Former Ranger Alex Rodriguez Facing Possible Lifetime Suspension!?!?

The NY Daily News is reporting that if ARod/AFraud doesn't strike a deal with MLB, Selig would seek to essentially ban him for life.  The deal being offered to Rodriguez by MLB would suspend him for the rest of this year and next year, WITHOUT PAY.  But, allow him to collect on his current contract from 2015-2017.  If there's no deal, apparently Selig is going to go for the jugular.

Wow.  And I bet Braun thought his punishment was harsh.  And for your Rangers, when is the hammer going to drop on Nellie?

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It's Tough to Win Games When You Score Zero Runs

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: The Rangers were shut out by the Tribe in back to back ballgames yesterday and today.  And it looks like the Rangers will be trailing the A's by 6 games after today.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Can't think of anything right now that makes me hopeful about the team right now.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: Maybe instead of adding an arm they should have added an outfield bat.

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Rangers' Offense Continues to Struggle

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: The All Star break has come and gone and the Rangers will trail the A's by 3 or 4 games in the division (depending on whether the A's beat the Halos in a late game) going into the weekend.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: The Rangers are only 3 or 4 games back!  Are you kidding me?  Had you told me that the Rangers would...
1. be without Colby Lewis all season to this point
2. have Pierzynski, Berkman, Ogando and Yu spend time on the DL
3. have Murph and Elvis batting under .250
4. have an offense that just generally looks mediocre at best
5. and have Kins continue to look like he's trying to figure out what this base running thing is all about...

...I would have expected the Rangers to be behind in the division by double digits at this point.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: The Rangers play the A's plenty of times the rest of the way.  And I really think Elvis and Murph will bat better down the stretch.  And now they've added Matt Garza to the starting rotation (and he looked pretty good in first start in a Rangers' uniform), so yeah, I'm still pretty excited to watch this thing.

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Who Are Those Guys?*

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: By those guys, I'm talking about the A's.  They won't go away, they're 8-2 in their last 10 played.  The Rangers lead is down to 1.5 games in the division.

Only 1 every day player (Beltre) is batting over .300.  Is that bad?

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Speaking of Beltre, after some early season struggles he's been on fire, taking an early sub .250 BA and raising it 50 points.  Not too shabby.

And hey, even with very, very average hitting the Rangers are still leading this thing.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: *of course that question is from the great movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, when they're being chased by some guys that they just cannot shake.  Sound familiar?  Hopefully this season will end better for the Rangers than the movie did for Butch and and the Kid.

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Is It Time to Panic?

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: The Rangers have lost 3 in a row, including the last game where Yu had 14 strikeouts and 0 BB's.  There are only 27 outs in a ballgame for gosh dog dog!

Offense continues to be mediocre.  The Rangers' pitching staff is going to need the offense to score more than 3 or 4 runs every once in a while.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Sure they've lost 3 straight but it is very cool to see Elvis and Beltre still have fun during the games.  Sure Beltre looks angry after Elvis touches his head but he'll crack a smile right after trying to kick Elvis and then throwing his glove at him:

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: Don't look now but the A's are only 3 games back going into tonight's action.

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Bad Call In Last Night's Win Versus Merman Demonstrates Why Replay Needed In MLB

Here's the terrible call, albeit in the Rangers favor, on a double play ball when the Rangers were on defense. Watch closely.  Moreland is on 1B waiting for the throw but for some reason Grimm steps in front of him and intercepts the throw.  And Grimm of course isn't on 1B so no double play right?  Wrong.  The ump thinks Moreland caught it:

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: Hate to win a game when a terrible of call like that is involved.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: But it wasn't a 1 run game or anything.  The Rangers offense woke up, as it's prone to do every 3-5 games, and put up 9 runs in support of Grimm's start.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: Are the powers that be (Selig) really going to say replay isn't needed in MLB?  Really?

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Rangers Win Series Versus DET, Then Lose 2 Out of 3 Versus A's

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: Rangers managed only 5 runs in the 3 game series versus the A's.  The Rangers' offense still looks bad with flashes of being good every 3-5 games.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: The Rangers avoided the sweep versus the A's behind a good start by 30 year old Ross Wolf, making only his 3rd big league appearance.

And that's a trend for the Rangers this year, Tepesch, Grimm and now Wolf have stepped up and given the Rangers some quality starts.

And after all that the Rangers are still up on the A's 5.5 games.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: In the DET series in the Yu versus Verlander game with the Rangers well up Wash left Yu well past 100 pitches (130?).  Why?  Made no sense at all no matter the explanations given by Wash.

Next up the Mermen.

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Rangers, Ogando Win Getaway Game Versus A's, Ogando on DL

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: Ogando is on the DL.  Crap, he looked great his last few times out.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: If that's how Ogando looks injured hopefully he'll be even better when he comes off the DL.  Ogando took a no hitter into the 6th, not too shabby.   Nellie hit his 10th homer of the year putting him 1 behind the league leaders.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: Next up DET, Yu vs. Verlander.

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Beltre, Moreland Homer in 10th to Beat A's 6-5

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud:  Doogie the Dutch Oven Holland wasn't bad but he wasn't as good as he had been his last few starts giving up 4 ER's.  Joe Nathan look shaky to say the least in the bottom of 10, he walked 3 (1 BB was intentional) and gave up a run, before getting the save with the bases loaded.  A border line call that went against Nathan with 1 out looked like it really got to him.  And then guess what?  After that the ump behind the plate didn't give Nathan any close calls.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Moreland is, dare I say it, on a tear.  He had 2 homers, one of which was in the top of 10.  He homered the game before.  And Beltre had just hit a solo shot earlier in the 10th.  That gave the Rangers a 6-4 lead going into the bottom of 10.

And for one of the seemingly few times this year the bats picked up the pitching staff, giving some decent run support

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: Extra innings plus it being a west coast game is tough for Rangers' fans here in Texas, turns into a late night.

I think the pitching staff misses having A.J. Pierzynski behind the plate.

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Rangers Aren't Going to Win Many Games When They Score 1 Run

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: They lost to the A's.  Again, the league seems to be figuring out Grimm, as evidenced last night.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining:  Murph's average inched up again.  Moreland went yard again, accounting for the sole Rangers' run.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: Holland has been great lately, he's given up only 1 run and 1 walk in his last 2 starts.  Let's see if Holland can pitch like he has been tonight.  A complete game shutout would be nice.

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