I hate effing up a good Colby Lewis start.

CONFESSION: I fell asleep.  I know, I’m terrible.  That’s just how this week has been.  Seems I may have made the right decision as I’m sure I would have broken my laptop throwing it at my TV in the bottom of the 7th, you know if it had even survived the 6th inning.

Colby Lewis took the hill for the Rangers in Friday’s game against the Angels’ Jerome Williams.  Honestly, Colby was pretty good, only giving up 4 hits, walking  1, striking out 5 and NO HOME RUNS.  Oh, and he lasted 6 and 2/3 innings.  So what went wrong?

Well, the Rangers had a 2-0 lead going into the 6th and Colby had only given up 1 hit.  Well, a double, triple and a sac fly later, the game was tied.  Then with 2 outs in the 7th, Colby gives up a single.  Then, a Kinsler error (shocking, I know) would let the next runner get on AND would fail to end the inning.  The next batter, Mike Trout, would then single, scoring both runnings.  The Rangers wouldn’t really do anything the next few innings giving viewers even the slightest hope of a comeback.

FINAL: Rangers 2, Angels 4

With the win, the Angels are now within 4.5 games of the Rangers.  Hopefully, our boys can bounce back today with Darvish taking on Wilson at 9:05pm CT.

(Photo courtesy of flickr.com user Kwong Yee Cheng.)

As every team has now played about a quarter of their schedule, things are starting to take shape.  Here’s a glance of what’s been happening with the Los Angeles Angels this season and their key players:

• Current record: 20-25, going 5-5 in their last 10 games
• Released Bobby Abreu
• Fired hitting coach Mickey Hatcher
• Torii Hunter is on the restricted list
• Pitcher Latroy Hawkins, catcher Chris Iannetta, OF Vernon Wells and Ryan Langerhans all on DL
• Called up top prospect Mike Trout
• Albert Pujols has started to heat up, hitting .275 over his last 10 games and knocking in 3 home runs. Still not at his normal Pujols-level, but worth noting.

Yeah, It’s been a rough 2ish months for the Angels.

A quick look at the team stats:

» Continue reading “Catching Up With The AL West: Los Angeles Angels”

Well, that game was sort of a let down after last night, huh?

Matt Harrison took the mound against CJ Wilson (yes, the same guy who started last night’s game).  Both pitchers were pretty solid.  Harry lasted  until the 7th, leaving after allowing a walk and a single before being replaced by Alexi Ogando to start the bottom half of the inning.  Harry allowed 4 hits (1 homer), walked 2 and struck out 5.  Overall, not a bad outing.  CJ ended up lasting 5 and 2/3 innings.

Ogando pitched 2 innings in relief and really just didn’t look comfortable out there, allowing both inherited base runners to score.  Robbie Ross, on the other hand, looked pretty sharp in the 9th, allowing no hits and striking out 1 batter.

So the offense…  Did y’all know Josh Hamilton is really good at hitting baseballs?  Because he is.  With his 18th jack of the season in the bottom of the 6th, Hamilton tied Cy Williams for the most home runs during the first 34 games.

EIGHTEEN.  It’s scary to think what he’ll do if he can stay healthy all season.

Sadly, Hamilton’s blast and Craig Gentry’s RBI wasn’t enough offense today as the Rangers weren’t able to rally back in the latter innings.

Don’t worry, Rangers fans, CJ didn’t get the win…

FINAL: Rangers 2, Angels 4

I’m pretty much against booing a player on the opposing team.  Across the board.  Really the only reason I can find for doing it is if that player injured a player on your team (see also: Johnny Cueto’s cleats and Cardinals fans).   It just isn’t classy.

So obviously hearing that many, many Rangers fans are planning to boo CJ Wilson when he takes the mound tonight (or tomorrow) when the Angels visit Arlington for the first time this season just makes me cringe.  Why?  I’m getting various reasons: He’s a douchebag, he sucked in the Playoffs, he didn’t want to come back to the Rangers, etc…

Really?  That’s the best you got?  Honestly, if Rangers fans are to boo any person on the Angels, wouldn’t it make more sense for it to be Albert Pujols?

Let’s address these reasons…

1.  He’s a douchebag.

OK.  I’ll give you this one.  He does come across as one.  And he’s probably an ass in his every day life.  We’re booing people for that now?  We don’t boo Miguel Cabrera for drinking and driving (which is WAAAAAAY worse than thinking highly of one’s self).  Crap if we’re booing someone for thinking too highly of himself, why aren’t we booing Michael Young?

» Continue reading “Texas Rangers: Why I Won’t Boo CJ Wilson”

While many of us were out celebrating St. Patrick’s Day Saturday, former Ranger CJ Wilson was busy pulling a pretty epic prank on Rangers’ catcher Mike Napoli…

At first glance, it seemed that CJ had accidentally tweeted out his own phone number, but upon “investigation” (a fellow Aerys writer may or may not have called it…) turns out that’s actually Mike Napoli’s number.  Excuse me while I laugh hysterically…

So why would CJ tweet out a friend’s number?  Apparently it was in retaliation for Napoli saying that he can’t wait to hit home runs off CJ this year.

Well played, sir.  Well played.

Hello Yu!!! Welcome to the great state of Texas Mr. Darvish.

The Rangers and Darvish just wanted to freak out every Rangers fan they could by not signing the phenom until 27 seconds (ok, that’s an exggeration-a couple of hours?) before the deadline hit. But like I’ve said before, we have a sneaky front office, and they got things done to the tune of a six year, $60 million contract.

