Maybe i'm biased, but I'm hard pressed to think of any team more frustrating to watch right now than the rangers.

They show flashes of brilliance, like the 9-1 start, and you see what they are capable of, but then they spend the majority of the season playing mediocre to bad baseball.

Astoundingly they've managed to stay above .500 so far but they play nowhere near equal to the sum of their parts. They have a stacked offensive line up, and yet they are one of the streakiest, most inconsistent ones I can ever recall watching. They light up Anibal Sanchez one night, and then make some minor league retread look like a Cy Young winner the next night. They have two of the best defensive players in the game on the left side of their infield, yet somehow they are hemorrhaging errors and unearned runs.

This team is so frustrating because they either look like the best team in baseball or the worst one, depending on the day. There never seems to be an in between. They're either sweeping the Indians on the road or struggling to beat bad teams like the mets and the marlins at home.

The series with the Marlins this weekend seemed like a microcosm of the Rangers entire season to date. They opened up the series looking unbeatable; they had it all: great starting pitching, an overpowering offense, and they steamrolled the marlins and a good starting pitcher. Then they come out the next day and Derek Holland pitches so terribly he can't even make it out of the first inning. Finally the rangers lose the rubber match, in a game that they dominated but still managed to lose through a combination of carelessness, bad luck, and an unreliable bullpen.

In short, this team is above .500 and has been in first place for most of the year. Yet they are difficult to watch because we've all seen what they are capable of. This is a point in the season where they should be making a run and putting some distance between them and the rest of the division, yet they continue to wallow in mediocrity and now have allowed the angels to catch up. In a 19 game stretch of games against sub .500 opponents, the rangers are now a very underwhelming 6-6.

I guess thats what you get with a team thats always really hot or really cold. 500.

Alright. End rant now.

They are incapable of coming back on a team in the late innings. That's on the bullpen and the offense. Yesterday 3 more errors... I don't know what to do about that, but something must be done. As much of a supporter of Ron Washington as I am, I admit that ultimately the errors come back on him.

Jamey Newberg summed it up about C.J. Wilson and his future:http://www.newbergreport.com/article.asp?articleid=2310

How is a Manager responsible for errors being made by Gold Glove players?

They need to go back to Surprise and work on some drills during the ASB. I too am a Wash supporter, but the lineups and bullpen use is on him. Is Chavez hurt? Did he sleep with Wash's wife? Why is Murphy playing over him? I understand that it's nice to move guys around and use the depth to keep guys rested, but we need to put our best team on the field 6 days a week, not 1 or 2.

They must really not trust Feliz if you arent going to bring him in with a 1 run lead and 4 outs to get. I understand that's not a Wash call because he was in the clubhouse but as rough a year as Feliz has had, he's still gotta be the first option in the highest leverage situations in the last 2 innings. Hell, pulling CJ for Lowe was questionable at best. CJ was under 100 pitches and for the most part was mowing fools. That 'double' was a bloop single that Murphy played into a double (seriously, he has NO range...Hamilton fielded that ball in pretty much straight left all the way from CF). At that point in the game, if Feliz isn't the best option, then CJ is. Maybe he told Maddux he was done???

All I know is that game last night sucked donkey dick and this team is becoming excrutiating to watch at times. Too bad Mikey baseball is a 'quiet leader' because they need someone to be a vocal leader and jump up some ass right now.

That's a good point, Adam. Maybe you're right. But it's not like they occasionally make an error - they have been leading the AL all season long, and aren't getting any better. Those guys should be an all-gold glove infield... If the manager promises a defensive focus, isn't it up to him to figure out how to get better play out of his guys?

I meant Boomer, sorry.

Pulling CJ put this team on path to loose the game. Putting in Oliver.... my god what a disaster. But like I sad R100 thinks Oliver can be our closer.
I think that Yorvit has to be our back up catcher from here on out with duties shared by Napoli and TT.

I would be damnned if they sent down TT for Napoli today. If anyone needs to go, its the 2 80 year old ass-clowns out in the bullpen! If anything, i put Napoli and TT ahead of Torrealba. Great guy and everything, but I don't trust him handling our pitching staff.

Actually, mhilgtx, Ron Washington is smarter than that. He sees with his own eyes what happens when Oliver is placed in a role other than lefty-only reliever. He knows that Oliver would never hack it as a closer over the long season. He knows that Oliver is over 40 and is nearing the end.

First, he has to at least act like he believes in his guys when he faces the media. That's smart psychology. If he's at a press conference and says, "Yeah, I know Oliver sucks, but he's all we got at the moment," how is that going to play in the clubhouse?

