What doesn't kill you makes you stronger

Failure is life's greatest teacher, and as my mother always said " what doesn't kill you, will make you stronger". Yes, the Rangers blew a golden chance and blame can be spread in many different directions. As fans we tend to overreact to a loss, truth is yesterdays outcome will have no effect on todays. After the embarrassing loss in game three, people wrote this team off as dead. Once again, the world has left the Rangers for dead, and that should free them up to go out and play Ranger baseball. Nothing to lose, everything to gain. According to every major media outlet and most casual Ranger fans, the World Series ended last night. Win or lose tonight, this has been an amazing World Series. Game 6 will go down as one of the greatest games / collapses in World Series history, but the Rangers still control their own destiny, so write your own history tonight boys.

Go Rangers!!!

Texas Rangers and the birth of a new fan

Garrett, my oldest son, has turned into a true little baseball fan. We took him to his first World Series game Saturday vs. the Cardinals, and I couldn't help but think, he has no idea how big a deal this really is. It hit me that the Rangers I grew up watching at his age don't compare to the Rangers he knows. A life-long Rangers fan, I grew up watching season after season of bad baseball, and yet I still loved this team. He is growing up in a world where the Rangers have made it to back to back World Series and not to mention the Dallas Mavericks are current World Champs. Growing up in Longview, going to Ranger games was our annual summer vacation, and Buddy Bell was my hero on the Rangers. Now, as season ticket holders, going to Ranger games for my son is something we do regularly. One thing is the same, every afternoon in the backyard, we take ourselves into the shoes of our favorite players. We grab a glove and pretend to be Buddy Bell, Ian Kinsler, Michael Young, or whoever else we've ever dreamed of being. The ride of the last two seasons for me has been a blast!! To him, it's just the way it should be, Rangers are one of the best teams in baseball. No matter how this series ends, this has been a special season for me, my son has fallen in love with the game of baseball and one more bond that brings us closer has formed.

Let's go Rangers!!!

OUCH!!

Hamilton suffers broken arm in head-first dive at home, out 6-8 weeks. First of all, I liked the aggressive call by the 3rd base coach, and as far as the result, well injuries seem to find Josh. I've been all for Murphy getting more AB's, but I didn't really want it to come at the expense of Hamilton being out for 2 months. Josh will be missed, but this team has plenty of fire power to keep putting up runs. The next 10 games are a good early season test for this club, today will be a bullpen start, and then they head to the Bronz for 3, followed by 3 at home against division foe Angels, and 3 against the fast starting Royals.

Harrison, Holland, and Ogando through 2 starts have been better than anyone could have anticipated, but the next week or two they'll have to be just as solid for the Rangers to win. I look for the boys to go 6-4 over these next 10, and I look for the offense to become more of a factor in the weeks ahead.

go rangers!

Beware of Flying Objects!!!

Rangers start the season with a bang, hitting 11 homeruns in the 3 game sweep of Boston. Kinsler and Cruz become the first teammates to homer in the first three games of a season, and Kinsler also became the first player to ever lead off the first two games of the season with HR's. The brightest spot for me in the series was Matt Harrison's 7 innings, allowing only 1 run.

Sure, it's only 3 games in a 162 game season, but playing in a market like DFW getting off to a great start is important. All of a sudden everyone is a Rangers fan, but that bandwagon probably isn't as strong as the blue and silver one just down the street. Someone told me " you just keep collecting AL West Champ t-shirts, and call me win they win the World Series", and well, as a lifelong Ranger fan I replied, " You're damn right I'm happy with an AL WEST Champ shirt ". Does that mean I don't want a World Series, absolutely not, but for a franchise that's only been to the postseason 4 times in it's 40 seasons in Texas, ( and 0 times in Washington ) winning the West is the road towards someday winning a World Series. Expectations are higher for the Rangers now than ever, but if they don't get back to the World Series it won't be a bad season. However, if they don't win the West and get back to the postseason it will be a big let down.

Enough playoff talk, we did just finish the first series of the season, and now the Mariners come calling. I would think most pitchers would like the chance to pitch for this team now, knowing that if they go out throw strikes, the bats in this line-up more times than not are going to provide run support. On the other hand, opposing pitchers probably won't like the fact that 1-9 in this line-up can hurt you, just ask Lester, Lackey, and Bucholtz, who combined for an ERA north of 10. Bedard vs. Holland tonight @ 7:05 to begin a 3 game series in Arlington, and I expect the Rangers to take 2 0f 3 and get off to a 5-1 start. Hey, you can't win them all!!

