Saturday a.m. Rangers things

The Rangers have the best record in the AL. When was the last time this happened? Only the Dodgers have a better record in baseball. In 2 weeks, when they play each other, the teams with the best record in each league will be giving us a World Series preview.

but I was a little perturbed yesterday that mlb.com had absolutely nothing on the doubleheader sweep.

How Chris Davis got DFA’d last night?

One of the single most braindead moves I have ever seen a human make. The guy strikes out 4 times, FOUR TIMES, in game 1 and you walk him to get to a guy who has been pretty good of late? Wow…….just Wow

Buster Olney says that the Rangers have what it takes to win AL West.

I don’t think that is because of Nolan. I think people give him too much credit when our pitchers have thrown more quality innings. If our pitchers get rocked, they get pulled. Our starters, in general, have performed well this year. Our bullpen has stepped it up as well over the last month. I think alot of that has to do with O’Day coming here, Guardado and CJ have both had a stretch of quality innings.

What Nolan has said is nothing new, and letting a guy thrown 105 – 115 pitches is nothing new. It is, however, new to the Rangers, that a guy can go that deep in a game.

that Nolan is finally having some influence, after experiencing initial resistance to his philosophy. Used to be, if guy had a 100 pitches and just finished the 6th inning, there was no question he wasn’t coming out for the 7th. call it hang over from john hart’s philosophy of shortening the game with dominant relievers or whatever. but there’s definately been a change.

for CD right now. It’s nice to see him joke around about how the fans were cheering when he made contact in his last AB yesterday though. Shit like that’s makes me really want to see the guy turn it around and get through this while he’s still in the bigs.

1.I am always hard on CJ Wilson when he struggles, so I would like to say congrats to CJ for shutting the A’s down.

2.Andruw Jones needs to play more (how many people during spring training thought we would be saying that?)

Jones is having very good at-bats each time up….he has probably worked the pitchers better than any of our regulars. He is walking and raking, and should be playing over Blalock even against righties.

It sounds like we will be playing a bunch of left-handers over the next week or so….sounds like Jones will get more playing time.

Rangers have what it takes to win AL West

Saturday, May 30, 2009 | Feedback | Print Entry

A rainbow appeared over Camden Yards on the day Matt Wieters arrived, a black cloud hangs over the Colorado Rockies at a time when they’ve changed managers, and the Chicago Cubs managed to finish a game without destroying a drink dispenser (that we know of). All of these flickering lures drew our attention Friday away from a team that stretched its win-loss record to 10 games over .500, that is off to its best start in more than a decade — the Texas Rangers, who swept a doubleheader from the Athletics, as the Angels lost to Seattle and fell to 4½ games behind Texas.

If you talk to players and executives within the division, there is deep and appropriate respect for the Angels and what they’ve accomplished in this decade, and a presumption that eventually, any team managed by Mike Scioscia and led by the likes of John Lackey and Chone Figgins and Torii Hunter is destined to get on a serious roll and start crushing teams.

But just for argument’s sake: Is it possible that isn’t going to happen? Is it possible that the Rangers are a good team that’s getting better, maturing right in front of us? They’re 23-10 since April 24, and they’ve posted a staff ERA of 3.70 in the month of May, the fourth best in the majors.

Here are a half-dozen reasons why we should believe that the Rangers are for real, and that the Angels might really be in trouble:

   1. The Rangers are a good team that’s getting better. They really haven’t hit their stride offensively, with Chris Davis off to a poor start and with Josh Hamilton having been on the disabled list for much of the first two months of the season. The Rangers have been respectable on offense, ranking ninth in runs scored, but they probably haven’t hit their full stride yet.

   2. They might have the best reliever in baseball right now. Spring is about to become summer and Texas closer Frank Francisco still hasn’t allowed a run. The Rangers have done a good job of protecting Francisco and the other Texas relievers, and in Francisco’s 17.2 innings, he’s allowed just 10 hits and walked five.

   3. Vladimir Guerrero’s slow start. David Ortiz’s slump has been the most notorious in major league baseball this year, but Guerrero — the anchor of the Angels’ lineup for so long — is also raising eyebrows in the scouts’ section with his poor start. Activated earlier this week from the DL, having completed his rehab for a torn pectoral muscle, Guerrero is now hitting .208 with one homer in 48 at-bats this season; the single home run is his only extra-base hit.

   4. The Rangers have the depth to fill holes. Texas will have the option of promoting some of its young players from a deep farm system, or perhaps using some of those pieces to make a trade for a starting pitcher. If a bidding war develops for an elite starting pitcher late this summer and the Rangers choose to flex the full muscle of their farm system in a push to win the American League West, they could outbid others for the likes of Erik Bedard.

   5. Ervin Santana’s stuff. Talent evaluators who saw him in his most recent start report that Santana is throwing well enough to win, with his fastball in the range of 91-92 mph, but that his stuff is still a long way away from the overpowering repertoire he had in 2008, when he was one of baseball’s best pitchers.

   6. The expected player exodus out of Seattle and Oakland. The Mariners and Athletics will consider trading some veterans before the deadline, in order to bolster their organizations for 2010 and beyond. This means that while the Rangers run through a second-half schedule that includes 21 games against Seattle and Oakland, they might not have to cope with the likes of Bedard, Matt Holliday, Brad Ziegler, Justin Duchscherer, Adrian Beltre, Jarrod Washburn and Russell Branyan.

Tom Hicks, coping with some financial issues, has indicated he is willing to sell the Rangers, and with the economy still down, his timing could be better. But prospective buyers will be looking at a team on the rise. During Friday’s sweep, Andruw Jones excelled in a supporting role, writes Jeff Wilson. Matt Harrison landed on the disabled list with some shoulder inflammation. The Rangers are banking on prospects like Derek Holland, writes Tim Cowlishaw.

Could Omar be used as a temporary replacement, or a platoon with Blalock, at 1B, while CD goes to OKC/Frisco?

Kinsler walked to open the bottom of the first in each game. Scored each time. When he has walked in his first plate appearance this season, the Rangers are 4-1. When he had reached base by any means in his first time up, the Rangers are 14-4.

I truly think that when they decide to send him down, they should send him to single A. I think that he may be able to get out of the funk faster that way.

He has pitched at least seven innings and thrown at least 105 pitches in his last three starts and is 1-1 with a 2.74 ERA.