The Other 31

(Tebowing as I write this)
 

I’m not sure if any of you know this or not but there is a phenomenon going on this season in the National Football League.

You have three quarterbacks on pace to break Dan Marino’s record for most passing in a season.  You have one quarterback that hasn’t lost a game in over a calendar year and some rookie QB’s who are having phenomenal seasons.  You have some teams who have performed well below expectations, coaches that have been fired before the 17^th week and one team that is so winless all because they lost one player to a neck injury. 

Yet if you watch any programming on Sports Center, you would hardly know any of this.  And if they do talk NFL, don’t blink because you might miss news on the rest of the league.  The reason can be summed up in two words: Tim Tebow.

Ever since former Denver Broncos’ Quarterback Kyle Orton was benched and Brady Quinn was passed over to give the 4^th string quarterback a chance the Broncos have been on a role.  It had been bumpy at times with Tebow at the helm but they have won nonetheless.  I can’t slight the kid for making the most of his chance as any of us would want.  What I do have the problem with however is the incessant love fest he gets and the vitriolic responses anyone who dares call his skills into question receives.

Leading the charge has been the Glenn Beck of ESPN, Skip Bayless.  For whatever reason, this idiot has been on the bandwagon from the beginning.  He claims that if Tebow had been the starter, they would probably be undefeated.  I counter that with the fact that if the defense had been playing like they are playing now, Kyle Orton would still be in Denver and Tebow would be hoping a team would give him a shot next season.  Bayless also claims that Tebow has been the spark of the team but what I believe he and others like Woody Paige and the like are really doing is turning more people against Tebow than they know; teammates included. 

A few weeks ago following a hard fought win against the San Diego Chargers, Tebow drove the team down the field where Matt Prater kicked the game winning field goal.  The game wasn’t pretty, as most haven’t been, but they still got the win.  And as the announcers, commentators and writers were heaping praise on the Tebow Train, a few players were quick to slow down the momentum.  Running back Willis McGahee, among others recognized the defenses efforts basically saying that if the other side of the ball wasn’t playing to the level they had been, there was no way they would stay in games, let alone beat anyone.  And I agree. 

You cannot stink up the field completing 25 percent of your passes for 3^1/3 quarters and then all of a sudden think you will win in the last two minutes of a game every week.  I’m sorry but it’s not sustainable.  Critics of critics of Tebow may point to his touchdowns versus low turnovers and claim the guy takes care of the ball and the fourth quarter comebacks.  It is true that he doesn’t throw interceptions, but you also have to remember, he doesn’t throw the damn ball either.  He’s had only two 200+ yard games this year.  He’s not asked to do a lot in terms of torching defenses other than with his legs or by confusion by utilizing the read option, which like the Wild Cat, will get exposed and destroyed.  As far as the comebacks, you have to be losing in order to have a comeback right?  Then isn’t his play they have to come from behind in the first place?  That’s another check mark for the defense.

People also have to take into consideration the teams they have played.  Their division alone is full of underachievers, one of which was Denver at the beginning of the season.  Going outside of the division doesn’t fare any better.  Vikings-Terrible.  Bears-no Cutler or Forte.  Jets-Mark Sanchez.  These teams are awful yet Tebow is treated like he is the second coming of Joe Montana, and he didn’t even get this kind of pub.

I contend that if Tebow had to face a real team that had players on both sides of the ball, he’d be in trouble.  I want to see Broncos-Steelers, Broncos-Ravens or Broncos-49ers.  If he can perform against the teams that will actually put it on him and make him have to really play quarterback, then I may give the guy some credit, but until then whatever.

What I like is for ESPN to remember there are 31 other teams out there with great story lines and great match-ups week to week.  There are other guys in the league that are having historic seasons and they are getting left in the wake of the non-story that is Tim Tebow. I’d like to see less Bayless and More Merril Hoge and I'd like to get through an episode—make that a half hour of First Take without a mention of Tim Tebow.

But that’s wishful thinking.

