There are only 21 games to go in the season. That seems bizarre...I'm sort of ready for the season to be over, and yet, I can't believe that there's that few games to go.
The Rangers are 69-72 right now. To finish at .500, they need to go 12-9 over their final 21 games.
The Rangers are also 5 1/2 games up on Oakland, which has 22 games to go. If the Rangers just go 10-11 over their final 21 games, the A's would have to go 17-5 to finish a game ahead of the Rangers. If the Rangers cratered and went 6-15 the rest of the way, the A's would still have to go 13-9 to pass them.
You know how we've been complaining about Milton Bradley not staying healthy this season? Well, Evan Grant points out Bradley has played in 113 games this year, which isn't a ton, but is the second most of his career, and he's stayed off the d.l. for just the second time since 2001. That speaks volumes about Bradley's health history. In Grant's article, Jon Daniels said the organization will wait until after the season to talk contract with Bradley.
T.R. Sullivan has some bloggy notes up, which includes this amusing quote from Ron Washington:
Washington on Gerald Laird's desire to play every day: "That's okay with me. He expects to catch every day? That's fine. It's just not going to happen."
I have my doubts about whether Washington is the answer as a manager -- something that we discuss at length in the latest podcast, which should be up later today -- but quotes like that make it hard for me to beat up on him too much.