I’m ready for this. Bring on the Angels.

Just read Mendoca (2nd round pick) signed. Good news…now let’s sign those pitchers!

@Evan,

By the way, what did you think of my Rescus Milton Bradley suggestion? It seems at some point (i.e., how much salary the Cubs would eat), that would be a move worth considering for Texas. In my mind that starts with them picking up AT LEAST 1/2 the remaining $$. No idea if they would consider that, but if I were the Rangers that would tempt me. Bradley for 2 1/2 years and $12.5MM? If I came away from a sit down with him and was convinced he would play through nicks and knacks, I would part with a Max Ramirez or 2nd tier pitching prospect to get that done.

Well — let’s just say I would THINK long and hard about it!!

Glad to have Nellie back….some are saying it is a “weird” lineup, I just think it’s “mixing it up”…..lord knows the other one wasn’t doing squat….Here we go. Let’s go RanGERS!

That was AWESOME

I really wish they would reduce the number of interleague games, and make a more balanced schedule. It’s ludicrous that we have only played LA 3 times to this point, while having completely finished vs. Detroit and maybe others in the AL? We’ve played Seattle and Oakland lots more than LAA…

Ok, talk about early over-reaction, but too bad Kinsler can’t set a tone, instead of POPPING UP.

I think there is something to be said about that. In defense of Kinsler, his swing is the exact same. It’s always been an uppercut style. His timing is off. Now his swing.

OK…..what a spot for the ROOK.

Evan,
Any chance they put Blalock on waivers to see if anyone wants his salary?

Ugh, decent AB but that’s why you don’t bat a guy getting his first major league at bat 6th.

nICE

well at least julio fits right strike out

Rather see that than Hank strikeout there.

Frank the tank, Frank the TANK, FRANK THE TANK

I think I heard that Young doesn’t like batting 3rd.

Good first at bad for him..and I agree. I’d much rather see him than Blalock or Jones.

That strikeout ball dropped. That’s what good pitches do..appear to be strikes and are not. I don’t think that was a bad pitch to strike out on.

I think we should send him down to the minors this inning and put AJ in the six hole

We must be patient. We must not overreact. Having said that, we must get rid of Jaramillo or Washington. I vote Jarimillo.

sorry I wish it was July

@alan: I’m still hoping that July will NOT start out like that.

Figgins struck out on same pitch as Borbon i guess angels should send him to minors too.

and someone get TD spellcheck….CalenDAR! Duh.

I do have a ? for all here if the shakeup in the lineup does not work and produce results fast then do we get to replace the hitting coach I know he has a great reputation and all but when does the coach get the blame ever?

7:51: Should have mentioned these pitching notes earlier. RHP Tommy Hunter will get at least one more start, probably this Saturday against Tampa Bay. Doing that allows the Rangers to push Scott Feldman back a couple of days and into the series at Los Angeles next week. The Rangers should go Kevin Millwood, Feldman and Derek Holland against the Angels in Orange County. … Also asked manager Ron Washington if Frank Francisco had been returned to closer since C.J. Wilson pitched the eighth and Francisco was warming up for the ninth. Washington was non-commital about Francisco’s role in the bullpen.

YEAH!!

HOORAY! YET ANOTHER SOLO HOME RUN FOR THE RANGERS!!! What a well-oiled offensive machine this is!

Back to back YEAHS!!

Sorry, but it’s hard to get excited by the continuation of periodic solo homers scattered about many, many more strikeouts.

The ratio remains too far out of whack.

What is the point of pointing it out? Everyone knows strikeouts and shaky offense is a problem.

Sorry…my mid-season Ranger cynicism kicked in a little early this year. I would love nothing more than to be proven wrong in a most serious fashion.

I think it is our right to be critical and question things, that just means we care right? But to complain about a homerun is ridiculous…..sorry BOB.

You’re right, it was ridiculous for me to complain about the homer. Just overly frustrated with the June swoon.

@evan: no winner. Phil and I both had Murphy in the 3rd, ONE on, and a 2-1 count.

8:13: Prompted by BobBland’s “mid-season cynicism,” I am once again fascinated with the phenomena of Rangers fans who seem to race to be the first off the bandwagon. I didn’t grow up here, so I don’t have 37 years of frustration vested in the club, but I want to ask why there seems to be so much willingness to stop believing in the club. That’s not a shot at you Bob; just an observation I make each year and each year I’m interested to see what people have to say.

@evan: I don’t have an answer for you. In fact, I have often wondered the same thing. Is it like this with other teams/fans, or is this a DFW phenomanon?

