Johnny Oates never threw a pitch. Not one.
You would think that would have absolved him of any blame for the mess the Texas Rangers have gotten themselves into.
But the numbers that mattered here -- the numbers that turned Oates into the ex-manager of the Rangers on Friday -- aren't 6.72 (this team's major-league-worst team ERA) or 7.42 (this starting rotation's composite ERA).
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Worst team ERAs, one season
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Team
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ERA
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2001 Rangers
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6.72*
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1930 Phillies
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6.70
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1996 Tigers
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6.38
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1936 Browns
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6.24
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1929 Phillies
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6.13
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1936 A's
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6.08
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1939 Browns
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6.01
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1999 Rockies
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6.01
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1937 Browns
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6.00
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1938 Browns
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5.80
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1939 A's
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5.79
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1995 Twins
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5.76
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1994 Twins
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5.68
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1996 Rockies
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5.59
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1928 Phillies
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5.56
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2000 Rangers
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5.52
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* through Thursday |
No, the numbers that mattered were 267.5 million. Which is the number of dollars owner Tom Hicks guaranteed to his gleaming crop of free agents this winter, headed by $252-million poster boy Alex Rodriguez.
Tom Hicks plays to win. Period. And he didn't draw $267.5 million out of his money-market account to be 11 games out of first on May 4. So this wasn't about baseball. It was about business.
And Johnny Oates understood that. He also understood exactly what Hicks was thinking when he told Dallas Morning News columnist Tim Cowlishaw this week that he wanted to meet with Oates on Friday morning, and that "I'll be very interested in what Johnny has to say for what's happened."
Hicks went on to say: "We should play better than we've been playing. And I think we will. If we don't, the manager is one of the factors you eventually have to look at in why that's not happening."
The easy translation is that Oates wasn't going to be fired right this minute. But he was going to be fired one of these days if the pitching didn't get better. And what chance was there that this pitching staff was going to get better?
Let's remember that last year, this staff gave up more runs (974) than all but one American League team since 1939. And over the winter, the biggest thing that happened to it was losing its closer, John Wetteland.
Since then, the replacement closer, Tim Crabtree, has gotten hurt. Ace Rick Helling has gone 1-5 with an 8.01 ERA. And those were the two most important pitchers on the roster.
So what you have here is a team that has given up six runs or more in 16 of its last 17 games. Which is ugly.
What you have here is a team that had one of the worst pitching seasons of modern times last year and has actually seen its ERA go up more than a run (from 5.52 last year to 6.72 this year) in a year when everyone else's ERA was going down.
What you have here is a team that has given up 101 runs more than the Red Sox (192-91) just in the first five weeks of the season. For that matter, the Rangers have given up 32 more runs than the next-worst team in baseball, the Royals. At that clip, they would allow almost 200 more runs than any other staff in either league.
Yeah, it's a nightmare pitching in their ballpark. But the Rangers lead the world in road ERA at 7.50. The next-closest team is the Mets, at 6.38.
The ERA of the Texas rotation (7.42) is almost a run and a half worse than the next-worst team (the Giants, at 5.95).
So even though the offense is first in the American League in runs scored, home runs and slugging percentage, it's tough to win when the only group on earth scoring more runs than you is your opponents.
It wasn't Johnny Oates' idea to stock up on bats this winter and leave the sport's worst pitching staff to pray for a miracle. It wasn't even GM Doug Melvin's idea.
But they were going to get blamed for it. So Oates jumped off the ship Friday before the iceberg won.
Now Melvin, one of the sharpest GMs in the business, has to spend the next five months trying to make Tom Hicks understand that in baseball, it's that 6.72 number that has more to do with where you finish in the standings than that 267.5-million number.
Jayson Stark is a Senior Writer at ESPN.com.
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