Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Rangers Lose to Halos 15-8

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: That's right 15-8, the Rangers were beat like a drum.  Oz gave up 8 hits and 3 HR's in 5.1 IP.  Not good.


Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Wasted a great Josh (breakout game?) effort, he went 3-4, with one BB and a HR, scoring twice.  Rangers put up 8 runs albeit in a losing effort.


Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: If you would have told me the Rangers would have dropped the claw on the Halos to the tune of 8 runs I would have bet dollars to donuts the Rangers would have come away with a 'W'.  Shows what I know.

Mitch Moreland is back and the Rangers traded for catcher Soto from the Cubs, a former rookie of the year for a minor league pitcher.  But, that's one too many catchers with the big club so sadly that means that apparently catcher Yorvit Torrealba will designated for assignment by the Rangers. If that's true then so long Yorvit and thanks.

Now the Rangers are up 4 on the Halos and A's.  The A's play the Rays on the West Coast so if the A's win tonight the A's will be 3.5 behind the Rangers.  Again, it's a 3 team race in the wild West Division.

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Monday, July 30, 2012

Rangers Avoid Sweep Versus White Sox

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: Rangers only scored 2 runs.  One run on a ground out to the pitcher, the other on an error.  Offense continues to struggle to say the least.


Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Scooter!!!!!  Feldman pitched 8 innings of shutout ball.  Then Joe Nathan closed it out.


Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: Next up 4 vs. the Halos.  Is it still a big series since the Halos are 3rd in the division behind the A's?  Answer: yes, but, this is now a 3 team race.  You gotta check the A's and Halos scores each night when the Rangers aren't playing them.

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Saturday, July 28, 2012

Rangers Lose Again to White Sox; Josh Sits Out

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: It's hard to win when you cannot get a hit with runners in scoring position.


Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Napoli hit a solo homer accounting for the Rangers only run of the ballgame.


Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: Yes, Josh sat out of tonight's ballgame.  And why not, he hasn't exactly been effective at the plate recently.  Besides an arm maybe the Rangers could use a bat.  All the Rangers, for the most part, looked like they are trying to figure stuff out at the plate tonight.  Maybe they need to shake up the batting order.  Why is Gentry batting 9th when he's one of the few Rangers hitting over .300.  I know that some will say that he's hitting so well because he's batting 9th.  Well, let's test out that hypothesis by moving him up in the order.  Just a thought.  


Josh also had an interesting quote before the ballgame tonight apparently:


"The frustrating part is dealing with (the media) and not being able to share everything with you guys," Hamilton said. "When the time is right, you guys will be right in the loop."


So, what can he not share with us?  Is he hurt?  Has he been since June?  What else could it be?

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D'oh! Halos Land Greinke

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: Really?  The Brewers had to deal Greinke to the Halos? Oh, yeah Rangers lost to the White Sox last night.


Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: There are those that think Greinke would not have been a good clubhouse fit in Arlington and that Josh Johnson is the Rangers' real target.


Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: If not Johnson then again, what about Dempster?  The Marlins will likely try to make the Rangers overpay for Johnson.  Or could the Rangers pull off the rarely seen intra-division trade with the Mariners and land King Felix?  With the Halos loading up on some pitching for a playoff run I would think the Rangers would do something.  I guess they don't have to but, if the Rangers don't make a move and end up in a one-off wild card playoff game or (gulp!) don't make the playoffs because both the A's and the Halos overtake them then there are going to be a lot of questions about not making a move.  All that said all the talking heads on TV seem to think a Rangers move is in the making to acquire a front of the rotation pitcher.

Of course, any pitching acquisition may be for naught if the Rangers' bats continue to be anything but consistent.  Let me put it this way, does anyone really think the Rangers have any chance of winning a World Series much less winning a playoff series if Josh Hamilton is hitting .190?  Well, Josh has been doing just that since June 1.

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Thursday, July 26, 2012

Rangers Win Another Series

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: Oh Josh, when will you figure it out?


Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Small ball works, even in Texas, a sacrifice bunt was even spotted last night.  And David "Charlie" Murphy has been nothing but spectacular here recently.  Gentry's hitting over .300 by the way.  Not too bad for for 2 guys that don't get to play everyday.


Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: Josh Johnson or Greinke?  Rangers fans are acting like it's up to the Rangers to decide which hurler they want.  Other teams may want these guys too, like the Dodgers or any other playoff hopeful out there.  Also, why aren't the Rangers talking about maybe trying to land Dempster?

Next up, 3 versus the White Sox.  Sox teams back to back.  Hopefully the Rangers can win 2 out three against these Sox too.  After that?  4 at home versus the dreaded Halos.  That series will go a long way to determining how close of a divisional race we're going to have here in August and September.  Rangers are up 5 games as of today.

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Wednesday, July 25, 2012

That One Hurt Last Night

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: Gentry twice had a runner in scoring position only to pull a Josh Hamilton and swing at the first pitch for a popup out to end the inning.

Kinsler got thrown out in the first inning after being picked off at first and from the looks of it calmly questioning the call.  That's the second time this year I can think of where Kins got quickly thrown out after disputing a call (the other one was after striking out), wonder what he's telling the ump.

Former Ranger, current Red Sox (and notorious for hitting batsman) Vicente Padilla beaned Beltre in the head.  Can't think that Padilla hit Beltre on purpose since he had him down 0-2 with 2 outs when the pitch got away from him.  Still, Padilla has the rep, so will there be retaliation tonight in the rubber match?

Nathan walked 2 in row after getting 2 outs in the 9th and eventually gave up the go ahead run.  He'd only walk 5 all year up to that point.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Josh got a RBI on a weakly hit ground ball (only run of the game for the Rangers)? Martin Perez looked good on the mound.


Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: Rangers are up 4.5 on the Halos.  If this thing gets closer down the stretch, this will be one of those games you look back on and think, "they really could have used a W in that one."


Colby Lewis out for the year.  And he's in a contract year so big payday for him, that's just lousy timing for him.  And he's already gone through Tommy John surgery once I think.  

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Thursday, July 12, 2012

AL Loses All Star Game to NL Again; And AGAIN AL Loses Home Field Advantage in WS

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: This demonstrates again why this arbitrary rule is just that, arbitrary and stupid.  How about have the interleague records each year, AL vs. NL, determine home field in the WS.  Or how about this novel idea, the team with the best record has home field in the WS.  


Also, except for a bloop single by Napoli that should have been an error and Joe Nathan, the 8 Rangers were non-issues in the game.  Besides Verlander, Matty "Harry" Harrison gave up the only additional runs in the game, 3.  And maybe Wash should have pulled Verlander when he loaded the bases in the first and brought in Joe Nathan.


Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Verlander essentially lost the game in the first inning, and how does Wash pull the AL starting pitcher in the the first inning, you let Verlander pitch his way out of trouble right?  At least it wasn't a Rangers pitcher that got rocked like the casbah in the the first inning.  


Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: I generally have felt that the AL is better than the NL for quite a while but, 3 all Star Games in a row and 2 World Series in a row may indicate I've been wrong.  Interleague play records show the AL winning overall each year except 4, and the AL winning each year since 2004 but, those records include scrub AL teams vs. scrub NL teams.  All Star Games and World Series are the best vs. the best.


Oh yeah, the Rangers lead the AL West by 4.  13 games left head to head vs the hated Halos.

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Saturday, July 7, 2012

That's 5 Losses In a Row, When Do We Start to Worry?

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: Pitchers hurt.  Bats cold.  We have sunglasses on, it's night.  We have half a pack of smokes, and a quarter tank of gas and 250 miles to go. Oh yeah, and the Rangers have just lost 5 games in row.  Not good.


Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: How in the f%cking sh!t are your Texas Rangers still 4 games up?  With them all beat up?


Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: I think there are 8 Rangers set to be in the All Star game, think that's a record or something.  Yu is one of them.  Is Matt Harrison? Yup. And I'm going to jinx him, he's more than half way to a twenty game winner, the Rangers haven't one of those in a while.  And I know with all the Moneyball stuff wins for pitchers supposedly doesn't mean much but, I don't care.  A 20 game winner is a symbolic thing then, at least in my book/blog.  And I'd take a twenty game winner, since it's been since 1998 that your Texas Rangers have had one.

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