Thursday Morning Links

It appears the Rangers are using all of their Space Eagles on this particular Angels series.

So are you bored with walkoff homers yet? Jeff Wilson recaps the game, telling us that three consecutive walkoff homers have never happened in Ranger history and only happened twice in their previous iteration as the Washington Senators. TR. Sullivan focuses on Adrian Beltre and Martin Perez, who threw a career high 7.1 innings. Todd Wills says plays the sad trombone for the Angels, with Ron Washington exulting in different guys getting it done, and has his rapid reactions.

The trade deadline came and went, notes Anthony Andro, and we got coal in our stocking. He also points out that the coal in our stocking is named Lance Berkman, as he has not yet discussed retirement with the Rangers and may yet spare us, if not to death, at least to the free clinic.

In what I'm sure is a tasteful and somber memorial to the USS Indianapolis (which sank sixty-eight years and two days ago), Gil Lebreton's column on the Rangers not making any moves at the deadline uses shark imagery as a framing device. Or perhaps the FWST's SEO team is trying to capitalize on all the Sharknado-related Twitter buzz.

Drew Davison's notes column says that Berkman is still undecided about retriement, and that the three Tree of Trustiest relievers had bad nights Tuesday.

T.R. Sullivan tells us that the Rangers are still awaiting word on Berkman and Cruz, though SPOILER ALERT any news on either will almost assuredly be bad. Sullivan's notes column says Tepesch is playing catch and that the rest of the club stubbornly believes this club is built to win.

Gerry Fraley says that Mitch Moreland's opposite field hit last night was a good sign, though that seems to be optimism of the "will all this poop there must be a pony in here somewhere" variety. He also says that the Rangers are slowly adding more speed back into the lineup, which means our baserunning blunders will at least happen quickly.

Yu Darvish is apparently immune to A.J. Pierzynski's myriad charms, saying that he's pleased to be pitching to Geovany Soto.

Jon Daniels thinks the Rangers added the most impactful guy on the market, Matt Garza.

Todd Wills says the Rangers and Cruz are bracing for a possible suspension, though here's hoping Selig will wear out his whipping arm when he goes off behind the woodshed with Alex Rodriguez and there will be little left in the tank for Cruz.

Finally, here's the story of the USS Indianapolis, the period at the end of which was the bullet a probably wrongfully disgraced captain put through his brain in 1968. I recently read a book called Unbroken, by the writer of Seabiscuit, that deals with the loss and capture of a navigator named Louis Zamperini in the Pacific. It's decidedly more uplifting than the story of the Indianapolis.