Tim Cowlishaw is a sports columnist for The Dallas Morning News
If there's a lone Ranger All-Star, make it Sosa
[SIZE=-1]11:39 AM CDT on Friday, June 22, 2007
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The fall has been so precipitous that the Rangers have become one of those teams.
You know. One of those teams that forces the All-Star Game manager to extend an invitation to a token player who probably is undeserving.
Look around the dugout. Look out to the bullpen.
See any real All-Stars?
As recently as 2004, this team sent five to the game, all very deserving. Starter Kenny Rogers and reliever Francisco Cordero represented the pitchers. Infielders Alfonso Soriano, Michael Young and Hank Blalock left only Mark Teixeira behind in Arlington.
Four Rangers made it in 2005.
The roll call had dwindled to Gary Matthews Jr. and Young last July.
This year?
Young, the MVP of last year's game in Pittsburgh, is hitting a soft .289. He doesn't walk much. He has only four home runs. I don't think the weight of a new contract has burdened him so much as the sense that he has to be the one to carry this team, because with Teixeira on the disabled list, no one else is likely to.
Blalock is out for months, and he has fallen from All-Star status, anyway.
The other three? In exchange for Rogers, Cordero and Soriano, the Rangers can show you Brad Wilkerson and Nelson Cruz.
Technically, you have to go to Oklahoma to find Cruz these days.
I used to defend the Soriano trade to Washington because it freed up the money to sign last year's 15-game winner, Kevin Millwood. I will hold off on that argument until Millwood puts together a string of starts that resemble Sunday's in Cincinnati.
You can still make an All-Star case for Young based on the reputation he has earned. And I've never been one to base All-Star selections solely on the stats of less than a half-season.
However, the deserving shortstop field is overly crowded in the AL. The Yankees' Derek Jeter, Angels' Orlando Cabrera, Tigers' Carlos Guillen and the Orioles' Miguel Tejada all are hitting over. 300, some with considerable power. Leaving off any one of those to extend another invitation to Young would be unfair.
If Young doesn't get the call from Tigers manager Jim Leyland, who does?
It can't be anyone from the starting pitching staff, and we don't need to spend too much time arguing that.
From the bullpen, Eric Gagne has been perfect. But on this team, he has been almost perfectly useless.
Seven-for-seven in save opportunities was an average month for Gagne when he was a Dodger. Seven-for-seven nearing the season's midpoint illustrates the depths of the Rangers' futility.
It's hard to rank 15th in saves in a 14-team league but that's where Gagne stands.
As good as C.J. Wilson and Aki Otsuka have been in the seventh and eighth innings, set-up men rarely get All-Star love. Usually, seven or eight starters and three or four closers comprise the staff.
So where does that lead Leyland?
I think the most logical choice is Sammy Sosa. He wouldn't be the first slugger named to the team for something close to a lifetime achievement award.
Sosa's comeback, capped by his 600th home run Wednesday night, has him on pace to drive in well over 100 runs. That's far better than what the Rangers thought they were getting when they rolled the dice on a low-risk gamble.
Forget the low walk total and the high strikeout numbers. Letting Sosa swing the bat one final time in the All-Star Game wouldn't be the worst thing to happen to the summer showcase, regardless of the circumstantial evidence of cheating that follows him around.
That stuff is always going to be there with Sosa. But given the absence of a failed drug test or sworn testimony against him, he is regarded only with suspicion.
Baseball fans being a fairly forgiving bunch, they are quickly taken in by Sosa's smile.
So send him to San Francisco, where he can play opposite Barry Bonds in the All-Star Game.
But it might be a good idea to leave both out of the Home Run Derby.
If there's a lone Ranger All-Star, make it Sosa
[SIZE=-1]11:39 AM CDT on Friday, June 22, 2007
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[SIZE=-1][/SIZE]
The fall has been so precipitous that the Rangers have become one of those teams.
You know. One of those teams that forces the All-Star Game manager to extend an invitation to a token player who probably is undeserving.
Look around the dugout. Look out to the bullpen.
See any real All-Stars?
As recently as 2004, this team sent five to the game, all very deserving. Starter Kenny Rogers and reliever Francisco Cordero represented the pitchers. Infielders Alfonso Soriano, Michael Young and Hank Blalock left only Mark Teixeira behind in Arlington.
Four Rangers made it in 2005.
The roll call had dwindled to Gary Matthews Jr. and Young last July.
This year?
Young, the MVP of last year's game in Pittsburgh, is hitting a soft .289. He doesn't walk much. He has only four home runs. I don't think the weight of a new contract has burdened him so much as the sense that he has to be the one to carry this team, because with Teixeira on the disabled list, no one else is likely to.
Blalock is out for months, and he has fallen from All-Star status, anyway.
The other three? In exchange for Rogers, Cordero and Soriano, the Rangers can show you Brad Wilkerson and Nelson Cruz.
Technically, you have to go to Oklahoma to find Cruz these days.
I used to defend the Soriano trade to Washington because it freed up the money to sign last year's 15-game winner, Kevin Millwood. I will hold off on that argument until Millwood puts together a string of starts that resemble Sunday's in Cincinnati.
You can still make an All-Star case for Young based on the reputation he has earned. And I've never been one to base All-Star selections solely on the stats of less than a half-season.
However, the deserving shortstop field is overly crowded in the AL. The Yankees' Derek Jeter, Angels' Orlando Cabrera, Tigers' Carlos Guillen and the Orioles' Miguel Tejada all are hitting over. 300, some with considerable power. Leaving off any one of those to extend another invitation to Young would be unfair.
If Young doesn't get the call from Tigers manager Jim Leyland, who does?
It can't be anyone from the starting pitching staff, and we don't need to spend too much time arguing that.
From the bullpen, Eric Gagne has been perfect. But on this team, he has been almost perfectly useless.
Seven-for-seven in save opportunities was an average month for Gagne when he was a Dodger. Seven-for-seven nearing the season's midpoint illustrates the depths of the Rangers' futility.
It's hard to rank 15th in saves in a 14-team league but that's where Gagne stands.
As good as C.J. Wilson and Aki Otsuka have been in the seventh and eighth innings, set-up men rarely get All-Star love. Usually, seven or eight starters and three or four closers comprise the staff.
So where does that lead Leyland?
I think the most logical choice is Sammy Sosa. He wouldn't be the first slugger named to the team for something close to a lifetime achievement award.
Sosa's comeback, capped by his 600th home run Wednesday night, has him on pace to drive in well over 100 runs. That's far better than what the Rangers thought they were getting when they rolled the dice on a low-risk gamble.
Forget the low walk total and the high strikeout numbers. Letting Sosa swing the bat one final time in the All-Star Game wouldn't be the worst thing to happen to the summer showcase, regardless of the circumstantial evidence of cheating that follows him around.
That stuff is always going to be there with Sosa. But given the absence of a failed drug test or sworn testimony against him, he is regarded only with suspicion.
Baseball fans being a fairly forgiving bunch, they are quickly taken in by Sosa's smile.
So send him to San Francisco, where he can play opposite Barry Bonds in the All-Star Game.
But it might be a good idea to leave both out of the Home Run Derby.
