And The Beat Goes On: July 12th

In honor of the ESPYs being on last night, here's probably the only bit from the ESPYs that I've ever found entertaining:

● Jeff Wilson has a second-half pseudo-preview. So does T.R. Sullivan, I think. Can you tell how enthused I am about writing this post? You can? Awesome!

● Drew Davison has a bunch of nice-to-read rehab updates:

* Alexi Ogando, on the disabled list with a strained right groin, will throw one inning Thursday at Triple A Round Rock. He is then scheduled to throw two innings Saturday for Round Rock, and could join the Rangers when they open a two-game series at Oakland on July 17.

* Neftali Feliz, on the disabled list with right elbow inflammation, will throw two innings Sunday at Round Rock, and is expected to remain with the Express for his next outing on July 18.

* Koji Uehara, on the disabled list with a strained right lat, will throw one inning Saturday at Round Rock.

* Mark Lowe, on the DL with a strained right intercostal muscle, is expected to throw his first bullpen session Friday in Seattle.

And, in case you missed it, here's the setup on the starting rotation going into the beginning of the second half:

Manager Ron Washington has his rotation for the second half of the season set. Derek Holland, Yu Darvish, and Matt Harrison will start the three games against the Mariners, the Rangers’ first series after the All-Star Break while Roy Oswalt and Colby Lewis will start in the two-game series against Oakland.

Colby Lewis, who was placed on the DL June 26 with tightness in his right forearm, will become the second starting pitcher to return to the rotation July 18 against Oakland. He threw a 37-pitch bullpen session before Saturday’s game against the Twins and will have another bullpen session at his Bakersfield home Tuesday.

● I dropped a couple of hundred words yesterday for ESPN on the second-half keys for the Rangers and such. Unfortunately, I screwed up my facts and mentioned that the Rangers had three starters on the DL going into the All-Star break when Derek Holland had, in fact, already made it back right before the break. Let that serve as a lesson to everyone to double-check even the simplest facts, because, sometimes, despite your best intentions, you screw up the easy stuff.

● In other news, I'm over 6,100 followers on Twitter. Thank you, #cookietalk fans. 

● Joey Gallo is the greatest player in the history of professional baseball *:

Rangers 3B Joey Gallo with his eighth homer in his 17th Arizona League game. What a beast.

— Ben Badler (@BenBadler) July 12, 2012

[* I've been cautioned by at least one Rangers minor league guru that, yes, there are perceptible holes in the swing, so nobody should commit the mistake of getting totally carried away with the AZL success, because there's a lot of work left to be done. Still, though, you like to think that the early tastes of success are beneficial from a developmental standpoint, in that they breed confidence and are obviously preferable to Gallo going out there and just absolutely floundering from the outset.]

● I won a very important one-on-one basketball game yesterday in-between writing the two halves of the current front page post. My dream of becoming the fake JJ Barea endures.

● Today's classic .gif: