Enjoy the Ride

Ask any true baseball fan about the grind of an MLB season and they will all come to the same consensus in regards to any of the30 teams in the show; baseball season ebbs and flows.  There are times when the tide of adversity rears its head and teams struggle.  This happens to even the best of teams. 

But there are also times when the sun emerges from behind an ominous gray sky, the clouds clear and winning can be seen on the horizon. 

No team epitomizes this analogy like the Texas Rangers.  My mistake, I meant to say the first place Texas Rangers…as in all of baseball.  

With a 47-28 record, it wouldn’t seem like the club’s fan base would have that much to be pessimistic about.  But in a sports town with fans that have suddenly, for a lack of better words, developed a sense of entitlement after seeing its basketball team win the finals last season and witnessing the baseball club appear in back-to-back World Series there seems to be a shortage of patience and an increase in ridiculous expectations.

What “regular” or bandwagon fans fail to realize is that in the course of a 162 game season, your team will lose.  The will lose a lot.  No one will ever go 162-0 or 152-10 as I predicted but they will lose some games.  The Rangers will most likely lose about 50-60 games this season, but that is still 112-102 wins.  They are 76 games into their season and have lost just 28 games.  If they match this record for the next 76 games, they will be at 94-56 with 12 games to play and yet someone will still argue about some call the sipper makes or some move the GM didn’t make in some mundane scenario that will have bearing only to the Skip Baylesses of the metroplex.

The team is less than a year removed from their last WS appearance and the haters are still questioning the leadership of the club.  Rangers manager Ron Washington is still viewed by some as a guy just along for the ride…eating seeds and hugging Jackie Moore after every victory.  They decry the fact that he will not tinker with a lineup that for the most part has been the same for the past two years the victories have increased.  Did I mention that they were in the World Series?

But an average May record and two series losses in the beginning of June to division rivals had some of Wash’s and the team’s detractors crying that the tea was in a tail spin and big changes had to be made.  They didn’t take into account that the rotation and its replacements were dropping like flies.   Key sections of the offense went through slumps to which they are just beginning to break out of now.  The fans had become spoiled because they were treated to an exciting opening month.  Coming back to reality was like a hard crash after an all-night bender at a gay bar-it was unbelievable. 

The team was 14-13 in May and played some atrocious baseball but they also learned from their mistakes which translated into June.  While the pretenders like the Athletics, Mariners, Blue Jays and Rays (God I hate the Rays) remembered who they were, the Rangers remained calm and played one game at a time.  June started off with a 4-6 record only to see the team go 12-3 and winning six straight series, sweeping two in the process.  They are currently 16-9 with the A’s in town tonight as they look to extend their lead over division rival LA Angels who have been in the Rangers rear-view but have been closing fast.    

Fans need to have faith in our team, our manager and our front office.  They have proven over the last two years that they have a plan and are sticking to it.  Fans need to understand that injuries happen, teams have losing streaks, players can’t hit the broad side of a barn, managers make dumb decisions and some acquisitions don’t always pan out.  But for about 35 years we wished we had the problems we have now.  The only conversation fans had about Rangers’ players in the playoffs was when they were being watched on other teams. 

Fans need to return the patient fans they were when the Rangers were losing, couldn’t pitch or manufacture runs and enjoy what they are witnessing every day no matter the outcome.  Otherwise, we are just Yankee fans.

Let’s go Rangers

If the first month of 2012 MLB season has been any indication of what’s in store for metroplex sports fans, then by all means we’re in for one hell of a ride: one that may surpass the accomplishments of the ‘90s Cowboys, 2011 Mavericks and 2000 Stars.

  For the first time in ever, and I’m taking into account the success of the Rangers over the course of the past two seasons, our baseball team seems poised to dominate the baseball landscape from now to game 162.  And if things keep going the way they are, possibly to game 181.  The Rangers three weeks into the season and are already up 7 games on the division rival LA Angels.  Pujols isn’t hitting anywhere near his contract worth and CJ Wilson has already accumulated two losses on the season which is a direct result of the aforementioned Pujols’ anemic showing at the plate as well as defensive lapses and all around team suckiness.

All the Rangers have done is win behind stellar pitching efforts from all five starters (even ace Colby Lewis) and the only staff member with two losses is closer Joe Nathan who is still a work in progress.  We all got a glimpse of the greatness Yu Darvish possesses after his fifth start.  He seems to get stronger, confident and is gaining command of his pitches with each outing. 

Then there’s the offensive output.  Even when the team is behind, no pitcher can rest easy.  Hamilton is on fire, Young is doing what he does, Andrus is displaying remarkable patience at the plate and glimpses of power and Kinsler gets everything going from the leadoff spot.  The top of the lineup does so much damage that we forget that the bottom is struggling.  But the strength of the team is they find ways to win and rely on guys considered afterthoughts to deliver.  Snyder and Gonzales are picking up hitting slack while Cruz, Napoli, Moreland and Torrealba are trying to figure out their swings.

The defense ranks among the top five and Kinsler and Andrus will probably go down as the best defensive tandem in team history.  Once you add Beltre and Mr. Everything in Young, if you’re an opposing hitter you have to pray these guys make an error because if they get their gloves on a ball, you’re as good as done.  Your other option is to hit it over their heads but then you have to deal with Hamilton who can get to everything and Cruz who will gun you down at first given the opportunity. 

Then we get to the bullpen which is easily forgettable because they rarely get into the game.  The offense builds leads so fast that when they do get the occasional appearance it’s usually a spot start in the event of a double header or just to get some late game work because they’ve just been in the bullpen relaxing.  I’d love to have that job.

If the Rangers can find their way back to the Series, then there is no question they would have the best run of a sports team in the metroplex.  You could argue ‘90s Cowboys, but baseball’s season length, combined with the injury factor and the few teams that can actually make the playoffs is what sets them apart from all the rest.

I almost forgot.  I need to adjust my prediction from 152-10 to 142-20. 

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.