Not really torn anymore re

Michael Young being traded.  That is because of stuff like this, or stuff like this.  Michael Young, the "Face of the franchise" is a baseball player.  He is a pretty good player, not as good as he used to be and mos def not a great defensive player.  He is payed $16 million a year to play for the Texas Rangers.  He has 3 years left on his current guaranteed contract with the ballclub.  "Face" does not wanta be a DH.  "Face" wants to play in the field.  "Face" is no longer an asset to the club with his glove.  All that saw his ole moves in game one of the past World Serious can attest to that statement.  "Face" has whined every single time he has been moved around the infield but because he always eventually shut up and just played, the DFW and national media have lauded "Face" as a trouper, a real stand-up, unselfish guy.  I am not buying that anymore.  Actually, I never really drank that kool-aid to begin with but it was positive press for my joke of a franchise so I just went with it, reluctantly.  Another thing "Face" liked to whine about was how the Rangers never won anything, how the Front Office did not seem even invested in producing a winning ballclub.  Guess the frick what? After a v rocky start (incl this ridiculous long term contract for "Face"), Ranger GM, Jon Daniels, went on an amazing Bob le Flambeur winning streak.  He acquired current AL MVP, Josh Hamilton, in a trade.  He hoodwinked the Atlanta Braves, getting Elvis Andrus; current Rookie of the Year, Neftali Feliz; swingman, Matt Harrison; and a couple of players still in the pipeline, all for Mark Teixiera, who plays for the Damn Yankees now.  He unloaded Gagne for Dave Murphy.  CJ Wilson moved from set-up man to a good #2 or #3 starter and he rescued Colby Lewis from Japan, v cheaply, I might add.  Colby Lewis has the only Ranger World Serious victory in its' wretched history.  To top it all, last year Daniels hoodwinked the Damn Yankees and got Cliff Lee for the stretch-run and playoffs.  You know the rest.  The Rangers won their first pennant and lost to the SF Giants in the World Serious.

So, now $16 million per annum and a winning ballclub are not enough for "Face."  For crying out loud, he is going to get his 600 PAs (plate appearances).  Kinsler, Cruz, and Hamilton are seriously injury prone and our first base option is a rook, who the jury is still out on.  (Not me, though, I think Mitch Moreland is gonna be a stud.)  "Face" can spell Beltre at third, Andrus at short, and Kinsler at second.  Plus there was talk he would learn first.  He could spell Moreland if he washes out.  If "Face" just apologizes and takes one for the team (whilst earning sixteen million dollars playing a game) the Rangers would have one of the deepest and best lineups in the Majors.

And "Face" is essentially holding the team hostage.  Sometime in late May or early June of this year "Face" becomes 10 and 5.  10 and 5 is a Union incentive meaning a Major League ballplayer has played ten years in the Show, five with one ballclub.  10 and 5 means "Face" cannot be traded to any team, for anything unless "Face" agrees to it.

(Do not get me wrong:  owners are swine.  They always have been and they always will be.  Watch the totally brill Eight Men Out, dir by big Union man (Matewan!), John Sayles to get the flavor of how horribly Major League ballplayers were treated back then.  If you were not a star it was basically indentured servitude, the club could bury you in the minors indefinitely or trade you to whomever for whatever the club desired.  If you were not a star your salary sucked and if you did not agree to terms with the club [and most contracts back then were renegotiated every single season] then you did not PLAY, i.e. WORK.  Back to the zinc mines for you, loser.  I ALWAYS take the Union's side in these labor disputes.  I do not care HOW much these players make today.  They are just signing contracts that evil owners put in front of them!)


No team in baseball, as much as they would like to have "Face" on their team (and there are teams that would like to own "Face") wants to pay the rest of his contract.  The Rangers are over a barrel in more ways than one.

Michael, please.  Say you are sorry.  We will get a TORP at the deadline and go to the playoffs again.  And who knows what happens then? You are paid (in baseball terms) twice what you are worth.  In real-life terms I cannot even do the math on how overpaid you are.

Let's win the whole deal, dude.  Say you are sorry.

************

This "Face" thing ran oot of control (and no one is gonna read this post).  Tomorrow:  Clos Manou, Sexy Beast, Winter's Bone.  I swear.

Love you all, ....

"Face" gets ready to rok the Royals.

P.S. Puh-leeze, give me Joe Blanton for "Face."

Farewell, Cliff Lee.

Thanks for getting us to the World Serious last year.  Thanks for not going to the Damn Yankees.  I hope you have fun against the Giants next year.  As for the Rangers:  This is bad in the v short run but v good in the long run.  We've got a lot of money now and a fairly deep prospect base.  The talk is of Garza, Grienke, & Beltre now but we might bide our time until the All-Star break, see what the club looks like in July and the Royals & Rays would not be asking for what they are asking for now.

