ROWDY TIME SPORTS

There was a time when the Texas Rangers were loaded with power at almost every position and little to no idea who they could count on taking the mound. Millions of dollars were thrown at the likes of Alex Rodriguez, Rafael Palmeiro, Andres Galaragga and Ken Caminiti in the belief they could slug their way to the top.

Never thought the day would come when the situation would be so dramatically reversed, when the organization revealed it flat out doesn’t care about scoring runs at all.

At long last, with less than a month to go before pitchers and catchers report, the Rangers decided to do something this offseason. Their prose is – former Trimble Tech star Yovani Gallardo.

Gallardo, by all accounts, is not a bad acquisition – someone who posted a 3.51 ERA last season and has thrown more than 180 innings in six of eight seasons.

And at lest they didn’t break the bank in getting him, sending Luis Sardinas, Corey Knebel and Marcos Diplan to Milwaukee to get him.

But it still sadly comes off as doing nothing to improve what was needed to improve more than anything else from last season.

In settling on someone like Gallardo and failing to land a Justin Upton or Matt Kemp, the Rangers appear convinced that they can get back to the postseason winning nothing but 1-0 games all year. Again, this is 2015, not 1915.

A rotation that looks to feature Yu Darvish, Derek Holland, Gallardo, Ross Detwiler and Colby Lewis should be good enough to win. But not when you will be rolling out a lineup that last season failed to see anyone hit 20 homers or drive in 80 runs.

In 10-20 years time, the Rangers have gone from one extreme to another. But, except for that one brief magical stretch when they were good at BOTH and the end result was the World Series, the result has so far been the same.

Believe me, I saw all those years in the 2000s of last place finishes where a towering offense couldn’t make up for a complete lack of performance on the mound. But last year should have finally dispelled the myth that no, you can’t win on nothing but pitching alone after all, as a staff that was second in the AL in shutouts combined with the league’s third worst offense resulted in – you guessed it – dead last.

Yet still nothing was done to improve what was needed to improve. The Rangers appear dead set on going into 2015 with an underachieving Leonys Martin, an Elvis Andrus that has appeared to hit a plateau, a broken down Prince Fielder, an aging Adrian Beltre and no idea where Shin-Soo Choo fits in this mess at all.

But hey, there is still some time left in this offseason. And word is already getting out that the Rangers could be interested in acquiring…

Carlos Corporan, an outstanding defensive catcher with a career .226 batting average.

This could be a long season.

Filed under: Uncategorized |