The Surprise, Surprise: Rangers Option Top Prospects To Minors

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By: Jared Sandler

The Leadoff

Bold prediction: Martin Perez wins 17+ games for the Rangers.

Quotes of the Day

Here's Jeff Banister on his six young prospects who were either optioned to Round Rock (Joey Gallo, Nomar Mazara, and Jurickson Profar) or assigned to Minor League camp (Drew Robinson, Lewis Brinson, and Ryan Cordell) earlier today.

Covering the Bases

*The Rangers, as noted above, optioned Joey Gallo, Nomar Mazara, and Jurickson Profar to Round Rock and also assigned Drew Robinson, Lewis Brinson, and Ryan Cordell to Minor League camp. What's the difference in terminology? More technicality, than anything, but you have to "option" guys on your 40-man roster.

*They also optioned pitchers Alex Claudio and Anthony Ranuado to Round Rock and assigned pitcher Francisco Mendoza to minor league camp.

*Nomar Mazara, who exited yesterday's game with a bruised right big toe, had a hole drilled in that toe to relieve the swelling.

*Luke Jackson said his half-mound session yesterday went well. He's expected to throw off the full-mound tomorrow.

*Ike Davis (sprained right knee) has been hitting in the cages and taking ground balls, but has not been cleared to run the bases yet.

Game Notes RANGERS 6 Rockies 9

On the Bump

*Martin Perez looked fine, presumably tiring near the end of of 4.1 IP outing. He committed an error and didn't have stellar defense behind him, but got ground balls and kept his velocity into the fifth. One area of improvement entering this year for Perez is handling his emotions and bouncing back from a bad bounce or an error or some piece of minor adversity better. After Rougned Odor was unable to make the play a ground ball ruled a single, Perez committed an error of his own and gave up three straight singles. Too tough to know whether he got worn down or if he let stuff get to him.

Here are his thoughts:

*Jeremy Guthrie took over in the sixth with an opportunity to make a strong impression with other candidates' recent struggles, but he fell victim to the apparent 5th starter curse, too. After retiring the first two batters, he gave up a base hit and then back-to-back HR. Guthrie allowed 29 HR last year, tied for the 6th most in MLB and tied for the most in the AL.

At the Dish

*From a general sense, Rangers hitters were impressive with their approach today, attacking the opposite field. That's a great sign, especially for guys like Rougned Odor (hoping to avoid a slow start) and Ian Desmond (trying to bounce back after poor year).

*Rougned Odor went 2-for-3 with 2 RBI. One of his hits went the other way and was hit well. The other hit was a missile double to right field. He's getting ready to break out. I promise you.

*Ryan "Babe" Rua continues to hit. He also went 2-for-3 with a single and a double. He's now hitting .457 (16-for-35) this month with 6 doubles.

In the Field

*Ian Desmond collected his first OF assist, throwing out Nolan Arenado at home by multiple steps with a great throw. He also did a great job cutting a ball off in thre gap in the fifth inning and not only preventing a single from becoming a double, but momentarily keeping a run off the board, too.

*Hanser Alberto started today's game at 1B and was tested two batters in when he scooped a throw from Rougned Odor after the 2B made a tremendous snag.

Minor League Game

*Sam Dyson and Jake Diekman both threw today versus British Columbia's Langley Blaze. Dyson threw 2 scoreless innings with 5 strikeouts and a hit batter. Diekman threw 2 scoreless innings with 3 strikeouts, allowing a walk and a hit.

*Tony Barnette threw for Round Rock vs. the Tacoma Mariners (Triple-A) to get work back-to-back days and gave up 1 hit and 2 walks without surrendering a run while striking out 2 batters in 0.2 innings.

Bracketology

Sweet 16

Ryan Rua over Anthony Ranaudo (playoff)
Mitch Moreland over Colby Lewis (playoff)
Ryan Cordell over Pedro Ciriaco
Tony Barnette over Jurickson Profar

The Walkoff

Jeff Banister discussed the possibility of having a group of guys out of his bullpen capable of throwing multiple innings instead of having a true long reliever. These pitchers would not exclusively be multi-inning guys, obviously, but they'll have that in their bag of tricks.

A long reliever's primary role is to eat innings when the starting pitcher is unable to go deep into a game. Down 7-0? No sense in wasting one or two of your top relievers. Instead, teams will use their long guy to go multiple innings and if he's able to put up goose eggs on the scoreboard, all the better.

The risk of going without a long reliever is when you get in to that very jam. Down more than a handful of runs and time to go the bullpen. You want Dyson and Diekman and Kela available when you're in a more competitive game that next night, right? The Rangers have a ton of great bullpen arms so without a long man, you can't avoid using one of them, but you have to avoid using three or more.

Banister suggested that guys like Tom Wilhelmsen, Tony Barnette, Andrew Faulkner, Sam Dyson, and Jake Diekman would certainly be candidates to go multiple inning when the situation calls for it. He also suggested that a guy like Keone Kela probably would not be in that category, presumably because of the arm troubles he had last year combined with his young age (23 on April 16).

The Rangers haven't committed to going without a true long reliever and even if they do out the gate, that doesn't mean the bullpen construction will remain that way all year. My guess is that Cesar Ramos, a guy vying for the rotation, might still be a candidate for rotation but also for the bullpen. I'd also guess that young arms like Chi Chi Gonzalez and Nick Martinez would continue starting in Triple-A rather than garner consideration as a Major League long reliever.

Regardless of how it works out, a bullpen sans a long reliever is one of many against-the-grain ideas Banister has considered or put into practice. I'm an unabashed Jeff Banister fan and that's not because anyone is paying me to say or type that particular sentiment. Why do I like him? He doesn't do things because it has always been done that way nor is he constricted by traditional strategy. It might not always work out, but I like guys constantly scratching and clawing, thinking outside-the-box.

Change is good, right?

Until tomorrow, Peace Be the Journey

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