With the largest contract ever for a player coming through the posting system, Darvish, a 25 year old, right-handed stuuuudddd from Japan is money! And, no I’m not talking he’s in the money. The kid was 18-6 with a 1.44 ERA in 28 games last year with the Nippom-Ham Fighters. I’ll take that any day over CJ Wilson’s stats and contract he wanted!

With the addition of Yu (man I’m going to have fun with that name this season), it gives the Rangers six pitchers in a five man rotation. Which means Ogando is probably headed back to the pen. I’m liking the looks of Lewis, Darvish, Holland (maybe they’ll have a dutch-stache off), Feliz, and Harrison. We’ll be heavily right handed but today who cares? I don’t! Do Yu?!?

Over the course of the last month beginning with the winter meetings in Dallas, the Rangers have lost a ton of pitching production from the left side of the bump.

With the defection of C.J. Wilson on the last day of the meetings to division rivals, the Angels, and then a couple of days ago, the ageless wonder, Darren Oliver signing a one-year deal plus an option with the Blue Jays, the Rangers are a bit sparse when it comes to left-handed pitching.

Wilson is coming off 31 wins the last two seasons. Despite many fans angst for Wilson and his postseason failures, he did finish tied for fourth in the A.L. last season with 16 wins. He also pitched 223.1 innings. That kind of production is pretty hard to replace.

» Continue reading “Texas Rangers: Slanted To The Right”

This is, by far, the time of year I hate the most. The holidays are over, the Cowboys are out of the playoffs, and baseball’s opening day is months away (92 days to be exact). Oh baseball how I miss thee….come back soon please?

What has kept me going is the thought of our Texas Rangers in the upcoming season.  Coming off one of the best seasons of the franchise with 96 wins (I know it’s hard, but let’s try to forget the last 2 games of the season), the boys are looking to finally bring home a ring.

They have some exciting prospects in the forms of Yu Darvish, Joe Nathan, and Nefty as a starter.  The clock is ticking on Darvish, but I trust the front office will pull something out (they always do…sneaky, sneaky front office). He’s one of the top pitching prospects out there and would be a legit  addition to the rotation.

I don’t know if I’m completely sold on Nefty as a starter just yet, but I’m excited to see how he does in the position. Joe Nathan has had some injury issues, but I mean seriously…how can you not like a guy named Joe Nathan?

I think the best part of the upcoming season is the fact that we held on to our ‘core’ guys. Kinsler, Andrus, Hamilton, Young, Beltre, Napoli, Cruz….I love how this list goes on and on….are all back! I’m really looking forward to that lineup against the new Angels with CJ and Pujols (bring it, Halos!).

I can go on and on, but we’ll save that for a later post.  Come on baseball!  I’m ready!

After the 2010 holiday season, the Rangers lifted up the curtain in January 2011 and signed Adrian Beltre in the first week of the month and traded for Mike “the big ragu” [my personal nickname for him] Napoli on the 26th, both coming fairly out of left field after a pretty uneventful first part of the offseason.

The same can be said with the 2011 off season so far with the only real focus being on the recent losses of left-handed pitchers C.J. Wilson and Darren Oliver, the early signing of Joe Nathan, and now the impending signing of Japanese phenom Yu Darvish.

Many Rangers fans are holding their breath as they wait to see what the front office does to combat the Angels signing Albert Pujols and former teammate, C.J. Wilson.

• Do the Rangers front office have anything behind the January curtain?
• Coming to terms with Yu Darvish?
• Signing Prince Fielder?
• Trading for another starter?
• Trading for a left-hander for the pen?
• Resigning left-handed relief pitcher Mike Gonzalez?

We’ll see. Thoughts?

Nolan, can we have him? Pretty, pretty please?

A lot happened yesterday (and by a lot, I mean 2), and a lot of it directly affects the Rangers.  First (and unless you live on whatever planet Ashton Kutcher lives on, you already know this), Albert Pujols signed with the Angels for a crazy amount of money until the end of time – OK, 10 years. 

A lot of Rangers fans were freaking out most of yesterday.  Honestly, Pujols doesn’t worry me that much.  The Angels’ offense was pretty week to begin with.  Yeah, he’s the best hitter in baseball, but if no one is in the lineup to protect him, you can simply pitch around him.  And speaking from someone who has watched Pujols A LOT, he’ll get frustrated and will start swinging at bad pitches.  Just don’t throw him anything he can hit.

ATTENTION RON WASHINGTON: DON’T PITCH TO ALBERT PUJOLS.

No, what upset this girl the most yesterday was that the Angels added CJ Wilson to their pitching rotation.  That scares me.   Weaver, Haren, Santana, Wilson.  Yikes.  I never actually thought CJ would come back to the Rangers.  It would have taken a lot more money and years than the Angels gave him, so I get why he didn’t come here (and according to CJ, the Rangers weren’t even close in terms of money and years).  But did it have to be the Angels?  Crap.  Hopefully, Mike Napoli can destroy him like he does the rest of the Angels pitchers. 

I realize the Rangers’ front office seems to be focused on acquiring more pitching (don’t we have enough already?), but I would REALLY love it if they would try for Prince Fielder.  I hear Texas is on his short list.  Can you imagine watching him hit at RBiA?  I think we’d run out of fireworks.  Besides, I think he was the only Brewer that I actually liked.  We can worry about what to do with Mitch Moreland later. 

I also don’t want Yu Darvish (although it appears that the Rangers are trying hard to get the bidding rights).  Sorry, last season left a bad taste in my mouth in regards to Japanese pitchers.  I’m sure since I said it, he’ll turn out to be the best pitcher ever, but whatevs.

PS…I can’t wait to play the Angels in 2017.  They are going to be so old!