Yesterday I wrote a preview article for the Rangers/Athletics series and I said that unless Matt Harrison returned to form the Rangers would lose the second game and end up splitting the series. Well it happened. Harrison struggled in the first inning giving up three runs and putting Texas in an early hole that they would eventually climb out of only to see it all disappear in a 5-4 extra innings loss.

I’m having a hard time figuring out what has happened to Harrison. When the season began I felt that he was the best left-handed pitcher on the staff if not the best overall pitcher (this was before I knew what Yu Darvish would do). His 5.21 ERA is last on the staff as is his 1.45 WHIP. He’s either having really bad mechanical problems or he has an undisclosed injury. I don’t know. I do know that my faith in him is currently waning.

Michael Young? I have no publishable words to describe how I feel about him after he went 0-for-6 today leaving four men on. Young has been struggling of late though I do believe he will come out of this slump eventually.

Then there’s the Mitch Moreland debate. After going 2-for-2 with two home runs, 3 RBI and a walk manager Ron Washington decided to pinch hit for him rather than have him stay in and face a lefty reliever. I realize that sometimes you have to play percentages in certain situations but with the bases loaded you do not pull your hottest bat because statistics say it’s wise. Snyder ended up 0-for-2 with four runners left stranded.

I’m not mad. I’m just frustrated as are most fans.

Now I would like to discuss another matter of the game. In the sixth inning Elvis Andrus laid down a squeeze bunt that actually popped up in the air and was caught by A’s pitcher Brandon McCarthy. Home plate umpire Laz Diaz ruled that McCarthy had “trapped” the ball and that it was not a catch. It resulted in Craig Gentry scoring from third.

Brandon’s wife, Amanda, had been live tweeting the game and commented on the play with some colorful language that suddenly caused some Rangers fans to attack her. Okay, I realize that she is a player’s wife but she is also a “fan” and the language she used I hear all the time at games and from fans on Twitter. She had every right to express herself the way she did, even more so since she was right about the call.

On behalf of all of the thousands of decent fans I would like to apologize to her. She’s lived here before and I’m confident that she knows not all fans are that way.

By the way, if you don’t already follow her and her husband on Twitter you should. They are a very funny couple and I liked Brandon when he was with Texas. (@BMcCarthy32 and @Mrs_McCarthy32)

With that said it’s time to begin interleague play as the Rangers are set to face the Houston Astros in Houston. I just hope the bats wake up after a lackluster 3-4 home stand.

Until next time, I’ll see you in the cheap seats!

James Holland is a lifelong fan of baseball and his hometown Texas Rangers. He is also a senior columnist for shutdowninning.com, the founder of clawandantlernation.com and a member of SABR. You can follow him on Twitter where he waxes poetic about all things baseball @SDIJamesHolland.

Sources:

http://texasrangers.com

http://twitter.com

MINNEAPOLIS — The Texas Rangers should be the defending World Series champions. They had St. Louis down to a final strike twice in what could have been a decisive Game 6, then coughed it up in 11 innings. They lost again the next night and went home feeling empty.

A year earlier, the Rangers had been shut down by San Francisco’s pitching, but this time … if right fielder Nelson Cruz had made a catch, if manager Ron Washington had sent Neftali Feliz back out for the 10th inning of Game 6, and a couple more ifs and this was the team that would have brought a first World Series title to Texas last fall.

Ballclubs other than Yankees don’t have a clear shot at these trophies that often, and it will be a long, hard push to a third Series in a row for the Rangers in an American League that appears more loaded with solid teams than at any time in recent memory.

Obviously, there are no conclusions nine games in and with 153 to go, but there is an inclination that the team making a visit to the Target Field is the best that baseball has to offer.

The Rangers made it two in a row over the Twins, 6-2, on Saturday at Target Field. Losing manager Ron Gardenhire was left to lament 15 runners left on base and the complete absence of a clutch hit.

“We should’ve gotten those guys today,” Gardenhire said. “And when you have the chance, you better take it, because that’s a great ballclub.”

