photo courtesy of Bart Hanlon

The game didn’t end well. It didn’t end well at all. The Oakland A’s finished off the Texas Rangers in the bottom of the 9th on a Brandon Hicks walk off homer. Final Score: Texas 3, Oakland 4…F.

The A’s, Ogando, and the rest of the Rangers bullpen ruined a nice return from Colby Lewis. I guess I shouldn’t say the “rest” of the bullpen because  neither Mike Adams or Joe Nathan partcipated in the action. I’m not really sure why Ronnie didn’t utilize two of the key cogs in the Rangers bullpen system, but he didn’t.

Colby Lewis, coming off the DL with forearm tendinitis, pitched 5 solid innings and gave up 3 hits, 1 run, and notched 3 strikeouts. Robbie Ross, relieving Lewis, gave up his first run in a long time. Ogando followed Ross and blew the save as he gave up a 2-run double to Josh Reddick. Michael Kirkman would finish things off and take the loss.

Michael Young, Nelson Cruz, and Craig Gentry led the offense with a RBI each.

T’s Game Notes / Observations:

• Josh Hamilton is not having a very good July. Is that an understatement? Surely no one else has noticed.
• The Rangers sported blue tops and grey bottoms.
• Adrian Beltre was a beast at 3B.
• Brandon Hicks homer was the 1st of his career. That’s defeating.

Upcoming Action: The Rangers are off tomorrow, but start a big time series on Friday against the Angels.

The Rangers offense lost 2 – 0 to the Oakland A’s and Bartolo Colon. F!

<photo courtesy of Keith Allison>

(Photo via flickr.com/cfarivar)

As every team has now played about a quarter of their schedule, things are starting to take shape.  The Athletics, in a recontinuous rebuilding mode, traded three key players this offseason, LH starter Gio Gonzalez to the Nationals and RH relief pitcher Andrew Bailey and OF Ryan Sweeney to the RedSox. Here’s a glance of what’s been happening with the Oakland Athletics this season and their key players:

• RH pitcher Tyson Ross was optioned Thursday.
• Received RH pitcher Brad Peacock and AJ Cole, catcher Derek Norris and LH Tommy Milone in Gio Gonzalez deal.
• Received OF Josh Reddick, INF Miles Head and P Raul Alcantara in the Andrew Bailey and Ryan Sweeney deal.
• Top Cuban prospect, Yoenis Cespedes has been on the DL the last few weeks, but was activated Thursday.
• Manny Ramirez suspension is lifted, but he’s not hitting in the minors, so we’ll see if and when he’s called up.
• RH Pitcher Brandon McCarthy is on the DL, but should be activated prior to Saturday’s start.
• 3B Brandon Inge was just activated off the DL.
• OF Coco Crisp was just activated off the DL.

» Continue reading “Catching Up With The AL West: Oakland Athletics”

Hello Win Column (thanks Dave!).

Texas Rangers 4, Oakland A’s 1.

Wow, Yu Darvish is not only sexy looking on the mound, but he’s a damn good pitcher. Tonight’s Texas Rangers victory over the Oakland A’s gave Yu his 6th victory on the year. Yep, that’s 6 wins, 1 loss. I love it.

I know you can pull up MLB.com and ESPN.com to find his pitching line for the night, but I personally like to type it down and look at it over and over.

Oh…so now you’re interested? Well, it was 7.2 innings pitched, only 4 hits allowed, 1 earned run, ONLY 2 walks tonight, and 7 hello kitty strikeouts. Not to mention, he threw 73 strikes out of 118 pitches.

Anyway, enough on Darvish, but man was he good. The Rangers offense didn’t drop 14 runs, or anything ridiculous like that. But they did put up 4, which all came in the bottom of the 4th. A home run from Beltre, and RBI’s from Craig Gentry and Elvis Andrus.

Boom!

I should also point out the job Joe Nathan turned in tonight. 3 up, and 3 freaking down. All on swinging strikeouts. Nice work Yo!

T’s Observations / Game Notes:

• Josh Hamilton extended his hit streak to 16. He had 2 hits tonight.
• Elvis Andrus knocked in an RBI…and he’s my fantasy baseball shortstop.
• Mike Adams picked up his 7th Hold of the year after a nicely done job of relieving Darvish.
• Adrian Beltre knocked his 7th ding dong of the year…from his knee.
• Michael Young received a courtesy off day from the skip. Well done Wash, it was needed.
• Phil Mickelson showed up for the game tonight. I guess he’s participating at the Byron Nelson.
• Per Jeff Wilson (FWST), RBiA population tonight was 46,370, which was a sellout.

Coming Up:

Big Matt Harrison dances on the mound against former Ranger flameout Brandon McCarthy. Game starts at 1:05 pm tomorrow.

Center field: The home of the speed demons. The home of the guys who crash into walls or try to pull a Superman and jump over them to catch a ball. The home of ‘THE Catch’.