It is so, Joe

 [Note: This blog was posted prior to the recent developments resulting in the firing of University President Graham Spanier and Coach Joe Paterno]

As a young man, I had always viewed sports as a release—an escape from the doldrums of life if only for a few hours. 

Earlier this year I had blogged about the impact sports has on healing through tragedy such as with the Gabby Giffords’ shooting in Arizona or the way the sports world came together after the devastating tornadoes that ravaged both Missouri and a year ago in Alabama.  It’s in moments like those when an athlete comes down off of his/her perch and remembers that they are people too and that single action causes children to begin their idolization and finally understand what their fathers saw in men they did not know personally in their youth, but felt a kinship with them because they became human. 

But what do you do when your escape from reality becomes a living nightmare?  Where do you run to and who do you look to after that?  Those are just a few of the questions facing one Joseph Vincent Paterno and the Penn State Nittany Lions.

Joe Paterno or “Joe Pa” has been in coaching at Penn State longer than I have been breathing.  In actuality, he’s been there longer than my mom, dad and 10 of their siblings as well.  The man is Penn State.  He has constructed a power base at that institution that would rival only Bear Bryant and Barry Switzer if they were still coaching Alabama and Oklahoma respectively.  He has built his and his program’s reputation through honesty, integrity and trust from the moment he became head coach.

Nearly every athlete that has come through his program loves the man.  I can’t recall an unkind word that has been uttered against him.  Conversely, the words and phrases that usually follow any mention of his name are “iconic,” “legendary,” “does it the right way” and “moral authority.”

Of course that was all before there were no more fingers to be shoved in the Penn State dyke and the water came running through the city before the villagers knew what hit them.  No one knew except the principals that had walked away from the dam to ensure they reached higher ground minutes before because they knew what was about to come.  Only the water reached their feet and it still hasn’t stopped.

School president Graham Spanier is expected to be fired soon; A.D. Tim Curley and vice president Gary Schultz have been charged with failing to notify authorities of child abuse in the confines of Happy Valley and receivers coach Mike McQueery is more than likely to have coached his last game ever within the coming days all because these people who have been around the man that defines Penn State; the man that is integrity, that is an icon and is worshipped like no other in the state of Pennsylvania decided to forgo some semblance of good judgment and report serial rapist, Jerry Sandusky, to someone outside of the university.

As they sat on their hands, this monster masquerading as a defensive coordinator and community outreach volunteer was able to assault victim after victim at will.  In my opinion they are all complicit as they allowed Sandusky to use the athletic facilities as a romper room for after hours activities with prepubescent teens even after they were informed of the initial incident in 1998.  Yes 1998, as in 13 years ago.  He retired the next year and was given emeritus status upon his departure where he would use his access to molest more boys.

And as if this couldn’t get any worse, Paterno and Curley knew.  Of course it’s all semantics about what questions they asked after they found out whatever minimal details they wished to hear; the bottom line is they knew and did nothing.  They didn’t contact the victims or their parents; they didn’t contact the attorney general or the state police either.  They didn’t run Sandusky’s ass out of town because they simply didn’t care.

They cared about Penn State, the public relations hit the school would take in the media and the legacy of Jo Pa.  That’s all they cared about.  And they kept passing the buck and what we got 13 years later is a room full of folks that at the least should be charged with obstruction of justice and one that needs to go to prison for the rest of his life.

Joe Pa could have settled this long ago and would have still came out on top had he lived up to the moral code we’ve come to expect from him and what he expects from his players.  Allegedly he and Sandusky were friends so I don’t see why he couldn’t have asked one simple question: Did you have an inappropriate sexual relationship with a minor in my athletic facility?  It didn’t matter the answer because the next step would have been to alert the proper authorities and when he got around to it, inform the A.D., campus police and the president of what was about to happen.  Whether Sandusky was innocent or guilty would have been left up to jurors and would have freed Joe and the university from wrongdoing immediately.

No one else would have been molested, Sandusky would have been stopped and the athletic program would have been spared the firestorm it is receiving now because at that point it would have been one man versus 9 victims.  Because of everyone’s incompetence it now has become the leadership structure versus 9 victims.

