Anderson Tejeda is too young to be Texas Rangers’ shortstop. Is Elvis Andrus too old?
The NFL season is upon us, several outlets are reporting, so I thought it would be a good idea to open an account at the FanDuel Sportsbook.
A little research would have helped.
It turns out that people in Texas can’t make wagers on the site. Texans can, as long as they are in a state where sports wagering is allowed.
Fortunately for me, sports gambling is legal in Colorado, where I have plenty of people who can serve as my proxy. My dear sister made a single bet on my behalf, a bet I’m certain to win.
I’ll give her a cut.
Believe it or not, it’s still baseball season. The Texas Rangers played game No. 46 of 60 on Sunday, and they played pretty well.
Here’s some Rangers Reaction from a 6-3 victory over the Oakland A’s.
Outlook cloudy
The Sunday morning Zoom calls with manager Chris Woodward and Elvis Andrus became an extended discussion about the future of shortstop.
One thing became clear: Barring an change of direction, Anderson Tejeda will not be the Opening Day shortstop.
Less clear is if it will be Andrus.
Andrus expects to be healthy and ready to hit again after he undergoes a procedure on his back in which he will receive injections for a facet joint sprain in his back. If it goes well, he won’t have the pain and stiffness that plagued him, especially defensively, this season.
But there’s nothing wrong with his hearing, and that could serve him well as he heads into the off-season and the 2021 season.
“I know a lot of people are making a lot of comments about getting old and all of that, and I wish it was getting old why I’m moving like that but it’s not,” Andrus said. “It’s more serious than that. Everyone is free to speak their minds. I’m just going to prove everyone wrong once I fix this.”
For those who watched closely, Andrus appeared to fix his swing between coming off the injured list earlier this month and going back on it Saturday. He hit all three of his home runs, including his longest Friday night.
He and the hitting coaches discovered something that was missing from his swing, and the change took hold immediately. He will take that with him into the off-season.
“For that reason, I’m finishing this year in a really positive way,” Andrus said. “Especially offensively because I knew that little adjustment, it was hard for me to find during the season and I was able to get it at the end.”
There are two more years left on his contract worth $14.25 million apiece and a $15 million club option for 2023 that automatically vests with 550 plate appearances in 2022.
It’s Andrus’ goal to stay with the Rangers through his contract and beyond if he wants to continue playing. He turned 32 in August.
“If I get my body 100 percent, I’m there,” he said. “I have no limitations in my mind that I can still be a productive player. I know there is a lot left in my tank and I am not done. I know a lot of people want to see me go away but not yet. Believe me, I know what type of player I am and what I can do. I’m focused on getting myself 100 percent and free of pain and ready to go next year.”
Tejeda started at shortstop Sunday after recovering from a stomach bug and went 1 for 4. He didn’t do anything spectacular, and he didn’t do anything terrible.
Woodward wants to see Tejeda as much as possible the rest of the season, which is down to 13 games. But Woodward has seen enough to know that Tejeda needs more time in the minors.
Tejeda missed most of 2019 at High A Down East because of a shoulder injury that required surgery. The Rangers added him to the 40-man roster last off-season to avoid exposing him to the Rule 5 draft, and he participated in his first big-league spring training and the three-week summer camp before the season.
“Right now we are going to see what we’ve got, but I don’t expect it to be as consistent as what Elvis could bring on a daily basis,” Woodward said. “There is a lot he needs to learn, and right now is a golden opportunity for him to learn a lot of those things.
“If he comes in ready and Elvis isn’t healthy, he may be a guy we can count on. Potentially count on. But I want to make sure he is crystal clear what our expectations are for a major-league shortstop and the consistency that comes with that.”
Lynn ... again
About those two Lance Lynn starts a couple weeks when he allowed a combined 10 runs (nine earned), they were an aberration.
Oh, they happened. But they don’t fit with the rest of his 2020 ledger.
If we’re being honest, the start against the Los Angeles Dodgers, in which Lynn allowed four runs (three earned), wasn’t bad. It rated as a quality start, and the Rangers were losing only 4-3 when he exited.
Lynn made his 11th start of the season Sunday, allowing one run in seven innings and striking out 10. He allowed one hit in the first inning, when the A’s scored their run against him, and didn’t allow another until the seventh.
Lynn allowed two runs or fewer for the ninth time, and improved to 2-0 with a 2.02 ERA and 25 strikeouts in three starts against the A’s.
“When you look at it, I’ve had one really bad one in Houston and the rest of them have been not terrible,” he said. “The way I see it is when I’m out there we win more games than we lose, and that’s all I care about.”
At 6-2 with a 2.40 ERA and the league lead in innings pitched, Lynn might be the clear front-runner to win the American League Cy Young Award. The problem is that Cleveland Indians right-hander Shane Bieber has been so good that he might finish on the podium in the MVP vote.
That’s probably OK with Lynn, who passed on a late invitation to the All-Star Game last season. He wasn’t going to change his vacation plans.
When the Cy Young his handed out in November, the guess here is that Lynn will work out in the morning, play golf in the afternoon, maybe down a Coors Light or two and not worry where he lands in the balloting.
Sounds like a pretty good day. He has earned it.
Kiner-Falefa’s big play
Lynn’s ERA might not have dropped and his won-loss record might not have improved if not for the third baseman who might be on his way to winning a Gold Glove.
Isiah Kiner-Falefa dived to his left and robbed Jonah Heim of what would have been an RBI single. The score would have been 4-2, and Lynn likely would have been lifted from the game.
Instead, the catch ended the seventh and kept the game at 4-1.
“You look at it, the guy was just trying to make sure to put the barrel on the ball,” Lynn said. “He shot one the other way and Izzy was able to snag it to keep it there. That run was probably going to score, and you’re looking at a 4-2 game with maybe the bullpen coming in. It could have been totally different right there.”
The play set up the Rangers for their two best relievers, Jonathan Hernandez and Rafael Montero, for the final two innings. They each allowed a run, but they had been given some cushion thanks to a two-run homer by Jeff Mathis in the seventh.
Kiner-Falefa is a front-runner for to win the Gold Glove at third, especially with A’s third baseman Matt Chapman out for the rest of the season. Chapman is regarded as the best in the AL and arguably the best in baseball, and he could still win the Gold Glove.
Kiner-Falefa, though, leads all AL third basemen in defensive runs saved and has been making terrific played since the beginning of the season.
“It’s not surprising him making plays like that,” Woodward said.
