Off-season boredom. 12 comments


I always hate the off-season.

First and foremost, because there is no baseball. But, basically, because it’s all a waiting game. Not that I don’t mind anticipation, but I hate the rumors and insider expert speculation.  I hate the BS.

The term “talk is cheap” had to origonate from the baseball off-season.

Where is this player going? Who will sign that guy? Who is this team talking to? It’s rarely right and mostly a waste of time.

Yes, it’s fun to dream and fun to “what if,” but I find that exhausting and boring. Like jogging. It’s just running around the block for nothing. Next thing you know, you’re right back to where you started. And your feet hurt.

The Rangers have so many holes to fill this off-season that it might actually be a slightly more interesting one. When they ever get to it.

They pretty much have to find three starting pitchers. Yeah, they can go with the usual suspects in their highly suspect system, Nick Martinez or AJ Griffin (Chi Chi Gonzalez would be on the list but he had Tommy John surgery). They can try Ricardo Rodriguez or Yohander Mendez. But that’s like going into the season declaring you are the San Diego Padres. They can try turning Matt Bush into a starter. But all that does is give them a starter to cover six games until he blows out his arm for the season. Then they are right back in the exact same position.

You want to see what most every other GM in baseball is going to be thankful for this Thursday? Look at the Ranger pitchers on their forty-man roster. Their Thanksgiving blessing is that they are not the Rangers.

Christmas can’t come early enough. I suspect it will be a bag of coal, when what the Rangers need is a box full of Coles.

And it’s easy to get lulled into the sense that the Rangers offense is set. That the outfield is there with Calhoun, DeShields and Mazara. That the infield is set with Beltre, Adrus, Odor and Gallo. That the DH role is set with Choo and that they are set at catcher with Chirinos.

Yes, they have those positions filled. But like biting into an orange filled chocolate. Not really all that satisfying.

That lineup, basically with Gomez instead of Calhoun, struck out the second most times in the American League, had the third worst batting average, and posted an on-base percentage in the middle of the pack. Oh, and it helped rack up 84 losses.

And in an aspect of the game that’s foreign to the Rangers front office, that same lineup committed the third most errors and the fourth worst fielding percentage.

Those three new starters had better get used to the joy of unearned runs.