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Playing Pepper 2009: Texas Rangers

As the players start getting themselves ready for another season, I thought it'd be a good idea to do the same.  I contacted a blogger for each major league team and posted them five questions.  This is the result.  You can find the tentative schedule of teams here and today's main post is right here.

Since I live in Arkansas, I get to see a lot of Ranger games.  Over the past few seasons, I've come to enjoy watching them and rooting for some of their players.  (Josh Hamilton's story blows me away, but then again, who isn't impressed?)  Sadly, they've never seemed to have the pitching to put together with that typically high-powered offense.

Adam from Lone Star Ball was gracious enough to answer some questions ranging from the rotation to Hamilton and points in between.

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Behind The Eight-Ball

The Cardinals have playing a hard nine down.  Too bad yesterday went 10 innings.

I wasn't able to watch much of the game.  Monday night is Promise Keeper night for me and between that and doing the dinner/cleaning kids routine beforehand, I only got chances to glance at the TV in the first few innings.  What I saw looked good, though.  The Cards seemed to continually put runners on and had a nice 2-0 lead early.

Of course, all it takes is one wrong pitch, which is what happened when Pineiro faced Rickie Weeks with two on.

The offense didn't do much in the middle innings, waiting until the ninth to tie it up.  Unfortunately, Albert Pujols wasn't able to come through this time in the ninth.  His homerless streak is up to 13 games.

Again, you have to give hero props to Troy Glaus for his two for four night, plus driving in those first two runs.  It's almost ridiculous how hot he is right now and I'm afraid what'll happen to the team if he comes back to earth.

Goat is pretty obvious, though when you read the PD story, it quickly becomes questionable why Ryan Franklin was out there at all.  You'd think you might go with some fresher arms in that situation, especially since Franklin hasn't exactly been dominant even at the top of his game.

So now, to hold serve in this series, the Cards are going to have to beat either Sabathia or Sheets, neither of whom are considered "gimmies".  Sure, the Cards have had some success with Sheets in the past, but he's really been pitching well lately and he's not a player you'd want to face needing a win for a split.

Before we get there, though, old friend Jeff Suppan comes off the DL to face the Cards.  His last few pre-DL starts were pretty bad, but you figure he's rested and ready to go if nothing else.  The Cardinals have had good success against Sups, though it's a little surprising that Yadier Molina, who caught him for so long, only is one for six.

St. Louis counters with Kyle Lohse, the current staff ace and one of the few pitchers on staff that anyone has any confidence in.  Lohse has done reasonably well against the Brewers in his career, though you'd expect new second baseman Ray Durham to be in the starting lineup.  Lohse did lose to the Brewers back in April, though.

I see that Friday's start is TBD.  Hopefully LaRussa doesn't try for a bullpen game.  That's not likely to have much success this year.

And if Mozeliak is crazy enough to send Jess Todd to Texas for Eddie Guardado, there might be a storming of the front office by the fans led by the Future Redbirds crew.  I can't imagine that has any chance of happening. 

30?

Hats off to the Rangers, who last night set a modern day record with 30 runs in a game. 30 runs! Heck, the Cardinals had trouble scoring 30 runs in two weeks earlier in the season.

They were down 3-0 in this game. When you think "comeback win", I'm not sure you expect to come back to +27.

Daniel Cabrera started for the Orioles. You figure he went into the clubhouse when he was pulled from the game and thought, "Man, another rough start, 6 runs in five innings, I suck." Then he saw the bullpen give up 24 in four innings and thought, "Dude, I'm way better than I thought."

The Rangers scored 10 in the eighth and sixth in the ninth. Jarrod Saltalamacchia raised his average 83 points, which is very good because he and Ian Kinsler are on my rotisserie team.

And, surprisingly enough, they weren't shut out in the second game of the doubleheader. You just had to figure the irony was there for the taking!

Also on the Network: √ Playing Pepper 2010: Oakland Athletics [C70 At The Bat] √ Book Review: Joe Cronin, A Life In Baseball [C70 At The Bat] √ Happy Birthday, Loge 13 [Loge 13] √ Things to Read: 3/11 [Tremendous Upside Potential] √ The Farm Team to Watch [El Lefty Malo] √ Wounded Birds [C70 At The Bat] √ Julius Peppers Continues Being a Great Quote [Tremendous Upside Potential] √ Things to Read: 3/10 [Tremendous Upside Potential]