Monday Newsletter time: Rangers are playing poorly to open the season, but players aren’t panicking
(AP photo/Richard W. Rodriguez)
ARLINGTON — Baseball teams are going to lose a lot every season.
The Atlanta Braves, the reigning world champions, lost 73 times last season.
So seven losses in nine games isn’t the end of the world for the Texas Rangers, though many of their fans wholeheartedly disagree.
The season-opening magnifying glass makes that stretch feel like another 102-loss season is coming.
It’s not, and Rangers players aren’t hitting the panic button.
Marcus Semien isn’t going to hit .128, as he is now. The Rangers aren’t going to have the 6.19 team ERA they have now. Nathaniel Lowe will hit a home run or 20 this season, not the zero he is stuck on after nine games.
That’s nine games of 162, or 6 percent of the season. Nine baseball games aren’t remotely akin to nine NFL games or nine games in District 5-5A.
The prudent thing here is to put everything into context.
“We’ll probably go through stretches like this again. It just started like this,” Semien said Sunday. “All these years I’ve played, I’ve been a part of good starts and bad starts. There’s ups and downs, and now we’ve started with a down. It’s not for a lack of effort.”
Now, the Rangers very likely aren’t going to unseat the Braves and probably won’t be in the postseason.
Are the Rangers as bad as they were over the weekend? No. Will they be aggravating to watch? Of course.
“We’re not playing well,” manager Chris Woodward said. “We’re really not doing anything well right now.”
The best advice here is to take a deep breath. Recalculate any high expectations you might have set despite team officials saying months ago that 2022 won’t mark the end of the rebuild. Enjoy the highs that Semien says are coming, even if they can’t match the lows.
Baseball is a long season. All teams lose more than one-third of their games. The Rangers are likely going to lose more than half of their games.
But they will be better than they have been to start the season and won’t be as bad as a season ago.
Feeling the blues
Before the Rangers’ PR staff would allow Woodward to begin his Sunday morning media session, a very important announcement was made:
The reason the Rangers weren’t wearing their Sunday home power-blue uniforms is because of … a supply-chain issue.
First off, credit to the PR crew. They knew fans would be asking. Also, the Rangers’ red jerseys are missing.
Damn you, China!
Well, yes, but the uniforms are made by Fanatics in Easton, Pa. Fanatics takes measurements for players and coaches for all 30 teams during spring training, and the shortened spring did not allow enough time to get the alternate uniforms turned around.
The Rangers hope to have their alternate jerseys for the next homestand, but they might not debut until May.
Help!
Just a friendly reminder that if you have encountered problems setting up a password for your account at rangerstoday.com, we’re here to help.
We have established a support email address, cleverly named support@rangerstoday.com. My email address, jeff@rangerstoday.com, will get you to our support guru, too, just not as quickly.
In many instances, the issue has been a frozen account from too many failed attempts at creating the password. That’s an easy fix.
It goes without saying, though I’ll say it anyway, that I greatly appreciate your patience and support with this endeavor. The feedback on the new website has been great, which our support guru appreciates.
ICYMI …
Because of the issues, some of the stories published at Rangers Today might have gotten past you. Also, we’re working on an email system that will be more like what subscribers became used to at jeffwilson.substack.com. In the meantime, you can click on the links below for the latest content in case you missed it.
The Sunday Read: Why Jon Gray says he’s a nerd
Three up, three down after Sunday’s loss
Friday on the Farm: Yosy Galan and his ridiculous power
T.R’s Memoirs: Catching up with Jim Sundberg — Part I, Part II
Texas Rangers Baseball Podcast: Jon Daniels in-studio
Doggy video!
I’m glad he didn’t crash through the window. Enjoy. See you Tuesday.
Where'd the ball go…🐕🏌️🎾😅 pic.twitter.com/0ZydGY6Ivv
— 𝕐o̴g̴ (@Yoda4ever) April 17, 2022
Jeff Wilson, jeff@rangerstoday.com
