Home

Keeping in the tradition of weird baseball superstitions, I am going to try something a little different tonight in an attempt to end the four game losing streak.  As the game goes on, I will be constantly updating this post with my idiotic musings and observations, as well as discussing the game with you guys in the comments section.  Let’s end this cold streak as a team. 

Begin semi but not really live Rangers vs Jays chat…………..now.

Top 1-  April Choo returns, so does April Rua, and then…….HOLY CRAP PRINCE FIELDER IS A GROWN MAN!! For the record, Ian Kinsler is hitting .257 with only 2 bombs and 6 SB, so keep that in your mind naysayers of JD. 

B1- Two on, nobody out, Bautista at the plate, this is exactly where we want to be…..oh……wait

Still B1- Oh man, this is UGLY.  All contact has been hard.  You guys remember when Encarnacion was not good at baseball?  Something happened there. 

B1 Finally ending- Solid plays by Beltre and Andrus to get the first two outs.  Martinez needs to get it together with the heavy workload the bullpen has had this week, or else this entire series will be ugly instead of just this half inning. 

T2- GREAT at bat by Elvis.  Fantastic.  More of that, please.  Odor is back in a big way……but here comes Martin. Bunt time?

Nope.  Leonys did roll over on one (which has kind of become his thing) at the correct time, so I’ll take it.  Scratching there is big, Buehrle loves to work fast and builds in confidence, so avoiding a shut down inning was important. 

B2- Bad decision by Roogie there, but that’s just part of being so young.  Learning moment.  Great replay by Bannister, I did not think they were even close to getting Reyes there.  Well done.  Facing the meat of the Jays order with one out and a runner on second rather than no outs, runners on first and second lowers the Jays total run table by .34. 

Immediately throwing the ball into centerfield destroys the run table math I just posted. That may be the end of me and math for the evening.  

We  all hear about the “bloop and a blast”, but what do we call a stupid throwing error and a bloop? Any name for that yet?  Boner and a bloop?  Crap, 6-2.  I may regret not being at a bar to watch this one. 

T3- 8 pitch half inning.  Literally missed the entire thing during the time it took me to pee.  Way to make him work, guys. 

Around baseball- Scherzer is now perfect through 3 innings because he is not human and he stole Verlander’s magic two years ago. 

B3- I have enjoyed watching Chris Colabello this season, I enjoy late career success stories, very much like I am loving  Joey Butler in Tampa this season.  Tonight I enjoy watching Colabello go 0-2. 

I do NOT enjoy watching Russell Martin go yard.  At what point does Moreland pitch in this one?  What’s Jeff Francouer doing tonight? 

T4- Bright side: if the Rangers are getting smoked like this, at least Angel Hernandez cannot go full ump show and factor into the game, so hey, we’ve got that going for us.

As I hit save, Mitch hit Hernandez with a foul fall. We’re screwed. 

Ezekial Carerra is no  Billy Burns. 

#UPDATE#- 3 outs are still required to end an inning, even when the game is played in Canada.  Someone tell Mark Buehrle, the whole exchange rate thing has him confused. 

B4- This game has me legitimately considering watching women’s soccer.  I am at a strange point in my life, due mostly to the Rangers pitching staff and the WAR of Elvis Endrus. 

Martinez has now allowed more baserunners this inning than Scherzer has in his last 22 innings.  Let’s offer the Nationals Gallo, Mazara, all of the Nolan Ryan beef, Jim Knox, Choo, and Dutch Holland’s dog Wrigley for Max to see if they bite. 

T5- Sooo………..you guys want to talk about anything other than the Rangers hitting?  Canadian Healthcare?  DirecTV commercials featuring Hannah and her horse?  Anything?

B5- I hear sirens coming over the live game feed.  Has the Mounted Guard been called in to fight the dumpster that is the Rangers over the last week?

Cookie talk has been replaced by dive bar food talk.  Everyone is giving up.  

So, I know that Jeff Bannister preaches nothing but #NeverEverQuit, but do you think he would be cool If I moved on from this one?  You know, to anything else. 

9-2 Jays.  I’m going to have my first adult beverage of the evening. 

T6- The BLOOP and…………

the weakly hit DP ball. I think I may start inventing new cuss words to accurately describe this action. 

B6- Good news Rangers fans: Nick Martinez taking one for the team has saved the bullpen for the rest of the series to some extent, but it sure is tough to have a young pitcher take a beating like this and be able to come back mentally prepared for the next game. 