And now their willful ignorance will come at a price and it should.  I don’t think Joe should be allowed to finish the year.  McQueery should not be allowed to finish the year.  Any person who had any knowledge of any of these incidents should not be allowed on the Penn State campus and that included the venerable coach Joe Paterno.  You cannot sit idly by while a man preys on children and you are more concerned about the virtue of the institution than the virtue of a child.  The most precious thing in the world is a child’s innocence and Paterno, McQueery, Spanier, Schultz and others might as well have been sitting right in the room while Sandusky defiled these kids.  There is no way as a student athlete and possibly a student that I would want to be associated with a school that conducts its business much like the Catholic Church.

It’s time that everyone involved did the right thing and got out of the way in order to let the healing process begin.  And that includes Coach Joe Paterno.

If he is all the things we think and have said he is, then immediately stepping down should be his next step so he can at least regain some of his and Penn State’s dignity.

Am I Missing Something?

Okay.  The Red Sox and the Braves are out of the playoffs.

Gone.  Done.  Kaput. 

There should be no more talk about them and the way they basically crawled to the end of the season with no sense of urgency or care in the world.  The teams that actually did something, including our Texas Rangers, are barely getting press for doing what they were supposed to do—finish strong.

I don’t understand how the Rangers have barely gotten a sniff from the national media.  This is the best season in franchise history, they thoroughly dominated their division and they literally remained in first place throughout the season.  When the going got tough, they got tougher.  When their main guys in their lineup went out, other stepped up and they kept winning.  They had the longest winning streak in the Majors this year, had all five starting pitchers record at least 13 wins, yet they were still on average the 5^th story at best on SportsCenter.

And just when I think everything will settle into place after the dust has settled and folks have realized the Rangers have home field and open the first game of the playoffs, now the trendy topic is that spare Joe Maddon.  I’m sorry but am I missing something here?  Of course the Rays had a great comeback story in the way they persevered and garnered a playoff spot, but anyone could have done the same if they were going up against the tragic story that was the Red Sox.  It is no miracle.  The Yankees put a bunch of scrubs on the field and the Rays took advantage.  Let’s not confuse luck with great managing as some of the talking heads are apt to do.  This game alone does not a Manager of the Year make. 

What the Rangers did all season garners awards.  What Ron Roenicke and Kurt Gibson accomplished in Milwaukee and Arizona, respectively, should be considered for awards.  What I am hearing about Maddon is, quite simply, maddening.  To think the guy should get the MOY for being there makes about as much sense as Ron Washington not winning it last year.  What’s even more insane is that Wash’s name is barely even brought up in the conversation.  People are so fixated on whatever it is they think Nolan Ryan does and they figure once he sprinkles some Ryan dust on the team, they go out and perform at a high level.

What people fail to realize is Wash has this team where they are because they believe in him and they play the game the way he wants them to play it to the T.  He is a quiet unassuming leader that detaches his ego and allows his players to take the spotlight.  He doesn’t stand behind the podium and wax poetic about how smart he is or how many books he reads.  He is a baseball man through and through and the fact that you don’t see him should be proof enough for anyone that has a ballot to cast for the best manager.

In the coming weeks, we’ll see who the voters select and we’ll get a better idea of how they voted.  Until then, let’s hope we get a chance to see our team finally get a little recognition, especially if they do better than they did last year.

Fan Mail

It’ been a while since I’ve gone through the emails and responded to your questions, but to be frank, I just haven’t given a damn.  The Rangers are on a roll, sometimes good however more recently bad, the Cowboys are about to kick off the regular season under new leadership but the same old crappy management and the NBA is still locked out. 

I could really care if the latter really comes back but it would give me another sport to complain about and more athletes to criticize.  But I digress.  Fantasy leagues are back in full swing and the college football season is about to take off.  And with the exception of the Miami Hurricanes, this season should be one to remember.

So without further ado, lemme reach into the ol’ grab bag and see what intelligent questions we got.

