One game out of first.


After giving up nine runs in five innings, Lance Lynn became an honorary Ranger.

The Rangers are still in it! The Rangers are still in it!

With the Pirates 7-0 win over the Cubs yesterday, and the Rangers 12-4 loss to the Astros, Texas heads into the final weekend of the season just one game in back of Pittsburgh for first place. 

First place in who gets the first overall pick in next year’s draft. 

If it happens, it would be the third time this franchise has had the number-one overall pick, and only the second time since it moved to Texas. The Washington Senators drafted Jeff Burroughs first overall in 1969. The Texas Rangers selected David Clyde first overall in 1973.

Burroughs was a success story. Clyde, quite the opposite.

Jeff Burroughs was the Rangers first ever MVP, in 1974. He drove in 118 runs that year. The right fielder had an admirable sixteen-year career, playing for five different teams, but he had his most success as a Ranger. 

David Clyde is the poster boy for abusing a prospect. He was an eighteen-year-old local legend from Houston who went 18-0 in his senior year of high school. One month after he drafted, he was starting in the major leagues for the Texas Rangers because their ownership was desperate for ticket revenue. The idea was to start him, gin up some money and excitement for a Rangers team that had none, then send him down to get a proper development after that first start. Just a few weeks after graduating high school, he got his first major league win that night. The game was sold out. And if there’s anything owners love more than money it’s more money. So, ownership decided to keep the cash cow in the major league, effectively ruining him.

Now the Rangers are this close (if you could see it, my thumb and forefinger are about a half-inch apart) from snagging the first overall pick again.

By all consensus that pick should be Vanderbilt pitcher Kumar Rocker. He’s 6-foot-5, 255 pounds, with a father, Tracy Rocker, who played in the NFL and is the College Football Hall of Fame. Great bloodlines there.

He’s the prize. If the Rangers can just someone find a way to lose enough to catch the Pirates.

It shouldn’t be a problem. This team is really good at that.

*****
TODAY’S GAME:

Jose Urquidy (1-1, 2.78) vs. Kyle Cody (1-1, 1.53)

______________________________