This was not an attempt at pandering by a rival manager. The Rangers were looking at crowds of Twins on the bases all afternoon, and yet there was no doubt where the advantage rested in most every matchup.

Twins starter Nick Blackburn mixed pitches and was down 2-1 when he left with a shoulder strain in the sixth. And, still, you never liked his chance when Josh Hamilton stepped into the left-handed batter’s box.

“First time up, it looked like Hamilton just flicked the ball and he hit a rocket to left-center for a double,” Gardenhire said. “Next time up, I think that’s the longest home run I’ve seen here. The crack it made when he hit it … sounded like he was hitting a golf ball.”

The manager rubbed a hand across his forehead and said: “It just sounds different when Hamilton hits a baseball.”

The Rangers were held to four runs in the rain and cold on Friday night and came back with the six-spot on Saturday. These were not explosions by Texas standards, but it did impress Gardenhire.

“What they have up and down the lineup are very intelligent hitters,” he said. “If you make a mistake to them, they are ready to hit … they make you pay.”

The Rangers let starters Anthony Swarzak and Blackburn get away with first-pitch strikes early in both games, and then started taking a hack at the first fastball. This is a lineup so loaded that it has Nelson Cruz batting sixth and Mike Napoli eighth.

“And that kid playing first today, hitting ninth, Brandon Snyder … he ripped the ball, too,” Gardenhire said, after the rookie went 3-for-4. “Where did he come from?”

All of this hitting, and the Rangers’ pitching might be the No. 1 strength of the club.

Yu Darvish, the hyped import from Japan, made his second start. Early on, he appeared to be so hung up on showing off his six or seven different pitches that he’s walking too many _ eight in two games _ but there’s a bottom line on this 6-foot-5 lad of Iranian and Japanese descent:

“He’s got great stuff,” Gardenhire said.

While he learns, the Rangers have four excellent starters to carry him along: lefties Matt Harrison and Derek Holland, veteran Colby Lewis and now Feliz, with his fabulous right arm moved from the end of the bullpen to the rotation.

So the absence of Feliz must be hurting the bullpen, right? All you have to know is that the closer, the experienced Joe Nathan, is the third-best reliever behind Alexi Ogando and Mike Adams.

Barring injuries, the Rangers look like a team with a big chance at their third consecutive World Series. And if they get there, maybe this time they won’t screw it up.

A lot of people’s concerns when paying attention to spring training games are overblown. When Texas Rangers’ pitchers throw a high ERA in spring, it means absolutely nothing as far as the MLB season is concerned. The Rangers’ record is even less of a concern because they are not playing their stars for full games and their pitchers barely throw more than a few innings each.

However, there is one thing that Texas Rangers’ fans should be very concerned about right now. Neftali Feliz is suffering from shoulder stiffness and left his third start of the spring because of it.

Go back to spring of 2011. The Rangers were testing out Feliz as a starter but he began to suffer from shoulder stiffness. Finally, they moved him back into his closers role, ending the experiment. Feliz started the season as the closer but began to struggle, having arm problems for the first couple of months and landing on the DL. He picked up and finished the end of the year fine.

Feliz actually made the comment in an interview at the time that he never wanted to start again, blaming his shoulder problems on the extra innings pitched in spring as a starter. He said that he wanted to remain a closer for his entire career.

That was not Feliz’s choice and the Rangers want him to be a starter. They moved him into the starting lineup this year and brought in Joe Nathan, a pitcher who used to be great, to be their new closer. It reminds me of when the Rangers brought in Eric Gagne, a formerly great closer, and watched him play very few innings with them while battling injuries. Hopefully, they have better luck with Nathan.

But Feliz might be in trouble. He only lasted three of his scheduled four innings in his third start of the spring. He was pitching a great game, giving up no runs on two hits and a walk. He struck out two. He looked good, but at the 54 pitch mark, he suffered the stiffness. If he is already suffering discomfort after three starts, I don’t feel comfortable heading into the MLB season.

Luckily, Texas has Alexi Ogando ready in case they need a starter but this might mean trouble for Feliz and his spot with the Rangers if they don’t figure out what is wrong with his shoulder.