-What do you think the Dallas Cowboys chances are this season?  They appear to have a tough schedule with the Jets in week 1, the Pats in week 6 and the rest of the East that seemed to improve while the ‘Boys sat idle.

Milt Thomas, Pantego

They have a chance…a chance to be awful.  They also have a chance to be good but I put that right there with a snowman completing a marathon in Hell.  Look I have said this all along; I am not a big believer in the so-called Red Headed Savior, Jason Garrett.  He comes off to me as another cookie cutter, wannabe coach that, much like Josh McDaniels, wants to be the guy they used to work for and we see how that worked out for McDaniels and the Broncos and the mess they are working with now. 

Garrett wants so bad to be Jimmy Johnson that it makes me wonder why Jerry didn’t ask him to come back to coach.  These days, the Bill Parcells types of coaches don’t last long.  Players tune them out too fast because who are you going to really get rid of—your franchise player or some coach the entire team has stopped listening too regardless of their “toughness.” The Cowboys lack the talent and the front office intelligence the team needs to be successful again.  And it’s going to be a while before they are relevant again—that while being when Jones is in a nursing home or in the ground.

-I read your post on the controversy surrounding Tim Tebow and Kyle Orton and I think the only reason you pick on him is because everyone else is piling on.  He’s a fine young man and should be given the opportunity lead the franchise because he deserves it, not to mention he was a 1^st rounder.

Carlos Sepulveda, Plano

Look, I think I’m a decent guy but that doesn’t mean I should just walk in and run a Fortune 500 company just because the boss’ friend likes me.  That is the equivalent of the Tebow situation in Denver.  Yes he was a first rounder, but in the eyes of an imbecile.  An imbecile that ran out Jay Cutler and Brandon Marshall and then turned around and got rid of the Mike Alstott 2.0 in Peyton Hillis all because he thought he was going to spark a revolution or something in Denver.  I don’t hate Tebow; I just think he is unprepared to be a quarterback at the NFL level.  I don’t have to have played or watch incessant amounts of film to know when a guy has horrible mechanics.  Just because a guy throws one great pass doesn’t mean he should be the starter.  Just because one gives great speeches in college and motivates the team doesn’t mean that will translate to the NFL.  These guys have accomplished their goal and most will make ridiculous amounts of money so having a guy yelling at them up and down the sidelines doesn’t work like it did in college.

If you want to win, and I mean the team and not the fans, you play either Orton or Brady Quinn.  If you want to mount up concussions and lose your football team, you go with Tebow.  Fans aren’t in the locker room after a loss; players are.  Fans don’t take devastating hits for three hours; players do.  Fans don’t work out relentlessly to get better at their craft and earn multi-million dollar contract; players do.  Tebow may be good down the line, but I wouldn’t risk screwing my franchise any more than it already has been.

-Do you think the NBA lockout will go into the regular season and possibly cancel games or do you see this getting resolved relatively quickly?

Trent Broyles, Fort Worth

The short answer is I really could care less.  I am so out on the NBA it is ridiculous.  David Stern has turned the league into glorified streetball where the slightest touch earns star players trips to the free throw line.  The referees have too much power and the same teams suck and have no incentive to get better.  I think the best thing going is if the players do go overseas and get stuck in some of those contracts they cannot get out of because to be honest I’d rather watch the WNBA than the pre-planned WWE-styled garbage we see run out there between November and June.

-The Rangers’ pitching staff has fallen off a cliff making it hard for me to keep watching these games.  I’m afraid the team is going to be in second place after the Angels series and done by the last week of the season.  Should I still have hope?
-Phil Tanner, Waco

Hell yeah you should still have hope!  This is what late season baseball is all about.  Every game means something now and there is no time for complacency from anyone on the team.  We are still in first and just like the Angels this could be the series that galvanizes the team again.  I think when the series is over; the Rangers will be up by four games.  The problem is what they do after the series.  Do they stay hot or do they fall back into a funk against the Rays and Red Sox?  Who knows?  But I’d rather be in a tight race than in no race at all.  What they need is for Sept. 1^st to come as quickly as possible so they can get Beltre and Blanco back on the field and Quintanilla can go away and Young can go back to DHing.

