On top of hiring Dave Magadan as hitting coach, the Rangers are making one additional change in their coaching staff. Gary Pettis is being switched to third base coach and Dave Anderson will be the first base coach. The Rangers announced today that five coaches are returning for 2013: Pettis, Anderson, bench coach Jackie Moore, pitching coach Mike Maddux and bullpen coach Andy Hawkins. Manager Ron Washington said he thinks the Rangers can benefit from Pettis’ baserunning expertise as a third base coach. That’s why the Rangers made the change.

I personally thought Anderson had a good year and see this as moving barstool chairs in the aloha deck around on the love boat.

(Image via flickr.com user Rich Anderson.)

My fire Ron Washington website was going to be up soon but with the Indians hiring Terry Francona over the weekend, it looks like that’s going to have to wait a little while.

But regardless many changes are going to be blowing in the Rangers camp this offseason between free agents, trades, released and maybe possible coaching and manager changes. Many players and coaches you may have seen the last of in a Rangers uniform.

“NO SERIOUSLY, RON WASHINGTON WOULD LIKE HIS PANTS BACK, YOU GUYS.” – Jay Jaffe [Sports Illustrated] via Twitter

This has been a terrific run from 2009-2012 for this group. The last four years have been fantastic for Rangers fans. Did fatigue play a part? Did Washington play his regulars too much? Did the front office not give the coaching staff a good enough bench to give the regulars time off? A quick look at what I think fatigue played a huge role:

Let’s look at the core players for example. Here are their games played in 2012 and the games they didn’t play in the final months of the season. Players will tell you they get off days [but only four the last ten weeks] on the schedule and they want to be out there every day and they played in two straight full Octobers. Here’s a look:

» Continue reading “GASSED And Look For A Very Busy Rangers Offseason”

I miss the happy Texas Rangers.

Today, I was supposed to be getting ready to go to a game at RBiA to see the Rangers play. Instead I’m sitting at work and trying to figure out what I’m going to have for dinner tonight.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this.

Over the next few months, I expect to see a lot of changes in the makeup of the Texas Rangers. A few of the key players for this team over the past few years are free agents (i.e. Josh Hamilton and Mike Napoli, among others). Along with the possibility of not resigning at least one of those two, I expect a few trades. I think they need some new blood in the clubhouse that isn’t bitter or beaten down about the past couple of postseasons.

This team needs to start over.

» Continue reading “Texas Rangers: Let’s Beat A Dead Horse!”

(Image via flickr.com user mikelachance.)

Athletics 9, Rangers 3

Martin Perez got the call tonight and preceded not to get out of the first. It had to be one of the worst innings of the season as Josh Hamilton and Nelson Cruz didn’t help by misplaying two balls in the outfield and the Athletics put up five runs and never looked back. It was such a parade of  ”relief” help out of the pen, I thought Ron Washington was going to summon Nolan Ryan into the game. They used six pitchers altogether and but the staff did issue only three walks. They also had eleven strikeouts.

The offense was just as bad. The Athletics started rookie phenom, Jarrod Parker, who wasn’t sharp, but didn’t need to be. The Rangers did cut the lead to 5-3 after two innings, on 2 RBI by Andrus and one by Moreland. But that was as close as they would get. The team was 0-7 with RISP and left eight men on base.

On Deck

Despite throwing eight innings of one-run ball against the Mariners on Saturday, Harrison took the hard-luck loss. The defeat snapped the left-hander’s 10-game winning streak against Seattle.

The southpaw has worked to a 3-1 record and a 4.47 ERA since the All-Star break, and for the season, he’s 4-3 with a 4.11 mark in 13 games as a starter.

The Rangers did what they needed to do by beating the mighty Mariners 9 to 3. Yu Darvish pitched 7 super strong innings while striking out 9 batters and he looked dynamite in a hello kitty sexual way the entire evening.

Ian Kinsler started the offense engine off with a lead off dinger – his 6th lead off shot of the year. And not to be outdone by Kins, Josh Hamilton decided to hit a monster shot in the 3rd inning, and he landed it somewhere in Oklahoma.

The offense engine hit full throttle in the 8th and decided to score an additional 7 runs, which basically tucked the Mariners in bed and wished them a good night.

Koji Uehara followed Darvish and had another strong outing striking out 2. Michael Kirkman thought it would be funny to tease the Mariners one last time in the 9th by giving up 2 earned runs, but he would quit fooling around and finished them off for good.

Go Rangers!

T’s Game Notes and Observations

• Darvish reached the 200K mark on the year during the game. He has 205 now.
• It was good to see Adrian Beltre and Hamilton playing tonight.
• I think I set a new personal record by changing 7 dirty diapers during the game.
• I had no idea that Ron Washington was the player who followed Cal Ripken, Jr at shortstop when Cal finally decided to take a seat on the bench. I hope I heard that correctly on the broadcast.