Good news for Jays fans: When Reyes is healthy, you guys have the best 1-5 lineup in the league.  Scary good. 

T7- I am amazed that Kevin Pillar did not make a world stopping catch on that Elvis bloop.  That dude has the glove of Jim Edmonds, but for some reason I have trouble liking him simply because his name sounds so much like Kevin Millar and Intentional Talk has worn thin on me. 

Leonys at the plate with runners on.  Press 1 for weak ground out to the right side, Press 2 for strikeout. 

Someone pressed 2. 

That threat ended weakly. 

Random Thought: with 13 players on the DL, do you think the Rangers could take advantage of Canada’s healthcare while we are up there and use the financial savings to be able to afford a Cole Hamels trade?  Seems like a logical step to me. 

#UPDATE#- Scherzer has given up 2 hits.  Time to DFA. 

B7- Speaking of DFAs, Ross Detwiler, Ladies and Gentlemen!  He has got to be the first one to go when Hamilton/DeShields/Harrison/Perez/Holland return, right?  

The cat just looked at the TV and hissed.  That cannot be a good sign for Ross. 

I think Angel Hernandez is expanded the strike zone like JV umpires do in high school when one team clearly cannot compete.  Ug. Lee. 

T8- Choo has been extremely unlucky tonight, but has looked mostly healthy.  Rua, well, I like the kid, but why on earth is he hitting in the 2-hole?  He belongs there about as much as Elvis does. 

Sometime I want to hug Prince Fielder, not just because he looks soft. 

B8- I asked for Jeff Francouer on the mound way back in the 3rd inning and instead I get ADAM FREAKIN ROSALES.  

Who gives up a bomb to the second hitter he has faces, so he fits in with the rest of the bullpen. 

Tom Grieve does not like Edwin Encarnacion posing after bombs.  My solution is to not throw two meatballs to him to crush out of the park, but you know, that’s just me. 

Notes about the Rosales pitching performance: 

He gave up less runs in his inning than Detwiler did in his. 

He hit 90 with his fastball, which Matt Harrison is yet to do. 

The Blue Jays won that inning 1-0, the same score the USWNT just won by in the World Cup. 

T9- The mercy killing inning. 

Let’s shut this thing down.  Please. 

Joey Gallo, pinch runner?  Leonys hit a ball forward, so I guess that’s a positive note to end the game on, right?  No, I guess not after all. 

With that, I am done.  Slump is not busted.  This is some fairly uninspired baseball at the moment, which is incredibly discouraging following how fun Rangers baseball has been for the last month.  Something’s got to give. 

Goodnight, all. 

Joey Gallo is the most exciting thing that’s happened to the Rangers in 2015, which is crazy, because there have been so many positives to take in from the first three months.

I suppose it’s really just a matter of taste amongst Texas fans, and maybe I’m biased since Gallo is my favorite prospect in the organization, someone I got a chance to talk to in Surprise a couple spring trainings ago when he was 19, about to enter Hickory for his first full season in the minor leagues. 

It also may be because Joey’s ascendance coincided so much with the hottest stretch of the season for the Rangers. Winners of 11 of 14 before Joey Gallo arrived on June 2nd, the club then won 10 of their next 15, a stretch that included Gallo producing a breakthrough .260/.362/.580 (150 wRC+) triple slash line with 5 HR in 58 plate appearances. There is no question that the guy is going to be big time.

But Joey Gallo is not ready yet. 

And that’s OK.

Since his earlier success, Gallo has hit a wall over the las week, going 3-22 with one extra-base hit (a double), one walk, and 13 strikeouts. This, after all, was the built-in expectation all along: for all the excitement Gallo brings, the dude strikes out at an incredible rate.

When he was originally called up from Double-A Frisco, general manager Jon Daniels was fairly adamant in saying once Adrian Beltre returned from his stint on the disabled list, Gallo would resume his learning process back on the farm, in Round Rock. 

But then, Josh Hamilton got hurt. Then Delino DeShields. And suddenly Gallo’s bat became a sensation, getting many media types saying it was going to be impossible to send him back down. And, hey, maybe they were right at the time. I mean, we can dream, right?

