Posts Tagged ‘Michael Young’

More Random Rangerness Posted by Ken Jones in Texas Rangers, The Bullpen September 4th, 2008

Finally, the Rangers get the 3-game sweep they’ve been looking for all year, knocking off the really, really, really, really awful KC Royals. This is not only the Rangers first 3-0 series of the season, it’s their first EVER 3-0 trip to Kaufmann Stadium. Of course, the sweep would have meant more if it had come in April, May, June, or July, or if the Rangers hadn’t preceded the whitewash with a 3-14 streak that wiped out three months of hard work, but who are we to complain?

Speaking of complaining, in a battle, when one army is beaten and surrenders, they will wave a white flag. In wrestling, a beaten foe can ‘tap out’ on the mat. After aerial combat for mates, the losing male of the Asian Red-Billed Sparrow will show submission by laying prone on the ground in a silhouette of the American Bald Eagle, similar to the back of a U.S. Quarter. (I might have made that last one up…) I just mention this because the Rangers called up Nelson Cruz this week.

Speaking of Nelson Cruz, I’ve actually been very impressed by the Rangers this season. While Cruz was destroying the pitchers in Triple A, Texas passed over him several times as they needed outfield help. I don’t know whether this was a conscious effort to give guys like Brandon Boggs an audition, a signal to Cruz that they’ve seen what he can offer, or an attempt to shake Nelson into believing that he needed to mentally toughen up, but it was refreshing. Maybe the next 30 games will give us a chance to see if Cruz can handle the majors or if he is the Latin Crash Davis.

Speaking of the last month of the season, it should be interesting to watch, if for no other reason than to see if Michael Young can extend his streak of consecutive 200-hit seasons to six. 45 hits in 30 games is an awful lot to ask, but do you want to bet against the man? If Ian Kinsler can come back and if Josh Hamilton can stagger to the finish line of his first full major league season, Michael could have an outside shot at it. And it gives us something to cheer for.

Speaking of cheering for the Rangers, ESPN’s “Baseball Tonight” poll to determine the greatest player for each franchise surprised me when they rolled through Texas. Dollars to donuts, I would have bet that it was Nolan Ryan in a landslide. But out of more than 41,000 votes cast, Pudge Rodriguez squeezed him out, 35% to 33%, even if he’s a Yankee now. (I still haven’t gotten over that. I would rather watch “The Thin Red Line” again than see Pudge in pinstripes…) Juando got 12%, followed by A-Rod, Frank Howard, Raffy, and Michael Young. Charlie Hough, Buddy Bell, and Ruben Sierra rounded out the list with less than 1% of the vote apiece. Read more

All Star Break: Back and Forth Posted by Ken Jones in Texas Rangers, The Bullpen July 20th, 2008

While Back-and-Forth would certainly be an accurate description of the Rangers to this point, a team written off for dead before April was over (at least twice…check our columns…) that has clawed its way back to the fringe of the playoff picture without sweeping an opponent yet.  But this column is Back and Forth as Cary and I take turns looking at Texas topics for the second half.  Cary’s answers will be in bold.  Mine will be intelligent.

KEN:  So, I’ll start this by tossing you a softball.  (Just don’t hit it back at me….we both know I can’t field it…)  Who is the Rangers’ MVP so far?  The two-time player of the month, or are you going to avoid the obvious answer? Read more

Random Rangerness Posted by Ken Jones in Texas Rangers, The Bullpen July 5th, 2008

A few random thoughts as we move out of June and into July…

The Rangers finally move 2 games over .500, winning Monday night at Yankee Stadium.  It’s the first time they’ve reached that lofty height this season following the Great April Wipeout, the Incredible May Recovery, and the June of Treading Water.  Since May 22, Texas has bounced between 2 games under and 1 over the break even mark.  That is mediocrity not seen since “According to Jim” went off the air.  (It did finally, mercifully go off the air, didn’t it?)  You keep hoping for that one hot streak that will vault the team back into Division contention.  But that’s not the way it ever happens in Texas. 

As a child, I came to learn that you could count on the Rangers hanging in there for the first half of the season, and then falling like Skylab right after the All-Star break, scattering players at the trade deadline like debris over Australia.  Is this the year that it doesn’t happen?  Is this the year that we chase down 2 teams and win the division, using rookies at catcher, first base, third base, the outfield, and a rotation that began the year scattered out across our minor league system?  Okay, probably not, but at least we recovered to the point that the dreamers can dream.

Read more

Two in a Row in Toronto Posted by Ken Jones in Texas Rangers, The Bullpen April 18th, 2008

In random order, nine thoughts from the Ranger’s Northern Excursion:

• Love the Canadian National Anthem.  Learned all the words nearly twenty years ago (during the first Iraq War…you know, just in case…) and love to belt it out at the games.  Especially since I quit trying to sing it to the tune of “Oh Christmas Tree”.
• Love the fact that the Rangers won the first game of the series in 14 innings, despite stranding more people than Oceanic Airlines Flight 815.  (19 men LOB)
• Speaking of the 14 inning job, which was only made possible by the sudden eighth inning collapse of Joaquin Benoit realizing that he was Joaquin Benoit and giving up three runs:  In spring training, the Dallas Morning News had him listed on the injury report with a case of “weak arm”.  That’s not really news.  That’s more like the back of his baseball card.  
• Love that Toronto ran out of relievers in the game and had to bring in starter A.J. Burnett in the 14th.  It’s always comforting to know that there are major league managers out there who can’t run a bullpen any better than you could.  Or maybe it was the exchange rate, and he thought he had a few more pitchers left, eh?
• Love that Vicente Padilla outdueled Roy Halladay in the second game.  I hope that Good Padilla keeps Evil Padilla locked up for a little while longer.
• Love the fact that the schedule makers sent Texas all the way to Toronto for two games.  The Rangers were in and out of Canada quicker than some American Airlines passengers got out of DFW Airport last week.  And it’s the Rangers only trip to Canada this year.  Two games?  That means that the Cubs, the Reds, and the Braves will all play more games in Toronto this year than Texas will.  
• Love that Josh Lewin on the Ranger’s Wednesday night TV broadcast correctly called that Michael Young would get a hit a half inning before Michael came to bat.  His reasoning?  Michael was 0-5 and had only gone 0-6 once in his career.  Good call.  Young ended up 2-for-8 on the night.
• Don’t love that Marlon Byrd went on the DL to make room for German Duran, but it was starting to get awkward.  Byrd, who quickly became a fan favorite down the stretch last year, was the last of the regulars to get a hit this season and had made a series of mistakes, goofs, errors, and silly plays.  But can you really put a player on the DL for “Brain Freeze”?
• Love that David Murphy is on this team.  Basically a throw in of the Tex-to-Atlanta trade last year, on Thursday night Murphy tied a Ranger record with three doubles in a game.  A record he also tied in one of this handful of games with the club last year.  The Rangers haven’t had a Rookie of the Year since 1974.  Is it too early to start campaigning?