Is Kermit available for spot starts?

Can anyone answer this question for me?  Did Wash forget that we expanded the rosters?  We have extra arms!  We also have an off-day tomorrow!  Sigh.

Because I wasn’t excited enough to watch yet another Roy Oswalt start, Roy decided to really bring out the big guns by giving up a home run to BJ Upton on his very first pitch, showing us a new level of suck.  Thanks, Roy.

If that wasn’t bad enough, with 1 out (still in the 1st), he walked a batter, gave up a single, then a double and the Rays were up 2-0.  Then Roy started back in the 2nd right where he ended the 1st, giving up a single to start the inning followed by a 2-run home run to Jose Molina.  This is not a good trend, guys.

» Continue reading “Texas Rangers: WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE, OSWALT?!”

(Image via Keith Allison)

Well, the Rangers continued where they left off last night…not hitting.  Thankfully, all that ended in the 4th when Josh Hamilton laced his 40th home run, giving the Rangers a 2-0 lead.

Saturday’s starter, Yu Darvish, did his best to mimic Derek Holland’s performance from the night before, going 8 strong innings, giving up only 1 earned run on 2 hits with 7 strikeouts.  And like Holland, the rest of the team really wasn’t supporting his strong start. With a man on 2nd and 2 outs, an Ian Kinsler error would let the Rays tie things up in the bottom of the 8th.

However, unlike Friday night, the Rangers offense woke up in the 10th.  A double by Geovany Soto followed by a Jurickson Profar double, would score Leonys Martin (who was pitch running for Soto).  A walk, single and ANOTHER Josh Hamilton hit by pitch, the Rangers would lead 4-2.

Really until the 10th inning, there’s not much else to report offensively besides Hambone’s homer.  The Rays did (purposely?) hit Hamilton in the  top of the 6th, resulting in home plate ump giving warnings to both benches.  Of course, Wash came out to argue since that wouldn’t give the Rangers a chance to retaliate, but isn’t winning retaliation enough?  I think so.

FINAL: Rangers 4, Rays 2

Michael, you’re just trollin’ us now… (Image via Keith Allison.)

In a game that I’m sure very few in the Dallas metroplex even paid attention to (thanks, Cowboys), the Rangers were able to pad their lead in the AL West, going up 5 games on the A’s.

The big story (again) was Adrian Beltre.  With a 3-run home run and a triple to go along with a couple of nifty plays at 3rd, Beltre continued on his recent tear.  Oh, and that’s 10 home runs in his last 14 games. No big deal.

The game overall wasn’t overly exciting.  The Rangers went up 3-0 in the 1st and just sort of held on for the remainder of the game, just keeping it close enough that you reconsidered changing the channels (you know, for those of us who probably weren’t going to watch the Cowboys in the first place).

Aside from Beltre, Young also hit a home run of his own, his 6th of the year.  We can argue all day why the hell he’s playing 2nd when you have a perfectly good middle infielder sitting the bench, but that would be a waste of time because we all know how Wash feels about rookies taking veterans spots…

Ryan Dempster, tonight’s starter, was pretty solid, keeping the Royals to only 2 runs on 4 hits over 6 innings.  The bullpen?  Sigh. Let’s just say they have to get their sh*t together before October.  Ogando allowed 2 runs in 1 inning.  Adams allowed 1 run in 1 inning.  Nathan allowed 1 run in 1 inning.  Guys, that won’t cut it.

FINAL: Rangers 7, Royals 6

Jurickson Profar…WOW! That’s really all that needs to be said. Welcome to the bigs Mr. Profar.

To say that Profar led the Rangers today could be a misunderstanding, but I’ll say this, he led the Rangers by inspiring them. That’s my opinion. He finished 2 -4 with a home run, double, RBI, and a run scored.

As far as the other players, Profar inspired Derek Holland to pitch 7 inning while striking out 6. He inspired Josh Hamilton, Adrian Beltre, and David Murphy to all hit home runs.

He also inspired the defense to make some spectacular plays…please see Elvis Andrus, Nelson Cruz, and Beltre on sportscenter.

And finally, Jurickson Profar inspired the Rangers to victory by a score of 8 – 3. I want to personally thank Ron Washington for playing the youngster.

The Rangers visit the Kansas City Royals tomorrow. Game time starts at 1:10 pm. Yu Darvish tows the rubber for God’s team.

OK, so I really don’t know all the details of what happened in today’s game.  Rangers scored a lot.  Twins did not.  But I do know this… I got a Ron Washington bobblehead, and it’s amazing…

FINAL: Rangers 9, Twins 3