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.

All The Right Moves

Sometimes the best moves are the ones not made.  And the Texas Rangers just made the biggest one by keeping their wits about them and letting Prince Fielder and his girth land in Detroit on Wednesday. 

Now I cannot lie, I was one of those hoping the Rangers would have pulled out all the stops and welcomed the Prince into his new kingdom out at the Ballpark.  Hell it wasn’t my money, but I was having a hard time trying to rationalize why a few billionaires couldn’t spend a few extra mil to make the team better.  Why couldn’t they resign Josh Hamilton, Mike Napoli, Elvis Andrus and Kinsler and keep this thing going?  We needed to do something to counteract what the Angels had just pulled off in December by signing both Albert Pujols and former area douche extraordinaire Christopher John Wilson to contracts totaling just in the neighborhood of $345 million, right?

So our first move was to bid on an unknown Japanese pitcher that the Rangers’ front office has been drooling over for more than 2 years.  Of course the comparisons of Yu Darvish to Daisuke Matsuzaka and Chan Ho Park will be inevitable until he actually pitches and inning, but I trust in this Rangers’ staff to do the right thing and bring him along the right way.

The second shoe I was waiting to drop was that of Fielder.  I just knew the Rangers would make a play on him after signing Darvish to a total contract of just around $112 million.  They would just have to get creative and make room.  But as the days went on and I started to think realistically, I harkened back to the days of Tom Hicks and HSG and how excited I was to see exorbitant contracts dished out to Alex Rodriguez and the aforementioned Mr. Park.  So much money was spent that the rest of the team, including the farm system, was neglected and the only thing we got out of it was annual last place finishes.

Ten years and 1 bankruptcy later we were right back where we started from.  The organization had reached that fork in the road.  And whereas last time it went left without hesitation, this time they studied the route, looked over their options and only after careful consideration did they choose to go right.  It didn’t matter that other teams were passing them and looking to make big splashes by spending ridiculous money and making questionable trades, our team decided that this go round would be different and they weren’t willing to place the future of the franchise in jeopardy for a “win now” mentality that so many teams possess without actually getting better.

The Angels have made the mistake of Hicks by basically bidding against themselves.  Then to make matters worse, they spend $77 million on their projected number 3 pitcher.  They didn’t get better in any particular area.  Vernon Wells and Tori Hunter are still old and the last time I checked, the Rangers were still able to get to their pitchers.  Now we’ll be able to get to their third as well.  

The Tigers have spent $214 million on Fielder which looks good this year, but what do you do next year when you have a logjam at first base with Miguel Cabrera, Victor Martinez when he comes back and Fielder?  Who can you resign and who do you let go when contract time comes up with some of your star players? 

The Rangers learned the hard way and basically laid out a “how to” guide on how to scuttle a franchise.  Currently the forward and the additional chapters are being written by the New York Mets and the Los Angeles Dodgers.  It just seems no one has bothered to pay attention and teams keep doing things the wrong way. 

When the dust finally settled and the biggest splash we made was Darvish, I came to grips with the fact that my team had once again done the right thing by doing nothing further.  Now they can resign the guys who’ve been here and worry about fracturing the chemistry of the team.  And the best thing about the Fielder deal falling through is it may make Mitch Moreland a more focused and determined hitter knowing he was close to losing his job.

Sure the $3 billion contract kicks in in a few years and there will be plenty of cash to supplement the payroll.  But that is then and this is now.  And now is no the time to make Hicks-ian moves to put us right back in the position we were in before.  Now is the time for everyone to trust in our team’s front office, coaching staff and the players we have. 

With everything they’ve gotten right, including two World Series appearances, I’m going to go out on a limb and say I think they know what they’re doing.