It's August. We are 4.5 games back in the Wild Card standings. Is that bad?

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: And we're looking up in the Wild Card standings at division rivals the Seattle Seamen and the Los Angles Angels of Anaheim, California, USA, Earth, Milky Way.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Hey, we're only 4.5 GB and it's early August. So, you're saying we have a chance.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: Say what you will about Yu Darvish (you know who you are) but, he is a class act. He took out a full page ad in the Dallas Morning News thanking the Texas Rangers fans and defending himself against his detractors. I sincerely hope he and the Dodgers win the World Series this year (unless the Rangers somehow get there).

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Yu Gone. Your Texas Rangers trade away Yu to the Dodgers for some prospects. Damn.

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: Our ace the last 4 years is gone.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Nothing.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: Here's what John Daniels and the Rangers got in return for a 4 time All-Star, starting pitcher:

Willie Calhoun, AAA, 2B/OF, defensively challenged that can hit.
A.J. Alexy, A-ball, pitcher.
Brendon Davis, A-ball, infielder.

I don't know about you, but it sure looks like that the Dodgers got the better end of this deal.  Which makes me think (and this is just me guessing, and based on no sources) that the Rangers wanted to get something now for Yu because they knew they had ZERO chance of re-signing him in the offseason OR they had not desire to try to re-sign him in the offseason. Otherwise, the trade makes no sense because this is a clear sign from the front office that the season is over, at least to the fans (and this fan for sure) and maybe the clubhouse.

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Adrian Beltre: Mr. Ranger, Mr. 3000

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: Of course the Rangers lost the game.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: It was very cool to watch.  He did it.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: Now only if we could have a pitcher do that well, either in a regular season or a postseason run, much less for a career. Look at the side bar to the right here. It's been a long while since the Rangers had a 20 game winner, for example.

In other news, Lucroy was traded.  He seemed like a good guy in the interviews I saw/listened to but, he never panned out into that dominant, everyday catcher that could hit consistently.  Especially when you have Chirinos who (at least per the eyeball test) handles the staff better and just hits HR's about every 3-5 at bats. I wish Lucroy well.

Now let's hold our breath and see if today is Yu's last day as a Ranger.

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Yu leaving?!?!?!? Say it ain't so.

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: If they (John Daniels) trade him I gotta believe that's a clear sign to the rest of the clubhouse that the front office is throwing in the towel for this season.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: No upside. You never know what you'll get if you just get prospects.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: I'm tired of people saying he's not an ace. Look out that window. There's not too many pitchers with the stuff he has.

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After all of that, your Rangers are 11-13 & 4 GB going into today's game.

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: Is it bad when more than half your starting lineup is hitting below .200? And I know batting average is now considered an antiquated metric but still, too many bats for the Rangers have been quiet.

Odor and Mazara started of strong and have faded.

Please let Beltre get back in the lineup soon.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Matt Bush appears to have settled into the closer role.

Gallo's OPS is OK (see, I look at other stats besides batting average).

Elvis and DeShields have generally been more up than down. And Gomez hit for the cycle last night.

And again, after a scary bad start (especially when trying to close games) they're not out of this thing. Like the old saying goes, you can't win the division in April but, you sure as hell can lose it. And the Rangers survived April.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: If Hamels and Yu pitch anything like the aces they can be then the Rangers will be in this thing.

The Rangers picked up Yankees castoff Kozma off of waivers which may mean Profar's days in Arlington are numbered. Which leads me to this point, if you don't have a place for a prospect to play everyday when you call him up to the big club then don't do it. Trade them for value or leave them in the minors. It's hard enough to play in the show much less when you're not playing everyday, learning a new position and/or playing different positions when you do get a chance to play (all of which apply to Profar).

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Rangers blow early lead, lose to Tribe in opening game 8-5

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: To say Yu could not locate his fastball after the first few innings is an understatement.  And Banny put Yu back out there for the 7th when he was pushing 90 pitches and just didn't have it.

Carlos Gomez getting thrown out trying to steal 2nd early in the game cost the Rangers a run when right after that Nomar had an extra base hit to start the game.

Joey Gallo again was without a hit.  He hit some hard, but no results.

Napoli in his return was 0 fer.

Elvis had a an error, surprise, surprise.

Dyson gave up 3 runs in the top of 9 to allow the Indians to break a 5-5 tie.

It was 5-1 Rangers after 4.  And the Rangers ended up losing 8-5.

Yu had 4 ER's, Bush had 1 ER, and the Rangers' closer Dyson had 3 ER's.  Is that good?  I'll answer that question for everyone.  No.  That's not good.

The new local announcers were sedate.  I cannot believe I'm going to write this but, I miss Buzz and Tag.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Yu started strong (even though he faded late),

Carlos Gomez had a homer and Odor had 2 HR's.  Elvis had a double and and triple.

Nomar looked strong at the plate

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: I saw something I had never seen before.  When Yu went back out for the 7th he had a strikeout, past ball that resulted in the batter safe at 1B and the run scoring from 3B.  Never seen than before.