Lee strikes out Yanks & Rangers looking.

I expect a v tight, competitive AL West race right now going in to July.  Then we'll see who will make the moves necessary to get their team in to the playoffs.

So, this week has

Totally sucked, right? My team lost the World Serious, I have a got a huge national holiday promotion that I'm installing by myself, and a lot of stuff was late with that, the Dems got their asses handed to them, Keef was suspended by Cabletown, the Sooners lost last night, etc, and Ardent whines, whinges, & wheedles on and on and on!


But Friday night just about made up for all of this crumminess.  I bought two mini bottles of Prosecco on my way out the door Friday & drank them on the walk home.  I blasted my iPod in to my head, listening to tracks like this  and this.  Some amazing PJ Harvey, Freddie King (that's the greatest drummer evah!, Al Jackson Jr, on that one), I'll Buy by the Replacements, & some Bon Scott AC/DC.  


The whole time walking home, all my cares seemed to be put behind me.  I felt so fucking happy to be alive! 


I got home, Renee was so tired from work she was asleep on the couch.  She had cracked open a bottle of Saddleback Viognier and had made dinner.  She made some chicken & couscous which was so good.  I heated that up, poured myself a glass of wine & settled in to watch An Education.  Fantastic evening.  


I want to talk about wine here for a second.  First, the Saddleback Viognier.  Now, to me, Viognier is supposed to be elegant, light, bordering on effervescent, off-dry, great with all types of food, fun, etc, ... Then why oh why is just about every frickin' California Viognier I taste heavy, viscous, practically sticky, hot, sweet, no good with food, pretty much a dessert wine, or at best a wine you might have one glass of before the meal? 


The Saddleback Viognier was not Rhone-like per se but it was just about the best CA Viognier I've had.  It wasn't hot but it was a little on the heavy side, the finish was long, cracking with acidity, it most certainly was off dry, went perfect w/ the lovely modest Mediterranean meal Renee had prepared and capped off a perfect evening at home.  Heck, Saddleback still puts Nils Wenge's name on the front of their labels and he and his son have long been some of my favorite Napa winemakers so I should not have been surprised I guess.  The fruit for this wine is from Napa so it ain't cheap ($22-$25) & I won't carry the wine at my store but I'd buy it again and it would make a nice gift, too.  


Finally, still on wine, me and one of my reps were commiserating about the off dry hang up so many wine consumers have.  It is annoying & oftentimes hypocritical.  I went to the Family Winemakers Trade Tasting with one of my bosses just so she could see what those awful meat markets are like and she could taste a million different types of wine, learn about varieties, CA winemakers, you know the drill, anyhoo:  she does not have that off dry hang up.  She loves Chenin Blanc, Viognier, Moscato d'Asti, Alsace varieties.  It was so refreshing to be with someone new to the wine world who had no preconceived notions about what was good wine and what was junk.  


First of all, off dry wines are perfect with like nine million different types of food.  Plus they're often lower in alcohol and make great apertifs or can function as a dessert wine in a pinch.  They're great for picnics or outdoorsy types of things.  Somehow the notion came about in CA that if it comes in a long bottle then it must be sweet, and therefore must be junk.  Meanwhile, so many of these same sniffy wine aesthetes are throwing back blockbuster fruit-forward Chards (many of those containing up to three per cent residual sugar in them) & super-extracted 15 & 16 point Cabs & Zins.  UGH!


Rant over!


I would like to thank everyone who made Friday night an oasis in Hell.  I want to thank Renee for the fab dinner & opening that Saddleback.  I want to thank PJ Harvey, The Replacements, Freddie King, Al Jackson Jr, and all the other musicians who make such fabulous music.  I want to thank the folks who make those Prosecco splits (yummy!).  I want to thank Carey Mulligan, Nick Hornby, Lone Scherfig, Lynn Barber for making one of my all-time favorite films.  I want to thank Saddleback for their Napa Viognier. And I want to thank Deanna Grant for seeing (& tasting) wine w/ no snobbery, eager to learn. 

All congratulations

To the San Francisco Giants.  The torture is finally over.

The Rangers have a lot to be proud of:  They won their first ever playoff series.  They won the American League Pennant, beating the Yankees to earn it.  And they were the first Texas team to win a game in the World Series.  Houston was swept in its' only appearance.  Plus the Rangers are going to be receiving a bushelful of awards, to wit:  MVP (Hamilton), Gold Glove (Hamilton), Silver Slugger (Hamilton, Cruz possibly), Rookie of the Year (Neftali Feliz), Comeback Player of the Year (Vlad Guerrero), Manager of the Year (Ron Washington).  Plus they got that that butt-ugly AL Champion trophy (which, as the Rangers have been so awful for so long and had ne'er been anywhere near winning a pennant, I honestly did not even know that you got a fucking trophy if you won a pennant!) and Josh won the ALCS MVP.  


