Just flew back in from Austin, and boy are my arms tired...
Anyway...another loss yesterday, which pretty much ends any thoughts on my end of finishing out of the cellar or getting back to .500.
Brandon McCarthy went 3 innings, allowing 2 runs, but Evan Grant feels it was a positive outing, and the game story focuses on what McCarthy has to do to be the top-of-the-rotation starter the Rangers feel he can be.
Anthony Andro notes that the Rangers likely won't have a 100 RBI guy, for the first time since 1995.
Ron Washington says his offseason wish list is centerfield, first base, and right field, in that order. Washington suggests Marlon Byrd platooning with Frank Catalanotto in left field, and backing up the other two outfield positions, might be the best way to use Byrd, and I think that makes sense.
Jim Reeves goes into crotchety old man mode today:
So how old do you feel if you were following the Rangers and the AL West race in 1974, when Fergie Jenkins (29) and the guy who edged him for the Cy Young Award, Catfish Hunter (23), combined for 52 complete games that season?
Starting pitchers then took pride in finishing what they'd started and hated being taken out of the game until they'd recorded the last out. But now, in this age of bullpen specialization, a starter figures he's done his job if he can go six innings and throw a hundred pitches.
After that, he's looking for the recliner and for the clubhouse kid to bring him something cool to drink.
Try telling your boss that you'd like to cut your work week down to 25 hours, that he can bring in someone else to finish after that and, by the way, you want more money, too. See how far you get.
And these damn kids today, bringing their gloves into the dugout when the inning is over...in my day, you left your glove out there in the field after the inning, so it would be there when you needed it!!!