Kuzul

Lately, the Dallas-Fort Worth area has been a hotbed for controversy. Whether its the arctic weather, Jerry Jones’ inability to know how many seats to have for his Super Bowl guests or Christina Aguilera botching the national anthem, hostility and malice are sure to be found.

To add fuel to an already raging fire, Texas Ranger captain Michael Young now wants to be traded.

On Jan. 5, 2011 the Texas Rangers signed free-agent third baseman Adrian Beltre to assume the duties of full-time third baseman, thus pushing Young into a full-time designated hitter role.

At the time, Young commented on the signing by saying this about Beltre, “We have had conversations, and every conversation was left open-ended,” Young said. “But at this point, I would be willing to get my at-bats if we make a move that makes the team better.”

Just like the recent north Texas weather, Young’s sentiments have changed drastically, rapidly and exceedingly cold.

While he hasn’t spewed the venom that has become synonymous with high-profile athletes, Young has definitely grown irritated and has made it known to the Rangers.  And while the career Ranger may want out, perhaps he has failed to consider who would let him in.

The contract extension Young signed with the Rangers in 2007 is valued at $16 million per season. To put that in perspective, Young is being paid the same amount as Beltre, his newly acquired replacement at the hot corner.

So, the question has to be asked: Who would accept a trade for an aging, range-less infielder? Sure, Young still has a viable arm for any infield position, and he has shown an ability to adapt to new positions—the Rangers have asked Young to move positions three times—but who would be willing to pay top-tier money for a player who has become Mark DeRosa 2.0?

The Rockies have been trying to iron out a deal with Texas, but the two sides can’t come to terms on the financial side of the deal.

Young doesn’t exactly seem like a NL type player and has gone on record as saying that he wants to play for a winner. In my opinion, the only teams willing to put Young in the field on an everyday basis would be a struggling or middle-of-the-road franchise. So, Young seems like an ideal utility/DH type, exactly the player the Rangers—a contender—are asking him to be.

This argument seems one-sided, and perhaps it is. Young has been a model player for his entire career by always doing what’s best for the team. So he has a right to determine his own baseball future, the Rangers owe him that much.

However, if Young wants to have a prominent role on a prominent team, maybe he should do “what’s best for the team” one last time.

Who knows? There might be more than a gold watch for him when its time to hang the spikes up.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Isn’t it ironic that both Cliff Lee and LeBron James got their careers started in Cleveland?

Isn’t it also ironic that both men are considered to be at the top of their respective sports in terms of talent and ability, and left via free agency to join teams that have a wealth of top tier talent?

Let’s just tap the breaks on that last part for a minute.

Cliff Lee threw another one right by Major League Baseball on Monday night, as the southpaw from Arkansas agreed to terms on a contract from the Philadelphia Phillies.

The offer from the Phillies came seemingly out of nowhere, as the New York Yankees and Texas Rangers both appeared to be the leaders in the Cliff Lee sweepstakes.

As a result, Lee will now join a rotation that features the likes of Cy Young winners Roy Oswalt and Roy Halladay, as well as World Series MVP Cole Hamels and a not-too-shabby Joe Blanton. Further, Lee will backed by a lineup featuring sluggers Ryan Howard and Chase Utley, with a supporting cast that features Jimmy Rollins, Shane Victorino and Raul Ibanez.

And we thought Bosh, Wade and James made for a formidable opponent.

But before the jilted mass of Yankee and Ranger fans begin to conjure up conspiracy theories or develop negative reasons for why Lee opted to go to Philly at the eleventh hour, perhaps it we should take a look at why Lee chose the Phillies.

Must be the money

In a sports world where egregious contracts exist—like the $250 million dollars Alex Rodriguez due to A-Rod, or the outlandish $100 million that Albert Haynesworth—its refreshing that Cliff Lee opted for less years and less dollars than the Yankees or Rangers were offering.

Throughout the entire process, Lee had said time-and-again that he was looking for a place that felt like home. Knowing that, is it too ridiculous to think he actually enjoyed his time in Philadelphia the way he did his time in Texas?

Lest we forget, Lee went to the World Series in 2009 with the Phils.

I, for one, think Lee’s decision to go to Philadelphia is a breath of fresh air in time where the lead peanut vendor is going to arbitration.