The Rangers are under new ownership and have just made beaucoup of bucks w/ their playoff run & I think they have a shot at retaining Cliff Lee.  Plus, just in general, Greenberg & Ryan are ready to increase payroll anyhoo.  


I really thought I'd never live to see the Rangers in the World Series.  Who knows? The future for Ranger fans certainly looks bright.  They might make it again in the near future.  Here's hoping we win the whole fucking thing next time.


Love you all, 






mds


P.S.  103 days until pitchers and catchers report in Arizona.

I am very bullish

About the World Serious returning to the City.

I am sightly bullish about the Rangers winning tonight.  I just have a feeling that Hunter's curve will be working tonight and the Rangers will hit the Giants rook lefty hard.  (Around my condo today I saw two decked-out Giants fans smoking furiously on their patios today, is doubt starting to creep in?)

I have no idea who will pitch for the Rangers in game six, though.

Get 'em Rangers!

Mitch Moreland, North Texas Folk Hero

After game three Frenchy said, "He's from Mississippi.  He doesn't have any idea what he's done yet."

The Rangers have a lot of cool stories, as do the Giants, as do generally all teams that make it this far.  (Speaking of far, with the Rangers winning yesterday, the World Serious [as the immortal Ring Lardner called it] will extend in to November this year.)  But one of the biggest stars for the Rangers yesterday deserves having his story told here today.

Meet Mitch Moreland, drafted v late (but driving a hard bargain and a $60,000 signing bonus pretty much on his own) by the Rangers in 2007.  The Rangers 1B at the time was the super-duper Mark Teixeira.  "Tex" was traded at the deadline later that year for Elvis Andrus, Neftali Feliz, Matt Harrison, and a couple of other players.  The Rangers installed Chris Davis at 1B the next year and for a young kid he did pretty damn good, earning a nickname even, "Crash" Davis.

'09 came around and "Crash" was really struggling, striking out a ton.  The ballclub sent Davis down to Oklahoma City to see if he could figure it out.  He did well there and got called up late in '09 and did okay, enough to earn him the starting job this season.

Davis, who has always played good to great defensively, just was not hitting.  & worse for him the Rangers had another kid 1B, not Moreland, a switch-hitting Mark Teixeira clone named Justin Smoak (great great baseball name) ripping through the Minors, itching to have "Crash"'s job.

& Smoak got Davis' job early this year.  Davis got sent back to OKC and Smoak did alright up in the show, hitting the occasional homer, walking a fair amount, playing decent defense.

But the Rangers really really really wanted Cliff Lee, you see.  And to get Lee, and to also prevent the Yanks from getting him, the Rangers had to pony up super-prospect Smoak to the Mariners.  They did, Cliff Lee was ours but who the eff was going to play 1B?

"Crash" got another shot, was not getting it done, and behind the scenes the Ranger brass started working for a trade to bring in a veteran 1B.  "What the eff," they must have thought, "Let's give Moreland a shot."

Moreland, meanwhile, did not get off to a good professional start.  At one point he talked the organization in to giving him a shot as a pitcher.  That did not work out, either.  He went back to 1B & 3B and worked hard to make it to the Show.

Moreland immediately endeared himself to Ranger faithful because like his at-bat last night, even against tough left-handers, he always battled, he drew walks, worked counts, always did whatever he could to get on base & help the club.  Maybe he's not as talented as "Tex" or Smoak, or, hell, even "Crash" but Moreland is that old-school gritty-ass type known as a Motherfucking Ballplayer.  He'll do anything and everything to help the team out.

(Now that I think about it, the Rangers should have put Mitch Moreland in to pitch in game two when all sorts of hell was breaking out for the Rangers.)

But that behind the scenes stuff came to fruition.  The Rangers acquired Jorge Cantu in a trade.  I think the idea was that Cantu would become our everyday sort of guy.  He is a legit, decent sort of hitter, most certainly a vet, & v good defensively.  But, either, Cantu hates the Rangers & the AL, or I do not know what, or he has just lost it, because he stunk w/ the Rangers.  He did exactly one good thing with the Rangers, he hit the eventual game-winning (division-clinching) home run up here, against the A's, on Renee's birthday.

Cantu bats right, Moreland left.  So, when the post-season started against the Rays and their tough lefty, David Price, Cantu started.  He struck out three (or was it four?) times.  Wash & Hurdle had seen enough, they put their faith in Moreland for the rest of the Ranger playoff run. Moreland has started every game since, even against lefties.  He has played v well, incl even making a couple of really nice defensive plays, something he is not really known for.  His top line stats for the post season are:  .341 AVG/.386 OBP/.512 SLG (.898 OPS!) w/ three walks and one home run (last night.)

They say he even has a nickname now, "Moose".