Antlers In short, Washington called for 20 intentional walks in 2008 that "bombed," meaning, not only did the strategy not worked, it led to a gigantic inning for the opponent. In 2007, Wash's free passes turned into 11 bombs. These are very high numbers.
Then in 2009, Wash's intentional walks went 44 to 14 and just three bombs. In 2010, Wash was responsible for zero (0) bombs. Meaning, none of his intentional walks turned into bad innings.
There are several things at play. For one, the bullpen's gotten better since 2007 and you have to account for luck.
Also, Wash is smarter. He often makes dumb decisions, but he's probably wiser when it comes to pitching to one guy or not regardless of what the stats say.
Posnanski notes that Wash is just ... changing, a rare feat in professional sports, where GMs and managers will keep running a bad play or playing a bad player in order to stand his ground.
Posnanski writes that maybe Wash stuck his hand in the fire enough to know that he shouldn't.
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A book needs to be written about GM Jon Daniels' construction of the 2010 Texas Rangers, from the minors to the Majors. Chapter 6 would be about he and his scouts' ability to get foreign talent.
The Rangers inked 18-year-old Dutch prospect Nick Urbanus yesterday. He's a middle infielder.
They also signed veteran Japanese pitcher Yoshinori Tateyama. He's almost 35 and will compete for a bullpen job. A sidearmer, he's getting favorable comparisions to Darren O'Day. According to Kevin Goldstein, Tateyama has incredible command with a good curve and change up.
With Frank Francisco returning, the bullpen is getting much-needed reinforcements.