The umps still suck.  Cargo was safe on that early steal attempt I think and after review they still called him out. BUT, had they called him safe to begin with he would have been safe after review too.  And the ump behind the plate flat out missed some strikes early especially low in the zone that Yu threw.

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Rangers sign Mr. Baseball Colby Lewis to a 1 year deal

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: He's not exactly a spring chicken.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Lewis will eat up innings.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: Apparently Yu's brother is entangled in some type of gambling mess. So far it appears Yu has nothing to do with it.

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Rangers get Cole Hamels.

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: The Rangers gave up A LOT of prospects. And they traded away Matt Harrison. Harrison is and has been a trooper battling a series of back injuries that caused him to go under the knife. And look, Harrison's contract is guaranteed. He could have all but hung it up but has made great strides to get back to pitching in the starting rotation. All the luck to him in the future.

Also, the first name of the guy we got in the trade is Cole. Cole? That's a weird first name, right?

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Maybe your Texas Rangers are not giving up on this season quite just yet. They are 8 GB in the division and 4 GB in the wild card. Maybe the philosophy is make tournament and anything is possible.

And for next year the starting rotation looks strong to very strong (if injured arms get better):
1. Hamels
2. Yu
3. Martin Perez
4. Gallardo
5. Holland/Lewis/Nick Martinez/Chi Chi Gonzalez

Not too shabby.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: in other trade news David Murphy is now an Angel. I hate to see him play for them but always liked him when he was with the Rangers.

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Chi Chi Gonzalez threw a complete game shutout last night

versus the defending AL champion Royals in their own house to help the Rangers to a 4-0 win.

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: April still may be too much for the Rangers to overcome. They say you can't win the division in April but you can lose it. The Rangers are putting that to the test this year.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Your Texas Rangers are now 2nd in the division and 4.5 GB of the startling 'Stros. And .5 GB in the wild card.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: What would their record be if either Holland or Yu were healthy? Oh the what if's.

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Now it's officially official. Yu will have season ending Tommy John surgery next Tuesday

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Yu Darvish is likely out for the season.

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: Yu is likely going to have season ending Tommy John surgery next week.

Oh yeah, Martin Perez and Matt Harrison are still out.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Yu is the ace but he is only one guy that pitches every 5 days. And the Rangers have other arms, like Gallardo, Detwiler, Tepesch, Chi Chi Gonzalez and even Nick Martinez that can try to start to attempt to fill the void Yu leaves in the rotation.

And as for the other big, recent injury this spring training, it's not like Profar contributed a whole lot last year.

I'm just trying to point out it's not quite as bad as it looks and seems maybe. At least not yet.*

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: If I had to put money on a couple Rangers having a breakout year those 2 Rangers would be Leonys Martin and Roghned Odor. Don't ask me why, just a gut feeling and based on the eyeball test watching their progress last year.

*I'm in self denial. Can you blame me? Yeah, it's bad. I just cannot wrap my head around the idea that this year might be as bad as as last year. It's still spring training for gosh dog dog! I should be able to hope the season isn't already over.

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Yu Darvish is thinking of having Tommy John surgery. Nooooo!!!

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: Yup. You read that right. According to ESPN Yu's thinking about it. So now this spring training is starting to feel a lot like last spring training. Great. 

And how many times do you hear players and organizations say they are thinking about a medical procedure so the player can get right physically for the long term and then the player doesn't undergo the procedure?  Seems like almost never. 

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: He's only "thinking about" it so he might not go under the knife, right? Right? 

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: Seriously, how much can one team take when it comes to the dreaded injury bug and bad luck? And how long will it last? Apparently at least two seasons in the Rangers' case.  I blame the Curse of Kolan (Kins and Nolan being let go). 

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Yu Darvish pulled from start today due to tricep tightness

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: You're darn right this worries me, especially given the Rangers' injury woes dating back to last season.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Heard it was just a precautionary measure. So hopefully it's nothing.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: Michael Young is now a special assistant to the GM. Am I crazy but didn't Young have some not so nice things to say about the Rangers' front office back when he was a player? Awkward...

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Just tuned in through 4.5 innings versus the Spankees and...

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: ...the Rangers bats have mustered all of 2 hits (of course zero runs) and Yu has given up 2 solo HRs to Brett Gardner. And sure, why not some more salt in the wound, Jeter's 2 for 2.  So yeah, about par for the course/season at that point in the game. 

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Rangers rallied in the bottom of the 5th and put up 4 runs. Then Yu had a shutdown inning in the top of 6. 4-2 Rangers would be the final score. 

And in the bottom of 9 none other than Neftali Feliz had a 3 up 3 down inning to get his second straight save. It's weird but good seeing Feliz close games. Especially close games successfully. 