The other thing is that if you take away Feliz, who hasn't exactly been a model of consistency himself, what else do you have out there? Lowe? Rhodes? Tateyama? None of those guys can get it done when the game's on the line, either.

I'm sure if you could get Ron Washington to share his real feelings, he would ask for the following components:

1. A hard-throwing, dependable right handed setup guy to replace Lowe in the 8th inning.
2. A hard-throwing lefty to replace Rhodes in the 7th/8th inning, preferably one who can go against righties.

That would enable him to move Oliver down a notch, move Lowe down a notch, and the entire structure is stabilized.

I'm amused at the whole "This team can't come back on teams in the late innings".

Well, yeah.

1) Overall baseball scoring is down, and if you are down by, say, 5 runs, you are most likely cooked, regardless of what team you are.
2) This team has de-emphasized offense to emphasize defense. I'm not going to argue whether the defense is improved or not, but when you spend gobs of money on a guy who has a track record for being a fairly mediocre bat most (non-contract) years, you shouldn't be surprised when he is a mediocre bat. Also, this club clearly (and perhaps rightly) values defense over offense at C, SS, CF, and now 3B. Toss into the mix a slumping Cruz, and you shouldn't be surprised that if this team gets behind, it's done. The only thing that makes this offense better than average is RBiA.
3) The bench really doesn't have much offense on it. Murphy has flopped so far this year. Blanco is there because of his glove. Teagarden is there for his glove. Chavez or Gentry are there for the glove. Napoli is injured.

I know supposedly defense is the way to go, but, I think the Mariners and the A's can become cautionary tales on what happens if you build around defense and ignore the offense. The more positions that you field purely on the glove (now 3B, C, CF, SS) the less margin for error you have if one of your other positions slumps.

Huh? Kinsler is an offensive-tailored player, so is Hamilton, so is Cruz. So is Napoli. So is Young. Arguably so is Moreland. Beltre is mediocre offensively? Take a look around the league at the offensive stats for 3B and I think you'll reassess that claim. Andrus and Borbon are definitely defensive first players - and speed players - but for those positions, isn't that the norm? How many CF's hit 20+ homers? How many SS's hit 20+ homers? Think about it. No way - this team is a strong offensive squad on paper - one of the best in the whole league.

They had basically the same team last year, and they showed an ability to come back in the late innings. Of course, last year the bullpen wasn't hemmorraging runs like they are currently.

Hamilton is certainly an elite offensive player. Kinsler is maybe the 5th or 6th or thereabouts best 2B in baseball. Cruz is not bringing much this year. Napoli is injured. Young is fairly mediocre as a DH, actually, and probably performing better than expected this year. Moreland is fairly mediocre for a 1B offensively. Beltre is in fact fairly mediocre offensively for a 3B, other than his big contract years where he was a standout.

Just because you and other fans grossly overrate an offense that has been made to look better by RBiA, doesn't mean it is better. This is a club that can generate a lot of power at home, but is below average on the road.

As much as it pains me to do this, if you look at WAR for 3B, Beltre is #2 in the entire league, just below ARod. So he's definitely a top offensive 3B, regardless of his defensive skills.

Wow, it's amazing that people say that Cruz and Beltre have been disappointing offensively, or that MY HAS BEEN A SUBPAR DH. Lmao.

Beltre's numbers are more than respectable--it's only his contract that makes it seem like he's underachieving. Cruz's BA is disappointing but good lord, the man has hit 20 HRs and 50 RBI halfway through the season! As far as MY, sure more HRs would be nice, but his other numbers are way above average and he's been our most consistent offensive player.

We need to bring in a proven, reliable reliever, PERIOD. LH, RH--doesn't matter, just someone who you can trust. Right now, for Wash, that guy is Oliver. Hopefully RW will realize, very soon, that Oliver should only be brought in situationally to face one lefty only--that's it.

Right on the money, Adam Eaton! And we forget that Cruz was injured for a couple of weeks there - his numbers are impressive. On the downside, he swings for the homer too often in situations where they only really need a single. If he could improve on that (like Hamilton has), he would be an even more potent weapon.

Bah, every team has losses like this over 162 games. The Rangers have had a few too many because of injuries and bullpen flux, but this is not something you'd really expect to happen again and not something you can just decide to "fix".

