In baseball, I look at it the same way. I don’t freak out and call for everyone’s head each time the team goes through a rough patch, so the universe rewards me by saving me the shitty, depressing blowout losses. I guess you can say I’m philosophical with how baseball works. On night’s where I’m not available to watch the Rangers, which isn’t often, they tend to lose convincingly. And I love that.

We can’t win every game. I can’t watch every game. But you roll with the punches, don’t overreact, wait patiently. The trends manifest themselves.

Oh yeah, Texas lost last night, 17-5.

* * *

In the blockbuster news of the day, per everyone, baseball is apparently going to drop the hammer on roughly 20 Major Leaguers who were allegedly involved in a PED scandal at a Miami clinic; by this point you should obviously be familiar with the story, so I won’t dive too far into it.

As it relates to the Rangers, Nelson Cruz is facing one of those suspensions, though I’m not counting on it;

Here’s the thing: Even if 5 minutes from now MLB decides to lay down 100-game suspensions on 20 players, then what? Every player appeals, gets their lawyer, takes the case to court. Both sides could be tied up in litigation for months, or even years, as we’ve seen before the arduous process PED scandals can become.

Baseball’s evidence against the players is sketchy, at best, deplorable at worst. In reality, what’s happening is MLB has corrupted an already corrupted human being; they are making a snitch out of a doctor — who is supposed to be bound to confidentiality vis a vis his clients — and furthering their own hypocrisy when it comes to Performance-Enhancing Drugs.

Steroids, those little injections that went a big, big way in revitalizing the sport’s popularity in the late 90′s — the drugs baseball sneezed at, ignored during that time — and this most recent episode in Miami is the latest in their sanctimonious stranglehold over the athletes people pay to come see.

There is certainly an argument to be made for the other side, because at the end of the day there are rules, and players should be held accountable for the choices they make. However, in this specific situation, the problem is the process. Whether the players cheated or not isn’t relevant to me. If the process was clean, if the information was being obtained without needing a veritable gun pointed at the source’s head, then this article might have a different tone.

As it stands, we’re dealing with an immensely flawed MLB brain-trust ordained to make appropriate, responsible decisions, and they continue to show us utter incompetence.

It’s sad, but witch-hunts are great ways to stir up polarizing controversies within the mass of sports’ fans, so we shouldn’t expect this depressing phenomena to cease anytime soon.

It was also Game 6 — the following Game 6, in St. Louis — when Nelson Cruz made what many people probably consider the most catastrophic error in the history of the franchise. In the 9th inning, with a two-run lead, two men on base, two men out, and on a 1-2 pitch, Neftali Feliz threw a nearly un-hittable 99 mph fastball on the lower quadrant of the outside corner, and David Freese hit it.

Off the bat, it appeared like a playable ball. When I noticed David Freese running — the type of sprint that just screams there’s hope — I knew it might take a play. A great play. Nelson Cruz took a terrible route, eventually tracking the ball, and then flopped in the air some 3 feet away from where the ball landed. Game-tying triple then … Cardinals win then … yada yada yada. You remember how it went. I tend to think Cruz gets more flack for this play than he deserves, but since the Rangers wound up losing the World Series, inevitably the fan base looked for something, anything, to scapegoat. And for that, Cruz is the goat. The good credit he accumulated acting as savior of the prior ALCS against Detroit quickly turned into a steep debt. It only takes one negative play to give the common fan amnesia as to how much they like a player when he’s doing well. It changes in an instant.

I suppose the situation could have turned out well, and all could have been forgotten, but Nelson Cruz didn’t exactly set the world on fire the following season, in 2012. He put up a pedestrian .260/.319/.460, hitting 24 HR’s and driving in 86. Defensively, he was a tad below league average (UZR of -3.3), and he lost a step on the bases according to BsR (-3.2). For his supposed MVP-like talent, he certainly had a below-average season, yet he played in more games than any other Ranger (159).

For the fan base, I’m getting the impression a lot of people are considering this alleged Miami PED scandal as Nelson Cruz’s 3rd and final strike (if the ’11 World Series was strike one, and his underwhelming ’12 was strike two). Since the Miami New Time’s article surfaced I haven’t seen one writer or fan say they believe Nelson Cruz will be back in 2014 (after this, the final year on his contract).

Personally, I tend to agree with the notion that he won’t be back, but I disagree in begrudging him for the botched World Series play, or for the lackluster season that ensued. Even with this PED scandal, it doesn’t spawn any hate or disgust from me in Cruz’s direction. If he’s guilty, he gets a suspension, and I hope he kills baseballs when he comes back. That’s all it comes down to with me.

Let’s just put it this way: if Nelson Cruz comes back and performs at a high level, the fan base will embrace him. But the mob is fickle. Suppose he comes back and has another poor season — like last season — then how do you think he’ll get treated? If Rangers fans can turn on Josh Hamilton, the team’s most talented player, booing him during his sendoff game against Baltimore, then Cruz will certainly be an obvious target.

Overall, I like Nelson Cruz. I may have fallen too much in love with his potential at some point along the way, but right now I try my best to keep objectivity above all. The way I see it, Nelson Cruz has one year left and he’s set to make $10.5 million. If each Win Above Replacement is worth $5 million, that means Cruz needs to generate 2.1 fWAR to justify the terms of his contract.

($/WAR) = ($10.5M/$5M) = 2.1 WAR

It’s a contract year. He has 5-win potential, but all we need is a couple. A few would be nice. 4.0 WAR would be fantastic.

What do you think? Do you have positive feelings toward Nelson Cruz, or would you like to see him gone after this year? (Or, I guess option [c] would be: both.)