Author Shawn S. Lealos has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma (2000) and has been a Texas Rangers fan his entire life, watching the Rangers’ Triple-A affiliate play for over 30 years. While Texas has moved their Triple-A team, Shawn still remains a loyal Rangers fan and awaits the year they finally win the big one.

Source: MLB.COM

Other articles by Shawn S. Lealos:

Alexi Ogando is going to be the anchor of the Texas Rangers‘ bullpen, and while I am sure he would like to be starting, I love having someone as good as him in the bullpen to help out when the starters get into trouble this year.

What is also impressive is that Texas has someone else they are bringing up in the system that looks a lot like what they created in Ogando. And, believe me, the Texas Rangers made Ogando into the star he is today.

When Ogando was starting out, he was an outfielder for the Oakland Athletics. However, the team that gained a lot of popularity in 2011 thanks to “Moneyball” introducing film fans to sabermetrics, failed to see what they had in the player. However, a scout for Texas looked at Ogando and realized he was not a very good outfielder but might be a great pitcher.

Six years later, Ogando was starting for the Texas Rangers as a pitcher and played in the All-Star game and a World Series. Now, heading into 2012, Ogando is an important piece of the Rangers‘ puzzle once again, but this time back in the bullpen. Along with Scott Feldman, Ogando will make sure to keep any trouble the Rangers get into in early innings to a minimum while also providing some starting muscle in case of injuries.

Now, in the Minor League system, Texas has a kid named Johan Yan. The youngster has been watching Ogando carefully for one reason. He came into the system as an infielder that Texas decided to turn into a pitcher. This was another great decision by a Rangers‘ staff that has great eyes for pitching talent.

Yan learned how to throw a 90 mph fastball, a slider and a split-fingered fastball and finished 2011 with a 5-3 record and a 1.52 ERA. He also had ten saves in Class A. When Texas called him up to Double-A, he pitched in 19 games, with a 0.34 ERA and two saves.

Could it be that Texas has found their next Ogando? Only time will tell, but if he comes close to what Ogando has accomplished, Texas could have found another winner.

Author Shawn S. Lealos has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma (2000) and has been a Texas Rangers fan his entire life, watching the Rangers’ Triple-A affiliate play for over 30 years. While Texas has moved their Triple-A team, Shawn still remains a loyal Rangers fan and awaits the year they finally win the big one.

Source: MLB.COM

Two-time All-Star Robin Ventura will return to the baseball diamond for the first time since he retired back in 2004 — this time as the newly appointed manager of the Chicago White Sox.

He will make his managerial debut on April 6, when the White Sox travel to Arlington, Texas for their season opener against the two-time AL defending champion Texas Rangers.

Fortunately for Ventura, he won’t have too see clips of his brawl-starting fight with Rangers president and CEO Nolan Ryan.

The Rangers announced Friday that they will no longer show highlights of the infamous fight, as had been custom before every game in 2011, according to ESPN.

“I just thought this offseason that we didn’t need to be showing that anymore,” said Chuck Morgan, Texas’ public address announcer and in-game presentation guru. “I watched how St. Louis treated Stan the Man during the playoffs and that’s how we should treat Nolan as the face of the franchise. We’ll celebrate his no-hitters and other moments.”

Morgan added that they might show the clip “on the day it happened as part of the 40th anniversary moments,” but that would be the only time this season.

The fight, which happened during a Rangers-Whites Sox game in 1993, began after the 46-year-old Ryan beamed Ventura in the back with a pitch. Ventura then charged the mound, inciting a bench-clearing brawl between the two teams.

Ryan, a Hall of Famer with seven career no-hitters, has been in the Rangers’ front office since February 2008 after spending the last five years of his career in Texas. Ventura, meanwhile, was named manager of the White Sox this offseason after Ozzie Guillen left to manage the Miami Marlins. 

“I also don’t think it’s right for us on our Opening Day to show a fight, and then that whole weekend we’re going to treat Robin Ventura with respect,” Morgan said. “He’s the manager of the White Sox. We don’t need to do anything like that.”

To relive one of baseball’s most legendary brawls, check out the video below.