The team values Defense over Offense at C, SS, and CF... ok? Almost every team does, and that leaves 1B, 2B, 3B, LF, RF, and DH as positions they value Offense first, or on ever par with Defense. Hamilton is an elite bat, Cruz probably is as well. Beltre, as mentioned, is one of the top offensive third basemen in baseball, as is Kinsler at his position. Young probably singlehandedly kept this team in it while guys were on the DL. And maybe Moreland isn't a guy that's going to hit 50+ home runs like some first basemen in the league, but he's got legitimate power and some of the home runs you give up there are dispersed across the other guys (most teams don't have second basemen that his 30+). I seriously don't know what team you're watching because this IS one of the most capable offensive teams in all of baseball. And before we say our SS and CF'ers can't hit, most of them are contact/speed guys which are necessary to a good lineup---offensive production can't just be measured on BA and HR.

We are leading the whole league in errors - as of today, we have 72. Who's next? Chicago - 69, Oakland - 66, Houston - 63, and Minnesota and San Diego tied with 59. For posterity, I'll note that, as of today, Oakland and Houston are last in their leagues, and the other 3 are second last.

Our offense isn't the best in baseball, but it's good enough to get us into the playoffs. We all know our pitching staff needs a bit of improvement, but how much are those errors costing us? I know last night wasn't the first game that we blew just on errors, but it was especially painful after seeing C.J. with an all-star start like he had.

I already know, as frustrated as I am now, how I am going to feel during the All Star Break.
Most eagerly waiting for the second half to start. It's the same for the players. Nice rest & all
refreshed~ New attitude-New focus. So get all the angst out from here to next Sunday.
Three days without real Baseball gives me the heeby jeebies, but my Golf game will improve.

WWJDD I was refering to our friend R100 saying Oliver would be just fine as a close not RW, as much blind faith as RW has in Oliver he isn't insane.

Last nights loss wasn't a hitting loss it was as most of these late losses due to bad pitching and/or bad management decision in crunch time. Whether its using Murphy as a defensive substitution in the past or pulling CJ last night.

Just so you know, citing WAR as a stat whether Beltre is an elite offensive player is more than a little silly. WAR covers both offense and Defense.

Not only are they frustrating to the fans, but I think theyre starting to get to the coach. two ejections in one week. you gotta have alot of pent up anger and frustration for that. Wash is a pretty calm and cool cat, so something, is boiling deep down inside him with this team, and now its starting to surface.

Ok well that's good because I don't like WAR that much anyway. Let's just use the basic stats of average, power, and production. Beltre's average isn't so great (around .270), true. But his power numbers are 4th out of all 3B (both leagues), and his production is 1st (both leagues). If you like OPS - OPS is 10th & slugging 8th, That's 10th and 8th out of the entire field of 3B in both leagues. How is that not an elite offensive 3B? You're just guilty of hyperbole - we all do it from time to time.

I feel like i gotta be the one to start the braveheart war cry or something before we all start jumping off of builidings and throwing toasters in the bathtub. I can admit i'm one of the more negative ppl on this site in some ways. But here's the deal. This team can hit, and has hitters from top to bottom of this lineup. We just got a new hitting coach a month ago, right about now is hopefully when we start to see how he might start shaping this offense. and this team does have pitchers. However, i do have to reiterate a point i've made several times and others have obviously seen similar evidence. We have one pitcher that calls his own game, and thats CJ. whether he wins or loses, throws a bad pitch or good one... thats all on him. EVERY OTHER pitcher on this team relies on the catcher to make the call at the plate YT is not getting it done. We need to make the YT trade to the giants for basically anyone right now and find a real catcher. i'm sorry, but napoli is not a full time catcher if he can finish out the year thats fine, but we need to look towards the future. If Teagarden could hit he could be the guy. basically if we cold have a combo of naps and teagarden we'd be in great shape... but we dont. Our first priority towards improvement right now is finding a new catcher. If we could do that now, we could possibly reassess our pitching situation prior to the deadline before we cash in a bunch of prospects for another pitcher thats going to struggle with YT... Bottom line is while a bunch of us were at the ledge everyone kept saying "oh quit worrying we have an easy series coming up we play Houston twice, the Mets, FL, and Baltimore.... well it hasnt turned out to be such an easy compilation of games and this team is on a downward spiral to missing the playoffs. ALCS champs dont do that. Its time to nut up or shut up. changes need to be made even tiny ones like getting rid of YT. love the guy, love his enthusiasm hate that he calls for 8 fb in a row before finally an off speed pitch. We can still salvage this, but something HAS to be done, and it HAS to be done soon. especially regarding YT. the sooner we get a new catcher in here maybe we'll realize lowe and rhodes, and feliz and holland and who else might suck just a little bit less where we can trust our BP a little more. Focus on upgrading internally and use some small minor pieces to bring in a solid 5th pitcher even like Guthrie. (just for example)