A couple of things from last night's World Series game...
First of all...the umpiring, and the continuing missed calls, is the story from this playoffs. There were two huge missed calls last night that ended what could have been big innings by each of the teams, and then Ryan Howard being called out on strikes in the 9th on an Eric Greggian call on a ball way outside...the groundswell of support for replay, and the move towards removing ball and strike calls from the purview of the human umpire, is simply going to increase.
And secondly, even though Derek Jeter bunted on his own with two strikes last night, Joe Girardi's continuing hands-on over-managing is reminiscent of Buck Showalter. It is as if he doesn't trust the players to win the game, or else he feels he has to show everyone how much smarter than everyone else he is.
Anyway...Jeff Wilson writes that the Rangers want a hitting coach who can, and wants to, work with young players, and who can help the team fix an approach that resulted in a ton of strikeouts and not many walks last year. The finalists for the job are Rusty Greer, Thad Bosley, Clint Hurdle, and Gerald Perry.
Rush Olson has a story up at mlb.com about Mitch Moreland.
Richard Durrett looks at the closer spot for the Rangers, and the Rangers managerial situation.
And Kevin Richardson has signed a minor league contract with the Rangers for 2010.