What I learned? The atmosphere of playing the Brewers at Miller Park is like playing baseball in the middle of a county fair. If it wasn't ghosts in the hotel, and cars tauntingly roaming the outfield, it was devilish cups on the warning track giving Rangers fans heart attacks. I've never been so happy to know the Rangers are about to play the Marlins since it means no more sausage races and secret stadium sauce in Milwaukee.
- The Rangers are a better team than the Brewers so winning games against them is something that would be easy to just take for granted. And yet, on the road, playing National League rules, you take two of three every time. Playing .500 on the road and winning series at home is what the Rangers hope for. And we as fans, we should be happy with those results. So, when the Rangers win a series on the road, that's a bonus.
- It ventures into the double bonus when you consider the Rangers are still without Nelson Cruz and are probably hindered without a DH more so than maybe any other American League team when you consider that Vladimir Guerrero has been far and away the best regular DH in baseball this season. Also of consideration is the three starters the Rangers faced are arguably the three who have performed the best for the Brewers this season including Yovani Gallardo who has been the seventh-best pitcher in the National League so far this year.
- Scott Feldman is like the Justin Smoak of pitchers this season. He's living and dying by BABIP fluctuations.
- It probably doesn't need to be said, but National League baseball is unwatchable. I hate it. Who wants to see Andres Blanco intentionally walked so a guy who hasn't hit since he was in junior college hits in a Major League baseball game? Pitchers aren't hitters and therefore shouldn't hit. It's time for the NL to adopt the DH so they can finally play real baseball. The NFL doesn't have a linemen kick for the AFC. The NHL doesn't make a defenseman man the net for the Western Conference. Sometimes being old and deciding things were good when you were young so they should be that way forever isn't a good thing. Pitchers pitch. Hitters hit. Stop being terrible, National League.
- As long as Josh Hamilton continues to be 2008 Josh Hamilton, he can toe-tap or no tap and toss as many bats into the stands as he wants.
- So, after Rich Harden was felled by a literal case of being butt hurt, I've got to say, the feeling that permeates within me in regards to Harden isn't disdain or hate like many vocal Ranger fans have taken to recently. Instead, I just feel disappointment. It has nothing to do with spring training velocity or smiling after a bad inning; I'm disappointed the process of getting a Rich Harden hasn't panned out. He's the type of guy Rangers fans have been clamoring for, but the type of guy that was prone to perhaps never live up to expectations. He was never going to be the ace. Even in his good seasons he didn't pitch enough innings, he walked way too many guys, or he was just injured. That's not an ace. He's never been an ace. He shouldn't have been floated as an ace when he was signed. What he offered when he signed was ace-like stuff for 5 or 6 innings. That was an exciting prospect. It just hasn't panned out and that's disappointing. How long have we heard that a free agent pitcher of Rich Harden's caliber would never sign with the Texas Rangers? Practically every summer when it is 100 degrees and the Rangers are 10 games out of first with a 5.78 team ERA. Going after a Rich Harden wasn't a terrible idea, he's been good for practically his entire career, the problem is with the expectations. I think the best case scenario now is that Harden spends these 15 days working with Mike Maddux to finally figure out how he can pitch without breaking and then hopefully the Rangers can get a couple of decent months out of him. However, that's never what Rangers fans were expecting and that's disappointing.
So what have we learned?
Colby Lewis needs to stay haunted.
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