Looks like it’ll be another September of meaningless baseball in the Metroplex, and the Dallas Morning News’ Evan Grant has seen it all before.
Less than 24 hours after falling nine games behind Oakland in the AL West, the clubhouse was as quiet as a mausoleum and just about as lively. Those few players who made appearances at their lockers would have preferred to talk fantasy football, their love lives or even Middle Eastern politics rather than broach one tiny little question about the club.
That question: How did this team get into the position in which it now finds itself?
That position: Forgotten, if not officially gone, in the AL West race. Even with a win Sunday night, the Rangers trailed Oakland by eight games with 30 to play. A comeback would be truly historic. This team, however, hasn’t shown enough consistency to suggest anything of historic proportions is possible.
“We just haven’t played well,” shortstop Michael Young said. “It’s not going to do me any good to look back at the last few months. All I know is we’re definitely capable of more.”
So why haven’t the Rangers accomplished more? Why do they seem headed for a seventh consecutive third- or fourth-place finish in a four-team division?
Grant points to the a leadership void in the clubhouse (blaming, in part, the trade of David Dellucci, above), lack of bullpen experience or defined roles in the wake of the Francisco Cordero trade, and poor 2nd halves from Kevin Millwood, Adam Eaton, Vicente Padilla and Kip Wells.
Strangely, the name “Buck Showalter” doesn’t appear once in this piece.
Rehabbing Mets LF Cliff Floyd was 0-3 earlier today in St. Lucie’s 5-1 loss to Palm Beach.
Newsweek reports the NFL has finally taken Gary Glitter’s “Rock And Roll, Pt. II” off the playlists of stadium tannoy operators (link courtesy Stereogum). This could be the big break the Billy Preston estate has been waiting for.