Tuesday Morning Rangers Notes: 72 Hours From Nowhere

Some stuff out there this morning:

● With last night's 4-3 win over Anaheim, the Rangers secured only their third 94-win season in franchise history (matching the 1977 Rangers and drawing within one win of the 1999 Rangers), and officially eliminated the Angels from playoff contention; Texas remains one game ahead of the currently No. 3-seeded Tigers, meaning that the Rangers will need to preserve their one-game lead for two more days in order to ensure home field advantage in the divisional round and draw either the Rays or Red Sox; failing that, the Rangers would travel to Yankee Stadium for Game 1 of the divisional right for a probably Friday night game (T.R. Sullivan, MLB.com)

● Per Evan Grant, the Rangers are rethinking their idea to roll with an eight-man bullpen, and could end up rolling with Matt Treanor over an extra reliever (which would be tantamount to an added threat to Mitch Moreland's post-season playing time at first base; per T.R. Sullivan, the Rangers haven't yet settled upon their post-season starting rotation after all, and it could still be decided by matchup, with Sullivan speculating (hinting?) that a rotation including both Alexi Ogando and Colby Lewis could still be deployed (Dallas Morning News; MLB.com)

● Jason Parks on July 2nd international signee Ronald Guzman: "I don’t want to get too crazy here, so I’ll just say that Guzman is the most impressive 16 year-old prospect I’ve ever seen. His hands at the plate are special; he has a calm load and lets his hands slowly drift into the hitting zone where they come alive. The swing is very easy and smooth, with a quiet explosion when the hips fire and the hands ignite allowing for crazy power. I need to see more before going into more detail, but based on what I’ve seen so far, I’d say the Rangers have something special. I’d already put him in the top 5 in the system, and it won’t be long before he’s the top position player in the system. He’s still quite raw in the field, and his body is obviously immature, but I’ve never seen a 16 year-old swing a bat with such beauty and efficiency. He is beyond special." (TexasFarmReview.com)