Ask me again after next week’s series in LA, and I might be right there with you.

may as well play this thing out.

Again… while we were all very pleasantly surprised by the great start, this is what gets GMs fired. JD has stated all along that he has had a 5 year plan. Having glimpses this year of the culmination of that plan while being somewhat competitve was the goal for the good majority of us prior to opening day. I fear that a good deal of us have become greedy by the results in April and May, forgetting that there are still 4 months left to play after that.

To help re-tool for years 6, 7, 8 and beyond of JD’s plan (if he is here for it,) gut the team where there are prospects that are expected to be ready next year and get their feet wet this year. See what you can get for Byrd, Jones, Blalock, Guardado and Padilla. Replace them with Borbon, Adam Fox, Max Ramirez, Neftali Feliz and then turn the last couple of months in to audition time for SP like Tommy Hunter, Dustin Nippert, Willie Moscoso and the like. Make a definitive decision on Brandon McCarthy, SP or RP… pick one and stay the course (preferrably the RP route as a 7th inning + guy.

Move Davis up in the lineup. Move Borbon to the top of the order. Move Kins down to 5. Go with Borbon, MY, Hamilton (DH/LF alternation), Davis, Kins, Cruz, MaxRam, Catcher, Andrus order. If this is what the plan is for next year’s lineup, start it out now, build consistency with the lineup. Adam Fox gets rewarded for his life in the minors and can serve as a solid breather type guy for ANYONE on the team with his versatility.

 Your bench now looks like David Murphy, Adam Fox, Taylor Teagarden, Omar Vizquel and then your decent relievers now and most of the pitching staff is unchanged from where it is now. Start working the I-35 shuttle and see what you have for next year. Hopefully you have new ownership by the first of the year and have a better plan of what you can afford to go buy to plug holes.

that the Rangers would be 2.5 games out on June 30 I would have been ecstatic. So why give up hope now? Changes need to be made and hopefully Wash realizes that he is not as smart as he thinks he is before things go completely down the crapper.

Start with moving Kinsler to bat 3rd. Let Andrus and Borbon leadoff. Hamilton bats 4th and DHs. Byrd and Murphy share LF. Cruz bats 5th. Release AJ and keep Blalock simply because there is no better option as a backup 1B/LH PH.

What do these moves do? It puts Kinsler into a run producng slot in the lineup. Borbon was groomed as a leadoff hitter, so bat him 1st or 9th. Cruz is best suited to bat 5th and Byrd/Murphy 6th. It also keeps CD and Salty down at 7-8.

I’m trying to decide whether an acquiring team would view his 180-inning option as positive.

I guess it would be payroll-specific, but I figure the acquiring team would be glad to have him around another year.

that the players view the Borbon callup as the beginning of raising the white flag. I don’t think many of them will be surprised to see vet for prospect trades.

You got me to actually log in and comment for the first time in months…

is there anything left to do but play for 2010?

It’s June 30 and they’re 2.5 games out after the offense has gone into one of the biggest slumps in history. I personally don’t think this is a time for dispair.

This is basically the same offense as last year. Milt was the only substantial change and his absence did not cause this huge offensive letdown as of late. It’s more likely the bats bounce back than not. So sit back and wait for it.

Two things that need to happen are 3 players start hitting again (don’t care who) and the manager starts looking at splits. Then the pitchers keep allowing the D to make plays behind them and all might be well.

I find I’m so excited, I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it is the excitement only a baseball fan can feel, a Ranger fan at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain. I hope the offense wakes up. I hope May was not a fluke, and we are buyers at the deadline. I hope the Pennant Race is as exciting as it has been in my dreams. I hope.

Doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting a different result?

Magically expecting better results from this offense of Davis, Blalock, Byrd, Jones, Salty, and Teagarden is just setting yourself up for disappointment.

Blalock is a hack. That’s not going to change and I can’t imagine it has any value so they should just waive him and pray someone is dumb enough to take the rest of his salary off their hands.

Jones is terrible but for the price and the fact that he hasn’t bitched about sitting on the bench I have no problem if he’s the last fielder on the roster.

Byrd has morphed into some god awful swing at everything player who has also regressed as a defender. Some team will take a chance on him because his numbers aren’t bad. Hopefully he’s moved soon. Heck at this point I hope they get something because I don’t want to watch him hit into yet another inning ending double play on the off chance that he’s a Type A or B this winter.

Davis needs to be sent down till Septemeber at the earliest. One week or two won’t cure his ills. In fact he made need to retool his whole swing. Just go ahead and accept that he’s got a massive amount of work to do and let him get on with it. I hope by next week the Rangers will just decide to go with Ramirez or Smoak.

Neither Salty nor Tea are swinging the bat well but since this is about 2010 keep running them out there.

Once you do that then play Borbon, Smoak, and Ramirez regularly. Listen to offers on Vizquel and Millwood. I’d also cut/60 Day DL Guardado for the Pirate and give Hunter/Moscoso a chance in the rotation. Holland may need to be sent back down to work on his off speed stuff and fastball location.

Regardless I get the feeling this LA, Tampa, LA gauntlet is going to bring reality that this is a team for next year back squarely into focus.