So

I didn’t feel like the game was gone after GMJ’s double. But I definitely felt like the game was gone when Byrd pulled up at third. That was some disheartening shit.

That was awesome, thanks for that.

On Wash, i mean, really, what can he do? If it wasn’t for the mental lapses this team could easily be 9-5 instead of 5-9. Also, i think this was more of a joint hire with wash with both Hicks and JD wanting him. I remember specifically Hicks saying to JD after an interview with Wash to the media, “Are we missing anything here JD, this has got to be our guy.”

Rangers ballpark in Arlington.

so you are going to quit the team like rbarton as well? Damn they are dropping like flies.

games are more fun anyway.

did a lot of winning in Japan. That’s a baseball reason. Then him being a hometown guy was gravy. I don’t think that people wanted him here because he loves Jesus.

I was the main advocate for hiring Washington on this site. If we didn’t have Wash, then we might not have Milton. And i love me some Washington and Milton…

Ive only been able to watch bits of these last two games, though I heard the majority on the radio.

Going to be the first time in a long time there are two back to back games before the trade deadline I dont even bother to watch on my DVR.

Im not all that worried about the team though. I cant believe these mental mistakes are more than a fluke. Without them things arnt too frustrating, just disappointing.

Especially with this tough road trip coming up.

Although.. putting the season into despair so quicky (at least if they get killed on this roadtrip) only makes me want to get rid of the vets faster.

We knew they were gonna be sub-.500 realistically, but it’s the way they’re sucking recently that is worrying.

Working thru things, after I decide to can Worsh I then stop-down on who’s next at manager … and I quit thinking about firing Worsh and go all catalatonic.

I like the apparent J.D. vision to amass and graduate in-house talent, I’m just uncomfortable with the certainty in my bones that he’s not finished making horrible ruinous trades. Sometimes I wonder if we should eject him while he’s kinda ahead.

Losing sucks, but it’s acceptable if you’re coming out ahead in the long run. Organizationally, I know I’ve never felt better about being a Rangers fan. There are a ton of guys who can realistically be expected to contribute in the not-too-distant future.

As for Wash and the staff…meh. Those aren’t little leaguers out there—they don’t need to be taught the fundamentals of baseball. Honestly, I think the main role of a positional coach is to coordinate practice and iron-out minor deficiencies, while hopefully passing on a few tricks of the trade. I blame MY’s poor performance on his instincts and arm, not Washington.

Now you can argue that perhaps the intricacies of the game necessitate a more heady manager, with the ability to formulate strategy and implement tactics. If there’s a legitimate knock on Washington, for me, it’s that he’s just not heady enough for the gig—he manages like a player.

Sure, you’d like to be able to compete for the Series every year-and that’s the goal, to be sure-but the horrendous handling of this team the past decade-not to mention some of JD’s less-than-thrilling additions-have really put this team in the position of waiting out the shitty play until some of their bets hit.

I too am the one with being rational and objective, but passionate. But I’m also the one that is negative and gets disgusted when things go wrong. I just tend to get so damn frustrated and lose complete control. And by losing that control I tend to drink to much. I’m going to start trying to control this.

and a learned man, as well. That was a very well reasoned approach to the days events..I commend your logic over emotion.

What do I think? What should one think or feel? I don’t think this team is near as bad as it has played lately. But, at the same time, the mental mistakes bother me to no end.

I feel angry about the performance of this club in it’s most recent stretch….I think that they could not be this bad given the intellect of the current GM.

Sigh, let us not over-react, like the passel of young adults who post here….but, dangnabit, I am getting close!

I’m far more scared of the GMs who mess up trades than the ones who hire the wrong manager. Billy Beane has shown how little a manager can matter.

I still like JD’s sights…aiming for Becketts and Santanas, I like the Hamilton deal, I even liked the Carlos Lee deal.

He’s been effective acquiring Minor League talent, too, which is hugely heartening.

I’m willing to fault Buck primarily for the Young trade.

All in all, I’m still OK with JD.

Is there the “more after the jump” feature on 2.0 (If such a thing is actually a feature—I wouldn’t know)? I don’t mind the length of the post in the least, but it does take a while to scroll down to.

i completely agree with everything about it – starting from wanting acta and having almost a contrarian view of hillman (winning in japan all of a sudden makes you a star manager). and i’ve been quick to point out irrational criticisms of wash. but like I said in the other thread – after too man of these lapses, you have to fire Wash. definitely not tomorrow, but if things like this don’t change in a month, you do what needs to be done.

its a shame too. what exactly is wash supposed to do about michael young flubbing a ball? he talked to the leaders yesterday (or two days ago?) and it apparently had no effect. and, even though JD apparently met with Wash, what is JD supposed to say other than “your ass is on the line” Either the team gets lucky, the bats come alive a bit, and they stop pressing so much or wash is gone by the all star break. JD HAS to do it.

The name’s Poochie D
And I rock the telly,
I’m half Joe Camel
And a third Fonzarelli.
I’m the kung fu hippie
From gangsta city,
I’m a rappin’ surfer,
You the fool I pity.

This is all I got. I do apologize if it’s distracting. I’d contribute more to this amazing blog but I always seem to have forgotten my slide rule at work.

