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To Ron or not to Ron
Ranger manager Ron Washington won’t win the American League Manager of the Year Award, but he deserves consideration after leading them to a second place finish for the second year in a row. Texas has won successively more games in each year under Washington going from 75 wins in 2007 to 79 a year ago and 87 this season. Oddly, there are an amazing number of Ranger fans that haven’t jumped on board the Washington band wagon despite the improvement.
His proponents argue that the team plays hard for him, and they do. Ranger players in general are enthusiastic and play with passion. This year’s team was amazingly resilient. They would suffer a horrible loss one day, and then show up the next as if nothing had happened. A bad performance never seemed to carry over. When Washington took over the team, the Rangers had finished above .500 and out of last place just once this century. With consecutive second place finishes, the team appears to be making progress and going in the right direction under his direction.
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Washington does not get high marks for his game management, even from his supporters. His bullpen moves are at times mystifying, and he lost two September games with late leads this year because he failed to make an obvious defensive substitutions. Statistical estimates generally indicate that a manager’s game strategy really doesn’t make much difference over the course of a season. Fans of the Colorado Rockies who finished the season 22 games over .500 after being 10 games under .500 in early June when they changed managers might beg to differ.
When Washington became manager after the 2006 season, he said he would have a good defensive team. The Rangers’ fielding percentage was seventh in the AL the year before he arrived. Under Washington’s leadership, the Ranger fielding percentage plummeted to last in 2007 and 08, but this year, improved to 12 th with 106 errors. WOW! To his credit, errors didn’t seem to hurt this year’s Ranger team, as they set a new franchise record for fewest unearned runs allowed. The team broke in a remarkable shortstop talent in Elvis Andrus. He made 22 errors, but he and second baseman Ian Kinsler have tremendous range, and this pair makes remarkable plays. Moving forward, there does seem to be building blocks in place for a good defensive team.
He also said he would change the Rangers’ offense to become less dependent on home runs, to walk more and to strike out less. He has basically failed at making any of these come true. The team’s on-base percentage was a dismal .320 this year, down from .338 the year before he arrived and better than just two other A. L. teams. Their strikeout total led the A. L. and set a new franchise record.
He initially looked to be a bad fit for Texas. There was no question after the 2006 season that the Rangers would be working their way back into contention by developing young players, and that the team didn’t expect to compete for post-season play until at least 2009, if not 2010. From the beginning, Washington showed disdain for young players and pushed for veterans. For example, he pushed for the team to obtain Ben Broussard for the 2008 season. Broussard cost the financially strapped Rangers almost $4 million in salary and drove in nine runs before his release. Worse, to make room for him on the 40-man roster, Texas moved Armando Galarraga, who has subsequently won 19 games for Detroit.
That same year, Washington inserted veteran Jason Jennings into the rotation, who never won a game in any of his eight starts before going on the disabled list for the season. When all else failed in 2008 (and “all else” included a fling with Sydney Ponson in the rotation), the team finally began utilizing their young prospects. Scott Feldman wasn’t even on the opening day roster, but he ended the season leading the team in quality starts. Matt Harrison debuted in July and finished with nine wins, equaling team ace Kevin Millwood’s total.
Again this year, Washington found a golden oldie for the rotation. He bumped Feldman out in favor of Kris Benson, who had not pitched in the Majors in two years. Benson appeared in eight games with an 8.48 ERA. In April, the Rangers stumbled out of the gate. They were three games under .500 and 3.5 games out of first place when they arrived in Baltimore for a four-game series on April 24. Feldman got a spot start in that series, won; and the team began to move, taking over first place in the West less than two weeks later. Feldman stayed in the rotation and ended up leading the team in quality starts and wins.
This year’s team failed to score 800 runs for the first time since 1992. This was down from a Major League leading 901 last year. Certainly, there are a number of factors, including injuries to Josh Hamilton, who was just a shadow of the 2008 All-Star that led the league in RBIs, and the departure of Milton Bradley. Washington’s lineups however were a major factor.
