The Tease That is Rangers Pitcher Derek Holland Continues, Escalates

By Richie Whitt Thu., Jul. 21 2011 at 10:33 AM

Categories: Texas Rangers

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One night he's Sandy Koufax; the next Sandy Duncan. For two starts he's Kate Upton; then last night we get a heaping, hideous dose of Kate Smith.

More? No? Get the picture?

Good.

Because when it comes to Rangers' starter Derek Holland, you never know if you're getting beauty or the beast. After consecutive complete-game shutouts in which he baffled and dominated the lowly A's and Mariners, Wednesday night Holland couldn't hold a five-run lead in a 9-8 loss to the Angels that snapped Texas' 12-game winning streak.

Mostly because he couldn't throw a fastball for a strike, Holland surrendered seven earned runs in 5.1 innings. Reliever Tommy Hunter didn't help at all, but Holland's frustrating performance was another indication that the 24-year-old is on the verge of greatness, but mentally not quite ready to take the next step toward stardom.

It appeared he steadied himself with an scoreless, eight-pitch 5th that consolidated Texas' early offense.

But Holland couldn't get out the 6th inning, one in which the Angels eventually put up six runs to erase an 8-3 deficit. An infield single to Mike Trout was the killer, and Holland can't be totally blamed for that one.

At this point Holland is one big talented tease.

Just when we think he might throw a third straight shutout and channel Charlie Hough, he gives up a season-high runs and we get a Holland that is more, well, an entertaining yet annoying and ultimately unfulfilling Charlie Sheen.

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Baseball, Derek Holland, Mike Maddux, Ron Washington

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He does that every night, after he tucks it and puts on Buffalo Bill's dancetrack.
RW can't tell you his opinion till he hears it from the Musers..you know that! And mine remains the same as it was 2 years ago for Doc..hold up playa. (I was wrong then, thinks I'm right now)
Bravo sir!
In order to be a talented tease you have to have some talent. Richie is more of a heterosexual tease.
"At this point Holland is one big talented tease." Look in the mirror, dude.
clearly RW is a Bob & Dan listener. headline completely stolen from bob sturm's comments 7-20-11.
You can replace "Holland" in your post with the name any one of 80% of the pitchers in MLB. If you think Derek, or any other pitcher, is supposed to be perfect every time out you know less about sports than I thought you did (which wasn't much).
Methinks he's trying to throw hard every pitch since he doesn't have to worry about going the distance. Hunter has a respectable 27.00 ERA in that .2 inning appearance.
I agree. Tom Grieve continues to point out how young Holland is and that he has had far fewer innings in the minors than most starters.
He's so white, but so fast. Was Abreu on 2nd on that one? That missed tag, you just knew it would come back to haunt them.
RIght handed hitting 19 year old Trout has been timed at 3.4 seconds going to first in the minors. There is word that he unofficially ran a 3.3 in spring training and beat out a grounder to the second baseman. Mantle was hand timed at 3.1 running from the left side at one time. Bo Jackson was probably up there also. Hunter could not get anything in the low 80's working last night (one curve, two cutters in the dirt) and wound up feeding the Angel hitters a steady diet of mid nineties fastballs. Three hits and one walk in 2/3 innings to show for it. He had looked a lot better up to last night so maybe the ten days off threw him out of whack. Not real sure why Torrealba was standing so far in front of the plate (right foot on front outside corner of left batter's box) to take Murphy's online throw in the first inning last night. By the time he turned and lunged to make the tag Abreu had slid by safely.
Sorry for the misspelling above. My edit button does not work.
Holland is just 24. Why don't you step out on to that ledge, should he be included in a package to get oh lets say Jimenez? Your supposed to be a sports guy share some opinions instaed of just throwing mindless shit up aganist the wall.
Yeppers, that Trout kid looks pretty fast. Elvis couldn't of played it any better.
Big Game Hunter sucks, Lil E did all he could do on those if hits..ain't gonna go 162-0..another game today at 2:30. Go get em CJ! RW, how's your article on Colby and Kins coming?
Richie, Did you even watch the freakin' game? Dan Haren gave up 7 runs, same number as Holland. Are you also saying that Haren is an inconsistent tease? I think I have this all figured out: The Mavericks are the most underestimated championship team of all time and the Rangers got their AL championship out of pure luck. Or, do you just not understand Baseball?
Trout earned that single though. Elvis got the throw there as quickly as possible, that dude's just got rockets attached to his cleats.
Dutch deserves his share of the blame on this one, but I think most of the blame falls to Wash and Maddux. Tommy should've been ready to go when the first Angel reached base in the 6th...as much as he had already struggled and labored in the game, Holland probably shouldn't have even come out for the 6th. Oh well. 1 of 162. Sucks that Ceej vs. Weaver is during work hours today.
The 6th inning was brutal to watch. His control seemed fine but he kept going for first pitch strikes, and they kept hammering him. If Elvis makes a play on Trout or Collaspo, they probably get out of that inning with a two run lead. That's the way it go. It hard to get out the 6th inning.