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By Eddie Middlebrook
It seems like only yesterday that Ranger fans were demanding that J.D. and Co. pay Josh Hamilton whatever he wants. Even Randy Galloway (never one to pass up a chance to sensationalize a subject), was saying to cough up $180 million to the North Carolina native.
Where are these people now? It has been a long time since I have seen a “#paytheman” tweet on Twitter. As I have mentioned before, baseball is a marathon, not a sprint. Hamilton can be the Sultan of Swat one month and the Sultan of Squat the next.
By Peter Ellwood
As soon as the announcement was released that Baseball Prospectus would be hosting an evening at the Rangers Ballpark, I was excited. Once I learned that Jon Daniels would be a part of a Q&A session, I was ecstatic. Hearing that Kevin Goldstein, Jason Parks, and Jamey Newberg would also be present to interact with the fans and readers, I was enthused. Then came the announcement that Don Welke (“Coach”) wanted to join in on the fun, and I was delighted. If I were allowed to hand-select who I would want to be present and accessible at this kind of event, I would have been hard-pressed to choose a better list. My expectations were high. My experience blew the expectations out of the water.
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by Chris Kautz
In the simplest of terms, there's only one way to win a division. You have to win more games than the other teams. There are, however, many ways to go about doing that. It has been said by many that the Rangers won the AL West in 2010 by piling up wins in interleague play, and in 2011 by dominating the head to head match ups against division opponents. What I'd like to do is examine what merit those statements have, and what bearing those two portions of the schedule may have on the outcome of the AL West standings for 2012.
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By Ben Wertz
There will be some days when the team just doesn’t play like you are accustomed to them playing. There was some shoddy defense and then some near miss plays on defense. Combine that with a poor start from Colby Lewis and a bad day with runners in scoring position and you get an 11-7 Rockies win over the Rangers on Saturday afternoon.
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By Peter Ellwood
I didn’t get to watch all of today’s Rangers game. I caught a couple snippets of it here and there, but I never got fully invested. That had something to do with doing chores around the house, and also that the game quickly got out of hand and my time was best utilized elsewhere. I cannot rehash for you all the ways today’s game went wrong because of that, so instead of doing that I’m just going to point out the parts of the game that were still enjoyable despite the crappy overall result.
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by Patrick Despain
The Rangers host the Rockies in an afternoon tilt at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington on Saturday at 2:05. The weather is going to be a scorcher with temperatures reaching triple digits, and the Ranger bats should be even hotter. The Rangers are 9-1 in their last 10 games with a series win over the Diamondbacks, and series sweeps over the Astros and Padres. Saturday, Texas looks to lock up another series by sending Colby Lewis (4-5, 3.38 ERA) to the mound to oppose Josh Outman (0-3, 8.41 ERA).