First, Ian Kinsler started 111 games batting lead off and was a disaster. Kinsler became enamored with the idea of becoming a 30-30 man – hitting 30 home runs and having 30 stolen bases. After a spectacular 10 games to start the season, Kinsler was terrible. His upper cut swing became more pronounced as the season progressed, and he took aim at improving his home run total. His fly ball/ground ball ratio was the worst among all Major Leaguers. He rarely walked and hit .235 after those first 10 games. He finished the season with a .327 on-base-percentage, disgraceful for a leadoff batter. Washington didn’t have many other leadoff options until Julio Borbon arrived in August, but the Kinsler leadoff situation was so bad and quite obvious by the end of May, Washington needed to make a change, just to try something different.
Another lineup hole was Andruw Jones, who led the team with 56 starts as the cleanup hitter. Washington contended he wanted Jones’s experience in the batting order spot and continued to utilize him there, even when he didn’t produce. Jones finished the season hitting .214 after a good April (11-32, with six of the hits being home runs). To get to .214 overall, Jones hit .179 and drove in two runs in the crunch time of September and October. He hit .171 with six RBIs after July 31. He hit .190 after the All-Star break with 14 RBIs. Meanwhile, All-Star outfielder Nelson Cruz led the team in home runs, but batted sixth or seventh in more than half his starts.
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The other situation that hurt the Rangers offense was first baseman Chris Davis. Davis came up in July of 2008 and surprised the team by hitting .285 with 17 home runs. This year however, it quickly became obvious this year that Davis had regressed. He hit .200 with 34 strikeouts in April. He struck out 43 more times in May to grab the league lead, and drove his average down to .189. It was obvious to all but Ron Washington that Davis, for his own well being, needed to step back to the minor leagues to find success at the plate. Washington insisted that he stay. When he was finally sent to AAA in July, even Davis seemed relieved. He was hitting .202 and leading the league with 114 strikeouts.
With Kinsler and Davis being huge holes in the batting order, the Rangers set a team record for lowest monthly batting average in June. Texas finished the month 11-15, and slipped out of first place in the West.
Davis actually got turned around fairly quickly at Oklahoma City and should have been back in the Majors much sooner than August 25, when he next appeared for the Rangers. After returning, Davis hit .293 with six home runs and 26 RBIs.
August 31 found the Rangers still in the race for the playoffs. They trailed the Angels in the West by 5.5 games and Boston in the Wild Card by four. They finished the year at 15-17 to take themselves out of contention. Washington seemed to wilt under the playoff pressure. His batting orders seemed even more illogical than usual, and he often looked confused during games. There is now a question if he is the right person to manage a contending team.
Legend has it that the Rangers were ready to fire Washington in late May last year. Team President Nolan Ryan was needed to finalize the move, but he became distracted when his son-in-law was seriously injured in an automobile accident. The Rangers won a couple of games while Ryan was unavailable, and the team decided to back off. Ryan did step in to make changes. Washington was told to utilize young players such as Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Brandon Boggs, summoned from AAA. Veteran Adam Melhuse was released. Ben Broussard was benched, and ultimately released. In short, the front office forced Washington to play young players, effectively dictating how he was to manage the team.
This continued last winter when the pitching, bullpen and bench coaches were fired. The bench coach was Washington’s buddy Art Howe. Ryan, not Washington picked the replacements. Washington was effectively stripped of much of his authority.
The likelihood is that Washington returns for 2010, despite the disappointing finish this season. Ryan seems comfortable moving forward with Washington managing with greatly reduced authority. Ryan said in his post-season wrap-up press conference that he was pleased with Washington’s performance. There is of course a question as to whether Ryan will return with the team ownership in flux. There are supposedly three leading offers for the team, and it has been speculated that only one of them wants to retain Ryan in his present capacity. However, it seems unlikely that the sale will be finalized soon enough to make changes for 2010, so Ron Washington’s supporters feel comfortable that he will be back.
By: Richard W. Humphrey
MLBcenter.com Texas Rangers Correspondent
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