Although I thought the first WBC was contrived, force, and a marketing ploy, I began to enjoy the games. I truly loved watching the Asian and Caribbean teams play. They play such fundamentally sound baseball on such a high level these games should be mandatory viewing for all little leaguers. The way they execute the game is almost like watching ballet.

Spring training is my favorite time of year. We get to see highlights and listen to radio broadcasts from where it is warm and games are being played. Where the young guys are trying to earn a spot and the old guys are trying to hang on. Where the anticipation of a new season of unknowns, up and downs, balls and strikes, and the desire for your guys to go out and play hard and make it to the playoffs.

Being a fan of one of the most futile franchises in all of sports. If follow me on twitter (www.twitter.com/bartonomus) I have had extensive discussions about how bad they are. It is hard to keep the warm fuzzy from spring training alive through the All-Star Break. So I hope they are not the regular buzz kill they have been so I can be baseball intoxicated for a long time.

First, I can’t understand why the Rangers would not even make a play at signing Kerry Wood.  With all of their closer troubles last year, *cough CJ Wilson cough* signing Kid K just made too much sense.  He grew up here!  He would be 10 minutes from his home!  The Rangers are DESPERATE for not only a closer, but any kind of good PR move!  In the end, though, this is the real kicker:  Kerry Wood worships Nolan Ryan.  He wears number 34 for crissakes!  Mr. Daniels, you can’t tell me that one 5 minute phone call from Nolan Ryan wouldn’t have convinced Kerry to sign here?  Did you even try?  As goofy as it sounds, Mr. Wood would have helped put butts in the empty seats at your stadium, but it appeared that there was no effort whatsoever to get him here.  I think that it is shameful of Ranger management to not attempt to pursue Kerry.  If they made an effort, and he rebuffed them, I can understand that, but there were no reports in the media that the Rangers were pursuing him.

I continue to hear over and over again that the reason the Rangers cannot get pitching to sign here is because the Ballpark is a launching pad.  I hope to present some contrary anecdotal eveidence to this hypothesis.  All we hear from Joe Ranger fan is that no pitcher will ever sign here because it will ruin their stats, but if that were the case, the line for free agent hitters would be out the door for players to sign here.  If a pitcher makes a concious decision not to pitch in a ballpark because of its reputation, then hitters would be making the concious decision to play here because of…well, its reputation.  If I were a pitcher, set to pitch every 5 days, and the Ballpark scares me, then of course, I wouldn’t sign here unless the contract was ridiculous.  On the other hand, if I were a hitter, the Rangers would be first on my list because of the reputation of the park.  If I could come here and add .200 points to my OPS, I would, because that would make me that much more valuable on the free agent market.  The harsh reality of this theory is that the Rangers do not see free agent hitters beating down Nolan Ryan’s door to get here.

I wish I had a good theory as to why the Rangers have trouble bringing in Free Agents.  Maybe the thought of all those empty seats are a turn off.  Maybe it is the stifling July heat.  Or, maybe it is incompetent management.  I don’t know, but there doesn’t seem to be any quick fix to getting the Rangers to their first EVER playoff win.  Maybe Nolan and Jon have it figured out, but we sure haven’t seen any results yet.

I also got my baseball juices in a boil after hearing from the one and only A-Fraud. He is gonna play for Puerto Rico in the WBC!? I know it is a made for TV publicity stunt, but to me it illustrates what is wrong with baseball. The fact that an American can play for another country due to a funky rule, just like the Olympics, I find as a slap in the face. How much PC do we need to have in sports? I hate A-rod. I make no bones about it. He crushed me many years ago and is (to me) the personification of everything that is wrong with todays players. Cherry picking what team to play for. Not doing the right thing but what will make the spotlight be focused on him. His playing for Puerto Rico tells me that the team is pretty good if ARod is willing to play for them. He is an individual and plays like one. He has not won anything as a team player. He gets great stats and plays a so-so third base, so in order for him to play for them the team must be good enough that he won’t get blamed for failure. By the way, he didn’t play in the last WBC because he couldn’t decide who to play for, the US or PR. what has changed other than the roster to make him decide to play with them?

This is going to lead to Hello Kitty inspired merchandise and new uniform designs based on Japenese school girl uniforms. Anime jumbotron characters? Texting signs from the catcher? New abbreviations in like 6-4-3 OMG, Ball 4 WTF? K FTW!

The best off season to me is baseball’s. They have action all the time and the hot stove boiling new deals all the time. The Halladay to Oakland deal got me jazzed. I am so ready for the free agents to start falling from the sky in massive numbers. Manny is gonna collect big bank. Tex is out there but I think he may be a little exposed for the above average 1B that he is. He hits well and is a switch hitter but the crop of firstbaseman is thick. He will probably land in Yankee-land and be overpaid just like the rest of the team.

As for the rangers, OY! Do they have issues they need to address and address NOW. Bringing Mike Maddux in as the pitching coach is a good move. I am still anxious for the move that is really needed to be made. JD has to go. Nolan needs to put his stamp on the team and start winning.