Jaxon

For those of you who don’t know, Cliff Lee’s son Jaxon was stricken with myeloid leukemia when he was four months-old. During Lee’s time in Philadelphia, Lee and his family found a hospital that they were quite comfortable with in treating their son.

Reports say that Jaxon Lee was only given about a 30 percent chance of survival, but after finding a bone marrow match and receiving treatment, that the boy is in remission and doing well.

While I’m sure there are a plethora of renowned hospitals in both the DFW and NYC areas, I’m sure it serves as great comfort to the Lee family that should they need immediate care, they are in close proximity to their preferred hospital.

Put a ring on it

This is where things could get a little LeBron-ish.

Cliff Lee has pitched in the last two Fall Classics in 2009 (Phillies) and 2010 (Rangers). Both times, however, Cliff Lee walked away as the bridesmaid. 

Given the now intimidating nature of the Phillies starting rotation, as well as a lineup that could be the envy of almost any team in baseball, Lee has an ideal opportunity to achieve his ultimate goal.

Much like LeBron James, Lee has done most everything a pitcher can do—except win a World Series or toss a no hitter. But, unlike LeBron, Lee never gave the fans of the cities he has pitched in a reason to believe that he wasn’t going to leave.

After the 2009 World Series, Lee likely had every intention of pitching in Philly the following season, but was eventually traded.

In 2010, Lee made it clear that he was going to test the free agency waters and that the ability to win would be a determining factor. If nothing else, Lee was adamant about not making promises to anyone.

Further, for a man as well traveled as Lee (four teams in three years), it was likely that he was going to have friends all over the league, and I highly doubt he colluded with any of them about where to sign a la the Miami triumvirate.

There’s no place like home

As previously stated, Lee wanted a place that felt like home after essentially becoming a hired gun; and while Lee had hoped to land in a place close to his home in Benton, AR, Philadelphia wound up feeling like a place where he could put down some roots.

Lee is a soft spoken guy, who likely would rather share the spotlight than be in it. And while Philadelphia is known for being quite critical and unforgiving, Lee felt like that was the best decision for him and his family.

Emphasis on family.

Too often in professional sports we see athletes looking to market themselves, hoping to land in places like Chicago, New York or LA in hopes to make the most money and gain as much exposure as possible.

Don’t believe me? Look no further than A-Rod or Texeira in baseball—is it any surprise they both play for the Yankees?

What about the NBA, why else would Amar’e Stoudemire walk away from a perennial winner in Phoenix? Why would Carmelo Anthony or Chris Paul be so adamant about only signing with the “doormat of the last decade” Knicks?

All Lee wants to do is pitch and win. Whether that took place in New York, D.C., Dallas or Philadelphia, that’s all the man wanted.

Will the Phillies wind up playing for the World Series in 2011? Will Lee’s back hold up for the duration his contract (Lee will be 37 when it expires)?

There are too many unknown variables for anyone to know.

But, in a world where money talks and hand shakes walk, Cliff Lee proved to be the man he said he was: a family man looking to play for a winner.

And if that isn’t consolation enough to the populations of New York and Dallas, perhaps a quote from Ranger manager Ron Washington is. . .

“That’s the way baseball go.”

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The 2010 World Series concluded in rather anticlimactic fashion on Monday night as Tim Lincecum and the San Francisco Giants hoisted the holy grail of baseball after just five games.

As for the Rangers? As manager Ron Washington would say, “That’s just the way baseball go.”

But for as much depth as there is in Washington’s sentiments—and if you’ve ever played baseball, you know there is—perhaps the Rangers and their fans should look to Scottish author Samuel Smiles for consolation.

Smiles once said, “Progress, of the best kind, is comparatively slow.”

Sure, the Ranger loss is an absolute heart breaker for a community that now has to endure ten more weeks of Cowboy football, but the Rangers will learn a lot from their World Series failure.

If the surprise 2010 season was any indication, the Rangers could get used to October baseball.

Rangers’ GM Jon Daniels had gone on record several times prior to the 2010 season saying that this would be the year the Rangers emerged as a playoff contender.

Was he ever right.

And remember, the keyword in the statement Daniels made several times was “emerge,” as in “We’ll be here awhile.”

When looking at the Ranger organization from top to bottom, they are set for years to come.

They have a stable ownership group for the first time in almost two years.

They have a minor league system that is the envy of the Major Leagues.

