Sunday hops, 5-24-26.
A weekly compendium emptying the bench, with Rangers developments, rumors, and takes — and yes, a little TROT COFFEY.
Tomorrow, the Newberg Report turns 28. It was born three months after Josh Jung.
Every one of these 28 years has been different for this baseball team. Introduced something new. Something unfamiliar. Something unexpected — maybe awesome, maybe awful, routinely a brew of both.
Next year will be different, too, and so will the one after that. We’ll have new things to celebrate and to bemoan and to obsess over.
Much of it will be predictably unpredictable, which reminds me to concede that my Q2 prediction streak was busted last night.
More relevantly, and less about me, on this road trip against the teams with MLB’s three worst win-loss records when it got underway, the Rangers will post a losing record. Regardless of what happens today.
The losing trip was clinched last night, when Texas lost its second straight — with its two aces on the mound — to a team whose fans have been protesting outside the stadium clamoring for its owner to cash out, and many of those choosing to buy tickets doing so apparently so they can wave their removed shirts over their head in a swarm during games, firing off the same demand.
One constant through these 28 years: my hatred for West Coast baseball. As rumors persist that expansion will eventually bring Salt Lake City and Nashville into the league, I’ve already got my vote ready: if the increase to 32 teams means eight divisions of four, the right thing to do would be to stick the SLC’s in the AL West with the A’s and Mariners and Angels, lift the Royals out of the Central and the Rays out of the East and unite them with the Rangers and Astros in the AL South.
I will entertain no counter-arguments.
Appreciate all of you, whether you’ve been with me for 28 years or 28 hours. Having the opportunity to chronicle and attempt to capture what this baseball team has been and could be and is, sometimes lionizing and other times lamenting but always hoping for the first, is a gift, and I’m grateful.
On to this week’s Hops.
The first inning.
The Rangers rotation is one of the team’s strengths.
Imagine if they could skip the first inning (like Kumar Rocker did on Tuesday).
Opponents are hitting .290/.356/.621 (.977 OPS) in first innings against Texas this year, planting an ERA of 7.24.
Playing from behind sucks.
The first games.
The Rangers won five of their first eight series openers this season.
Since then, they are 1-8 in Game Ones.
Playing from behind sucks.
