After the below weird/scary(/distrubing?) ramblings from Texas Rangers' play-by-play announcer Dave Barnett it's being reported that he's going to undergo some testing and will be out the next few games.
Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: Everyone calm down about a sweep, the 'Stros are 11.5 out it in the NL Central, ahead of only the hopeless Cubbies. And Josh is still out with that stomach bug.
Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Rangers sweep Houston, like they should have.
And if there was any question, Cobra Lewis is the ace of the staff. Yeah, Yu's been great but, Cobra is mowing down hitters, and hardly walking anyone.
Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: When is Mitch Moreland going to get a chance to be the every day first baseman?
I'm thinking I'm done with inter-league play. It's been nice but, I'd rather have more divisional games. Of course there's no way MLB will do away with a cash-cow like inter-league play. Of course I'm assuming it's a cash-cow, I wonder if inter-league games really drive up gate receipts anymore...
Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: Scooter Feldman just cannot seem to put together a good game much less a good inning this year. He's 0-6 with and ERA north of 6. When the Rangers could really use a spot starter to come through, Scooter just hasn't delivered.
And Josh is in the hospital with an intestinal virus (that sound unpleasant to say the least) getting fluids through an IV. Same thing that put Doogie Holland on the DL? Don't know.
Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Still up 3 games on the Halos even though the pitching and offense has been inconsistent.
Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: The thing about Scooter's performance that really hurts is two-fold: (1) on the one side Scooter could have played himself into the rotation (at least for a while) especially with Ogando, Feliz and Holland out and Oswalt not ready yet but, his play has made that all but impossible; (2) and if Scooter had played well and when Feliz, Holland, Ogando and Oswalt are ready to pitch, Scooter would have been great trade bait to offer a team near the trade deadline. Oh well.
Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: Errors. Way too many errors. And way to many runners left on base, which is very unusual to date for this incarnation of the Rangers.
Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Matt Harrison looked great through 4 innings (perfect I think) and they hung on to win the last game of the series.
Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: After all of that your Rangers are still up 4.5 on the second place Halos. Now the dog days of summer are about to begin. The Rangers will play in games during the day in the mid to high 90's and the low 90's to at best the high 80's at night. But, our Rangers are used to that kinda heat right? What about the new guys like Nathan and Yu? We'll see.
Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: Two errors hurt, especially the one committed by the usually reliable Beltre which cost the Rangers a 3rd out that would have gotten Scooter Feldman out of a bases loaded jam. Rangers gave up 6 earned runs in the game, 10 total runs, compared to getting only 3 of their own runs across. Ogando looked shaky at best in relief. The Rangers are getting into the habit of making the Seamen look a lot better than their W/L record would indicate.
Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Josh went yard. Scooter Feldman will get a lot of criticism for the loss but, look at his line, 4.1 IP, 2 ER, 3 K's, 3 BB's. Not a great K/BB ratio but, not as bad the score would indicate. Just saying, it wasn't all Scooter's fault.
Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: Halos are only 5.5 games behind your defending AL champion Texas Rangers.
Rangers sign Oswalt. This causes multiple questions to pop up:
When will Oz be ready to start?
What happens to Feliz when he's healthy?
Feliz back to the bullpen?
Is Feliz more seriously injured than the Rangers are letting on?
Tommy John surgery for Feliz?
Will Robbie Ross have to wear the pink backpack again?
Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: Like I worried about in my last post it appears the Rangers are human after all. Remember everyone was falling over themselves proclaiming how good they are? Now they're 4-6 in their last 10. Josh is below .400. Feliz is injured and Scooter Feldman was knocked out today with a grand slam by the powerhouse Mariners (last part meant to be sarcastic, the Seemen are anything but an offensive juggernaut). And Napoli is in a huge slump.
Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Beltre is apparently over his injury.
Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: Yu pitched poorly yesterday too. He's human too.
Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: Not too much, if anything, to b!tch about here but, I'll give it a try:
Holland and Harrison have given up more than a few runs in some recent outings.
I'd like to see Mitch Moreland hit for average. It's painful sometimes to watch Young play defense at 1B, 2B and 3B, is it just me or does it seem like his feet are stuck in cement? Of course he is the utility guy and on the wrong side of 30.
Oh yeah, and some a$$hole ump threw Wash out of a ballgame on his 60th birthday. His birthday! That's not right.
Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: JOSH HAMILTON
(the other guys haven't been half bad either)
Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: Tom Verducci and others had better quit trying to jinx the lil' Rangers and stop writing articles saying they're the best team in baseball and/or comparing them to the Yankees of the late 90's and/or saying the Rangers will be good for years to come. Quit it.
Oh yeah, the Rangers lost to an\\KC's old, soft throwing lefty last night whose fast ball tops out in the mid-80's mph at best, managing only 1 run. That'll hopefully keep them humble.
Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: I got nuthin' here really. Rangers managed only 5 hits against Spankee pitching but, the Ranger pitching picked the bats up.
Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Yu continued to improve, he pitched all but one pitch tonight for the shutout against the Spankees. Oh yeah, Joe Nathan came in and threw one pitch to induce the the game ending double play in the 9th to pick up the save. That's very strong to scary strong.
Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: To continue the double-backwards jinx, Josh is now batting exactly .400.
Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: Not much here. Didn't tune in till top of 8 when Rangers hit 3 homers and first seven Rangers batters in that inning reached safely. Heard mention that Young was lifted for David "Charlie" Murphy because of a stiff back, that's not good. Also, it seems that a lot of times huge offensive outputs like this are followed up by anemic performances the next day, we'll see.
Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Offense was very strong to unbelievably strong. 21 hits, 18 runs. Colby Lewis has walked one batter in his first two starts. Is that good?
Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: There was a Vicente Padilla sighting (former Ranger '06-'09) who came in as a reliever for the Red Stockings. I just remember Padilla being a pitcher who either had terrible control at times or would bean a batter for a team just 'cause he felt like it. Used to make for interesting ballgames when he pitched for the Rangers, if someone went yard on him it seemed like clockwork that he would bean the next guy.
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