Second-half wishes.


Jordan Lyles returned to his Jordan Lylesness, giving up six earned runs in four painful innings.

Here’s my hope for the second half of the season.

Adolis Garcia builds on his All-Star-calibre first half and proves it wasn’t a fluke.

Joey Gallo continues his assault on the baseball and his elite-level of play. In a Rangers uniform. If the Rangers must trade him, hopefully it’s in the offseason or next trade deadline. Fans need heroes. Fans need faces they want to cheer for. Gallo wants to stay here. Maybe the Rangers can build around him rather than try to turn him into a few more building blocks.

Kolby Allard and Dane Dunning continue the learning process. They could easily be two-fifths of the Rangers rotation in the coming years. Both have had flashes of brilliance. But both have displayed bursts of boneheadedness. They are keepers.

The Rangers decide what Nick Solak, Willie Calhoun, Nathanial (don’t call me Nate) Lowe, Andy Ibanez, and Eli White are. Mostly Solak and Calhoun. If they are not going to turn the corner, show them the door. The Rangers already shed Odor, Andrus, and Mazara. They don’t need to keep running mediocre players out there that will never develop. Ronald Guzman would have been in that same bucket but his injury probably means his days as a Ranger are over after this season. Accountability, please.

Kyle Gibson brings back more than the Darvish deal brought back. Hopefully they will find another Dane Dunning. Or maybe even someone like Cavan Biggio from the Blue Jays, a team looking to make a wild card run, needing pitching, and overflowing with young talented offense. Biggio is a second-baseman full of promise who hasn’t quite turned the corner yet offensively. Where have we heard that before?

Isiah Kiner-Falefa isn’t anointed anything yet. No contract with horses. Let’s agree he’s a likable Ranger. Let’s agree his work ethic and attitude are admirable. Let’s also agree he is less than average offensively. He has a career OPS of .665. That’s below average. His OPS+ proves that. It’s 78 for his career, 80 for this year. Again, that means he is performing twenty percent less than league average. Only three starting shortstops have committed more errors. Let’s hope the Rangers realize Kiner-Falefa is a utility player.

After last night’s 10-2 pounding by the Blue Jays, they stop televising Rangers road games out of respect to the children who might be watching. This team is an embarrassment on the road. The front office should be ashamed of what it assembled.

Rangers minor leaguers develop, and this crop is unlike the failed crops in the past, and this crop comes up and makes a difference. Guys like Sam Huff, Josh Jung, Cole Wynn, Hans Crous, and Cole Regans are for real, and not the typical Ranger mirages.

My hope for the Rangers second half is that the Rangers second half is halfway watchable. A hundred-loss season is not fun to witness.

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