It is the culture the club created. It’s not easy to do so many things, so wrong, for so long.

@ehren: I agree!

Evan Here is my take I equate the Rangers to a bad movie and in which you know something bad is about to happen you just dont know when it will happen and waiting for the moment when you heart will be broken Is some times just down right torture and thats my take I just know something will happen and they will lost this game I hope they dont but I almost expect it

Not ever off the wagon. I like where the team is going and the players that are playing here and coming up. Dallas is a winners (bandwagon) town no matter what sport it is. Frustrating.

I think it kind of has to do with instant gratification of rebuilding teams. It’s faster in other sports than baseball.

@BobBland: Don’t be so hard on yourself. We’re here for your over-the-top, excessively bitter kneejerk reactions. Hopefully, we can provide balm for what ails ye.

@All: Great answers. No national magazine has ever done anything on Ranger fandom, but I’ve often said forget about the Cubs; this is the most tortured – and loyal – group of fans in the country. I mean that as a compliment.

Also, here is a real point of contention I have regarding the whole on/off the “bandwagon” issue.

Is a fan automatically considered “off the bandwagon” because he/she is critical (even harshly so) of his/her team? The Rangers, like the Cowboys, have been screwing up so badly for so long now it really infuriates me.

But just because I’m not viewing the action through Ranger Red glasses doesn’t mean I’m “off the bandwagon” – I’m just a critical fan who refuses to let my teams off the hook when they continue to make the same mistakes time after time after time.

There’s no way I could get off the bandwagon.

If I could survive the Benji Gil era, I can survive anything.

Thanks, Evan. I promise I’m no troll seeking to incite an online flame war. Heck, I’m using my real name and even linking to my blog with my e-mail address, so it’s not like I’m trying to toss molotov ****tails from behind a firewall. I just have always been excessively emotional about sports, especially when I think a team is underachieving.

If the Rangers had a roster full of spares and scrubs, I wouldn’t have any lofty expectations. But this team should be doing better. They need to start holding themselves to a higher performance standard.

BRAVO, BEER GUY!

*GROUP HUG?*

Having said all that, this game is going well so far!!

@TD: just as long as we don’t share a salad.

Does anybody realize that the Rangers have only lost 3 games to AL West opponents this season. That is a positive Ranger note.

@Bob: try dicktails

i didn’t think it would work! my bad!!!

Excellent Rhyner reference, Ryans Dad (Rhyner’s dead).

And great stat – had no idea we were performing so well within the division!

Awesome, Ehren!

Beer Guy, your teams do look to have a bright future. Gotta love that Matty Ice! LOL at Bobby “Blue,” as my dad’s best friend used to call me that when I was a wee one.

The team is still really young. We are at the stage of beating lesser teams and learning what it takes to beat the better teams. Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose, sometimes it rains.

I will say this I do equate us to the Cubs in this respect I know the Rangers will never win anything big in my lifetime and I am somehow at peace with that too I except for the Longhorns the Rangers ar my faviorte team in the world and I would love to say nothing better than to say American League Champions and world Champions and yet I know that will never happen and you see Maylon Byrd proves my point so easily I can sit here and watch them get two on and nobody out and you know they will screw it up and see there you go now if that was any other team you know they would at least scored one run but man that is where my it comes from times like that watching a team consistelnty night in and night out not do the small things is what makes me the kind of fan I have become

Pretty sure Vlad hasn’t cleaned his helmet since 2002.

Well damn.

Good point Ehren. I went back and looked at the birthdate’s of everyone on the roster. Only Millwood, Vizquel, and “Every Once in a While” Eddy are older than me. And I still feel like I’ve got a few big league seasons in me.

Can we waive Padilla again

must…resist…urge…to…spew…venom…

NEVER GOING TO WATCH THE RANGERS AGAIN!

Uhhhh, nevermind.

Get him out.

Think of it this way. November of this year and Padilla will be an a-hem…Benji Gil type memory and we can move on with someone a little more mentally together.

If it was two years ago, I’d say at least we have Cowboys training camp to look forward to, but…um, yeah. Not so much, buddy.

@Evan: Bought an official Ryan hoodie which I will proudly wear on Sundays this fall! 2 years ago was about the worst year of my fanhood. But we can have some good fights over NCAA…I’m a Razorback fan Of course, the only basketball championship they won happened to be while I was living in Europe for a year and totally missed most of the games and any celebration…As for NBA, it’s Portland all the way! (Been a fan since the Clyde the Glide days)

@Evan…perhaps you should email them a copy. I often times believe Hicks takes fan support for granted. However, I think the players do notice the support they get.

