Agree

there is nothing to trust when who you are trusting is named ponson, padilla, gabbard, and feldman.

I agree with that, at least for the back end of the rotation.

Ponson is pitching well right now, but I seriously doubt that will last beyond another few starts. I’ve gone from being skeptical about Feldman to being genuinely impressed, but it’s really too early to tell if he’s the real deal or a flash in the pan. Gabbard seems to be a bit of a glass flower, if you add his history to the freak things (like catching a cleat, or having an ape jump him) that have happened to him lately.

So with all that in consideration… yeah, I’m enjoying the ride, but I’m also cautiously anticipating the end of it sooner or later.

I just hope this streak lasts long enough for us to steamroll the Mariners this coming week.

Have you seen Ron’s ERA? And average with RISP? That’s some beastly stuff. Ron’s a one-man baseball team!

Seriously, I think a lot of this has to do with the infusion of youth. Brandon Boggs has come up and hit like a fiend, and Salty’s arrival seemed to light a fire under Gerald Laird. Scott Feldman has pitched out of his mind to shore up the rotation, German Duran has contributed some big hits, and AJ Murray even threw in a start. Some of these replacements are overperforming right now, but they are still the main reason why this team has played better. Hamilton, Bradley and Murphy have been pretty steady, the holes around them just finally got filled in.

This hot streak has nothing to do with Ron Washington, it has more to do with the spares like Jennings, Fukumori, Nippert and Broussard being dumped from the roster (at least temparilly in the case of most of those guys), and the team being allowed to play their better players for a change. That, and the bad luck that was dogpiling on this team during mid-April couldn’t last forever.

I’m beginning to wonder if this team is better without Blalock in the line-up. That seems like an absurd thing to say, but it sure seems that way.

In hindsight, the 25-man roster coming out of spring training was horrible…Melhuse, Broussard, I’d even add Byrd. Fukimori and Nippert also turned out to be bad. The current 25-man roster seems to be balanced. The team appears to have a little more emotion now, maybe something to do with Boggs and Duran?

Texas started playing well last year when Micheal Young started hitting his usual .300, when Cat started hitting his usual .300, when Tex started hitting for power, when Millwood started pitching like the top of the rotation pitcher he is. This team started winning last year in early June. A month and a half before the firesale began.

Coming out of spring training you could never have thrown out this lineup as it is right now. Duran and Boggs had zero games above AA. As bad as Broussard was there was nothing in his past to indicate he would be that bad.

Just like last year the club has been a decent team but when you commit the amount of erros that we did to start this and last year its hard to win. When you can’t hit with runners in scoring position its hard to win.

concerns me.

Fx2’s velocity excites me. He was just flat out dominat last night.

keep the back of your head in plane with your spine
don’t let your right elbow fly
the left wrist is like concrete throughout the swing
weight shifts from right heel to left toe as you swing
cock your right hip back an inch or two just before you swing to square up to the target better
grip should be no firmer than what’s needed to fight gravity
V’s point to your left shoulder
can you see the back of your right hand?
the ball gets in the way of the swing
take the club away down the line
don’t take the club back past parallel
don’t “break the glass” in your swing plane

There, that oughta screw up your golf swing for a while. heh