   -The Cowboys will lose this year not because of the offensive line or the defense or even coaching.  They will lose because Tony [Romo] is the worst quarterback in the history of the franchise.  You can take that to the bank.

-Starry Lanley, Las Colinas

Again with this?  How in the hell do you keep getting emails in?  I thought I had you blocked.  Even though the Cowboys will be terrible this year it will not be from the QB position.  It will be coaching.  How can a guy that has presided over the offense the last four years all-of-a-sudden be the franchise savior?  It’s akin to asking the fox too watch the hen house because he knows the neighborhood.  When the Cowboys were good offensively, it was because of Garrett.  But when they were bad, and they have been terrible, it has also been under Garrett.  He has made questionable calls and substitutions dating back to when he snaked Wade and took over as head turd.  And as much as I hated the fact that Owens was brought here, he was a weapon and Garrett’s ego couldn’t make it work either.  His play calling is mediocre at best and had Jerry not given him this job or had let other teams really get a chance at him, who would have really had an interest in his services?  No one.

And you can take that to the bank!

-I saw where former Tennessee basketball coach Bruce Pearl claims the NCAA was making an example of him by placing a show-cause penalty on him until 2013.  Did the NCAA go far enough and will this deter others who abuse the rules?
-Jerry Reynolds, Saginaw

I don’t think it went far enough, but it is a good start.  The only way the NCAA cleans up college athletics is by establishing clear, concise, concrete rules across the board and enforcing them to the letter regardless of the institution.  Pearl can still be hired by a school to evaluate talent but cannot contact recruits or actually coach.  As a matter of fact, teams can be penalized for hiring Pearl and any of his former assistants before their bans expire. 

I have said for the longest that coaches should be punished for their transgressions.  Pearl, Jim Tressel, Lane Kiffin and others should have to deal with the consequences of their actions and just not the institution.  I like Randy Shannon, but if the University of Miami should receive the death penalty, Shannon and even Larry Coker should get an equal if not greater fine or penalty.  Every school should be on notice that deviant behavior will not be tolerated and the NCAA should be allowed to become involved with either terminating coaches contracts or “encouraging” them to leave should coaches cross the line.  They are the leaders of men and should be held to higher standards and it’s time they were dealt with accordingly. 

Denver, We Have A Problem!

The city of Denver has a problem.  It’s not the fact that city is a mile high or the team sucks.  It’s not the new head coach, John Fox or the old-new face of the franchise, John Elway.  It’s not he heat wave that has spared no corner of the country but it is the heat that has been brought on the team by the previous administration.

When wunderkind, and I use the term loosely, Josh McDaniels was brought on as head coach two years ago, Owner Pat Bowlen made the mistake in giving a 14 year-old boy autonomy in making all the personnel moves.  For some inexplicable reason, some of which had to do with the fact that he had coached under Bill Belichick, this allowed Bowlen to give McDaniels carte blanche over a once great franchise that had in essence become the Dallas Cowboys.

McDaniels then proceeded to remove players that would pose threats, whether they be real or fake, such as Jay Cutler, Peyton Hillis and Brandon Marshall and replaced them with players of less than stellar athleticism and tamable demeanors.  He traded for Kyle Orton, drafted Demaryius Thomas and Tim Tebow in the first round and then proceeded to go 8-8 on the season after talking a lot of trash with no substantial reason to give the fans to back his rhetoric up.  He was finally fired near the end of 2010 season leaving the next two coaches to deal with the mess he created.

And that mess was Tim Tebow.

Many pundits, fans and critics have declared Tebow as the best player college football has ever seen.  He’s won two National Championships; he’s honest, handsome, religious and is what many consider to be all that’s right with college athletes and possibly pro athletes if he makes it.  He was a fan favorite while at Florida and is a role model many want their kids to emulate.  He is also polarizing in a way not seen by an athlete in recent memory.

