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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It just gets worse and worse and worse...

That's 21 losses in the last 24 games. That's also 7 losses in a row. And in this current 4 game series they're on the verge of getting swept by the Halos. And if that happens that'll be back to back sweeps against the Rangers leading into the All-Star break.

Today the offense managed 2 runs on 4 hits.

It's just tough to watch. And it's only the midway point of the season. Damn. 

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Nope. That wasn't rock bottom apparently for the Rangers. How is that even possible you ask?

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: It's possible because one of the few times the Rangers got a decent to good performance from their pitchers (3 runs given up all by Tepesch in 6 IP) the Rangers bats put up a goose egg against the Halos. I've asked before but will ask it again, how many games are you going to win when you score zero runs? Oh, that's right, none.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Pitching was good enough to win.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: That's 20 losses in the last 23 games played and 6 losses in a row. That's almost a month of just bad. I really don't remember a bad run like this since I started following the Rangers in 2000.

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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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The Rangers' pitching isn't just bad, it's the worst in MLB, and I'm not exaggerating, numbers don't lie

As the Rangers seem headed to their second straight loss against the lowly (yet compared to the Rangers, the mighty) 'Stros I made the mistake of checking the Rangers pitching as compared to the rest of MLB. Whoops. And keep in mind there are only 30 teams in MLB. Also per a text from a friend I received earlier tonight the Rangers were sending their 12th different starter to the bump tonight. All that said/written the Rangers' pitching in MLB is:

29th in ERA
30th in quality starts
30th in WHIP
30th in BAA (batting average against)

And those are just the stats I found by barely looking. And since I'm not a baseball masochist I didn't dig deeper into the pitching stats for fear of what other horrors the numbers might reveal.

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From, "it's like a train wreck, but I cannot look away," to "please make it stop, I can't watch anymore," to, "tell me more about this Tour de France thing"

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: If my calculations are correct, going into tonight's game against the 'Stros your Texas Rangers have lost 16 of the last 20 games, and as I write this they're losing to Houston 6-2. Somewhere Nolan is leaning back in a chair smiling.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: I got nothing.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: I'm serious. I'd rather watch guys a continent away ride things we all learned to ride as children than Rangers' baseball. At least before now I had the NBA finals and then USA soccer in the World Cup to distract me. Now? I have another half of a season of terrible baseball to watch.

Might as well call up every prospect that's even close to ready for the Show and see if they got anything.

As a great friend has said loudly and often, the whole training staff needs to be fired.

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I don't know if anyone one is up on current events but we're getting our butts kicked*

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: Macro: if my counting is correct the Rangers have only won 3 games out of the last 14 they've played. Mixed in there is an 8 game losing streak, the longest in a long, long time.

Micro: tonight Joe Saunders continued to not be very good (and that's being nice). And it's not like the offense and defense behind him was any better. How many games are you going to win scoring 1 run on 4 hit with 2 errors? Not many and not this one tonight.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Struggling here recently to find anything positive in this thing. Odor has been OK.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: *borrowed and paraphrased from Aliens.

If Joe Saunders is going to lose or put the team in a position to lose every game he starts why not call up a pitcher to see if they got something? If they lose a game with a call up on the mound will it count as more than 1 loss like Saunders' starts?

With NBA finals and the World Cup now it's been pretty easy to flip away from Rangers games that are quote frankly hard to watch.

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When last we left our heroes....

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: ...your Texas Rangers are riding a 4 game losing streak into the series finale versus the hated Halos. The Rangers are 11.5 GB in the division. Ouch.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: But somehow your Rangers are only 4.5 GB in the wild card standings, albeit looking up at 7 teams ahead of them. Still, there some hope. Some. But it's going to take more winning than losing for a prolonged stretch.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: Still wondering if/when the front office is going to throw in the towel and start trading away big pieces. We will see.

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Rangers ride 3 game losing streak versus CLE into Miami series

Glass Half Empty / Afternoon Cloud: They lost 3 in a row versus CLE. The Cleveland Indians. The almost alway mediocre to bad Tribe, ouch. And now they face a Marlins team that actually has something to play for, they're only .5 GB in their division.

Glass Half Full / Silver Lining: Not much here.

Thoughts / Observations / Sidenotes: The Rangers are 8 GB in the division and 3.5 GB in the wild card standings. I don't know how much longer I can continue to say they still have shot at one of the wild card spots since going into today they're looking up at 7 other teams in the wild card standings.

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