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Quietly Optimistic

Written by Justin Sanders

Wednesday, 21 May 2008

The Rangers suck! At least when I first started writing this column, almost three weeks ago, that was how it started. Now after getting swept back-to-back against Boston and Detroit, the Rangers have gutted out a team record six straight series wins and have almost clawed their way back to .500, so I'm calling this column "Quietly Optimistic." You see, I've been a Rangers' fan for a long time and if the Red Sox fans have had to suffer for 86 years, the only reason Rangers' fans haven't suffered that long is because the team's only been in Texas for 36 years. That's right, 36 years of suffering with only three playoff trips and just one victory in 10 games to show for it. Which wouldn't be so bad except that each of the 9 losses have come against the New York Yankees. I'm telling you, cheering for the Rangers is like cheering for a decent Jessica Alba movie. Every year you keep telling yourself that this is the year she knocks one out of the park and every year walk out the theater feeling like you just wasted three months of your life. So while the Rangers current stretch of success is exciting, until they hit five hundred I'm just not ready to go out and get a giant T tattooed on my chest.

You see for as long as I can remember the Rangers have been a punch line in Major League Baseball because of cheap owners and poor management. This was never more evident than in 2001 when Tom Hicks signed Alex Rodriguez to a 10 year $252 million dollar contract that would cripple the team's payroll for the next 6 years. I mean, you can sign the best player in baseball to a long term contract but if your team doesn't have any pitching, it's only a matter of time before he gets sick of losing games 15-14 and demands a trade to a contender. Which is exactly what happened in 2003, when the Rangers traded the reigning AL MVP to the New York Yankees for superstar Alfonso Soriano and Joaquin Arias, a player who currently has 11 at bats in the Major leagues. The deal was one sided for sure but what shocked most Texas fans was the fact that the Yankees somehow talked Hicks into agreeing to continue paying a portion of Rodriguez's salary while he was playing for the YANKEES!

What's even worse is that since the Rangers STILL didn't have any pitching, everyone knew it was only a matter of time before Soriano would get sick of losing and also demand a trade to another team. So what happened, the Rangers front office traded Soriano to the Washington Nationals for Brad Wilkerson, Terrmell Sludge and a minor league pitcher, three players who aren't even on the current Rangers roster. So in essence Texas traded the best player in baseball for NOTHING and still ended up picking up the tab on Rodriguez for another four years. In the real world, this would be like trading in your car for a motorcycle with a side car that you're never going to use and then turning around two years later and trading the motorcycle for three pairs of Keds that are out of style and you're never going to wear!!!

On the field, pitching has always been the achilles heel of Texas Rangers, I mean for chrissakes the last high profile pitcher the team signed was Nolan Ryan and even then he was 42 years old when they signed him. What's sad is these days the pitching on the team is no different, as evidenced by the fact that the team's "Ace" Kevin Millwood recently celebrated his record 10th consecutive road loss. Dynamite! Vicente Padilla however, is probably the real ace of the staff but much like the little girl with the curl, he's either really good, like when he pitched a complete game shut out against Minnesota, or really bad like when he gave up 7 runs in three innings against Detroit. The rest of the starting rotation is made up of triple AAA pitchers who have struggled early in the season but as of late have finally started to show some promise. Which leads us to the bullpen which has actually been one of the teams strong points recently posting a feat of 33 scoreless innings in which was the second longest in franchise history. An impressive stretch indeed but then again when your starters are getting lit up like the Griswold family Christmas tree you're bullpen is going to get plenty of opportunities to shine.

The Rangers' offense on the other hand, is currently second in the league in batting average but in typical Ranger fashion is third to last with runners in scoring position. Basically they're like that guy that can strike up a conversation with any hot girl at a bar but then ends up getting to drunk or talking about how he lives with his mother before he can take her home and seal the deal. Hopefully though getting two-time all star Hank Blalock back from the disabled list will help add some power to an already potent lineup that is has benefitted from the resurgence of center fielder Josh Hamilton. Hamilton who had been kicked out of the league until recently has not only managed to overcame drug addiction and a regretful string of bad tattoos but is currently leading the league in RBI. Unfortunately, in typical Ranger fashion, in order to get Hamilton from Cincinnati the team had to trade away starting pitcher Edinson Volquez who is currently 6-1 with a 1.12 ERA..........

Sorry, I just had to bang my head against my keyboard a few times. Anyway, the rest of the lineup headed by Michael Young, Ian Kinsler and Milton Bradley who have pitched in to help the Rangers become one of the hottest hitting teams in the league but if they plan to go anywhere in the post season they're going to have to improve on their hitting in clutch situations.

The last key to the Rangers success will depend on second year manger Ron Washington. In his rookie season, Washington led the team to a 75-87 record but suspect lineups and questionable pinch hitters did little to give the fans hope of a major turn around. This year after a slow start Washington has the team running on all cylinders but must either push for a pennant or gain a playoff berth in order to validate his job. I mean this is Texas and when it comes to baseball the fans are only going to put up with 30 to 40 more losing seasons before they start getting pissed off! So until then I'm going to keep cheering for the Rangers while I remain quietly optimistic.