What Is Wrong With The Texas Rangers.

Fake it till you make it, right?

I’m not sure what compels me to my laptop on mornings like this. It’s 3:49 a.m. and I can’t sleep, but for reasons entirely unrelated to some stupid baseball bullshit. Maybe I just felt like listening to Alt-J. Or, okay, maybe I just want to write about the Rangers. Maybe I just need to find a way to make sense of all that has (or hasn’t) been happening lately.

As I’ve written several times over, I know somewhere inside that I love the Rangers, but in the middle of June I’m not exactly up and excitable for these games;

I think some fans take exception to my tepid, sometimes passive-aggressive nature when it comes to the Rangers. Hell, it’s probably the same reason I have failed relationships with women, too;

But anyway, when the team is playing well — as they had been up until the last few weeks — I’m the downer for constantly opining that yes, it probably is too good to be true and regression is expected, yet when the team goes through a pretty egregious slump for their standards — as they are currently — I’m supposed to cry out that everything is a mess and that the front office isn’t doing enough?

That’s not really my style, to be honest.

Sure, I grew up on YouTube and Twitter and my attention span is about as long as a fingernail, but one thing I know is that being reactionary is almost never beneficial — both in the short-term and long. But let’s get to what we’re really talking about here;

Nick Tepesch and Justin Grimm are in the rotation right now. And Josh Lindblom.

Josh. Lindblom.

Our infield features Chris McGuiness, and Elvis Andrus can’t hit a lick. Not until his last couple games, if you are in the mood to award brownie points.

Our outfield has David Murphy — who is less than worthless at the moment (-0.4 fWAR) — along with Craig Gentry (.219/.310/.316) and Leonys Martin (.252/.305/.396). Punchless.

Geovany Soto is the backup catcher, and yes, we can expect him to be elsewhere in the next few weeks.

The lineup is being carried by Adrian Beltre and Jeff Baker, plus two players on the DL (Ian Kinsler and Mitch Moreland). This is an above average offensive team when everything is clicking, but this is clearly not one of the Ranger offense’s of old. And we knew before the season started that it was going to be like this….

What I’m saying is … We get it. So get over it.

The Rangers biggest issue at the moment is health. Jon Daniels is not going to bust open his rolodex of prospects and go out looking for a quick fix so we can win right now. That’s what I do when I’m playing 2K13, and it’s fun, because it works. In reality it’s, well, not reality at all.

The Plan is deeper than that. The front office is smarter than that.

Just as the lineup/team overachieved at the start of the year, they will kick back into gear and start regressing back towards the + again. That, and Texas needs to get healthy, which they will.

Listen, this has been the least-fun stretch of baseball I can remember in the last 3 years. I’m right there with you. But when you think about it, like really think about it, the last time it was even questionable that the Rangers weren’t one of the best teams in baseball was in June of 2010 — the month the Rangers went 21-6 and effectively won the AL West. Before that the Rangers were just another meddling .500 team who’d yet to prove a damn thing.

And here I am. I’ve used over 600 words being a cheerleader for a team I shouldn’t have to cheerlead for. Just look at the roster as it currently stands. Look at it. And tell me how good of a team you really expect them to be.