Texas Rangers...Trouble In Paradise?

After many years, the Texas Rangers have become a franchise that many respect and most fear. They took down the Yankees with ease in route to the 2010 World Series, as well as dominating the 2011 Playoffs. You had players like Elvis Andrus and Mike Napoli who before the magical run were no namers to many average fans. This season, Andrus was a prime target in the trade market and Napoli overcame a terrible first half of the season to be selected BY THE FANS as the starting catcher for the AL at the All-Star Game, only because of his performance on the biggest stage of them all, the 2011 World Series. Don't get me wrong, I am a huge Napoli fan, but with those stats being as low as they were (he hit .228 with 12 homers and 30 RBI's), he should have been at home working on that swing while Chicago White Sox's catcher A.J. Pierzynski, who batted .285 with 14 home runs and 45 RBI's, should have taken his spot.

With all that said, the Texas Rangers have made it to the top of the baseball world by showing teams and opposing fans they are not to be messed with. This season was supposed to be the one where they make it to the very top, by winning that championship! Little did we know, Hamilton would become the most hated on the team and the Rangers embarrassed themselves by blowing a 13 game lead at the end of the season, while looking like garbage in the first ever American League Wild Card game against the Baltimore Orioles.

Let's talk about every one's favorite individual, Josh Hamilton! Enough is enough, this man needs a new start and needs to go somewhere else. Is he really worth 6 years, $100 million? Two words people...HELL NO! This guy is not worth 5 years, not even 4! At this rate, I see 2 to 3 GOOD, PRIME years of his career, yet after that, he will become like anyone else past their prime, an afterthought. Don't get me wrong, I respect the hell out of this man. He has continually fought addiction with drugs and alcohol.. One thing that kept occurring this season was the excuse factor. He always had an excuse of something when he wasn't playing his best. Before the season started, he was caught at a Dallas Sherlock's pub relapsing with while hooking up with a random chick in the bathroom. At the start of the season, he couldn't hold on to his bat when swinging. Then it was his slump for a month when he said he was trying to quit chewing tobacco. AFTER THAT, he told everyone about his struggles with caffeine. I mean look...the guy is an amazing player. His 4 home run game against the Orioles was NUTS! For some reason, I just feel he makes too many excuses to get paid $100 million. Look at Adrian Beltre...he is making $96 million in 6 years and this guy makes NO EXCUSES! He forced Ron Washington to play him in games down the stretch where he was hurt, yet still managed to help the team with his bat and glove. That man deserves $96 million, Hamilton does not.

Now onto the Texas Rangers and their not so happy finish of the 2012 season. They finished with a 93 win season, which is definitely a successful season, yet in Ranger Nation, was a complete failure. Yes, Colby Lewis' departure in the middle of the season hurt them, and also other slumps with Young and Holland definitely did not help their case for another deep playoff run, but somehow they managed to pull off a good string of wins to be 13 games away from a third straight AL West pennant. They looked like they had home-field advantage locked up and were saving their strength for the playoffs. If only we thought it would be that easy. They managed to do something the Red Sox did a few years ago in BLOWING their lead and imploding by the end of the season. All they had to do was win one single game in Oakland, against an A's team who many wrote off even before the season began, yet they struggled in that series and got swept while losing their chance for home-field and the AL West title. If that wasn't enough, many fans saw Hamilton drop a routine fly ball, where some say that dropped ball swung the momentum all the way into Oakland's hands and killed everything the Rangers did in the 161 games before that. Many also saw Hamilton and Wash argue while in the dugout. The two men who you would NEVER think would yell or make a scene in a dugout did, and it looked ugly. That showed that the Rangers dominance, which was built in the playoffs of 2010, was over. I had a bad feeling going into the Wild Card game, and my gut was right. They played like little kids, missing routine plays and not succeeding on the Orioles mistakes. Some could say the Rangers played well, but the Orioles played better. With Hamilton going 0-4 and Napoli going 0-3, the Rangers had a rough night.

O's manager, Buck Showalter out managed Wash that night as well. He made smart decisions with his bullpen by putting in O'Day and Johnson at the right times, and it shut the offense of the Rangers down. We can only hope next season will not be as brutal at the end as this one was, as it was tough to swallow seeing those players leave before they even got to the ALDS.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this as much as it was putting my thoughts down on a virtual notepad and please comment below so we can converse on the topic of the state of the Texas Rangers as well as Josh Hamilton.

Peace and Love!
D