Imagine a balloon. This balloon is attached to a flimsy string, which is staked firmly in the ground. Suddenly, the wind blows and this balloon correspondingly teeters in every such direction as dictated by the meandering air, but as the winds subside, the balloon steadily returns to its original position.

This balloon of course is the Texas Rangers, and episodes of winds always occur along the timeline of a season. Whether these winds teeter a team in a positive or negative direction, these winds always arrive. It is inevitable. Many times, a season can hinge on this proverbial flimsy string and the degree to which such winds are resisted.

Now, this does not mean that a team cannot strengthen its resistance to such winds, because they most certainly can.

It is unmistakable that the Rangers are currently playing a rather awful brand of baseball. Untimely injuries, together with poor in-game managing and a putrid offense have effectively blown the Rangers’ season backwards, whereas on a gust, the A’s, have swooshed past to overtake first place.

So what exactly can be done to alter this current course of events?

To begin, the return of Ian Kinsler from the DL was ultimately important. A healthy Kinsler would stand a strong chance lead the team in fWAR by position players by season’s end. Also, getting Mitch Moreland back from the DL would not hurt the offense either. In 216 PA thus far in 2013, Moreland has posted a 137 wRC+ and a .382 wOBA, which is great.

On the contrary, seeing less of David Murphy would be addition by subtraction. In 243 PA, Murphy has posted a pathetic 67 wRC+ and a wOBA of .280, which is remarkably awful (remarkable for the fact that he is an everyday starter).

At the moment, Jeff Baker is on the DL (go figure), but he has been undeniably fantastic in 2013. In 92 PA, Baker has 9 HR to go along with a 190 wRC+ and a .459 wOBA. Having Baker supersede Murphy as the everyday LF would prove to be a modest upgrade to the offense indeed.

Lastly, Elvis Andrus must begin to hit. Aside from Leury Garcia, Elvis Andrus has been the Rangers’ worst player offensively (57 wRC+ and a .266 wOBA to go along with a .291 BABIP, so his offensive inadequacies are not due to bad luck). Andrus will never be a plus-hitter, but an average (or near-average) season with the bat should not be too much to ask for. Should Andrus at least flip his season and perform at an average level with the bat from here on out, that would prove to be an effective boost to the lineup.

It is unmistakable that the Rangers are struggling, but there do exist reasonable, internal options to regress to more expected means. Regression can be reversed, as can inadequacies, but can is not always indicative of will. The Rangers are in a tough spot, but based on the reasonable expectations of the sum of the whole when healthy, this team will be fine.

Why can’t the lineup get hits when men are in scoring position? I thought that’s what their job was. It’s obviously Dave Magaden’s fault since he’s the hitting coach and his job is to get the players to hit the ball. Yeah, it’s his fault. The Rangers should fire Dave Magaden right now because the team has been in a slump.

Why isn’t Jon Daniels making any trades? The team sucks right now so it’s his job as the GM to make the team better right now. I hate that this little nerd with his fancy calculators took over Nolan Ryan’s gig as the team president. After all, Nolan is the reason we made it to two different World Series’. He taught all the pitchers how to pitch like he did, and now they are good. He’s brought a tough culture to Arlington that we really haven’t had before. Maybe if they gave Nolan more power the team would start playing well again.

I think the biggest reason why the Rangers can’t win is because Jon Daniels traded Michael Young, and basically just allowed Josh Hamilton and Mike Napoli to leave them. Wrong move. The team can’t win because the locker room isn’t the same anymore.

I’m thinking the only solution to this mess is to get rid of that young president/GM and let Nolan take over the reigns. Then we can trade Leury Garcia and David Murphy for Justin Verlander, try to get Clayton Kershaw from the Dodgers for … Nelson Cruz, maybe? Yeah, maybe the Dodgers would take Nelson Cruz for Clayton straight up.

But mainly we need offense, so let’s trade Craig Gentry for Mike Trout, Justin Grimm for Carlos Gonzalez, and let’s see, what else do we need? I hate Michael Kirkman so let’s try to get an elite closer but oh wait Kirkman is on the 60-day DL so we wouldn’t be able to trade him oh well I’m just another idiot fan and nothing that I write makes sense anyway….

Part of that trouble began when the team lost two out of three to the Blue Jays in Canada last week. And guess who is in town for the next four games? That’s right, the Blue Jays. The Rangers are a better team than the Jays, but they didn’t let that stop them last week. They are a better team than the Indians too, but I digress.

The Rangers problems right now, in my opinion, are mental. The pitchers don’t believe that the fielders are going to make the play behind them, so they feel like they have to throw the perfect pitch. They also feel like the offense is not going to come through for them, which has also been the case. In their last five losses the Rangers have only scored 9 runs. Of course, they have allowed 26 and it is hard to win games with that differential. Which brings me to this weekend.

Tonight the Rangers start a four game series with the Toronto Blue Jays, and in my opinion it is a crucial series for the Rangers. Since they once again surrendered first place in the West to the Athletics, the Rangers need to get back on track. The next four should all be winnable games.

Thursday:

Yu Darvish – 7-2, 2.75 ERA

Esmil Rogers – 1-2, 3.60 ERA

Yu should be able I win this game with 3 runs or more of run support if he can avoid the big first inning. He needs to to kick start this return to this team from the brink of crashing.

Friday:

Justin Grimm – 5-4, 5.25 ERA

Mark Buehrle – 2-4, 5.06 ERA

Hopefully Justin will come through with a big game performance in this one and not pitch like a rookie. We really need to remember that he and Tepesch are very young and are going to have good games and bad games. Lets hope Friday will be one of the good ones. Buehrle has pitched pretty well but not had a lot of run support. Lets hope that continues as well!

Saturday:

Josh Lindbloom – 0-1, 5.91 ERA

Josh Johnson – 0-2, 5.40 ERA

the big difference between these two starters is that one of them is supposed to be the ace of the staff and one of them is young and has only made two previous starts. Johnson has been disappointing to say the least for the Jays, and Lindbloom held his own for the Rangers the other day. I believe that if Lindbloom can hold his own again I still have faith in the bull pen to close it out. IF that happens, the Rangers will win this game.

Sunday:

Derek Holland – 5-3, 3.11 ERA

R.A. Dickey – 5-8, 5.11 ERA

R.A. Allowed 8 runs in his last start. If he pitches like that again the Rangers should win handily. Derek had what was arguably his worst start if the season his last time out. I feel like he will bounce back Sunday. The Rangers should win this game, and they should win the series.

If they don’t, this will be much more than a skid. I, for one, don’t want to see that.