2006 At The Break...

[redjake]

TEX 45 43
OAK 45 43
LAA 43 45
SEA 43 46

or

TEX 2 0
OAK 2 0
LAA 0 2
SEA 0 3

Loe set to return soon, Eaton on his way back as well. Surely, Teixeira should have a better second half.

What, realistically, are our chances of taking the division?

Oakland really needs Chavez, I think, if they are going to seriously give it a run - not to mention Crosby, Johnson, etc...

Angels, despite what started to look like a rebuilding year, find themselves in contention. Colon's back. Weaver/Lackey/Santana/Escobar, etc...

Seattle's right there as well, though I'll be surprised if I can say that 3 weeks from now.


All I want is for the Rangers to stay in it. This could turn out to be a great summer (time to start using the heat as an advantage, btw).


Let's go!

[Madison]

Going to be a tight race I think.

Seattle's got it the roughest, but Beltre/Sexson really didn't do much the first half, so I expect both to do better this half, which will help them quite a bit. I think their starting pitching is what will determine how their season turns out. Longest shot of the bunch to win the division in my opinion.

Oakland needs Harden healthy. They are actually hitting the ball this year, so mixed with their pitching (I'd say good pitching, but Blanton's been horrible, along with Harden being injured), they should definitely be in the race. A healthy Harden, and if Blanton can rebound, then they will be tough to beat.

The Angels have been really good lately, and have a nice rotation to go with their hitting. If they keep it all up, they will be in the race as well.

Texas? We need our starting pitching to improve. There's no way the hitting continues to stink like it has, so offense isn't a worry. It's all going to boil down to how our starting pitching goes, and I'm not too comfortable with that. Even a healthy Eaton isn't a very good option in my opinion, so we need Millwood/Padilla/Loe to be solid for us to have a chance.

It's baseball though, and anything can happen. I won't quit cheering for the Rangers unless we get mathematically eliminated.

[redjake]

Not a bad start. Teixeira apparently wants to hold on to 1st.

[redjake]

This really bothers me:

Texas
G. Matthews Jr. CF 0-2
I. Kinsler 2B 1-2
M. Young SS 0-1
M. Teixeira 1B 0-1
M. DeRosa 3B 0-2
K. Mench DH 2-2
G. Laird C 1-2
J. Hairston Jr. RF 0-1
F. Guzman LF 0-1

Not the stats, just the lineup. We need a bat in a very bad way.

Nice to see Laird in there, but DeRosa at the 5 spot? This lineup looks very, very thin to me.

Who is Hairston again, by the way?

[redjake]

Nevermind, our pitching is worse and remains the biggest facet of our ineptitude.

And my wife has Vernon Wells to make matters worse.

Tired of this.

[redjake]

7/18

S. Marcum is no-hitting us through 4.

S. Marcum. A relief pitcher who has given up 8 runs in 17.2 ML innings.


Incredible.

[redjake]

Pushed through a few runs - Padilla does an absolute great job after giving up 2 in the 1st to grab the win.

Still scared.

[Madison]

Nice to see Laird in there, but DeRosa at the 5 spot? This lineup looks very, very thin to me.

You mean the guy hitting .335 in 260 at bats this year? DeRosa's a fine option.

The lineup is just fine. A little off at the moment, but just fine.

Matthews: .327 in 342 at bats, and even popped 10 homers.
Kinsler: .323 with 7 homers in 167 at bats as a rookie, and is the future.
Young: Only hitting .309
Tex: .274 and having an off year
DeRosa: .335 average
Mench: .267 with 11 jacks and would be better if Buck actually played him every day!
Laird: .330 and our catcher of the future
Hairston---JUNK
Guzman--WHO?

Should be Blalock and Wilkerson instead of Hairston/Guzman.

Lineup is just fine. What we need is starting pitching.

[redjake]

Blalock in at the 5 spot tonight and still a scrap pitcher can shut us down for 5 innings.

And realistically, our 5 run output should have been 3 had Toronto exercised even T-Ball rundown fundamentals. 3 runs doesn't usually cut it with a lot of teams, much less with ours and the pitching we usually throw out there. Padilla should be commended, but we're lucky Cordero had a three run lead to hold instead of just one.

With our only meat in the lineup yesterday (Tex and Mench) slumping, DeRosa (despite his average) hitting in the 5 spot and Blalock on the bench you have to admit our lineup looked, at the very least, a little thin last night.

[Madison]

True, Buck gave a couple of guys a day off. We need something to spark us as we went 26 innings without scoring an earned run. You do what you have to in order to get things going again. Teams do it all the time.

Our offense hasn't really been a problem the last few years, and even with the offense not clicking so far this year, we're still right in the thick of it. The hitting will show up, we just need solid pitching to put us over the top.