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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I'm a little late with this but in case you were under a rock, Profar will likely miss the season

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: Yup. Just like clockwork, before a single game, even a spring training game, a Ranger (Profar) is likely out for the season (see Holland last year).

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: At least JD extended out the MVP of the Rangers Adrian Beltre through 2016. Please, please, please don't let him get hurt.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: Profar now reminds me of another DFW sports figure that everyone claims is great but we have yet to see him perform to his supposed potential due to injury. That other DFW sports figure is one Sean Lee, linebacker for the Dallas Cowboys. Ask anyone a few years back and they would tell you that Sean Lee was an elite, can't miss talent. Which maybe is true and maybe it's not. But does it really matter if he's always hurt. Injured means he doesn't play. If he cannot play then by definition he is not great. I can just see them randomly running into each other, "Mr. Profar, Mr Lee is ahead of you in the waiting room waiting to see the doctor."

At any rate, Profar should be back for the 2016 season. 2016! Man I wish they had traded him when he was a can't miss prospect and the Rangers could have received a MLB proven #2 or 3 starting rotation guy. Oh well, it's easy to Monday-morning quarterback all that now I guess.

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Guess how many Texas Rangers' deals are mentioned in Grantland's article re the worst current MLB contracts?

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: Spoiler alert,  it's a lot. And this is just current contracts. Chan Ho and ARod's contracts should of course be in the hall of fame of bad MLB contracts.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: At least there's some ex Rangers on the list that the organization dodged some bullets on (see Mark Teixeira, ARod and Josh Hamilton's current deals).

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: Rangers' contracts mentioned in the article, in this order I believe: Elvis, Prince, Shin-Soo Choo and Matt Harrison.

JD has gotten some passes regarding some bad deals he's orchestrated, I think, since he did put together 2 squads that went to back to back World Series. And he should. But for how long? The World Series appearances were in 2010 and 2011. That's starting to seem like a long, long time ago in a Rangers galaxy far, far away. The club doesn't have Nolan or Wash anymore. I gotta wonder, how many more mediocre to bad seasons JD will be allowed before he's looking for a new gig?

Of course one good season will right everything. And then we will be talking about how great JD is again.

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Texas Rangers' pitchers and catchers report Feb. 20 to Surprise AZ

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: Given the incredibly disappointing campaign last year (injuries like no one's ever seen, Wash resigning, 3rd worst record in MLB last year) I'm not sure how optimistic I can be.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Given the incredibly disappointing campaign last year (injuries like no one's ever seen, Wash resigning, 3rd worst record in MLB last year) this year can't be any worse, right?  Right?

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: And the Rangers have a new skipper in Jeff Banister, cannot wait to see what he's all about.  If half the stuff I've heard and read about him is true then he's a baseball guy through and through.  He's proven to be a lifer and loyal to his old organization I think since he's 50 years old and spent 29 years with the Pirates organization.  Sounds a lot like Wash.  I just hope Banister does as well as Wash did managing the team for a couple years there.  Maybe he'll even do a little better.  Who knows?

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It's December, the Cowboys are on the verge of not making the playoffs, so how're the Rangers doing?

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: I swear I heard on the radio that Profar's recovery wasn't going as well as hoped. And I heard that Perez will likely not be ready till the All Star break. Remember when Holland was going to be ready at the All Star break last year? Remember when he wasn't ready until pretty much the last month of the season?

And to boot, no starting pitching has been signed. With Perez out, Harrison with an oft-injured back, Lewis getting older and Holland's inability to use stairs without tripping over his dog and blowing out his knee, I'd say starting pitching is still a concern.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: At least I haven't heard about any Rangers getting hurt this off season. Yay.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: Still need to learn more about the new skipper. That's on the to-do list while we wait out the winter until opening day.

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Jeff Banister is the new manager of your #TexasRangers

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The #KCRoyals are Buck Showalter/Dr. Zaius' Charleton Heston #ALCS

 

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This long, strange, injury-riddled season is FINALLY over

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: This was a waste of a season in so many ways. Beltre had another year of his All-Star career wasted. Holland wasted a year injuring his knee. Every move that JD made seemingly blew up in their faces (see Prince for Kins trade as exhibit "A"). Profar was injured and we don't know what he's really got. There were of course the injuries. And Wash is gone.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: There's always next year. And next year cannot be as bad as this year. It cannot. Right?

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: A lot of young, minor league players got a fair amount of playing time this year. Hopefully that will pay dividends next year.

I will be very interested to see if Wash turns up managing another team next year or on another staff as an assistant. I hope we get more of the full story regarding his resignation.

And again there is always next season and with the way the club ended the season maybe there are actually some reasons to look forward to it.

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Rangers have won 10 out of last 11!?!?!?

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: Again, too little way too late.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Maybe just maybe this is a preview of next season. It's not like they have been beating bad teams. Again, for the most part the teams the Rangers have been beating have been playing for playoff position or to make the playoffs. 

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: Given his extended job interview over this past month and how the team has performed since he has been at the helm interim manager Bogar may have just won himself the job for next year. 

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Rangers won a season high 7th in a row

Is it any coincidence that shortly after Wash resigned the Rangers go on a season high 7 game winning steak versus teams with something to play for?

Is it as easy as the following equation?

No Wash = No Drama = Winning

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