A few days ago, ESPN analyst Merril Hoge said that after watching hours of film on Tebow, he was no more suited to start quarterback than he was when he came out of Florida.  He went on to say his throwing motion is the same as last year, which is terrible, and his accuracy is just as bad.  He basically said what a lot of people not on television have been saying and was crucified for it.  Athletes like LeBron James and Rich Gannon, to name a few, came to Tebow’s rescue helping make the mole hill that was honest analysis into a mountain of “hater-ade” that Hoge was allegedly showering the all wise one with.  But he wasn’t.

Hoge, like a lot of us have realized what Tebow cannot: he is not a quarterback.  He wasn’t a quarterback in college.  He was a tight end that occasionally threw bubble screens to Percy Harvin who then turned 2-yard comebacks into 65-yard touchdown runs.  He was a guy that threw 40+ yard bombs to Luis Murphy against the likes of defensively challenged Vanderbilt teams.  He rallied his team during halftime when needed and yes he was a leader, but linebackers are leaders.  Running backs and wide receivers are leaders and sometimes they either have to switch positions or don’t make the league altogether because of their lack of skills or because their skills do not translate to the pro game. 

And that’s where I see Tebow.  His accomplishments, while there many, doesn’t mean they will translate to the NFL.  For some reason, ass kissers like John Gruden go out of their way to patronize Tebow but will scrutinize the hell out of Cam Newton and Ryan Mallette because they don’t have the social pedigree Tebow has which in turn makes them afraid to be critical for fear of backlash.  They look at his character and forget the NFL is a bottom line business.  It is great to sell jerseys, but as an owner would you rather sell jerseys or playoff tickets?  Would you like to have the most popular player or a winning football team?   

This is the dilemma that the Broncos have been placed in under McDaniels watch.  While other general managers across the league thought of Tebow as a second day pick or an even a bigger version of Eric Crouch, McDaniels made the command decision to draft a guy no one was even thinking of taking that high.  For some reason, McDaniels’ stones were enlarged because he worked for Belichick.  He forgot he was in a system and is didn’t matter who was plugged in, the Patriots were going to succeed.  And now he has created a disastrous situation in Denver.

In Kyle Orton, you have a guy you can win with.  In Tebow you have a guy that is going to get the rushing offense stymied and put a lot of receivers on injured reserve due to his erratic passing.  Fans have been clamoring for the unproven and unimproved Tebow over the cool, calm and collective Orton hoping that by some miracle and/or act of sheer will via Gator magic, he will lead the Broncos to a winning record and possibly a playoff berth.  But I say it is wishful thinking at best and a nightmare situation waiting to come to a head.

I have nothing against Tebow, but what annoys me is the legions of new fans that apparently didn’t watch him in college to see what kind of an athlete he is.  They didn’t see that he was a read and react QB whose first reaction usually was to read where he could run.  They didn’t see how inaccurate he was or how many sub 100-yard games he threw.  There are so many “fans” of Tebow now that have no idea what he really is.  They see a guy that is pure and that gives them someone to root for because they think the NFL has gone gangster and isn’t worth watching.  Some people want Tebow to succeed for political reasons, others want him for religious reasons while other have agendas I care not to describe.  But the fact remains they are missing the point that the guy is not a franchise quarterback and I don’t think he ever will be.   

Yes he is a great person; he mentors kids, volunteers plenty of time to worthy causes and is devoutly religious, but should that make him worth taking the risk of tanking your franchise because you want to will him to succeed?  Is it worth setting your club back to please a few fickle fans that will be Tebow’s crutch no matter what he does or most likely doesn’t do and will always be ready to blame management when the experiment fails?  Hell no! 

What he needs is a reality check and an honest conversation with himself, John Fox and John Elway and ask them what he can do for the club.  Otherwise the only thing he will become for the Broncos is a detriment.

If he is truly a team player, he could and should be able to understand that.    

The Closer?

Could someone from the Rangers please get Brenda Lee Johnson on the phone because they could use the help?

