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Welcome back Michael Young…

@Ruffian: Ah, who needs a pension anyway? I have second thoughts daily. The DMN has been extremely good to me. It was my decision to walk away in March, not theirs. I just thought it was important for me to stay around baseball. As it turns out, that looks like a pretty smart move on my part. I don’t want to leave D, either. I may have trouble finding dates, but I’ve been lucky when it comes to finding workplaces that I love. I love them both and want to seem them succeed.

@Evan – I forget – what were they trying to get you to move to?

@Alan in SA: Abreu’s base was $5 million this year and he’ll earn another $1 million in incentives based on plate appearances.

@Ruffian: Cowboys.

@Ruffian–I cannot believe that anyone could forget Evan’s illustrious career covering Cowboys

@Evan—-at that price, why wouldn’t we try to sign Abreu in offseason? He’s a lot better in every way than Bradley and probably a lot cheaper than Byrd

@Evan – I don’t blame you for bailing then. Unlike a lot of people, I view football as something to be ignored until spring training starts up again.

@Evan and becca if she’s here—defend THAT lazy ass play by Kinsler…He’s obviously mailing it in

@alan – and he was SMILING about it when he got back to the dugout…

Let’s go, Rangers! The Angels are certainly going to make the good guys EARN a win tonight…let’s fight back, right now…

I sure hope they can resign Pudge for next year. His veteran presence would be a boost as well as his ability to take over if Salty falters due to his surgery. Not sure what would happen if we had to go to Teagarden and rely on him every day, just think he needs more time to develop in the minors.

@Alan in SA: I sure hope there will be some funds available. If ownership changes prior to the winter meetings then maybe there can do something at the meetings and give us even better reason to be engaged next season.

@Alan in SA: I’m not optimistic about off-season finances. And I think LA might prefer to have Abreu at this point than Vlad. Now Vlad might be somebody you would consider signing to be the DH. Right-handed. Knows the pitching in the division. He’s not going to get $10 million a year like he did the last time, but is he going to get more than the Rangers can afford, no matter what the figure is?

@Ranger_Rick: I’d be OK with bringing Pudge back, but that would be a tacit acknowledgment that neither Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Taylor Teagarden nor Max Ramirez have developed as the Rangers expected.

@Alan, @Ranger Rick: I don’t expect really meaningful discussions on the sale to take place until after the first of the year.

@Evan: you think it would be that obvious? I would say bring him back as a backup. I just don’t think with Salty having surgery, Max having been injured and maybe questionable going into the spring as far as development is concerned and with TT showing that he may not be ready to take over as a #1 catcher in case Salty has arm problems like Blalock did you can’t overlook having someone like Pudge there just in case.

@alan: I would settle for at least keeping our studs in arlington instead of seeing them go as soon as free agency comes.

I love Pudge but if he comes back i don’t want him starting more than 50 games, we need to get this catcher situation resolve for the long haul.

@Ranger_ve—with all due respect, who have the Rangers let walk in free agency who were “studs”?…don’t forget that we traded Texiera BEFORE he was a free agent and got back a LOT for him…you may be right, but I can’t remember who we let go as FAs that I would call a stud

@Alan: I agree, and yes the young guys do need to play regularly. We need to find out what we have with these guys once and for all so this catcher position gets settled for a while. There have only been a couple of years since Pudge left that the position has been somewhat solid and reliable.

@Ranger_ve: Like I said he should be a backup/mentor just like Omar was this year.

@Evan–why do you not see substantive discussions on the ownership issue before the first of the year? I interpreted the news in the last week that there are 3 or 4 buyers interested that there might be some movement in 2009…what do you know that we don’t?

Elvis is in his rookie season, I think he has at least 4 more years before we have to really worry about him but it might be worth exploring locking him into a 6-7 year contract next year like the Rays did with Longoria. Keep him here long term and buy out a couple of years of FA.

@Alan: we had to trade texiera because he made it clear that he did not want to be here and got lucky on the trade. Same with Mr. Alexander Rodriguez but in that case we did not got lucky, then there is pudge himself did’nt the rangers pretty much ran him out of town.

@Evan: Which means…Tom Hicks will screw this thing up…

So talks could even go into the spring or further then if Hicks remains stubborn about keeping some part in all of this.

well this bodes well for the Angel’s clinching tonight.

