Nice Job Rangers

[CenTexDave]

Had a 13 game lead, totally blew it, and now lose to the Orioles in the Wild Card Game.
Goodbye Ron Washington.

[sojourner truth]

Washingtons inflexible attitude is a problem, but not as big as the players are. Washington has a strict policy of staying with the "old timers" that got them where they are, despite abysmal batting over 2 months of the season. His strategy is predictable. He will use the same pitching order and batting order despite player slumps.

Napoli, Young, Cruz, Hamilton and Murphey have been horrible most of the season. The last month of the season they were worse than that.

Ron has a lot of new talent sitting in the dugout that he refuses to march on to the field lest he anger the old satndard players. There is no starting pitching that they can count on. Yu has been a marginal starter, with Holland and Harrison being chancey at best. The rest are pitiful. Feldman, Oswalt, and Dempster need to find new employment. The bullpen has had a few great performers this year that didn't look so good as last year. Uehara and Tateyama have been surprisingly good, but Nathan (despite a goodlooking record on paper) is pitiful.

The Rangers need to clean house and get rid of a lot of injury prone salary getters. Let the Profars, Olts' and Sotos have a chance. I don't know who their batting coach is, but he needs to go as well.

I can watch Young and Kinsler bat and predict exactly what will happen. Kinsler will fly out and young will hit a ground ball to 2nd for a double play. Almost every time. Napoli will simply strike out, as will Hamilton ( wildly swinging at low outside pitches in the dirt), Napoli, and Cruz. Cruz being too slow to catch a ball in right field or steal a base, much less go from second to home on a good long single.

Watcing the wheels fall off of the Ranger cart has been painful, but Nolan Ryan has to decide if he wants to play ball or hang on to fond memories of times gone by. Washington is a part of the problem, but he hasn't had much to work with lately. I can understand being loyal to your players, but the fans have to count for something as well.

[cnjbond]

I think the problem is something else, what that is, is the mystery. If what you say is true, then they wouldn't have been in first place from pretty much the beginning of the season to the end. Scoring runs hasn't been a problem for the Rangers for much of the past 3 seasons (except during the World Series). The bullpen needs a lights out closer and the starting rotation could use one or two anchors. I'm not sure what's going on with the Hamilton saga, he's been a solid performer for most the season but didn't deliver during the final stretch.

I hope Ryan can right the ship...I don't think they are that far off.

[sojourner truth]

Well, they started out strong, then died on the vine in June, were making up some grond in July, then fell on their face in August. If you look at the individual stats, they look pretty good. Most are in the .300 or close range batting, and a few have 20 hime runs or more. The oin base percentages are great too. Wher the numbers fall apart is in the number of runners left on base, and in scoring position.

They van hit well enough, just not bring the runners home. Plus, they get hits when ther are no runners on base, then hit into double plays a lot. All of the big hitters, who are the Rangers strongest assets, have had prolonged slumps at one time ot another during the aeason. All of them need to be more consistent. Of Course Washington just shrugs and says that they will come out of it sooner or later. Like when? October, when it's too little too late. Well, that didn't happen either, as witness by the Orioles game last night.

I watched every game this year. Didn't miss so much as one. In may and June I thought, wow, here we go to the series again. As the months passed, and we watched the wheels fall off of the wagon, my wife and I got so mad at Washington for not making adjustments we were red in the face. Watching him stick with the same losing starters, plus losing his decent ones to injuries didn't help. This evidenced itself when they went from such a huge lead in the division to losing by one game at the end. Shoot, they lost 9 out of the last 13 games in order to root themselves out of contention. That's shameful.

I don't know what's wrong other than they need to use some new talent in those positions where the current lineup has consistently failed to perform with proven reliability over and over again all year. Time to make some changes, or they will do even worse next year.

[Chief]

WOW, talk about fair weather fans. As an avid Ranger fan I, too, am disappointed in the outcome, but they had a hell of a season. I think 164 games through the Texas heat takes its toll on the players. I'm proud of the Rangers for what they did all year and look forward to next season.

[cnjbond]

Just because we aren't in denial of the troubles the Rangers had this season doesn't make us fair weather fans. It's been a long time since we could have anything to even talk about concerning the Rangers.

But I guess it's the same with Cowboy fans that complain...we're all fair weather fans...there are no problems here, look somewhere else.

[sojourner truth]

I have been, and will be, a Ranger fan since I moved here in 1986. I have been to every opening game since 1996. Ther is a problem that needs to be at least acknowledged and adressed. To lose that many games after commanding a humongous lead is a sign that they have problems.

Lack of hitting, starting pitching, and a bull pen for starters. That and the fact that they had 3 prolonged slumps during the season may be a clue too. Don't forget the humongous numbers of players left on base this year. I think they set a league record.

Baseball is a business as much as a sport. When your team starts blowing huge leads and ends up losing, someone making a lot of money needs to find out whats wrong and address it. That doesn't mean firing the whole team, but moves and changes may be needed. They happen all the time. That's not disloyalty, just the reality of baseball.

Oh, and the Dallas paper and the KDH have already run stories that suggest Ron Washingtons job may be in danger. I doubt if Nolan will can him, but I bet his style may change next year. Only the off season will tell if there are other changes as well. I don't want to see Josh, Nellie, Nappy, Ian, Michael, or Murph go either, but it may have to happen to get the team back on track.

It isn't hard to spot their weak points. Now, if they can just correct them, that would be preferable. If not...adios.

[Chief]

I doubt Washington is in danger of being fired although I admit he did some foolish things near the end with his line up. Hamilton needs to go. 41 home runs don't mean much when you strike out 165 times and can't get a runner at third home. Nellie just hit a really bad slump at the end.
I've always been a Ranger fan and I am not in denial about anything. I'm disappointed they didn't make the play-offs or the series, but I'm proud of the season they had. As the saying goes, "there has to be a winner and a loser," and as the Cubs fan say, "wait 'till next year."