The Rangers are at it again.  They start off a series in convincing fashion only to be reminded of just how unreliable their bullpen is in the remaining games.  On Monday with Derek Holland on the mound, they basically held an extended batting practice against the Minnesota Twins scoring 20 runs and garnering 20 hits before the 6^th inning.  Everything was going so smooth it was reported that Holland was seen in the concourse several times sampling barbecue and downing margaritas. 

But as soon as Holland was lifted, the bullpen got back to the business of doing what they do best: giving the opponents the opportunity to catch up.  Being down 19 is a lot of catching up to do but I have faith that this bunch of slugs could give any opponent all the assistance they need.

First up: Scooter Feldman jogged in for an inning and he surrendered the second run of the game.  He’s new to the bullpen so I’ll cut him a little slack until his ERA gets up to the seemingly selected goal of five.  He was followed by the cavalcade of degenerates who usually reserve their meltdowns for close games.  Arthur Rhodes pitched one inning as well un-assing three runs on three hits.  I know Wash wants to get him some work, and I agree with him.  I’d just like to see him working either in Round Rock or in another city, Cincinnati perhaps.  They score enough runs to make his charitable contributions obsolete.

But the star of the show has to be one Neftali Rasmussen Feliz.  That’s actually not his middle name but who cares, he freaking sucks right now.  The job of the closer is to shut down games, period.  Feliz, as we all keep witnessing, is not doing that.  He misses the strike zone regularly, walks batters consistently and is giving up hits as if he were a middle reliever.  If you want to know what’s wrong with this team, then one needs to look no further than Rhodes and Feliz.  It’s almost as if the motto between the two going into a game is “let’s make this interesting.”

 I was willing to give Rhodes a pass because the rest of the bullpen has been injured and unreliable.  I tried to chalk his mediocre play as recently as July up to fatigue and pitching in the warmest park he’s ever been in.  I can’t defend him any more because he is terrible and it’s time we either saw him in a reduced role or a nonexistent one.

Feliz, on the other hand, is a different animal.  Either he has lost his confidence, is too confident and it is backfiring or he is just not closer material any more.  I don’t know which one it is but someone (Mike Maddox) needs to figure him out fast and get it corrected.  I could go for a little more Yoshinori Tateyama who’s been unhittable lately while Feliz gets it figured out.  And by a little more, I’m looking through September if necessary after blowing save number five on Tuesday.  Hey I believe where there’s five that can be blown with ease, six is somewhere around the corner.

And here’s the kicker; it’s not just that he is blowing games but it the way he’s doing it.  Through 37 innings, Feliz has only recorded 26 strike outs, allowed 20 walks and given up 29 hits, four of which were homeruns (14 earned runs). His ERA is an unacceptable 3.35.  If I were his manager I would be afraid to let him pitch to a 7-year-old girl for fear he would hit her, walk her or she’d get a single up the middle.  

I now the rumors are everywhere about the Rangers pursuit of an outfielder but they need to concentrate on bullpen help.  Even though I love Tommy Hunter, I’m still not sold on him.  I don’t trust Feldman and I’m starting to only want to see Darren Oliver in action every 15 days or whenever his commercial comes on.  I’m still afraid of Mark Lowe because I know there’s a meltdown waiting to happen; he’s just saving it for the right time.

So what we are left with is the hope that the Rangers make a serious push for San Diego’s Heath Bell or Mike Adams.  Even though Bell stated he would be an eight inning guy if need be, the Rangers would be fools if they didn’t pull a Frankie Francisco on Feliz and move him to the set-up role until he gets his head right.  If they don’t think he can, then they can get an early jump on grooming him to be a starter next season and maybe he can fill the role Dave Bush had as a spot starter.

Whatever they do, they need to do it fast because the Angels are at the back door.  And if they get in, it will be hell trying to make it to the dance as a wild card.  Hopefully John Daniels can make the necessary moves in the next few days to shore up the bullpen. 

If not, maybe he can at least get Deputy Chief Johnson on the phone to try to solve the problem.