Don't Do It

Rumors swirling about Rangers trade for Roy Halladay. Reportedly the Jays have asked for Holland, Hunter, Smoak, and one more in return. Smoak i can live with because after all he is a prospect with no big league experience, and prospects are like lottery tickets some may win you a couple of bucks but very few hit the big pay off. Hunter and Holland on the other hand are two young pitchers that have gotten real big league experience and shown signs of being solid pieces to a rotation long term. Halladay would only be here for one year, and chances are we would trade him away to a contender before the end of next season. In my opinion, the Rangers would be better off to stay pat with the young hurlers, and should have pursued a veteren bat to add to this line-up.

If you bring in Halladay and give up two guys in your rotation, who fills the spot in the rotation, not just now but you'd have to find three starting pitchers for the rotation by middle of next season.

In short bringing in Roy and losing what we would potentially lose just doesn't make this team stronger, if anything it hurts this team now and long term.

A little help please!!

The Rangers finish the short road trip taking 2 of 3 from K.C., but the big concern will be the health of Millwood. This pitching rotation has been nothing short of remarkable by Rangers standards and losing the ace for any extended period now could hurt the small chance they have of winning the division or sneaking into the wild card. The bats need to get hot and fast with the Tigers coming to town tomorrow, those long slow long ball swings won't do to well with heat the Tigers staff can bring. With the Angels playing the way they are the Rangers can't afford to drop 2 of 3 to Detroit or they might find themselves 5 back by Wed.

Big XII preview updated

updated Big XII SEC blog

A good start

The Rangers dropped the first two out of the all star break, but recovered nicely to win 4 of 6 including a sweep of the Red Sox. Pitching was the key to the homestand, but it still worries me how much this team needs the long ball. The Angels aren't giving the boys any chance to make up room at the moment, KC seemed to just keep giving games away. Rangers head to KC tomorrow and try to keep the mojo going, as they are 3 back from the Angels and 2.5 back of the Red Sox in the wild card race. The pitching continues to be the bright spot on this team, and well honestly that's just never been the case and i'm still not sure i trust this staff. David Murphy continues to swing the hottest bat in the line-up and should remain in the everyday rotation. Red Sox nation is reeling a bit as they have dropped 5 in a row and fallen 2 games back of the evil empire.

Time to seperate the men from the boys

Now that the ASG is behind us, we look to the second half of the season. The Rangers had a great first half in relation to what was expected of this team, but it's a long season and the question is do they have any staying power. If this ball club can get to 90 wins i'd say they had a great year, playoffs or not. What needs to happen for the Rangers to have a chance, the pitching will need to at least repeat the first half ( not easy to do for this staff ), same goes for the defense, but the single most important key to the second half i believe is that the bats don't go MIA for an extended period of time again. Kinsler needs to become a true lead-off hitter and get on base, and the free swingers have got to find a way to put balls in play. Would enjoy nothing more than to watch this team play meaningful baseball for the rest of the season.

All Star game, does anyone care?

I for one do not care about the ASG, and never really have. Sure you get the most popular ( not necessarily the ones having all star years ) players in the league in one stadium for one night playing an almost meaningless baseball game. The process of selecting the teams is a joke, with the exception of the managers picks, for the most part it's about the popular teams and biggest fan bases.

BUT, i'll probably watch parts of it because well there aren't any other sports on to compete with it.

What's your opinion of the ASG, obviously mine is it is a big waste of time.

Hamilton in, Davis out

When the Rangers get to the big "A" tonight, Josh Hamilton (the all-star???) is back and Chris Davis has been sent down to AAA. That leaves this club with six outfielders on the roster. I'm not sure why Borbon is on the roster, because he's not getting AB's or time in the field, and now that Hamilton is back i don't see that changing. Byrd and Murphy are swinging the hottest bats for the Rangers and my guess is Murphy will be designated to playing on days that righties are pitching. I think we are stunting the future of a player like Borbon, at the moment there just isn't a lot of room or situations to get him in the game.

If Chris Davis is going to remain a Ranger long term he has got to shorten his swing, and Hamilton needs to show some signs of last seasons greatness. Ham needs to show that last year wasn't a fluke at the plate, he's a great comeback story but has no business being in the all-star game.

Are we the next Expos?

Star-telegram reports rumors this morning that the Hicks group took out a $15 million dollar loan to make payroll this week. Speculation of late has been that the Rangers are in financial trouble ( Hicks group defaulted on a $525 million loan ) and the possibility looms that MLB could potentially take over operations of the team. John Daniels confirmed in the article that the Rangers will not take on anymore contracts through trades, and that any improvements will have to come from within.

So, what could this mean, well if you remember the Expos were the best farm team in baseball and their best players every season were usually traded away to the highest bidders. Timing could not be worse, the Rangers are in a position to make a real run at playoff baseball this season, but i feel there is still a hole or two that needs to be filled. If MLB takes over this team we would risk losing some of the players that make this team fun to watch. In short, tough times are ahead for this franchise if a buyer doesn't surface quickly.

Fireworks Flying

The long ball returned to the Ballpark last night as the Rangers set off the fireworks 5 times in a 9-5 win. The rubber game tonight features two of the best pitchers in the A.L. with Weaver and Millwood. A win tonight could put the confidence back in this team that has been missing, they've continued to say all the right things of late, but their body language has looked like a beaten down team.

Let us assume that June is as bad as it can get for this team, and if so, surviving last month only 1.5 back of first this could still be the best season this franchise has had since the last playoff run. As a long time Ranger fan i long for meaningfull baseball in August and September, one can only take so much Cowboys pre-season chatter on all the airwaves.