Please read Bob Sturms posts on “rules” of being a fan.

Jennings in with 2 on. Score 2 for angels.

@TD: I would die an extremely happy man if Atlanta pummeled the Cowboys in the NFC championship game some year. I wouldn’t even care how the Super Bowl turned out!

Ehren – agree. I liked the move. I had grown weary of Padilla. I actually don’t blame him for tonight. The second HR was a good pitch down. Vlad got on beating an overshift. Two hits sneak through the infield.

But boy, he lost it fast.

The one silver lining is the Halos bullpen blows chunks.

I’n not saying the effort isn’t there for the Rangers, but doesn’t it seem like our guys are “shellshocked” right now?

ryab where is that post at

The end is BRUTAL…gonna have to get some wins in the bag early! I contribute to a cowboys site:

http://www.lonestarstruck.com

hope that’s okay Evan.

Nice strike out.

Did you know there’s a brand new dance taking the nation!!! The mini buffalo ranch sandwich! LOL

@Rangers Fan: I wouldn’t think there would be.

@Jack: you still pouring the stiff one?

Mmmm, hot for teacher

By the way, forgot to mention this last week, but even Mrs. Jack Daddy mentioned how gawd awful the D Backs jerseys were (they don’t have the full name on there for crying out loud). Worst unis in baseball? Coming off two straight series against arguable the 2 best unis in baseball (Dodgers grays and Giants home whites).

So:
best:

1. Giants Home
2. LAD Road Grey
3. Red sox home

Worst:

1. D Backs
2. Padres camos (do they still wear those?)
3. As (green and yellow in any combo is atrocious).

@Ryans Dad: I concur!

Let’s throw it to Knoxy…

@TD: No worries.

OK….without being any kind of over critical..

IS IT TOO MUCH TO ASK FOR ONE OF THOSE CLASSIC RANGER 3 RUN HOMERS!?!?!?!?

“CLASSIC” as in circa 2003 LOL

@EHREN: Thanks, I must say…I only contribute, write and do some of the graphic design…the master of most of that is a really talented girl named Kelly.

Am I the only person actually happy with the way the Rangers have played the last month? They over achieved the first two months and showed a lot of promise, but honestly.. were you impressed with overall pitching – starters 3-5 and the bullpen? Were you happy with the situational hitting? Life on the long ball?

I was more concerned that the team would be in somewhat contention and then make the typical uber mistake of trading away talent at the wrong time.

The reason I am happy is that we now have the young players advancing to the majors. And if you read JN Braves manifesto this is exactly what we need. Young arms getting needed innings, young batters getting critical at bats.

Honestly, who thought of this team as a WORLD SERIES champion? Sorry, cannot agree with anyone on that one. I have been very impressed with the defense so far. Elvis has been fantastic. Chris has been super at first. When pitchers have a confidence in the defense they will take the chance at a sinker inducing a ground ball for the out. Believe me? No. Go look at Kevin M flyball to ground ball ratio for this year and prior years.

I love watching the Angels/Dodgers series, not for the rangers but the how the other teams execute. Bunting, smart base running, key hits, and then the key HRs along with good pitching. This was never the 2009 Rangers, but things are looking up. CD will get his chance to cut down the Ks. Ian needs to work or being consistent throughout the season. Elvis needs more at his position along with MY. Byrd, Hank, and Jones are short termers and will not be with the team next year. Outfield will be Murphy (and I do have to comment that I gave up on him after his early struggles), Cruz, Borbon, and Josh (I am thinking it is 50/50 he stays health for his career- as his wife said “God must love Ballplayers” in reference to him still being alive, you simply cannot abuse that much drugs and not have a long term health implications).

Pitching wise we will have Kevin M in another contract year, 3 H’s (Harrison, Holland, Hunter) to continue growing, and the X factor for a free agent additions along with Feliez.

The X factor is based on Hicks selling the team and the new owner has enough money to pick up another top of the order starter. BTW, I also think Wash and JD will be gone with the new owners.

I am happy, the team is… finally, improving. The pieces are starting to come together.

To all of the dissenters and nae-sayers, please provide a detail account how you think this team as WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS. Nah, didn’t think you could make an intelligent argument. But things are looking up.

Of course, you could look it up.

