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Showalter gone

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Well, the big “meeting” apparently has ended with Buck Showalter out.
This is breaking news now, so my story will probably stay in flux until all the info is out. Here’s the stories on it so far:

This news actually forced me to listen to the ticket (ugh, at least Norm’s on), and they said that Wakamatsu will be the replacement.
My personal opinion? I wasn’t part of the lynch mob who wanted him out, I wasn’t grabbing my pitchfork. On the other hand, the talk about people bitching and the big name players not liking him might make them stick around more. I guess this might make for a happier clubhouse if the reports are true.
Now how about announcing the long term contract for Gary Matthews? Resigning Mark DeRosa? That’s the kind of news I’d like to hear.
Anyway, who would you want as a replacement? Leave a comment here with your thoughts.
UPDATE @ 12:50PM: According to this, Buck was asked to resign and refused, so he was fired. Be interesting to see what’s said in the press conference this afternoon.
UPDATE #2 @ 2:30PM The ESPN story now has some video of the Baseball Tonight crew talking about the firing. Link.

My 2006 Playoff Predictions

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If you think I’m way off base, or would like to post your own predictions, please post a comment below.
I normally don’t do this, because I like to think my prognostication skills are right up there with some of the great Powerlock pics on XM’s “Baseball this morning” radio show.. :) However, I decided to take a stab at it this year so I can get this down before any of the games start and see if any of these are right.
ALDS: Athletics vs Twins
I say the Twins will win this in five. Having seen Oakland a lot, I’m more familiar with them, and I’m not picking the Twins because I don’t want the A’s. They seem to be the same team for the most part, and I have to give the edge to Minnesota’s pitching over Oakland’s. Plus Esteban Loaiza in the playoffs has bad memories for me as a Rangers fan. :)
ALDS: Tigers vs Yankees
Given the Tigers limped into the playoffs, one would think they’re prime for a sweep by the Bronx Steinbrenners. While I do think the Yankees will beat the Tigers, I don’t think it will be a sweep. I say the Yankees in four.
NLDS: Cardinals vs Padres
Last year when the Padres made it into the playoffs, everyone expected them to get annihilated, and they did. This year however, I think they have more of an edge due to the near total collapse the Cardinals had at the end of September. That does’t mean they’ll stink up the joint, but I give the Padres this in either four or five, I’m not sure.
NLDS: Dodgers vs Mets
The Mets are probably the best overall team in the NL, especially in the playoffs, but their starting pitching is suspect. The Dodgers aren’t world beaters either, but my gut feeling says that they don’t have enough to overcome the Mets. I say Mets in five.
It’s harder to predict the second round, as you never know who might get hurt, what roster changes might get made between rounds, but I’ll take a stab at it. This assumes everyone stays healthy. If someone gets hurt, I might want to revise my guesses.
ALCS: Twins vs Yankees
While I like the Twins, and would dearly love to see the Yankees knocked on their ass again, my gut feeling is that the Twins don’t have enough to overcome what Steinbrenner’s pocket has bought. Yankees in six. I say the Twins have enough to pick off a couple of games, but not the whole series.
NLCS: Padres vs Mets
Assuming I’m right in that the Padres get past the first round, they’ll probably be charged up to make a run at getting to the World Series again, but I don’t think they match up as well against the Mets, so I’m going with Mets in six.
World Series: Yankees vs Mets
This combination is something that I’m sure the sponsors will love, but I wager most everyone outside of New York couldn’t care less about. The only thing more boring than a Yankees/Mets World Series is a Yankees/Braves world series. Course, Yanks/Mets doesn’t have that godawful “chop” Braves fans do.
Anyway, barring injury, I say Yankees take it in seven. I don’t have any real reason for that, except I’ve picked my other series at 6, and they don’t all usually go in six, and I think the Mets are better than just one game winners.
Yawn. If it really does end up being Yankees Mets, I probably will only watch the final game in the series, and perhaps the announcements of the lineups for the first home game (as I do like watching that). But I can’t get excited about Yankees/Mets AT ALL.
Now those are what I think is going to happen. What do I WANT to happen?
ALDS: Twins over A’s, because I don’t want the A’s to win as they’re from our division.
ALDS: Tigers over Yankees, because outside of NY, everyone wants the Yankees to lose. Plus the Tigers are DUE!
NLDS: Padres over Cardinals: Mostly so I can feel good about the ex Rangers there having some success.
NLDS: Dodgers over Mets: As I’m a Phillies fan, I’m no fan of the Mets, plus I want both NY teams out early.
ALCS: Tigers over Twins: As I said before, the Tigers are due. I’d like to see that.
NLCS: Dodgers over Padres: I would prefer the Dodgers in the World Series, they’re due as well.
WS: Tigers over Dodgers: While I wouldn’t mind if either of these teams won, if I have to pick one, I pick Detroit, mostly due to the several former Rangers are that are on that team.
Now that that’s all over, can we sign Gary Matthews to a 5 year, $25-$30 million contract, so we can have something Ranger related to talk about? :)

