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!
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Monday, April 4, 2011
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!!
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!!
Saturday, April 2, 2011
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!!
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!!
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