Checking In!

Been away for awhile...here are some quick hits followed by some thoughts on the Rangers.

* That Neftali Feliz kid that I was pumping up and keeping track of in OKC early in the season...impressive, no?

* Glad Padilla is gone, hoping Smoltz will be added to the bullpen

* Disappointed that we couldn't bring in Roy Halladay, but I didn't want to give up Feliz, Smoak or Holland...anyone else in our minors was up for grabs in my eyes.

* Cowboys first preseason game was major yuck. Only the first team offense looked even semi-good, and they were just barely there.

* Shawn Marion and Tim Thomas get a thumbs up from me. Drew Gooden and no Rashad McCants get a thumbs down from me.

OK, now on to the Rangers who had the Twins on Monday night. Texas coming off of a big time series win over the Red Sox (Should have been a sweep were it not for Frankie Francisco pitching horrendously) had to look out for a lull, but they were pretty much on their game offensively.

Pitching? Eh...not so much. They struggled a tad, especially when compared to the dominance they've displayed at times since the All Star break.

Hunter went 5 2/3 and gave up 4 runs on 4 hits and 3 walks while striking out 5. I'm not sure what Hunter's deal was tonight. He had a fairly dominant stretch for a couple of innings, but most of the night Hunter struggled with his control. Just wasn't able to locate his pitches for strikes. On the evening he threw 101 pitches and 39 of them were balls. Not the best ratio, especially considering the ridiculous level that Hunter has been pitching at for the last two months or so.

Darren O'Day, the most consistent pitcher on the club this year, came in to get the last out of the sixth inning, faced three batters and failed to get any of them out. Walked two and gave up a single to the other. That cut a lead that was once 7-2, to 7-5 with two on.

Wash made the call to the bullpen and in came Neftali Feliz. Feliz has just been dominant since getting the call to the bigs. Coming in to tonight, Feliz had faced 28 batters, retired 26 of them and struck out 16 while walking 0. It doesn't get much more dominant than that.

Oddly enough, Feliz's stuff wasn't really on tonight. His velocity was curiously low, and his breaking stuff didn't quite have the bite that it had since he had been called up.

Still, Feliz came in and stopped the bleeding by getting the final out of the 6th and then allowing no runs in the 7th. Still, Feliz failed to strike a batter out for the first time since he was called up and went to a three ball count on Joe Mauer before he finally socked a single into center field. I think the game against Minnesota should be a telling sign that Neftali Feliz is a starting pitcher and not a reliever like some seem to think he will be. Feliz seemed fatigued. I think his velocity and arm health in general would be better suited to pitching 8 innings all at once instead of pitching 8 accumulated innings over the course of 8 games.

Neftali has gotten steadily slower with his fastball in recent games, and I think it's because his young arm just can't hold up under dialing up 100 miles per hour, being off a day, and then having to do it again two days later. He's not built like that. Feliz is a starter...not a doubt in my mind.

In the meantime, the Rangers are looking great. Hamilton is smoking the ball, as is Kinsler. I can't wait for Nelson Cruz to get back to full strength to see how he'll bolster this offense that seems to be gelling for the first time all year. The team as a whole seems to be putting it together, and that should scare the rest of the AL.

Texas leads the wild card by 1 game over Boston and just started what is sure to be a brutal schedule. Three more against Minnesota in Texas, and then a 9 game road trip that features three game stops in Tampa, New York, and back to face Minnesota to close it out. If Texas wants to show the world they're for real, I think they need to go 8-4/9-3 over these next 12.

Hopefully the pitching can keep up their stellar play and the bats will continue to come around.

Tonight is game two against the Twins. Scott Feldman on the hill. With the bullpen drained due to overuse in recent games, the Rangers could really use 7 or 8 innings from Scooter.