shoes. It’s probably more accurate to say Lance Berkman is taking Hamilton’s place on the team, but the star’s departure left an opening in the outfield that Texas clearly hoped to fill through a big move this off-season. But they missed out on Bourne and Upton and have filled their CF job internally. Martin provided them with leverage in these free agent negotiations as Texas has (relative) confidence that he’s ready to do the job. The 25 year old Cuban has spent two years in the minors, and in 2012 had a monster year at AAA (albeit in the PCL). He starts the season nominally in a platoon with Craig Gentry in CF.
Martin looks like a rangy, conscientious outfielder. He did a good job cutting off a Carlos Pena single into the leftfield gap, holding Brett Wallace at second. And on Maxwell’s first triple he showed great awareness backing up David Murphy when he lost the ball off the wall. As a hitter he looks very much like the raw project he is reputed to be. Martin’s got a huge looping swing and struck out twice on fastballs up and well out of the zone.
Stray Observations
– If Norris wasn’t the player of the game, Justin Maxwell certainly had a case: he hit two triples, caught the ball running into the wall in left-center, and made another diving trap off Elvis Andrus which was called an out.
– Also some terrific play at 3B. Adrian Beltre caught a blistering line drive, and Matt Dominguez took a hit away from Elvis Andrus by ranging into foul territory and throwing on the run.
– On the other side of things, Texas looked a bit sloppy at times defensively, Nelson Cruz booted Ronny Cedeno’s single into a triple (while Kinsler muffed the cut-off which would have allowed them to get Cedeno at third)
– Bedard came in and pitched 3 1/3 innings for his first career save (he’s slotted in as Houston’s 5th starter, but due to off-days wasn’t scheduled to pitch until next week)
The Tony Batista Apology Tour 