You know, it must suck as an Angels fan to look at last night's game, see that the guy you traded for last season who is owed $20 million through next year, who was supposed to be your staff ace, got slapped around yet again, and this time by one of the most popular Angels ever, who your team let walk to a division rival. And meanwhile, your team could only muster 4 runs despite seeing Dustin Nippert and some unknown guy making his first major league appearance for seven innings.
Not the best of outings yesterday for Omar Beltre, who clearly was dealing with jitters in the first, and also didn't have good command at all, but who showed some pretty impressive stuff. To put Beltre's journey into perspective, think about this...Omar Beltre is older than veteran Ranger players Rich Harden and Ian Kinsler.
Jeff Wilson's game story talks about Vladimir Guerrero continuing to terrorize his former team.
Rhett Bollinger also hits on the "Vlad getting his revenge" theme.
Evan Grant says that the Rangers' playoff chances depend on the performance of their rotation, with Jon Daniels continuing to say that the Rangers are going to trade for a starting pitcher only if they can get an upper-echelon guy...they apparently aren't interested in a Jeremy Guthrie warm-body type.
The Rangers website notes include Josh Hamilton's hitting streak and Ian Kinsler impressing Ron Washington with his recent play.
Wilson's notes also talk about Kinsler, along with Scott Feldman's problems with his sinker this year.
Randy Galloway says that the Rangers need to make a move to improve the team before the trade deadline. I assume he's not talking about Bengie Molina (and more on the Molina trade in a separate post this morning).