Hey and you know I was reading to day from angels bloggers on another site dont know if i can say it or not here is for all to read

What is the feeling among Angels fans about the Rangers? Do they expect Texas to fold?
Sorry, Texas. But, yeah, they do. In fact, they’re counting on it. There’s a lot of history there that the Rangers have to live down before they are taken seriouslY

I hate to admit but they are right they know it and so do the Rangers and even when we swept them a while back they knew in the back of their head that we will get healthy and it will happen and until we can get over the hump this will always be our legacy

Love the post Auditor, however if we lose JD for any reason, it will be one of biggest blunders this organization ever made. Think about that one for a while. JD made mistakes, guess what… he was 18 at the time. He learned from them and won’t make them again. He will land somewhere and use the training he got here to make a winner somewhere else.

Auditor puttin the work in…I like it! Let’s add Hurley and make it the 4H Club.

If our offense accomplishes nothing else, and as far as scoring runs they do little of that, they have done a great job of elevating pitcher’s self esteem, be it fading veterans, anxiety plagued starters or rookies just up from AAA, our guys can make you feel like Cy Young in just a few short hours. Now your next start may be your last in the majors, but for just that moment in time, the Rangers offense will give you that feeling of a lifetime, the sensation of being a dominating big league hurler. See, these guys are good for something.

I’d rather watch a team growing from a great farm system than an old team staggering into the playoffs.

Also, wasn’t it Giamatti (sp), the late NL commis who kicked Rose out of Baseball, who said something like “The game is designed to break your heart.”

When and if the team is sold, I’m sure the choice of GM will be Nolan’s.

@Evan: Any info on “game night with Evan”? I know you’re hating me for consistently asking.

To quote the groundskeepers from Major League II, “They’re sh**ty again!”

Seventh Inning Stretch: Watch Evan judge a cooking contest!!! Surprise.
http://insidecorner.dmagazine.com/index.php/2009/06/29/seventh-inning-stretch-watch-evan-grant-judge-a-food-competition/

Has anyone else sensed a little tension between Josh and Tom? Am I imaginning this? Has it always been there?

@Evan: How’s Eric doing after the procedure today?

I told myself and i told others who complained when they were winning to enjoy the ride because it will not last and you know I wish I would have enjoyed it because first place will be looking down at us for the rest of the year I am afraid

Finally, Josh showed a little frustration there going to commercial break.

I haven’t noticed any tension between them, Ryans Dad…

How much longer will the Rangers’ futility go unnoticed by Hollywood? Major League had the Indians, Rookie of the Year had the cubs, Little Big League the Twins; since I will never see the Rangers succeed in real life I would gladly fork over $8.95 to suspend reality for 2 hours.

@TD: i’m not sure that anything is season defining….

define defining?

just hoping for the best.

Thanks Evan!

OK, lets hear it on THIS move….

Steal home!!!

well at least he didn’t strike out.

Pathetic.

Please release Guardado.

Remember all the hype surrounding him when he was young and coming up…

Avg .850

Wonder what happened???

Sorry to be negative, but we aren’t going to come back from a 3 run deficit in the 9th, so I don’t think more runs for LA really matter much.

it’s sarcasm.

Mathis? I really don’t understand that move.

Good news about Eric Nadel, Evan! At least we’ll have one positive Rangers note to take from tonight.

TD: I think the injuries really impacted his game.

Not to me cynical but…didn’t Bascik all but come out and say Blalock was on roids when eh was here? Could that be a reason? Or did I dream that?

tough loss, buckle it up and get em tomorrow. that’s baseball. we’ve been in all but about 6 games this year. this year has been a smashing success.

you know what an 87 win season is? Its 2 six game win streaks surrounded by .500 baseball the rest of the way. That’s it. mix in a 3rd streak and you’re at 92 wins. We are going in a bad way. we’ll have a stretch where we get unconscious at the plate. the angels will cool off.

More importantly, we’ll improve and improve. Sit back and enjoy it.

We (players and fans) are all pressing.

Scoop, he’s telling 10 major league hitters what to do. Are they all not listening? I refuse to believe that. If you want my personal opinion, and that is all it is,I think Rudy has been using chemistry to develop hitters all these years. There, I said it!

Davis grounding out is a moral victory.

Ryans Dad – I’m done clamoring for accountability for Rudy. Whatever. But I’ll say this:

1. his reputation was built on the success of a collection of players that have ALL either been found guilty of using or been strongly linked. ALL of them.

2. even in the “good ole days”, we would get shut down by upper end pitching. See the dang Yankees series. But he doesn’t seem to have any job risk. Meanwhile, Wash pinch hits for Vizquel 2 weeks ago (and lets Davis swing) and people want to fire him while in first place.