EVAN: Thanks for the work this summer. It’s been fun on this interactive blog. I’m pleased to see you back at the DMN. I may need more than 150 seconds to read the sports page now.

10:15: 2009 Season, it was nice to know you.

@Evan—was the team spending money in 98 pending the approval of Hicks? I can’t remember..and how could the other owners not approve a new owner given the financial wreck that Hicks has turned into…seems like anybody would be better than him..am I missing something?

@Alan in SA: The team really didn’t spend any major dollars during the 1997 offseason.

Is there a worse situation than getting eliminated by the team you were chasing, on their park , on the first game of a four game series and on top of that getting blown out. I’m sorry but this game is really getting to me.

@Ranger_ve: Yes, there could be a worse situation. You could be eliminated in early September like the Rangers have the last couple of years. I know this game is heart-breaking for a number of folks, but I must emphasize the Rangers went into the last week of the season in contention.

@evan funny how things come back to you…….you have to feel pretty good in your loyalty to baseball here and how that loyalty is now being rewarded……….you’ve been good for the rangers and good for the metroplex……now go find us a smart owner with deep pockets…..

10:34: Rangers have now allowed runs in each of their last six innings of work. … Why is Ian Kinsler being booed in Anaheim?

As if this night couldn’t get any more depressing: They just played Karma Chameleon between innings. Boy George? Seriously?

@evan maybe ian called out their fans for not having a sellout? or working today?
@dude until we win it there is always tweaking to be done and 2 of 3 of the ownership groups put together look like they have a ton of mlb experience so that will have its’ effect…….

@evan – my biggest DMN suggestion would just simply be to make users login to comment. That would eliminate a lot of the trolls and you could also eliminate the terrible CAPTCHA system.

@KJ: But you don’t have to log on here. I think captcha is the only thing different than here, isn’t it? Or can you fill me in on the differences?

This game is really sad. And I think Borbon has a lot to learn defensively in the outfield.

@JD – thanks for cleaning up the stats that I misquoted earlier on the Hamilton impact.

also Remember that series was the one where Ian went crazy on them Friday and Saturday (and was spectacular in field, saving the Friday’s game – remmber we almost blew the big lead, reminiscent of yesterday?) and Lackey hit him leading off Saturday. I believe he was hitless that Sunday (heck, we only had 1 or 2 until the the 7th or 8th as a team) and I remember thinking that it was that Sunday game that started Ian’s LONG 2-3 month slump. Go back and check and you’ll see that is when he started nose-diving. Was particularly weird because I thought his best 2 games of season were that Friday night game and that Saturday game.

I just hope that next season, the team remembers that you have to beat everyone, not just the teams that are “the best”.. You have to beat the teams you should beat too. The losses to inferior teams killed us this year. Hopefully that is a lesson learned this season.

11:13: The Rangers will not officially be eliminated from the playoff race tonight. While they will be eliminated from AL West contention, they will still mathematically be alive in the wild card hunt. Boston’s magic number would be reduced to win, despite the fact the Red Sox lost Monday. The Red Sox will have clinched a tie, but not the final playoff spot until they either win again or the Rangers lose again.

@Evan: Do you know anytihng about this Kinsler story? i just don’t see why this is a big deal. Athletes cuss…a lot and talk trash. Why is this news?

11:20: A question was just raised. Can we Mercy Rule this game? I’m for it.

@Ranger Fan: I just did a quick google and didn’t find anything new. Fans are fans. They react to strange things. Lackey pitches on emotion. If he’s been carrying this around since May, well, I’d say maybe he’s a little too overwrought, but without seeing the actual story, I can’t say one way or another.

@Evan: Well, if he tries to use that to motivate himself against us and it turns out like it did that wonderful August Sunday in which Derek Holland completely dominated that team and Lackey imploded and went bananas…I tell Ian to do the same thing next year. Hey, at this point, I need to remember how I felt in those great moments this year.

@Jack Daddy: Yes, the firery Ian Kinsler is what we need. I think he’s still that guy. But I agree…when you’re slumping it’s hard to be chatty and such.

@Jack Daddy: That link references a Baseball Prospectus story> I don’t think there are 20,000 BP readers in the stands tonight. It also had to be in some local paper, but I can’t find the quote.

Whatever. It’s over and done with. We’ll revisit the disintegration of the season tomorrow. Tonight: Drowning my sorrows in an In-N-Out Double-Double, Animal Style.

@Ranger Fan – I think he’s still that guy too.