The Jake Peavy sweepstakes has me interested, the trickle down effect on this signing is huge. Many of the other free agent pitchers out there are going to have to deal around this signing. If they can get in before the signing, they can fill the void for teams that are not wanting to pay for Peavy. If they get signed after, their deals will be measured against it. The Nats Making a deal perplexes me. Are they positioning to get better now or in the future?

As i write this I am looking at MLB Trade rumors feed on my FeedDemon and I just got an update. And, as i had thought, the Rockies are not done. They are looking to dump payroll and get more youth by the sounds of it. They really didn’t show alot last year so get what you can now before they lose more value. Not a bad strategy.

Being starved for good baseball around here, i tend to lose the feeling in August and September. The heat and the barage of Cowboy pre-season stretching gets me to dread any kind of sports talk. The doldrums of the NASCAR season and the fact that the Rangers suck so bad that the could just end the season with the All-Star break make me just want to sit in a chair under the AC and drink ice cold lemonade and not do anything that requires any rooting effort. But then the fall arrives and playoff baseball gets into the blood and the weather gets better so you can actually move without threat of a heat stroke.

I get fired up at watching teams use every pitcher they have in order to stay alive. i like the talk of 3 days rest and pinch hitting for the pitcher. I love watching baseball where the jackets and sweatshirts are prominent in the dugout and every pitch means something. This gets me ready for the spring and the next season. I am wondering if the Rangers can find something on the off-season and if Nolan actually can turn this thing around. And, actually, I am looking forward to the World Baseball Classic this spring. I did enjoy it the first time around and I hope it just gets better. But the pinnacle of playoff baseball will never be surmounted by anything else in my sports mind.

Which is why last nights Cubs-Dodgers tilt was such a sucker punch that I may never recover.  Cubs’ fans (myself included) are now staring a 8 game losing streak in the playoffs dead in the face.  The best team in the National League looked like, well, the Dodgers for most of the season.  Myself, I sat at home, in near tears, having to listen to Dick Stockton make more mistakes than a 5 year old in physics class and watching Manny Ramirez hit a blast into the wind that still hasn’t landed.

All day today, I have felt sick to my stomach.  I just can’t fathom investing this much time and sanity into this season and see the Cubs go down again.  I just can’t.  I know that nothing I can do will change where this series or this season will go, but I am hoping that the Cubs will rebound.  Zambrano on the mound tonight, and let’s hope the no-hit version of Big Z shows up and not the 13 earned runs in 8 innings little z.

Dave

The Nosebleed League - #1 seed and got a bye for the first week. Well done to me, although half the league is not paying attention. I am in a position that i have not been in for years. I have a chance to win. WOOHOO!

The Gamma League - this is the league i have been in for the longest time. i am the Commish of this league and without fail, controversy arises late in the season. After handling that I can focus on maintaining the playoff run. I get in as the #4 seed and get the defending champ who is the #5 seed in the first round. I am monitoring it strong all week and it is gonna be a close one. Once he takes the lead I start to panic and then the final score beats the life out of me. I lose 9-8. If I would have gotten 1 more single or given up 1 less walk I would be going on. This burned me for hours. I felt like I got kicked in the junk. Another fruitless baseball season. I worked hard, thought it through and gave it my all and got squashed again. Consolation bracket here I come.

In summation, fantasy Sports Leagues are really fun and can keep you interested in games that you normally would not care about. It increases your knowledge of the sports that you love and it allows you to feel as if you have actually accomplished something. But, in defeat it makes you wish you had never started and that you would never do that again. Kinda like a night of binge drinking, without the headache. Another season ends, while another continues. Hockey is on the horizon and football has begun. Choose wisely when entering the relm of Fantasy Sports, it is a great ride but only one guy leaves happy.

Catalanato being moved would not bother me at all. I would trade him for another color dot for the traditional 6th inning dot race at the Ballpark. He has been good when given the chance to play but those chances are few and far between so get a bag of balls, some line chalk, a cold beer and a steak and move him somewhere he can play a little more.

Pitching! The one thing the Rangers have never had and always need. The ball park is notorious for bloated ERA’s and not being able to bring anybody of note there (Chan Ho Park?). So now we are going to float the only pitchers that have had any success (if you can call it that) in the ballpark. This is where the anxiety kicks in. If they are the only assets that you are willing to deal, the Rangers are sunk for a long time. Offense is great but everybody wants pitching. In order to get pitching you have to give up a lot. Texas has weapons and the fact that no deals could be made at the deadline to get more pitching, and the fact that the 2 legit starters cleared waivers, tells me that the Rangers are in a bad way. Not willing to deal what people want and not having what they need.

Just as a quick note: the Rangers organization is capable of developing pitchers to a point but once they hit AAA and the Big Leagues as Rangers, something happens. Some former Ranger greats of note include Chris Young (Padres), Edinson Volquez (Reds), and John Danks (CHISox) to name a few.

As I see it now, I have 7 stories of interest:

1 - Rays for real?
2 - Angels, can they be stopped?
3 - Red Sox, can they make it?
4 - AL Central?
5 - Mets, Phillies, Marlins?
6 - How will the Cubs fail?
7 - NL West and NL Wildcard?

Baseball is an endurance race and I am fading in the middle a little bit. I can see the last mile or so and am excited about the finish but I am conserving my energy.