The bats were quiet again last night, and Kenny Rogers continues what has been a nice little run over the past few weeks. Rogers has a 2.57 ERA in September, after posting a 1.64 ERA in August. So much for his second half slump...
Evan Grant thinks that Ron Mahay may not be back next season, with the Rangers able to buy out his 2007 option for $250,000, and with C.J. Wilson and John Rheinecker offering other cheap lefty options for the pen.
Grant's latest newsletter is up...he says the Rangers aren't lacking leaders, regardless of what Tom Hicks thinks, and has some comments about Jason Botts' future with the Rangers, Drew Meyer's regression at AAA, and the team's potential free agents.
There's also this interesting item, regarding Tom Hicks' comments on the Hitzges show:
Q. Occasionally, fans and reporters should ask what players and managers are not in a position to ask. What specific evidence is there that Rangers players or management lack leadership or mental toughness? Maybe spectators do not see the Rangers' sufficiently close enough to see such traits. What I see appears to be excellent preparation, a commitment to playing baseball to win, tenacity, perseverance and other good characteristics from almost all of the players.
GRANT: Shortly after Tom Hicks' radio interview, I asked him those questions, almost exactly. I asked him in what area the team lacked mental toughness. I asked him to clarify his remarks so that there was no possibility they'd be misinterpreted as something they weren't. He declined to do that.
If Grant goes to Hicks, and gives him an out, a way to either clarify what he meant by the team lacking "mental toughness" an opportunity to back off on those comments and mend some bridges, and Hicks refuses to do so...well, Hicks is even dumber than I thought.
Kevin Sherrington is doing a chat session at the DMN website at 1:30 p.m. Central today. You can send him questions here. Send him some Buck stuff to answer...