What do You Say? One Last Texas Rangers Depot for Old Times’ Sake Tonight; how about it?

UPDATE, 8:21 p.m. : Here we go …

I am going to take the weekend off to get my life in order before changing workplaces for the second time in seven months, but after leaving you in a lurch the last two days, I’ll blog tonight as the Rangers try to clinch second place, if you are interested in blogging along with me.

What do you say? Could we make a one-last time run at the unthinkable record of 1,016 in-game comments? Could we? Could we?

Series Preview: Rangers at Mariners

Despite completing a sweep of the A’s last night and owning an ML best +22 win differential from 2008, the Seattle Mariners don’t really have much left to play for. Except maybe second place.

The Rangers will head to Seattle to wrap up their season with a three-game series against the Mariners, and while neither team will be playing in the postseason, the M’s front office was pleasantly surprised by the team’s turnaround. After needing to win their final three games of 2008 just to avoid having baseball’s worst record, Seattle played well enough in ’09 to earn every coach an invite back for next season.

A huge reason for their success has been a lethal combination of pitching and defense. Seattle’s pitching staff is anchored by Cy Young candidate Felix Hernandez and they  lead the A.L. by a wide margin in team ERA, while also ranking first in MLB in almost every defensive metric imaginable. So the reasons for their turnaround are obvious, but one thing that isn’t quite as clear is who should be the team MVP. Hernandez, who the Mariners are trying to lock down long-term, is an obvious candidate. But so are Franklin Gutierrez and recently reactivated Russell Branyan, both of whom had breakout seasons.

Ken Griffey Jr., on the other hand, might have to fight for a chance to play again after he posted some ugly numbers this season. Veteran Mike Sweeney might be in the same boat. And even 25-year-old Brandon Morrow, who the Mariners picked over Washington-native Tim Lincecum in the 2006 Rule IV Draft, is starting to look more like Chad Gaudin than Lincecum.

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Game Plan Friday: Denver Broncos

There are a lot of reasons why this game in Denver is one of the trendy upset picks across the league; Altitude. Noise. “Cowboys are over-rated”. “Broncos are under-rated”.

Whatever the reason, this is a game that most don’t want to miss. A true chance for both teams to prove what they are made of.

So, how do the Cowboys get to 3-1? By following a recipe that seems to be the best way for them to win games this year – Staking claim to that line of scrimmage.

I think we should all consider the way the Cowboys have played at the point of attack as the biggest source of optimism (and the most under-reported story) for this season to be the year the Cowboys break that dreaded 4,660 day drought since their last playoff win. With the exception of the defensive front seven in Tampa – a game which they admit they got “too cute” on their run blitzes and needed to just play “straight up” defense until proven otherwise – the Cowboys have been nearly impossible to run on. Two of the very best running offenses in the NFL have had no success against the Cowboys in the last few weeks. So much so that Carolina pretty much abandoned the run in the 2nd half altogether. That says quite a bit given how Carolina does business.

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Dallas Stars’ October Forecast: Chance of Clearing

Marc Crawford’s term as Stars coach will begin on Saturday night when the Nashville Predators provide the loyal opposition. And if you like what you see, the Preds will be right back a week from Wednesday!

Eight of the Stars’ 14 October games will be played away from AAC, beginning with a three-game trip to Western Canada after opening night. (Here’s the full season sked.) The Stars will play three back-to-backs: the standard Anaheim-LA double in southern California, plus Friday-Saturday home-and-homes featuring Boston-Chicago (Stanley Cup Finalists?) in the middle of the month and Florida-Nashville at the end.

(Programming note: The plan for in-game blogs this season is to spot them for particular games of interest, the Saturday night opener being one of them.)

Some observations about the Stars and Western foes:

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