Whatever. Whatever. Whatever.

All of that being said, I don’t know how you hammer a guy for the failings of a bunch of rookies/2nd year players and 2 guys platooning at DH that NOBODY would take for free (ie., pay their salary without giving up prospects). So, I come back to, sit back and evaluate and develop.

I jumped off the Rudy bandwagon years ago. I sit in the corner quitely waiting for an opportunity to advance my agenda. We almost had a head of steam a couple of years ago w the Sturm rant, only to get the air let out of the tires by a 30 run game. We will persevere. FREEDOM!

I agree with Jack Daddy. Let’s enjoy seeing young kids up and developing. It’s a fun team. They enjoy the game and are putting for the effort. The results will come in time and probably not this year….

ps- which player is a disgrace to ballplayers?

blalock. all the talent in the world, but he refuses to do anything other than try to pull the ball with all his might. maybe i’m being too harsh, I’m just done with the guy.

I completely agree. He’s got nothing and still yaps his mouth about playing time.

@scooper – i’m not technical enough or bright enought to question his merits. From a mechanical standpoint, I would assume that he is top notch. I just don’t like the mental approach at the plate. Maybe it has nothing to do with him. Maybe it does. It just seems weird that we’ll fire a manager (who really doesn’t have as much impact on the performance imo) to shake things up but the coaches continue on. what other coach in what other sport has kept a job for 19 years with out post season success? The 3 times they did go, they laid 3 goose eggs.

again, it just strike me as strange.

matthews was another guy that he “turned” around and was another roid guy.

like i said, I’ve move past whether he stays or goes. Just get rid of blalock and jones and i’ll be happy.

@ryansdad: no, it is not impossible, but his name hasn’t come up. and DeRosa left because, Rudy had helped him. He changed pretty much everything about his swing. That was his chance to get a big contract and the Rangers weren’t going to pay that much. Do you want to bet that he would come back in a NY minute if we were paying him what he is making now?
@JackDaddy: he’s kept his job here because his teams have ALWAYS hit. What coach or manager who has had success for that many years is fired because the portion of the team that he is responsible for has a 2-month slump? We haven’t even fired pitching coaches that fast. And he can’t be held accountable for our lack of post-season success. You know, we didn’t make the playoffs so let’s fire the hitting coach, even though we have one of the highest scoring offenses in baseball.

Listening to Diamond Talk (which I told myself I would stop doing because I think they offer very little) and they keep calling Jones a potent bat and a guy who’s swinging the bat well. Is he? I thought he had the lowest average on the team or something close. Why in the world would you want to see Jones in there??

Me too Auditor, I look forward to those comments.

I understand it’s a losing argument. I fight the good fight though because I believe in the cause.

I don’t get the whole bandwagon bailout either. Except for the fact that the two are one in the same. I’m guessing it’s largely Cowboy frontrunners, who are also Mavs and Stars frontrunners. I’m as frustrated as the next life long Ranger fan, and I even wished failure on them over the 01-06 seasons, but toward a brighter future. This years troubles pale in comparison to past debocles (read: John Hart era). We ALL would have taken this position in December and been stoked to be in contention this late in the game – and a good year ahead of plans. I don’t get why our “fans” are so anxious to bail on this team, but I’m surrounded by them.

@scooper, everyone. All good points on Rudy. I admit that I don’t have the answer. I don’t think I’m advocating replacing him. Again, I attribute this mostly to 1: 3-4 really young guys in the lineup, 2: josh being out and everybody pressing (and trying to lift the young guys), 3: evan’s point about FAs to be swinging for the fences and 4: jones having no business on this team.

I don’t think Rudy should fry for that, just don’t think Wash should either. I do think they need to address what appears, at least to me, to be a disconnect in the plate approach that is being stressed to these guys.

I am beginning to think Ian may not be cut in the mold of a leadoff guy. Mostly I just want to sit back and watch this season “simmer” and not make any judgments on coaches or young players (other than that Hank and Jones are wasting my time being in the lineup).

I want to see as much as possible of Holland, Hunter, Harrison. I want to see young guys. I don’t want to make a rash trade (as i think it was auditer said best), though I’m not convinced this thing doesn’t need an impact corner bat to make a run for NEXT year. We’ll have a better opinion after seeing josh back and how he performs (and how that allows cruz to perform). Bottom line – i just want to watch and learn the rest of the way. Finally, would LOVE to see Martin Perez jump to Frisco (akin to what feliz did last year going from clinton).

Night. Enjoy talking bb with you boys.