Congratulations Josh Hamilton

The Rangers have the sixth MVP Award winner in franchise history, Mr. Josh Hamilton. Even though he missed almost the entire month of September because of fractured ribs, Hamilton solidified his impact on this team and this league with a .359 BA (.384 after the All-Star break) 32 HR and 100 RBI.

Through a technicality, there are other candidates for this award but only 6 of 28 writers thought any of them were deserving of this award. Those 6 writers, to be blunt, are wrong. No one in the league meant more to his team than Josh Hamilton. He helped lead the Rangers to their first Division title in 11 years and with his timely hitting in the playoffs he helped the Rangers win their first (of many?) AL Pennants.

There have never been any questions about his abilities on a baseball field, especially after he burst onto the national scene in Yankee Stadium during the 2008 Home Run Derby, but when he led the majors in RBI that year with 130, people finally learned what we Ranger fans had known, this guy is a freak of nature.

2009 was a different story for the MVP. He missed 89 games dues to injury and hit only 10 homers with 54 RBI. Which was the real Hambone, the power hitting lefty we saw the pervious year or the oft injured #1 overall draft pick?

Though he had some injuries this year, we saw him once again as the power hitting lefty we had grown to expect and admire. Some even consider this man to be the best baseball player in the world. You know what? I can't blame them. There is no weakness to his game. Name one, I dare you... you can't can you? He has it all: power, average, speed, fielding, and base running (not the same as speed), and astonishingly he is well above average in every one of those categories. He single handedly won games for the Rangers this season with each of those tools and I guarantee you this, a Rangers team without Josh Hamilton doesn't even sniff the World Series.

This man has been through hell and back. He was the #1 overall pick in the 1999 draft by the then Tampa Bay Devil Rays, got injured, became addicted to alcohol and drugs, lost 3 years of his career and life, made a comeback, captivated us in Yankee Stadium, relapsed, and just had the best overall season for a hitter since Lou Gehrig in 1934. Josh is not only the most deserving player of this award, he is also the most deserving person. He has made the most of his second chance and I couldn't be happier for him.

This was without a doubt the greatest season in Texas Ranger baseball history and with  players winning awards for their contributions on the field, it just keeps getting better. Now there's just one last piece of hardware we need to grab!

Here's to many more seasons of October baseball in Arlington.

Manager of the Year

A few friends of mine, and my uncle, are outraged that Ron Washington did not win the American League Manager of the Year award. Am I outraged? I am not. However, I will say I don't quite understand the voting for Gardenhire. His Minnesota Twins are a team that has won their division six times in the last nine years under Gardenhire. This is also a team that has two of the last four AL MVPs and three of the last five Batting Champions. I fail to see where this man warrants the award over someone like Ron Washington.

When I initially heard that Gardenhire beat out Washington, I was less than outraged but as time goes on I feel more and more like Wash was snubbed. Before the season even started there was talk about him losing his job after admitting to using cocaine. As we know, Wash wasn't fired and instead lead the Rangers to their first ever World Series after missing the playoffs in each of the previous 10 seasons. His team won their first division title since 1999 and won 90 games. 

I understand that the voting for this award is done before the postseason begins but I fail to see where Gardenhire was better than Wash as a manager this season. Not to take away from anything the Twins, under Gardenhire, did this year but what the Rangers and Wash did and how they changed the perception of baseball in Texas is far more deserving of this award than winning a sixth division title in nine years.

On another note, tonight I went to the 5th Annual Shirley Povich Symposium. The event featured a panel of Christine Brennan, Tony Kornheiser, Kevin Blackistone, Dan Snyder and Scott Van Pelt and the topic was How Much is Too Much?

That is neither here nor there. The point is, Scott Van Pelt is the man. He was willing to stick around and shmooze with us until 2 hours after the event ended. How often is it that A) there is an opportunity to attend an event like this and B) that one of these media members is willing to stay and hang out with students. I have been around my share of professional sports writers and honestly, those who are willing to do what Scott did are VERY few and far between. It is refreshing to meet someone like this and to be seen and treated as an equal. 

Ari Wiener and I asked him if he would be willing to join us on our radio show at some point in the near future and not only did he say yes, he did it with enthusiasm. I was just so encouraged by the way he treated other people.