But now the Rangers are at a different point in the season. Adrian Beltre is back playing 3rd base, and Gallo’s presence in the lineup is beginning to feel more like an hourglass that’s on its last bit. With Josh Hamilton about ready to return, probably on Monday in Baltimore, and Delino likely coming back within the next week, it seems more logical to roll with the team’s 25-best players right now.

What we know is, the Rangers are not going to keep Gallo on the major league roster unless he’s seeing consistent at bats. If he isn’t, his purpose is better served working out some of the kinks at Triple-A. 

Amazingly, in his first 81 career plate appearances, Joey has generated a league-average .222/.309/.458 (100 wRC+) slash line despite having struck out 34 times, a 42% clip. That is the highest in MLB for any player this season with over 80 PAs, an understandable figure for someone with his minor league track record. 

What can’t be lost from Gallo Mania, is that Joey Gallo wasn’t in the plans this early in his career. Only 21, he could probably use a little extra seasoning on the farm, and with Beltre already back, it’s only a matter of when Texas’s two outfielders return that will likely determine how much longer Gallo is with us. And that’s okay, because he has already done enough.

Looking towards the bigger picture, the hope going forward is that, once Joey is sent down, he will be on a similar path as Rougned Odor, whom the Rangers dumped to Round Rock after rough beginnings in 2015. Since Roogie’s recall ten days ago, he’s 9-23 (.409/.480/.591, 200 wRC+) with one HR, one 2B and seven runs driven in. Aside the obvious disclaimer that it won’t last forever, it’s a step in the right direction after Odor tore up Pacific Cast League for a month and a half. 

Gallo is not one of the Rangers 25 best players right now, but, barring injury that would force him to get recalled prematurely as he was the first time, I could easily see him as one of the 25 best by the time he comes back, perhaps towards the end of July depending how well he responds once he is sent down.

Under the Jon Daniels regime, the Rangers have had a history of drafting and acquiring whom they believe to be high-character players. “Good makeup” is the scout slang, I guess. Gallo, like Odor and like many (or most) others on the farm and major league roster, is one of those guys. His June 2nd callup wasn’t the culmination of his minor league development, because when he debuted it was incomplete. His major league career started when future Hall of Famer Adrian Beltre went down with a thumb injury, and Gallo merely gave Texas a necessary spark it needed during the club’s best stretch of the season. 

As much as I love watching him play, I like more knowing my favorite team wants to get this right. They have a plan, and I can assure you they will not be consulting me about it, but sending Gallo down seems like the only rational way to go once Hamilton and DeShields are reinstated from the DL. 

Man…….maybe I should have never gone on vacation.  

Baseball is a game of ebbs and flows, and the Rangers have transitioned from a full flow to a temporary ebb.  Here are a few things I have noticed over the last two games:

Martin is struggling. I still think it is odd to say how much this offense is missing Delino DeShields, but it almost seems like his trip to the DL has changed the dynamic of the team more than anyone else.  Martin is struggling to get it done and looks absolutely lost at the plate, but without Delino, the options to play CF after Leonys are non-existent. 

Beltre does not look healthy.  Adrian surprised everyone with his sudden Tuesday activation after news broke that he was trying new grips to compensate for his thumb injury.  Even though he had a hit and scored a run last night, he still does not look fully comfortable at the plate.  I am not so sure a little rehab stint was not needed here if he is not going to return with the muscle memory of his normal grip and swing. 

Gallo still provides questions.  Joey’s raw flash and power lead people to think he is fully MLB ready, but his poor splits vs lefties and incredible K rate say otherwise.  The kid has a brilliant future, don’t get me wrong, but there is still so much room for growth.  I honestly hope he goes back down for a bit to work on a few very specific things, but my faith in his long term ceiling has increased by watching his short time here. 

Starting Pitching. Chi Chi and Wandy were roughed up on back to back nights by the suddenly hot Oakland A’s, ending the streak of Rangers starting pitchers allowing three runs or less in 17 straight starts (which was remarkable by the way).  Simple math says the pitching staff was due to have a few blowups, but it always hurts worse when it comes against a division rival. 

Hamilton and Harrison. Both of them made rehab appearances in Frisco today and are nearing a return.  If you had told me 6 months ago that either of them would have been in a Rangers uniform this season, I would have laughed at you.  

Tomorrow is a new day. Sure, the Rangers are stuck with facing Sonny Gray tomorrow, but they did just beat Kershaw and Sale last weekend, so you never know.