Go Rangers!

I agree with pretty much the enitre assessment – although I think the time to start making changes has come already, myself.

How many chances are we going to afford Ron Washington, anyway? One of our biggest mistakes in the past few years was trusting Buck Showalter to run this team for too long. We can’t make that same mistake with Wash – he’s already pretty much proven he’s not on the same page with JD, and he’s still making the same stupid managerial mistakes he made last year. So far, his weak efforts to lead this team out of it’s slump haven’t made much impact on the level of play – I don’t know how many more chances, if any, Wash deserves.

At that moment, I wanted to throw my Blackberry out a window. I wanted to shut down this blog, unsubscribe to the NMLR, give away my tickets for this year, and burn all my Rangers gear. I wanted to forget that baseball even existed.

This truly describes how I feel about sports in general sometimes. Losing sucks.

For articulating what is hard to define about being patient, but very upset at the current goings on.

I needed to read that today. Thanks, Adam.

Here are the solid baseall reasons he should have been hired.

As soon as Botts watched the third strike go by, I slowly turned down the volume on the radio and just sat there slump-shouldered. For a moment, I wanted to take the MY bobble-head off the desk and throw it away. Losing is one thing, I’m used to that, but playing undisciplined, unprepared and unpassionate baseball is simply reprehensible. I’m glad this team was booed off the field late in the game and if they keep up this play, I hope they’re playing in front of 1,000 people by the end of the season. With all that being said, by the time I dragged my self out of the chair and to the break room, I was already thinking about the pitching matchup of the next game. What can I say, in the end we’re Rangers fans and that’s what we do.

is with the mental mistakes the players have been making so far this season. At times they look ordinary and at times they make errors and misplay balls that make you scratch your head. I think that falls on Washington. The baserunning blunders and odd, ineffective lineups also fall back on Washington. If the Rangers keep this up and are 24-40 after the first two months, we may have our answer on Wash.

they were in last Memorial day, don’t they have to fire Ron Washington?

This is a young team so the errors, physical and mental don’t really surprise me. Even when the veterans on the team make them i think it’s because the youthful lack of focus is contagious. Adam, when I boil down your post, it looks like to me you’re questioning whether Wash should be here. I’m with you. I still like JD and buy in to the plan, but it’s beginning to look like Wash isn’t the right guy for this youthful team. I think we need someone to put the fear of god in them a little, where at least they know they’ll be called out for a stupid play. The thing is it’s a crap shoot, you don’t know who’s going to be that person until they get there and even then it could take a year or two to know whether they’re right or not. So much of success is luck, but yeah, Wash needs to get em to shape up and play some smart baseball fast or he should go.

I agree that his decisions make you really wonder what is going on in his head sometimes. Also, it seems that he doesn’t know how to prepare a team for the season at all. These guys look way too loose and uninterested out there.

However, I do think that Wash can serve a purpose for this franchise for a little while. They weren’t going to win the pennant with Joe McCarthy running this team. Also, I think Wash should have earned some manager of the year votes last year with the way this talentless team played down the stretch last year. They didn’t panick after that horrific start and that had a lot to do with Wash. His failures that are costing the team wins right now, in the grand scheme of things, isn’t really that important. IF he can manage to keep them together and positive through this season, then he has served his purpose.

Now, going forward, this team will outgrow Wash, sort of like the Mavs outgrew Nelson. They will need a manager that’s not going to blow games with stupid decisions and that will hold guys accountable for mistakes and keep their focus from the beginning. (That’s another thing I don’t understand. I can see losing focus during the “dog days,” but from game 1?)

Wash is back to the Oakland bench by 2010 at the latest

That’s what I’ve been wondering. Wash admitted he wasn’t working well with the players at the beginning of last year – pressing when he should have held back and vice versa – which led to some uncomfortable confrontations. He and others just blamed it on a new job, which is OK. But I wonder if that did lasting damage.

Here’s an analogy (I’ll use me). I’ve been a lawyer for several years, and if my firm hired some new managing partner who said he was going to make me a great legal-brief writer, I’d say “whatever. I’m pretty damn good at it as is. Go back to your office, make sure the copiers are working, and leave me the hell alone so I can do my job.” Perhaps the same here. Remember when he said Blalock was going to be his pet project? That could be a little offensive to someone that’s been playing baseball for 20 years. Maybe the players are thinking that Wash needs to fill out the lineup card, figure out the hit-and-run, and let the players do their work on the field which is causing them to tune him out. Wash can yell till he’s blue in the face and maybe the players are just nodding their heads thinking “dude, you do your job, I’ll do mine” and ignoring what’s being said.

I liked the Wash hiring and strategy (good D, pound the zone, patient hitting). We’re finally getting a couple of those things but not only is the D not better, it seems worse (which was supposedly Wash’s talent).

But we’re only 14 games in. Let’s take our fingers off the panic button.

This is 2 years in a row this team has left Arizona completely unprepared to play big league baseball. That has to fall on the manager.

The Rangers? The only thing they’ll contend for is the top overall draft pick in 2009.

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/8032824/A’s-could-compete-in-weak-AL-West