Joe Girardi

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Since Giardi has now been unfairly dumped by the Marlins, I thought this on the picture that’s making the rounds in the stories of his dismissal.
Is it just me, or does Joe Girardi look like Joe Satriani in these pictures?

Seasons in Review

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Now that the season is over, we’ll start seeing a bunch of “Season in Review” stories and links. I’ll try and keep up with all of them. If you know of one that I do not have listed below, either email me about it, or leave a comment here with that link. Thanks.

So begins the carosuel

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Well, today’s the first day of the post season for 22 teams. That usually means the managerial carosuel gets going, and this offseason is no different. The Cubs announced today that they’ve parted ways with Dusty Baker. Frank Robinson is already out in Washintgon. It’s probably the worst kept secret in baseball that the Marlins will likely let Joe Girardi go after one (really good) season. There’s several others who are expected to be on their way out, including Felipe Alou in San Francisco (update: Alou’s gone now), possibly Charlie Manuel in Philly (although not likely), and I’m sure some others too who I’m not sure about. And of course if you believe the local media, our own Buck Showalter. If Buck goes, are any of these guys on the carosuel the ones you want replacing William Nathaniel Showalter? If he was about 10 years younger, I’d be all over Felipe Alou, I’ve always thought he was a great manager, but I’m not so sure about now. Girardi is rumoured to be the same style of manager that Showalter was, so that’s not likely to happen, even though I’d like to have him. I think the choice of Showalter’s replacement, should there be one, is probably not on the carousel.
I wonder how much love the franchise would generate from the fans if they named Rusty Greer the next manager? Or, as been rumoured giving the job to Rudy Jaramillo as he was up for the Mets job, and then hire Rusty Greer as the hitting coach? I see a love of fan generated love in that, and I’m sure the current core players would like to see that kind of move, I would think. I’m not personally convinced that Showalter needs to be removed, but then again I’m not in the dugout or the front office, either.
On the non managerial side, there’s also a good article over at MLB Trade Rumours about Gary Matthews Jr. free agency. Man, I seriously hope we hang on to him. We finally found a center fielder that works. As I’ve said before, we need to give him some of the money that would have gone to Carlos Lee, and let Lee go. I’d rather the Rangers make a run at Soriano again to play left field instead of Lee.

