Tuesday Morning Texas Rangers Update

Good morning. The All-Star Game is tonight. Will you be watching? Me? Probably not. I can’t say no for certain because it’s not like I have anything else going on and baseball will be on so I’m sure I’ll be drawn to watching it.

I don’t know why but this is the least interested I’ve been in an All-Star Game in some time, though. It probably has a lot to do with the fact that the career ain’t shit contingent of the likes of Justin Smoak, Jason Vargas, Brandon Kintzler, Yonder Alonso, and Avisail Garcia are on the team because of three months of being decent at baseball for the very first time.

Do we really want to pretend that Jose Ramirez is the star of the American League third basemen? Bleh. To me the All-Star game should have a mix of the young up-and-comers like Carlos Correa and Aaron Judge and, you know, actual stars who make the game fun to watch like Adrian Beltre and Miguel Cabrera.

Maybe I’ve just reached sentimental old man baseball fan age but Adrian Beltre could have missed all but one game of this season I can’t imagine a game played highlighting the sport that would have Chris Dickerson in it but not him.

What is even the point of an All-Star Game if Adrian Beltre isn’t playing in it? That renders the whole affair utterly pointless. But at least career nobody Zack Cozart will get a donkey because his BABIP was .100 points higher than at any point in his career for the three arbitrary months that began this season.

I like them mild and easy-to-digest advanced stats as much as the next fan but put me firmly down for against the First Half Fangraphs WAR Leaderboard Game that we seem to have adopted for the All-Star Game.

And, let’s face it, it sucks that the Rangers have one guy there and he’s already been replaced on the roster.

Anyhow, that’s my rant for today. Here’s the links and stuff:

Mark Feinsand at MLB dot com writes about that one guy — Yu Darvish — on his fourth All-Star nod.

Jeff Wilson looks into why Yu Darvish is polarizing around these parts even though he’s among the best pitchers in the sport in a town that has rarely, if ever, had that.

(Perhaps Wilson could start by asking the habitual agitator somehow still employed at the same newspaper as him.)

Speaking of Darvish, you’ll never believe who Jeff Sullivan found was the victim of the literal worst call in baseball of the first half.

Evan Grant takes a look at the first half dumpster filled with overflowing adult diapers that was the Rangers’ bullpen in the first half and how they hope to get things to just serviceable for the second half.

Sullivan notes that the Rangers should have a fairly favorable schedule in the second half for their pursuit of a playoff spot.

And, lastly, Alex Bregman seems like a really stable and mature fella. If a Ranger did this, Adrian Beltre would slap the back of their head so hard Chuck Morgan would feel an overwhelming urge to play the theme to The Natural.

Have a nice day!