To Scooter, With Love

Of Scott Feldman, From 29 November, 2012:

"Just as it’s been for nearly the entire duration of his career, there just seemed to be a sheer hopelessness surrounding him every time he touched the ball. The defense behind him looked lackadaisical and disinterested, and perhaps that played some minor role in why his predicted ERA (reflected by his xFIP and SIERA) were so much lower than his actual ERA was. Scott Feldman was the bad luck loser on one of the most promising, most talented, most underachieving teams the Rangers have ever fielded.So it came as no real shock after the season that the Rangers brass decided to pass on his $9.25M option in favor of exercising his exceptionally cheap $600K buyout.I’m not going to lie, I’ve never particularly cared for Scott Feldman. I’ve always perceived him as something of an outcast, and when we’re talking about projectable pitching moving forward, yeah, there’s just not a whole lot of confidence I can draw from Feldman. I’m happy he got a solid contract from a National League team that’s not expected to compete for another year. It looks like the perfect place for him to start anew, to maybe recapture some of that old 2009 magic, and make a few Rangers fans reconsider what exactly they’ve been missing from him all along."

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Of Scott Feldman, from 6 May, 2013:

vs. TEX — 7.0 IP, 0 runs, 2 hits, 1 walk, 3 strike outs.

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– After outscoring the best team in baseball 16-4 over the weekend in route to securing a series sweep, throwing up a clunker performance against the last place team in the National League Central isn’t exactly what Ron Washington drew up on his proverbial drawing board. The offense collected 2 runs on 5 hits, the defense committed 2 errors, and the pitching staff surrendered 9 runs on 11 hits and what I can only assume is a season-high in walks (7). Meh.

Though, Monday was originally scheduled to be an off day for the Rangers, so at least they treated it as such.

– If you asked me before the game who I thought would win, of course I’d have said the Rangers. Because it’s the Cubs. It’s Scott Feldman. But after a few innings, even through the prism of a television screen, you could tell Texas just didn’t have it. Nick Tepesch was erratic, the offense wasn’t stringing anything together, and what is it about Chicago that just seems to impose shitty weather every goddamn time we’re there?

Essentially, it comes down to motivation. As I mentioned above, the Rangers were coming off a sweep against a team that won 20 of their first 28 games in 2013 — you could witness for yourself the passion exuding from our players. They wanted to win.

Tonight, they weren’t that team.

We can expect a sharp bounce back this week, as our next 5 games are versus the Brewers (14-16) and Astros (8-24). So woo-hoo go Rangers and all that jive.