For instance: Bengie Molina's homer against the Yankees in Game 4 of the ALCS in 2010; Cliff Lee dominating the Rays and capturing the franchise's first-ever playoff series victory in 2010; Neftali Feliz striking out A-Rod to capture the team's first-ever World Series berth in 2010; beating the Tigers to advance to the club's second straight World Series in 2011.
When you're a baseball fan, the fall season naturally feels different when your team is part of the postseason chase.
This past 2013 season, Texas missed the playoffs for the first time since 2010, falling to the Tampa Bay Rays in a regular season tiebreaker to determine the final Wild Card spot.
This one hurt as much as last year, when the Rangers faltered down the stretch, coughed up the AL West to Oakland and bowed out in a one-game Wild Card tilt against the Orioles. At the same time, the Rangers did win 91 games, making it the fourth straight year they eclipsed the 90-win plateau. That's not easy to do.
Now it's time to take a look to the offseason. Moves will be made when the Hot Stove gets cookin'. What should the Rangers do? To help seek that answer, I recently caught up with my friend Sam, a fellow hardcore Rangers fan who graduated from Plano West Senior High school with me back in the day. Check out the podcast below:
Should be interesting to see what kind of moves are made. Since Ron Washington took over the club in 2007, his seven-year reign has looked like this:
- 2007: 75-87
- 2008: 79-83
- 2009: 87-75
- 2010: 90-72 (lost in World Series)
- 2011: 96-66 (lost in World Series)
- 2012: 93-69 (lost in Wild Card)
- 2013: 91-72
Not a bad run.
We'll see how it shakes out, but this team clearly needs to acquire an impact bat or three. Looking forward to following who those guys will be.
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