G159-162: Rangers drop two of three in Seattle

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Well, the season is over now. We finished under .500 again, going 80-82 and finishing third again. I suppose it’s something that we didn’t finish last. But it’s not much of something. I have to admit I barely paid attention to any of the Seattle games this weekend, so I’ll have just a short update for the games. I’ll probably take a break from updating for awhile like I usually do during the playoffs. That is unless we make a managerial change, which seems like a possibility from reading the various local media.
G160: Rangers win Friday night, 6-5 over Mariners: Vicente Padilla only went 5.1 innings this game, but really threw a LOT of pitches for that few innings. His pitch count was 118! He got the win, but really was not anything remotely close to dominating by the looks of the box score. Feldman, Rheinecker, Francisco, Littleton, & CJ Wilson all relieved. In fact, Wilson got his first save of the year. Offensively, we got three more doubles (2 Young, 1 Tex) and a bunch of singles (nothing more than a double in this one) to account for our 6 runs. [ Game Recap on mlb.com ]
G161: Rangers lose to Mariners, 3-1: Kevin Millwood turned in another quality start this game, going six innings, giving up three runs on 6 hits with no walks. But it wasn’t enough, as Felix Hernandez of the Mariners only gave up one run in his seven innings of work. In fact, the lone Rangers run was a solo home run by Mark Teixeira in the seventh. The Seattle pen threw two more innings of scoreless relief to keep the three runs enough for Seattle to get the win. Millwood ended up with a record of 16-12. Not bad. Would have liked to have seen 17-19, but 16 isn’t all that bad, I s’pose. [ Game Recap on mlb.com ]
G162: Rangers lose to Mariners in season finale, 3-2: Robinson Tejeda took the hill in the finale of the 2006 season for Texas. He went 5 innings, gave up three runs, including two solo home runs. Not great, but “OK”. In fact, the only two runs we got were like yesterday’s game, on the longball. Our two came way of a two run home run by Ian Kinsler in the second inning. We actually outhit Seattle, 10-7, but could only push across runs on Kinsler’s longball. A slightly annoying way to end the season from the looks of the box score (I didn’t see any of this game, I was involved with church stuff all day). [ Game Recap on mlb.com ]
I think this picture of Rod Barajas in the finale on Sunday pretty much sums it up:

This is it, boys

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The last three games of the season. For the Rangers, it doesn’t matter much of anything, except possibly being over .500.
For the National League.. Damn Bud Selig and his inventing the Wild Card. It’s no good, it doesn’t add any exceitement at all, does it?
That issue aside, my hometown Phillies might be able to dump the ghost of 1964 if the Cardinals really blow it here. That would be a most impressive collapse.

G159: Rangers lose to Angels, 6-5

Posted by on at http://texas.rangers.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/wrap.jsp?ymd=20060927&content_id=1685459&vkey=wrapup2005&fext=.jsp>MLB.com Recap

I have to admit, I didn’t watch this game. I could have, but I didn’t. I came home from my bowling league, and the game was just starting, and I just wasn’t interested. I’m ready for the offseason. A few notes from what little I did see, though.
Long time Ranger nemesis did it to us again in the first inning. That would be Tim Salmon’s first inning HR. Fortunately it will be his final one, as we don’t play the Angels anymore in 2006, and he’s retiring after this season.
My gut feeling is that Adam Eaton has played his last game in a Ranger uniform. I have no facts at all to base that off of, it’s just a “feeling”.
Mark Teixeira has definitely killed the first half slump he had. He had two home runs tonight which accounted for all 5 of our runs. Take Tex’s home runs out, and we have seven hits, no runs.
While I didn’t see it, an Angels lead did make for one good thing. No darned Rally Monkey!

G158: Rangers strike early, hang on for 5-2 win

Posted by on at http://texas.rangers.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/wrap.jsp?ymd=20060926&content_id=1684246&vkey=wrapup2005&fext=.jsp>MLB.com Recap

Early on, this game looked like it was going to be a “revenge” kind of game. We lose a few, and then beat the crap out of an opponent. We put up a two spot in the first inning on a Mark Teixeira home run. We then put up three more in the second inning on the strength of four consecutive hits off of Kelvim Escobar. In fact, all our second inning runs were on singles. So we’re up 5-0 after two innings, and feeling pretty good. However, that was it. We figured out Escobar immediately. However, the remainder of the Anaheim relievers (three of ’em) didn’t allow us any more runs, and also held us to four hits over the 7.1 innings they tossed.
It’s fortunate then that Robinson Tejeda pitched like the guy he’s always been touted to be. 6.2IP, one earned run, no walks. The one run was a solo home run to Rivera. Ron Mahay did give up another run, but that was all. A great performance by us. The World Baseball Classic has raised it’s head at the end of the season here, as word out of the team is that they were worried about Otsuka’s workload, going back into the spring. Due to this, Wes Littleton got his first major league save, a two inning affair in that department.
Four to go and then we start rooting against the Yankees for real.