GO RANGERS!!

Opening Day !!

A beautiful 90 degree day in Arlington for baseball. For my two oldest sons it was their first opening day, and while they may not have thought much of it, ( although Gman did think it was cool to skip school )I will always have that memory to hold on to. The baseball season is a marathon, but opening day is always one of the most anticipated sports days of the year. It signals Spring is here, and our national pastime is back in the spotlight. For the Rangers, it marks the beginning of possibly the most anticipated season in franchise history. The offseason was dominated by is Cliff signing or not and are the Rangers trading Michael Young, and as it turned out neither happened and to me that's a good thing.

As usual, The Ballpark was in peak shape for her debut and the fans still seem to be riding high from the World Series showing. Two things seemed obvious as the introductions were taking place: the fans and Chuck Morgan showed their love for Michael Young ( his intro. was preceeded by "the all-time Ranger hit leader" ), and secondly, in the eyes of fans, David Murphy deserves more respect than he gets here from management. I've said it once, I still believe it to be true now, even the Yankees realize you don't trade or get rid of your leader. Michael Young is the foundation this team was built around, and while Beltre is a great player, his signing was not necessarily needed.

Now, for the game itself. Julio Bourbon didn't do himself any favors by knocking the ball away from Cruz as he is camped out under a routine fly ball to start the game, and at some point, putting your best team on the field will override protecting Hamilton. If Wash and management are hell-bent on keeping Josh out of CF they should have gone after a proven CF player in the offseason, otherwise Murphy, Hamilton, and Cruz in the OF gives this team the best chance at success. This line-up 1-9 is top 5 in baseball and will keep this team in the chase. The bullpen, although they did cost CJ a win, managed to get the ball to Feliz with a lead, but it was interesting to see that Wash did not go to O'day in the 7th in a tight game. A great start to the season for the Rangers, but I'm really interested in games 3-5, when we get into the unknown part of the pitching staff and when the bullpen might have to be leaned on hard.

GO RANGERS!!

Spring thoughts and A.L. predictions

Following a World Series appearance, the Rangers are now under greater pressure to perform. Baseball, for the first time in DFW, has dominated the sports talk world, even in the offseason. Interest in the Rangers is at an all-time high, this years spring training has been covered more in depth by more people than I can ever recall. Some things never change though, and with that said, pitching is, as always, the number one thing on people's mind heading into this season. Unfortunately, spring training has provided more questions than answers on the pitching forefront. The bullpen looks like a piece of Swiss cheese, mostly holes, with a couple of thin, solid pieces. Lowe, Rhodes, and O'day all have ERA's north of 10, and Feliz could be moving into the rotation. Darren Oliver has the best ERA of the pen crew, but can we really rely on a 40 something to anchor the bullpen? I tend to think. that by mid-May we could be looking at a bullpen of young unproven kids from the minors to carry the bulk of the load, and at this point that seems like a better option.

Now, for my AL predictions. Let's start in the East, I think Baltimore may be the most improved team this year in the AL, but it won't be enough to break through in this division. Boston, if Youk and crew can stay healthy, is my pick to take the East. Tampa Bay is heading back to the basement after pulling a Florida Marlins type unloading in the offseason, and Toronto will probably have another decent year that will land them 4th in the race. The Yankees dominating days I believe are over, this team is getting older, and pitching could be a problem. So, here is what I think:

1. Boston
2. Baltimore
3. NYY
4. Toronto
5. TB

AL Central: Minnesota appears to once again be the class of the central, and KC will probably continue to be the anchor that will remain planted at the bottom. Detroit, will be slightly better than .500, and Ozzie's days in Chicago will come to an end this season. Cleveland has nowhere to go but up, but I don't see them going up very far.

1. Minnesota
2. Detroit
3. Cleveland
4. CWS
5. KC

AL WEST: The Rangers have the support of the metroplex for the first time, but i'm expecting the worst here. They have the best offensive line-up in the West, but as we saw in October, good pitching beats good offense most of the time. Oakland is the SF Giants of the AL West, if this team can find a way to score 4 - 5 runs they will tough to beat. Angels coming off a quiet offseason, will be in the mix and their pitching is much deeper than the Rangers as well. Mariners have two great pieces, Ichiro and King Felix, outside of that I think they will once again struggle to be competitive.

