2003 Texas Rangers Baseball Graphs Review

If you exclude the months of June and September, the Rangers were a .500 ballclub. They particularly had a nice run in the first half of August. Unfortunately, you don't get to decide which games are counted. It's sort of a rule.

By my reckoning, they were the streakiest team in the major leagues last year (I look at variance of ten-game records against the team average). The Rangers were either good or very bad, depending on when you checked in.

Texas allowed a lot of runs because their pitching and defense were both pretty bad. Pitching, as measured by FIP, was third-worst. And their DER, adjusted for ballpark, was just about as bad as New York's. You can see from the size of the circle that their fielding left a lot to be desired.

On the mound, the problem was in the rotation. Texas' bullpen was actually about league average. In the field, the Rangers appeared to be weak in the outfield. Ryan Christenson was the highest rated outfielder in fielding Win Shares, at 46th (Carl Everett, who spent half the year with the White Sox, was 20th). The GB/FB ratio of the Rangers' staff was about average.

These Rangers were just plain streaky. There were a couple of peaks in runs scored -- particularly late April and May against the AL East and August against the AL Central. The Rangers had their worst record in interleague games (4-14) and against the AL West (24-34).

Their runs allowed record was also streaky; its best stretch was in August against AL Central teams. Thomson and Dickey pitched well, but the real key was the uptick in team DER.

Texas Rangers' Win Shares

Player          Team    Pos     Hit     Field   Pitch   Sum     WS 	
--------	-----	----	----	----	-----	-----	---	
A Rodriguez     TEX     SS      26.08   6.43    0.00    32.51   32	
M Young         TEX     2B      15.92   5.31    0.00    21.23   21	
R Palmeiro      TEX     DH      18.34   0.86    0.00    19.21   19	
H Blalock       TEX     3B      14.17   3.06    0.00    17.23   17	
M Teixeira      TEX     1B      10.93   1.95    0.00    12.88   13	
F Cordero       TEX     P       0.00    0.00    12.36   12.36   12	
C Everett       TEX     OF      10.55   0.99    0.00    11.54   12	
J Thomson       TEX     P       0.00    0.00    11.13   11.13   11	
J Gonzalez      TEX     OF      8.87    0.91    0.00    9.77    10	
R Dickey        TEX     P       0.29    0.00    6.23    6.52    6	
B Shouse        TEX     P       0.00    0.00    5.69    5.69    6	
U Urbina        TEX     P       0.00    0.00    5.61    5.61    6	
E Diaz          TEX     C       0.79    4.07    0.00    4.86    5	
R Mahay         TEX     P       0.00    0.00    4.54    4.54    5	
J Benoit        TEX     P       0.00    0.00    4.54    4.54    5	
K Mench         TEX     OF      4.08    0.38    0.00    4.46    4	
L Nix           TEX     OF      3.15    1.01    0.00    4.16    4	
E Ramirez       TEX     P       0.00    0.00    3.92    3.92    4	
I Valdes        TEX     P       0.00    0.00    3.06    3.06    3	
A Fultz         TEX     P       0.00    0.00    3.04    3.04    3	
S Spencer       TEX     OF      2.07    0.68    0.00    2.75    3	
R Sierra        TEX     OF      1.39    0.15    0.00    1.54    2	
T Greene        TEX     C       0.00    1.44    0.00    1.44    1	
R Christenson   TEX     OF      0.00    1.21    0.00    1.21    1	
C Lewis         TEX     P       0.00    0.00    1.09    1.09    1	
Ro Garcia       TEX     P       0.00    0.00    1.05    1.05    1	
D Glanville     TEX     OF      0.05    0.94    0.00    0.99    1	
D Sadler        TEX     OF      0.00    0.92    0.00    0.92    1	
G Laird         TEX     C       0.45    0.45    0.00    0.90    1	
R Nivar         TEX     OF      0.00    0.66    0.00    0.66    1	
J Jones         TEX     OF      0.34    0.32    0.00    0.66    1	
J Clark         TEX     OF      0.22    0.37    0.00    0.59    1	
M Ramos         TEX     P       0.00    0.00    0.37    0.37    0	
M Thames        TEX     OF      0.00    0.27    0.00    0.27    0	
R Ludwick       TEX     OF      0.00    0.11    0.00    0.11    0	
C Kreuter       TEX     C       0.00    0.09    0.00    0.09    0	
H Perry         TEX     1B      0.00    0.07    0.00    0.07    0	
M Lamb          TEX     DH      0.00    0.02    0.00    0.02    0	
M Callaway      TEX     P       0.00    0.00    0.01    0.01    0	
E Yan           TEX     P       0.00    0.00    0.01    0.01    0	
A Benes         TEX     P       0.00    0.00    0.00    0.00    0	
D Davis         TEX     P       0.00    0.00    0.00    0.00    0	
J Dominguez     TEX     P       0.00    0.00    0.00    0.00    0	
R Drese         TEX     P       0.00    0.00    0.00    0.00    0	
R Ellis         TEX     P       0.00    0.00    0.00    0.00    0	
Re Garcia       TEX     P       0.00    0.00    0.00    0.00    0	
T Mounce        TEX     P       0.00    0.00    0.00    0.00    0	
C Nitkowski     TEX     P       0.00    0.00    0.00    0.00    0	
C Park          TEX     P       0.00    0.00    0.00    0.00    0	
J Powell        TEX     P       0.00    0.00    0.00    0.00    0	
V Santos        TEX     P       0.00    0.00    0.00    0.00    0	
T Van Poppel    TEX     P       0.00    0.00    0.00    0.00    0	

ARod had a horrid May, but he otherwise played like the leading talent he is. Michael Young had a fine year, and one of the Rangers' strengths is that young infield, which represented four of the top five leaders in Win Shares.

On the mound, the Rangers' best pitcher was Francisco Cordero, who had a FIP of -0.17. Brian Shouse also deserves recognition for giving up only one home run in 61 innings.