Tuesday Morning Things

Yesterday was an off day, so there hasn't been a whole heck of a lot going on, and while I had wanted to write something a bit more substantial than this on Yu Darvish, the underlying point remains: Yu Darvish is a bad, bad man.

So, with that out of the way, here are some things that are out there this morning.

• The Rangers will host Baltimore for three games starting this evening, which will mark the first return of Nelson Cruz to Arlington since he left in the offseason. Unfortunately, in the first game of the series, Joe Saunders gets the ball for Texas, and I can't imagine him faring as well as he did last time out.

• Speaking of the return of Nelson Cruz, it's all the rage right now in the media. Gerry Fraley has an article up in which he asks what might have happened if Cruz was never suspended.

• Jeff Wilson has his own "what-if" piece up, as well.

• This one feels like it needs a separate post, but here it is anyways. Randy Galloway's protege, Mac Engel, has a piece up in which the premise is, if you booed Josh Hamilton, you should do the same for Nelson Cruz. The sticking point of the whole thing was that Cruz, by accepting a suspension, "killed a team’s offense that needed his bat." Of course, that also ignores that with Cruz, the offense had an OPS of .737 through August 4, and between August 5 and September 29, prior to his return in the one-game playoff against Tampa Bay, the offense had an OPS of .734. It's not like the whole ship suddenly collapsed, especially when you consider that the team had a 20-7 record in August and won 7 straight to close out the regular season to force that playoff against the Rays.

• This has nothing to do with the Rangers, but seemed worth putting up. Japanese pitcher Kazuhito Tadano threw an eephus pitch that was so crazy, even the umpire didn't know what to do with it. Well, don't take my word for it. Just watch the video.