So for all of you who are reading and have listened to our radio show, What Say Us (visit us on facebook) look forward to Scott Van Pelt joining us. Not only that, we were able to get verbal commitments from Mr. Kevin Blackistone and Mr. Tim Kirkjian. For those of you keeping score at home, that is a total of THREE ESPN personalities scheduled to come on our show and talk sports with us in the near future.

Get excited, God knows I know I am.

Tim Kurkjian, Cliff Lee and next years rotation?

So tonight I went to hear TIm Kirkjian speak here at the University of Maryland. For those of you who don't know who he is, Tim is an ESPN analyst and baseball expert. He came tonight and gave a Q&A session for about an hour and let me just say, the man is amazing. He is the smartest, funniest and most down-to-earth sports personalities I have ever encountered. He can spit out stats like no one I have seen and he knows more about the beautiful game of baseball than anyone I have ever met.
Of course, among the questions was the inevitable, "Where is Cliff Lee going to be next year?" to which he said. "Cliff Lee will be a Yankee in a few weeks." Not what I wanted to hear.
Anyways, I only bring this up because my Uncle brought to my attention the idea of converting Neftali Feliz to starter this offseason, especially if Lee does indeed sign elsewhere. It wouldn't be a terrible idea but I don't know how much I would want to see that happen. Feliz was a shut-down closer this year and if we take him out of that spot we're giving that closer spot back to Franky Francisco.
We also can't forget that Feliz does his best work with his back against the wall. The majority of the runs he gave up this year were with a lead bigger than 3 and nest to no pressure surrounding the situation. That does not give me a lot of confidence in his abilities to be a starting pitcher, especially with only one usable pitch. Not to sound cliche but if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
There is also the possibility of bringing in Zack Greinke to join this rotation. Is it going to happen? Not very likely considering he has a no trade clause but he has said he does NOT want to join a big market club, the Yankees, Red Sox and the like, and that he would like to join a contender. What better situation is there for him than right here (in spirit) than in Texas. He would join a blossoming baseball town and immediately be part of a contender.
That was one of the things I never really understood about the Lee situation. All the Yankee fans here at UMD keep saying that Lee will sign with them because he wants to win. Why would someone leave a team that went to the World Series for a team they beat en route to it? Now, if Lee wants more money, he will absolutely join the Evil Empire but if he wants to win, there is no reason to believe he will leave. Let us also not forget that the Rangers are now under new management and have the money to throw at Cliff Lee to entice him to stay.
If Lee stays I think we can still pursue Greinke because it would be through a trade. According to The Newberg Report, and I'm paraphrasing here, the Royals are looking for 3 top-flight prospects in a deal for Greinke and the Rangers are one of the few teams able to meet that request. I hate to watch us trade away a good portion of our highly-ranked farm system but if it means getting another former Cy Young Award winner, count me in.
I know it's a long show but think about this rotation: Cliff Lee, Zack Greinke, CJ Wilson, Colby Lewis and Derek Holland/Tommy Hunter.
As we saw in the World Series, pitching wins championships. I don't know about you but I like what I see right there.

Neftali Feliz Wins AL Rookie of the Year

Today Neftali Feliz became the first Texas Ranger to win the American League Rookie of the Year Award since Mike Hargrove in 1974. To be honest, this result came as no surprise to Ranger fans around the country as we saw him save close games for us all year and into the playoffs.
I think we may be on the cusp of seeing this young man become one of the most feared closers in the game. He does his best work when he is in a tight spot and he was almost impossible to hit with the game on the line.
He set a rookie record with 40 saves and held hitters to a .176 batting average! Those numbers are astronomical for a kid his age and logic tells us that the best is yet to come. There is no reason to believe that Neffy can't continue to improve, especially with pitching coach Mike Maddux in the dugout.
When pitchers and catchers reported to Spring Training this past February, two relievers were trying out for a spot in the starting rotation: CJ Wilson and Feliz. Only CJ won a spot  in the rotation and personally I could not be happier. Neffy stayed in the 'pen and showed the world he can be a dominant closer for a powerful team.
The season the Rangers got out of Neffy and Elvis Andrus have inspired talk about the long term future of this team. Are we seeing the next great closer and the next great shortstop in this league? Can they take the place of Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter when they retire? Those answers are yet to come but there is no reason to believe they can't be. Ranger fans everywhere should be very excited about what is yet to come with their closer and their team and after an American League Championship season, the future looks very bright.