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Texas Rangers Purchase Contract of Sam Freeman

By Jason Burke |

The Texas Rangers have a bullpen ERA of 4.64 which is ranked 24th in baseball, and have given up as many earned runs (60) as Oakland and their terrible bullpen. The only reason Texas’ bullpen is ranked higher than the A’s is because they have accumulated ten more innings (116 1/3), which isn’t necessarily a good thing.

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Luckily some help has arrived, or so we hope. Sam Freeman‘s contract was purchased by the Texas Rangers on Wednesday. In a corresponding move, Stolmy Pimentel was designated for assignment. So just who is Freeman? Glad you asked.

The 27 year old Freeman was drafted by St. Louis in 2008, and was acquired by Texas in late March for cash considerations or a player to be named later. The lefty has totaled 70 1/3 innings in the big leagues, spread out over the last three seasons, while accumulating a 3.33 ERA in that span. Outside of his 2012 stint with the Cardinals, Freeman has totaled 50 1/3 innings and a 2.50 ERA. The southpaw could end up being a solid addition to the bullpen if he sticks around these numbers.

In Round Rock this season Freeman totaled eight innings of work, giving up just five hits and one earned run while striking out a batter per inning on average. One factor that could lead to Freeman having sustained success with the Rangers is ground ball to fly ball ratio of his 1.33 this season. While the sample size is small, the ratio he’s showing in 2015 is similar to his MLB career posting of 1.12. When the weather starts cookin’ in Arlington, the ball tends to fly. It’ll be nice to have a ground ball oriented pitcher coming out of the ‘pen–and a lefty at that!

If, for some reason Freeman doesn’t stick in Texas, there is another option that the Rangers could consider. Jon Edwards, also formerly in the Cardinals’ farm system, has been pitching well in his own right. You may remember the name from earlier in the season when he threw nine pitches for Texas, walking two batters. He was sent back to Round Rock after that early April appearance. With the Express, Edwards has a 1.69 ERA in 10 2/3 innings to go along with 14 strikeouts.

No this is not speaker of the dead John Edward, or former Presidential hopeful John Edwards. Jon is a former outfielder, and a couple of seasons ago when he was picked up by the Rangers, decided to try his hand at pitching after languishing in the minors since ’06, with a brief stint in the Independent League in 2011. Think of Edwards as a reverse Rick Ankiel, or a regular Sean Doolittle.

With the Texas Rangers offense plugging away and the starters providing quality innings on a regular basis, the bullpen has needed some fixing. Hopefully Freeman will be the man for the job. If not, Edwards provides another option for the Rangers to consider.

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