Field of Frustrations

I've been a Texas Rangers fan for as long as I can remember and I can never remember ever feeling so frustrated with the team's performance so early into a season. Yeah, I'm used to the team begin their usual "summer wither" 'round about August, but this is ridiculous. And yes, there have been injuries to key personnel (Blaylock and Millwood), but two people being out does not an abyss create.

I cheer them on as often as one would a winning, contending team, but it has gotten a little difficult to sit through a week's worth of losses from home. Of course nothing beats being at a game in person, but lately it's been easier to click over to something else on cable. I've always joked that if I ever left the Dallas area that I would order a high-end satellite cable package just so that I could get Rangers games. That's pretty gung-ho, but the way things are going right now, I might as well save my money and nix that idea.

As noted above, I consider myself a die-hard Rangers fan, however, with the personnel decisions the team has made these last couple of years, it's hard to keep up with the ever changing roster moves and lackluster play. They have traded away productive fan favorites, Kevin Mench and Francisco "Coco" Cordero for a player they got nothing for in the Milwaukee trade last year, Carlos Lee. They traded an up and coming home grown starting pitcher in Chris Young for a decent bullpen guy in Akinori Otsuka. They gave up on John Danks for another semi-mediocre starting pitcher in Brandon McCarthy. The list goes on and on. There's even a chance the team may not re-sign Mark Teixeira to a long term deal. Well, that's not a big issue because they have someone in their farm system who could fill his spot if that were to occur. Wait a minute... nevermind! They gave away the possible heir apparent, Adrian González, in that Otsuka trade with the San Diego Padres!!!

Do you see what I mean? I haven't figured out if any of the blame rests on manager Ron Washington. It could be that he's been given a roster full of losers (sorry guys!!!) or he's too much of a nice guy to motivate his team to win. Whatever the case may be, Jon Daniels better have something up his sleeve to remedy this problem because all he's done up to this point is trade away popular players and young talent for quick fixes in otherwise losing situations. Talk about sailing up you-know-what creek without a paddle.