All Loud on the Gloomy Front

3-0, the best start the Rangers had gotten off to in years. Since then, it has been, to sum it up quickly, a light catastrophe. Yes, the Rangers are only 5-7, and yes it was fun to see Michael Young hit the walk off homerun, but what I’ve seen overall is a level of inconsistency that does not spell ‘winning ball club.’ Young would know as good as anyone when he talked about being more consistent on the post game interview with Dave Barnett (It was nice to see Victor Rojas, who was replaced by Barnett, at the game on Saturday). With the exception of Kevin Millwood, the rotation has been close to ghastly, though it’s been nice to see most of the pitchers make it through at least five, albeit sluggish innings. But a a contending team should have at least three solid, dependable pitchers, and right now the Rangers only have one. The bullpen has been even worse, as Frankie Francisco is the only pitcher with an ERA below 3. The same can be said for Millwood in the rotation. As usual, the Ranger hitters are bringing out their fire sticks, but they have been unable to maintain any real level of consistency offensively. The 19 run outburst was nice, but I would rather see the Rangers spread out the runs more evenly, because it is actually kind of embarrassing when a team puts up close to 20 runs one game, and only three the next (the lack of production on Saturday night can excused due to Zack Greinke’s outstanding performance). Solid opposing pitching aside though, this has been an ignominious start to the season, despite the first three wins. Now, it is early, and the Rangers are only two games below five hundred, so there is no great reason to worry yet. What’s frustrating though is that this team is looking very reminiscent to last year’s, and that, with the exception of the power offense, is not really a good thing.

Last week I touched on Chris Davis and his struggles (I was almost right, but the second homerun had to wait till the next game), but what about David Murphy and his 0-15 start? I’m a big David Murphy fan, but the combination of Andruw Jones and Marlon Byrd are keeping him from getting to play every day. Murphy is the Rangers' left fielder for the future, and despite his early struggles, he needs to be in that lineup every day. Hopefully he’ll get more at bats soon, but as long as Byrd is producing, I think Ron Washington will try to get him in the lineup as often as possible.

The important thing right now is that the Rangers don’t wait until the end of April to turn things around. It happened last year, but by then they were already too far behind the Angels to really stand a chance. Right now, especially since LA is struggling, the Rangers need to start playing good baseball, because if they don’t, we’ll be talking about 2010 much sooner than planned. One more thing is Josh Hamilton. So far, Hamilton hasn’t exactly been thrilling the fans like he was last year. I’ve noticed that Hamilton has changed his batting stance around, but the good results aren’t showing up. Hamilton looked particularly bad in yesterday's game, striking out three times in four at bats. Will Hamilton be as good as he was last year? I hope so, but I also think that he won’t get by as easily because if you haven’t noticed, he isn’t getting a lot to hit from the pitchers. Hamilton loves destroying that first pitch fastball, but so far, those have been scarce, as Hamilton is mainly seeing off speed stuff. While it’s not time to panic yet about Hamilton, I still think he’s a slight concern seeing as he’s of arrant importance to this club.

Finally, I want to bring up the red uniforms. I’ve already mentioned that the scarcity of their appearance seems a little odd. But what seems even more odd is when the Rangers go out wearing their regular jerseys, but with red helmets, shirts, and socks. The look might appeal to some, and even to me the helmets look flashy, but the overall style just doesn’t feel very methodical, especially considering the fact that they can’t wear red on the road. I’m not saying I dislike the red, it’s just that I’m a fan of order, and all of these different looks are anything but orderly. I say either they go red all the way, or they just stick with the royal blue, which I’m actually a big fan of. Some say red is dead and blue is true, others say red is hot and blue is ice cold. The last two actually hold a relation to how our club is playing, too. One day they’re awesome, the next they’re the polar opposite. That’s not what winning teams are made of. Luckily it’s still April.

Next up is Toronto, where on Tuesday Brandon McCarthy matches up against the Blue Jay's ace, Roy Halladay. Obviously the Rangers' chances of winning aren't great, but they've beaten Halladay in the past, so it's certainly possible. This is an important series for Texas, and by winning two out of three they can start to turn this thing around and then go punish the Orioles for how they treated us last week.

Go Texas!