Most of the time, center field is where you find the fastest and hardest working guys in baseball, and most of the time they wear their socks up (that’s why they look soooo fast!).

Seriously, these guys could probably cover the whole outfield (well…maybe not literally, but close enough) if they really put their minds to it. Center fielders are usually the faster and more athletic guys in the outfield having to cover their right and left counterparts.

Right fielders usually have the ‘cannon’ arms, left fielders have more speed….center fielders have to have BOTH.

Let’s take a look at the AL West players: Rangers- Craig Gentry, Angels- Peter Bourjos, A’s- Coco Crisp, Mariners- Franklin Gutierrez.

This season the Rangers will hand the starting center field position over to Craig Gentry. The 28-year-old Gentry was drafted in 2006 by the Rangers in the 10th round, but didn’t make his debut until 2009.

Gentry can cover almost anything that comes near him and had some decent numbers last year. He hit .271, had a .347 OBP and had 18 stolen bases.

Even though Gentry is a little ’green’ (he only played 64 games last season) and rough around the edges,  the kid is CRAZZZZZYYYYY fast….His first home run was a stand UP inside the park homerun. That’s seriously impressive. Now if we can focus on how to get him on base more consistently, I’m pretty sure he can take care of the running part.

» Continue reading “Texas Rangers: AL West Center Speed Demons”

Ahhhh, left field. I love left field. Maybe it’s because I played left field so many years ago and feel comfortable there. Maybe it’s because most of the guys who have played left for the Rangers had cute butts. I don’t know what it is, but there’s definitely something special about sitting out there behind the left field scoreboard.

Left field is a different beast when it comes to outfield terms. The ball doesn’t look the same when it jumps off the bat as it does in center or right…and it always seems like the sun is in your eyes no matter what time of day it is.

That being said, let’s take a look at the AL West left fielders. Rangers: Josh (Ham-bone) Hamilton, Angels: Vernon Wells, Mariners: Trayvon Robinson, and Athletics: Seth Smith.

» Continue reading “Texas Rangers: AL West – Left Fielders”

Right Field… When we are little, right field is the place coaches try to hide the ‘not so talented’ players. When you go to little league games, the right fielder is the one picking dandelions or staring up at the sky. But as we well know, that’s not the way it works once you hit the pros.

Let’s take a look at the AL West…We’ve got Nelson Cruz (Rangers), Torii Hunter (Angels), Ichiro Suzuki (Mariners) and well, we don’t really know who’s going to be there for the A’s (Athletics) just yet.

Nelson Cruz has been a regular fixture in right field for the Rangers for the past 3 years. He’s had some injury issues that have kept him from playing in any more than 128 games, but Nelly – the ‘Boomstick ‘ – is still one of the primo right fielders in the league.

Cruz has stayed steady during the season with a .267 batting average, but he really got things going during the playoffs, coming through with several key hits (bombs!). For a bigger guy, he’s pretty quick on his feet and has a great glove (not counting Game 6 of last year’s World Series…we’ll forgive you with time, Nelly).

With the arrival of the lightning quick Peter Bourjous to the Angels, veteran Torii Hunter was moved to right in the 2011 season. Hunter registered 156 games with a batting average of .262 (the first time since 2005 it has fallen under .270).

Hunter had a tendency to come up with some clutch hits, but also struck out in some key situations.  His OBP was way below where it’s been in the past couple of seasons. Since the Angels’ brought up the rookie Trout last season and  with Hunter’s age is starting to pose some questions about his worth in the outfield, it’ll be interesting to see what happens to Mr. Hunter this season.

Onto the Mariners- what happened to the days of Randy Johnson and Ken Griffey?  Seriously, Mariners what happened?  Luckily for the Mariners, they’ve had one ray of sunshine, in the form of Ichiro Suzuki. For the past 10 years, Ichiro has been consistent in games played, on base percentage and average (2011 was the first season he hit under .300). He’s a whiz on the bases and can cover a ton of ground in a heartbeat. Say thank you Seattle, this guy has kept butts in your seats for years.

The A’s seem to be having some trouble hanging onto their outfielders as of late. They lost Josh Willingham and David DeJesus to free agency and Ryan Sweeney and Jai Miller in the past couple of weeks.  They were able to sign Coco Crisp (best…name…ever…), and I know that guy is fast, but seriously?!?!  Is he going to cover the whole outfield by himself?  There’s plenty of time before Spring Training, so we’ll just have to wait and see.

As far as right fielders in the AL West go, we’ve got small guys, we’ve got big guys with bats, we have it all. Just keep an eye on these guys this summer….they’re fun to watch.

On what was an emotional day for Americans, the Rangers took on the same opponent they were scheduled to play on that fateful day 10 years ago.  With numerous pre-game and in-game ceremonies, the Rangers honored those lost that day and those who have served our country.