I think he needs to be sit a little more frequently (say 2X per month) to keep him fresh. Every time he came back from a game off, he seemed to hit a HR. Supports the notion that his swing hasn’t changed, only that when fatigued he (a) is a bit late and gets under the pitch and/or (b)has a harder time mentally laying off the pitch up in the zone. Either way, it scares me that our manager is having to identify that and try to address and not our ALL WORLD swing coach (there I go again!).

@evan – I thought the same thing. But for all we know, maybe their announcers mentioned it this weekend.

Or they saw it during that game. Or they just don’t like him. Or they were boing something in the stands and we just THOUGHT it was Ian!

Why am I still up? I get sucked into baseball talk EVERY time I stop down here. Dangit!

@Jack Daddy: Seriously, dude, get some rest. This is like watching a train wreck. The only thing keeping me going right now is the promise of In-N-Out.

And we’ll hit Louie’s soon enough once the playoffs start. We’ll invite lots of Cornerians. We’ll call it a moving party.

Evan – great job – look forward to seeing you on DMN.

I’m hitting the sack since it’s even later here on the east coast, but I’ll leave you all with this great moment from 2009..

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3681054

Darn you Ranger Fan – you know I can’t resist lists! Here’s mine. I’ll check in the morning for yours and Evan’s:

In no particular order, other than the order of how they pop up in my head:
1. Young’s walk off to beat KC in April. I still maintain that this was the single biggest hit of the year. I think the season easily could have gone in toilet without that win. Turned a 4-8 record into a 5-7 one with 1 swing.
2. Davi’s walkoff against Morrow. I was at game, just behind 1B dugout. Best seats I’ve had in probably 30 years to a game. Weather was amazing. Harrison and Felix were superb. Was the first moment this year when I thought something magical was happening.
3. Sweeping the Angels in that series. One of the few times it seems in Rangers history when it we knew the high stakes going in and delivered, capped off by Hamilton’s catch. Maybe the crowning moment of the year, and ironically, perhaps the moment that cost us the playoffs (see earlier discussion on our performance with and without him).
4. Holland’s start on the eve of the trading deadline. My personal favorite moment of the year. I was on vacation and tuned in around the 4-5 inning. I would have given anything to have been in the stands and been part of that ovation.
5. Holland’s start vs. the Angels. Was probably the most dominating Rangers start I’ve seen since Nolan Ryan or Kevin Brown.
6. Ian’s cycle.
7. This Saturday night, with the incredible swing of events with us coming back and the Halos blowing the lead to Oak.
8. Feliz’ debut. Wow.
9. Winning the rubber game against Boston last month to take the wild card lead.
10. That Saturday before the Boston finale, where our young hitters had a night for the ages (borbon and elvis on the base paths) and Holland got the win. It was Borbon’s coming out party and the game that forced Wash to play him the rest of the way (at least against righties).

Honorable mention:

That crazy Yankee finish where we JUST held on with the great play by andrus or the next day with the start vs. Burnett. Or the Cle DH. Or the emergency start by Nippert vs. Boston when he pitched 6 innings on short rest and Mathis followed to close it out. Just a gutty, gutty performance.

There were several others that could have gone in there (some walkoffs, some shutouts), but I think that is a pretty good reflection of a great season.

@evan – I haven’t had the game on since I’ve been on here tonight. Turned it off and came to the study to check out what was happening here. Never turned it back on, thankfully!

@evan- the difference here is that it’s not a nationally recognized newspaper (and is not the first place where those not in the know come for Rangers or sports news for that matter. this is like the cool club without the numbers on the door. and everyone knows where to find the DMN.

so as a result, you get a lot of trolls there who will post under other people’s names and post trash because all they have to do is eventually type a CAPTCHA. if you get a login id there, you will immediately eliminate imposters (which i have had over 20 imposter KJs on the DMN blogs). and it would allow you to quickly block someone who is not there to post with good intentions.

in other words, CAPTCHA only makes it harder for the true fans and it doesn’t eliminate the trash and imposters.

Evan:
You asked “Why is Ian Kinsler being booed in Anaheim?” I listen to the Ranger Angel games via the Angels team radio station here and one of the announcers made a comment that the Angel players were very motivated because they could read Ian mouthing the words “Now get your A** off our field” after we,(the Rangers) took the series from the Angels the time before in Texas. It could have been written up in the papers too.