1. Oakland
2. LAA
3. Texas ( unless pitching is added )
4. Mariners

expecting the worst, hoping for the best

Good news from AZ

1. Neftali Feliz says he would like to stay in the bullpen, that is great news.

2. Ogando throws 3 scoreless innings last night with 4 k's.

3. Webb is scheduled to face live hitters on Wednesday in bp.

4. Chris Davis, not sure if this is good news, but he is hitting .435 so far this spring.

Davis is getting plenty of AB's this spring with Beltre being out, and so far is making the most of his plate attempts. Chris has proven he can handle AAA and AA pitching, but has not been able to bring that success to the big club. First base is Morelands to lose, and with the addition of Napali and Young, being positionless, don't see a spot for the Chris Davis experiment to continue.

Ogando's success last night is nice to see, and going into the spring I expected him to have the best shot of a reliever moving in to a rotation spot. Three weeks away from opening day and the Rangers still don't have any real answers for the rotation. C.J., Colby, and then what? Hunter has one big problem, he throws too many pitches. Holland also has similar issues to Hunter, along with the fact that he is very inconsistant. Webb continues to get stronger and if all goes well tomorrow I suspect he will get his first spring training opportunity early next week.

Spring training is right up there with pre-season football, you see lots of young guys getting a shot to play, but have very little realistic chances to make the big club. What we do seem to know is Ian Kinsler will most likely hit lead-off and C.j. Wilson will most likely be the opening day starter. I admit I fell off the Kinsler band wagon a couple of seasons ago when he decided to become a "power" hitter, maybe hitting lead-off will make him more selective at the plate and get him back to hitting the ball to all fields. Wilson, on the other hand, was the biggest surprise last season, and I hope he doesn't pull a Feldman and fall off the map by the all-star break.

Calling all pitchers and catchers!!

Before we dive in to pitchers and catchers, let's discuss Michael Young. I admit, I am a Young fan, and I would like to see him remain a Ranger. He has been the face of this franchise for the last decade. Young has always been under appreciated by the national media, but the lack of respect, shown by Ranger's management, is a joke. Young is no more a liability at 3rd than Beltre, both had 19 errors last season, and both are comparable at the plate. I believe the Beltre signing was a last ditch effort by management to grab a "big" name since the offseason was fairly lack-luster. Trading Young should not be an option, at $16 mil./year the Rangers will still end up paying the bulk of his salary. The better option to me is to trade Ian Kinsler and move Young back to his natural position. This would probably be of greater benefit to the Rangers as well, I feel Kinsler probably would draw more interest trade wise, and I think Young is way more superior at the plate than Kinsler. Even the NY Yankees understand that sometimes you pay and keep your team leader in place, even if his skills are somewhat on the decline.

Pitchers and catchers report tomorrow, and there appear to be a lot more questions than answers concerning this staff. Brandon Webb's health and velocity could be the single most important aspect of spring training. A revamped Webb gives the rotation depth and leaves Feliz out of the running for a starting position. Nefty, in my opinion, needs to stay in the bullpen. Truth is, he is a one pitch pitcher, and until he can develop a couple of more pitches I think his talent will be wasted as a starter. Ogando, on the other hand, has multiple pitches and should be able to move into the rotation if needed. Tommy Hunter and Derek Holland both need to show that they can pitch deep into games on a regular basis. Holland has shown flashes of brilliance, but often times it has been followed by big failure. Another wild card will be Scott Feldman, he is coming off a knee injury, and he needs to find his 2009 form. If Feldman and Webb can both revert back to their best form, this could be one of the deepest staffs in the A.L. I realize the chances of that happening are about as likely as the Rangers playing in a World Series, but hey, it did happen once!

Any more moves coming?

Rangers sign Beltre to a six year deal, making Michael Young the DH. I like both aspects of this move, although I don't necessarily believe Beltre is as far supperior at third as the media makes him out to be. I do however like adding another steady .300 + average to the line-up. Heading into next season the Rangers line-up appears to be stronger than last years, but like I said, that's on paper.

The big question in my mind, and most other baseball nuts, is what is the starting rotation going to look like. The rest of the A.L. West has had a pretty quiet off-season which is a good thing for the Rangers. There is no reason the Rangers shouldn't at a minimum repeat as A.L. West champs, but the question that time will answer is will this team have the pitching to make another World Series push or are we going back to gorilla ball of the 90's teams. I still believe that Daniels will make another big pitching move mid-season to try and tighten up the rotation, but we will have no idea who might be available until around the all-star break.