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Good morning. You ready for Derek Jeter Fest 2014?
Adrian Beltre and Yu Darvish will represent the Rangers in Minnesota tonight. MLB.com's Thomas Harding as quotes from each from All-Star week media day.
ESPN Dallas' Ben Goessling writes that Beltre hopes to encourage his teammates by playing in an All-Star Game while they reflect on how awful they are from home.
Jeff Wilson writes that Beltre's gearing up to for a lost second half but sees it as his duty to make sure that no one on the team gives up. Would you want to disappoint Adrian Beltre?
Goessling writes that Darvish is honored to be on the American League staff but he doesn't know yet if he will make his first appearance in an All-Star Game despite being selected to the team in all three of his big league seasons.
If he does, however, Darvish says he'll unveil a new pitch:
"I'm planning to throw a super-slow pitch, 10 mph," said a joking Darvish, speaking through an interpreter, on Monday. "It will fall straight down."
Sure, it says he's joking, but you know he's got such a thing ready to make Yasiel Puig look silly.
Kevin Sherrington writes his Rangers-at-the-break column and believes the team should reevaluate its philosophy rather than just calling 2014 a season of bad luck.
WFAA.com's Robert Pike plays everyone's favorite losing team game of match the tradeable players to the contenders in need.
Evan Grant actually answered questions and talked about the Texas Rangers in a chat over at the DMN and you can read his answers here.
Fangraph's writer Paul Swydan clearly got the official edict from Dave Cameron and writes behind the ESPN Insider paywall that the Rangers have a "dearth of young talent" so they should start the fire sale.
Speaking of Fangraphs, Marc Hulet updates his Top 25 Prospects list and has Joey Gallo moving up from not listed to No. 11. Gallo is ranked just ahead of Miguel Sano and just behind Lucas Giolito, which is darn nice company.
Speaking of Gallo and Fangraphs, Carson Cistulli gives you the top five wine tasting terms to describe Gallo's bat flip from yesterday's Futures Game-winning home run.
Speaking of wine, since this season sucks, let's get drunk on officially MLB All-Star Game vino!