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: While watching tonight's game versus the Spankess I started thinking of all the things that have gone wrong for the Rangers this past off season and this season. Sure most of them involve injury but I decided to list them in no particular order off the top of my head. Here you go:

- Nolan "retired" and then is an advisor to the 'Stros owner. Huh, that's weird, retirement usually does not mean working somewhere else, much less for a competitor. 
- Holland injured his knee allegedly by tripping over his dog. "Tripping over his dog," allegedly does not mean playing in a rec league hockey game during the off season. 
- Prince got hurt and missed games for the first time ever in his career. 
- Choo signed a huge contract and then bats more like Elvis than Beltre. 
- Martin Perez has to have Tommy John surgery. 
- Profar got injured. 
- Soto got injured, then got caught with weed, then got injured again. Oh yeah, and Soto was the best option the Rangers had for a starting catcher. 

That's all I can think of right now. Feel free to chime in in the comments if I missed something. 

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Rangers lose 2-1 to Spankees' ground crew's ineptitude and rain

Apparently the Spankees' ground crew had never tried to cover the field with a tarp before trying tonight. And it took them close to half an hour to finally cover the field in a torrential downpour in the Bronx.

Again, the Rangers find another unique, seemingly impossible way to lose a ballgame, with Yu on the mound no less. 

And the Rangers traded away Soria tonight. 

This yet another swift kick to the Rangers' baseball jimmy. And I'm sure there are more kicks to the Rangers' baseball jimmy to come. 

More curse of the Kolan?

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Rangers are 1-0 after the All Star Break, beat BJ's 5-1 last night

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: Choo struggled at the plate again.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: It was weird, timely hitting combined with solid pitching beginning, middle and end equaled a win yesterday night. Beltre continued to be strong to very strong at the plate and he got some help from Arencibia who chipped in with a 3 run homer to break the game open. And Yu was Yu and Soria closed it out in his typical efficient fashion. It's just a shame that Soria hasn't been afforded more save chances. He's just that good.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: During the break reliever Frasor was traded away for a pitching prospect.

Benjie Molina wasn't the 1st base coach last night and TAG wasn't in the booth.

I understand that MLB wanted to honor Jeter during the All Star game. But what about all the other greats that deserve to be recognized. For example, what about honoring the late great Tony Gwynn? Fellow BBA writer Paul Francis Sullivan "Sully" put together an "In Memorium" video honoring the great players that passed away recently, including Tony Gwynn. You can find more from Sully at
http://sullybaseball.wordpress.com, his twitter handle is @SullyBaseball and his podcast is at https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/sully-baseball-daily/id580843151.

There is a rare, weird noon game start time today versus the BJ's.

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Swept by the Halos the Rangers limp into the All-Star Break...

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: ...with the worst record in MLB, on an 8 game losing streak, after getting swept in 2 straight series, having lost 22 of their last 25. Since June 1st they've lost 29 out of 39.  To put it into perspective another slightly different way how fast the fall has been, on the morning of June 8 the Rangers were at .500. Now they're 19 games below .500.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: The Rangers can't lose any games during the break. And Yu and Beltre made the AL All Star team.

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Rangers swept by 'Stros. Is this rock bottom? It's got to be right?

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: Even Yu has caught the bug plaguing the team as he lost to Houston. That bug is what you ask? It's called bad baseball. And the Rangers were swept by Houston in the process of Yu catching the bad baseball bug. I repeat, the Texas Rangers were swept by the Houston Astros. THE. HOUSTON. ASTROS.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: If this is rock bottom then it can only get better right? Yeah, I know, I'm lying to myself. But it makes me feel better. Kinda.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: With all the injuries this season Wash and JD get a pass for this season. At least that's the mantra I keep on hearing.

I blame this year on the curse of Kolan (getting rid of Kins + Nolan).

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Yu saves the series, 8 IP, 12 K's, gets win in getaway game versus Nationals

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: The offense managed only 2 runs on 10 hits.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: That was 1 run more than Yu and Soria needed to get the win and save.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: Next up 3 at home versus Dr. Zaius and the ex-Rangers (Showalter and the O's).

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Yu again 1 out away from a no hitter and some other thoughts about the Rangers/Red Sox tonight

- Red Sox pitcher Buchholz looks like he could have played a character on the show Breaking Bad that may have cooked and/or used crystal meth on said show.

- to answer Jeff, yes we have a player named Odor, but it's not pronounced like the word odor. But yes his base running a did stink, and he stunk on a key defensive play/error late in the game (see below). 

- I don't recall Pierzynski playing (defense or offense) last year for the Rangers as well as he has for the Red Sox.

- Jeff, I agree, Elvis looked unusually great tonight at the plate. Hope this is a trend for him and not an anomaly.

- Prince has looked more comfortable at the plate lately and tonight.

- After Martin hit a homer in the bottom of the 5th I realized how rarely we get to hear the Natural theme music at the ballpark.

- 6 pitches by Yu to get through the top of 6 was strong to very strong.

- Terrible fielding mistake was made in shallow right field by LF Rios and 2B Odor in the top of 7 that broke up the perfect game. I put that error on the veteran Rios for not calling off minor league call-up Odor and making the play. And I cannot help but think that but for that error Yu at least gets the no hitter if not the perfect game, especially considering all the extra pitches the error cost Yu.

- Yu did contribute to a 1 hitter with Ogando getting the last out of the game. And oh yeah, the Rangers won 8-0. 

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