They have stars in Ian Kinsler, Josh Hamilton and Michael Young.

They have young players like Neftali Feliz, Elvis Andrus, Tommy Hunter and Mitch Moreland under contract for years to come. And they’re already playing in the Majors AND they’re under contract for the foreseeable future.

But most importantly: The Rangers learned how to win.

They learned how to win in the ALDS with small ball and timely pitching. They beat the Yankees by scoring early and late, while not giving into the pressures of a Game 1 collapse. And while they lost four of five to the Giants, they learned what it takes to win in the World Series.

No longer will the Rangers be looked at as the cellar dweller of the AL West. Rather, they will be viewed as the team who took out both of the top dogs in the AL East. They will be viewed as a team that can be a player in the free-agent market.

And most importantly, they will be viewed as team to beat.

So while losing in the first World Series in franchise history hurts, remember, we all tripped and fell before we learned to tie our shoes, but when tied, we never stopped walking.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The Texas Rangers enter Game 3 of the World Series in desperate need of a win as they trail the San Francisco Giants 2-0 in the best-of-seven series.

To give a little more insight to the deficit, 40 of the 51 teams in World Series history to take a 2-0 lead have gone on to win the title. The last team to overcome such a deficit was the 1996 Yankees, who dropped the first two games at home to the Atlanta Braves before rattling off four straight wins.

If the Rangers are to start a comeback, they need to get the proverbial ball rolling with a win in Game 3. Seeking such a win, the Rangers will give the ball to a man who could inspire the reeling ball club: Colby Lewis.

Lewis is a comeback story in his own right.

He began his professional career as a first-round selection by the Rangers in 1999. Initially, Lewis was a hard-throwing righty whose M.O. was blowing his 95-mph heater by batters; however, four years and a 6.83 ERA in 33 career starts later, Lewis was waived by the Rangers and claimed by the Detroit Tigers.

That’s when Lewis’ career really began to spiral downward.

Lewis suffered a rotator cuff injury early in the 2004 season and missed most of the year rehabbing from surgery. After just two games with the Tigers, Lewis’ stint with the team was over. He went on to have tours with Washington and Oakland before being out of baseball entirely in the U.S. by 2008.

In 2008, in a last-ditch attempt to resurrect his once-promising career, Lewis went to Japan where he signed with Hiroshima Carp of the Japanese Central League.

Once in Hiroshima, Lewis’ luck seemed to change.

While in Japan, Lewis led the JCL in strikeouts in both 2008 and 2009, and was second in the league in ERA at 2.68 in 2008.

When asked about his turnaround in performance, Lewis said, “When I was young, I didn’t have command of the strike zone, I tried to throw the ball by everybody. I don’t know if you ever master the art of pitching, but I’m able to take a little bit off my pitches, sink the ball. For me, it’s all about being able to locate pitches where you want to locate them. I’ve done that the past couple of years.”

Rather than stay in Japan, where he had gotten his groove back, Lewis opted to capitalize on his late-blooming success and test the free-agent waters of the Majors in 2010.

As it turned out, Lewis’ decision might just have been the best thing to happen for the Rangers.

With several teams jockeying for the services of the former first-round washout, Lewis opted to come back to Texas, signing a two-year deal worth five million dollars on January 14th.

Knowing the risks involved in the signing, Ranger GM Jon Daniels went on record as saying, “We feel this is the type of risk we should be taking. We know the makeup, we know the person, we spent a lot of time watching him. There’s no doubt we were in a position to make this acquisition because of the work our scouts have done over there developing a foundation. They understood what it took to acquire one of these guys.”

The risk paid dividends for the Rangers as Lewis compiled a misleading 12-13 record with a 3.72 ERA in 32 starts. He also led the team in strikeouts and served to stabilize a rotation that resembled a hotel lobby revolving door, with starters Scott Feldman and Rich Harden having proven ineffective.

Following his regular-season success, Lewis has continued to show why he could potentially spark a Ranger rally in the World Series: He pitched valiantly in a loss to Tampa Bay in the ALDS, and won twice against the Yankees in the ALCS, going eight innings in the series-clinching Game 6.

If the Rangers are to dig out of the hole they’ve made for themselves, they’re going to have to start in Game 3.

Again, the Rangers are instilling their hopes in Colby Lewis.

So, while the Rangers look to write their own comeback story in Game 3, Colby Lewis is aiming to add another chapter to his.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

It’s half-past midnight here in Ranger land and things are looking bleak. Cliff Lee has shown that he is human, and the Ranger bats seem to have gone into hibernation. To add insult to injury, the bullpen is pitching with the ferocity of a petting zoo, and with Halloween right around the corner, it seems as though the Rangers are dressing up as choke artists.

But before you decide to bury the Rangers remember one thing: The Series is coming to Arlington, and there’s nothing like home cooking to “cure what ails ya.”

I know what most of you are thinking, the Rangers have only won two games at home during the playoffs. True. However, there is one enormous difference that most people will overlook—The Rangers get to play by house rules now.

To say that playing at AT&T Park was hard on the Rangers would be like saying that do-it-yourself-dentistry is easy. It was that painful. But now the World Series shifts to Arlington where the Rangers have three games to get back in the race.

What is so substantial about the change of venue? Everything.

Playing by National League rules meant the Rangers had to sacrifice the DH spot in the order; as such, Ranger manager Ron Washington was forced to make a decision: to play Vlad, or not to play Vlad. If you saw Game 1 then you know the answer to that question, and consequently, you know the result: two errors that lead to three back-breaking Giant runs.

Further, because of the lack of a DH, Ranger pitchers were forced into dawning a helmet and wielding the lumber, which meant the Rangers were essentially guaranteed an out in the nine spot. Additionally—and I am not laying blame on the umpires at all—the games were called by National League umpires, and as any big league pitcher would tell you, the transition between the two strike zones is markedly different.

But now, Texas comes home to play in their park, with the luxury of a DH, and a familiar strike zone for their pitchers to work with.

Think about it like this: With the availability of a DH at their disposal, the Rangers can have Vlad’s bat in the middle of the order to protect Nelson Cruz, which also slides down guys like Kinsler and Molina, but perhaps more importantly, the DH puts Mitch Moreland back in the nine spot, a place where he has frustrated pitchers to Dustin Pedroia-like lengths.

The DH also means that the Rangers can use their platoon of David Murphy or Jeff Francoeur, who have both been decent at the plate. So by merit of one position change, the Rangers can have two meaningful bats in the line-up.

But positions and league rules aside, I get the feeling the Rangers were intimidated by the amped up San Francisco crowd. After having played at Tropicana Field, where the Rays had to give away tickets, and then on to Yankee Stadium where the Yankee faithful (I use that term very loosely) left their team for dead routinely, the Rangers didn’t really face much in the way of noise and hostility.

My hats off to Giant fans, you guys brought it.

The look on Derek Holland’s face during his own personal attempt at the March of Dimes in the eight inning of Game 2 said it all—the Rangers were scared. The noise, the energy, the beard, all of it definitely played a part in making Texas look more like the 2003 Rangers than the Claw and Antler edition that fans have come to love.

So where do the Fightin’ Ron Washington’s go from here?

It’s really anyone’s guess at this point. The Giants have pitched so incredibly well that the Rangers definitely have their work cut out for them. One would think that after Lincecum and Cain the sledding would get easier, but Johnathan Sanchez and Madison Bumgardner have proved they can get it done as well.

With Colby Lewis taking the hill, all the eyes of Texas will loom large on the battle tested righty. Can he do what Lee couldn’t? Will the Ranger bats finally come alive with a Frankenstein-like vengeance?

All of the above are unknowns, but if I do know one thing, its that nothing cures an illness quite like home cooking.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The Texas Rangers have a flexibility about them that would make Mary Lou Retton jealous.

From pitching to fielding, slugging to plate discipline, stealing bases to a fat kid that runs funny, the Texas Rangers can beat a team using more variety than a Swiss Army knife.

The following slides will present analysis into the various ways the Texas Rangers can finally realize their first World Series championship.

Begin Slideshow

As the Texas Rangers embark upon their inaugural trip to the World Series, many have become familiar with household names like Josh Hamilton, Ian Kinsler, Vladimir Guerrero, Michael Young, and who can forget Cliff Lee. It was truly a team effort, and while the aforementioned “stars” of the team played a pivotal role in slaying the mighty Yankees, one needs to look deeper to understand how the Rangers pulled off what many have termed an upset.

Begin Slideshow