Since there is no direct consensus, but still a fair amount of similarities within the ballots, there will be no table filled with analytics. I’ll just say what everyone thinks, and we’ll take it from there.

For instance, all of Mike, Clayton and Eric like the Yankees to win the AL East. I like the Red Sox (if for nothing else that they will rebound from a dreadful Bobby-Valentine year in Boston).

In the Central, naturally everyone picked the Tigers. I’m not sure a rational case can be made for any other team in that division. Detroit could very easily win the Central by 15.0-20.0 games.

As far as the AL West is concerned — the division of most importance to this blog — both Mike and Eric believe the Angels will supplant the Rangers, though they each have Texas as a wild card. Conversely, both Clayton and I think Texas wins the division, with the Angels as a wild card.

I’ve been very critical of the Rangers this offseason. From failing to sign Zack Greinke and Josh Hamilton — when Nolan Ryan said the Rangers could land both — all the way through the Justin Upton saga. I think the Texas needed something extra to put them over the top, however, with the money and prospect currency saved from not making moves, it puts them in position to make a run at David Price, Giancarlo Stanton or Carlos Gonzalez at some point leading up to the trade deadline.

Therefore, in picking the Rangers to win the West, I’m also exercising some blind faith, or suspending my own disbelief, simply because I believe some type of blockbuster will go down this coming year. If it doesn’t, it’s my assumption that the Angels take the West, with Texas as one of the two wild cards.

As for World Series picks:

Mike — Tigers over Braves

Clayton — Tigers over Nationals

Other Eric — Giants

Me — Nationals over Rangers

Now that I’ve come to the National League, I realize that I don’t care about it. So I’m just not going to write about it.

However, when is baseball going to smarten up and just get rid of the pitcher hitting? I think with Houston going to the American League, the next domino to fall will be the inclusion of a universal DH between the two leagues. With the divisions balanced out at 5 apiece — creating an odd number of teams in each circuit — I’m curious how long it will take for this idea to gain some traction.

To me, it’s just part of the natural evolution of baseball. It would create 15 new jobs for hitters, and what with being a game all about revenue sharing and overall uniformity, the permanent DH in both leagues would seem to be an organic transition into a new era of baseball.

Of course, there would probably be quite a few baseball “purists” — the same people who deny the existence and practical application of sabermetrics — who would throw a big fit. Don’t get me wrong, pitchers stepping to the plate is in the grass roots of America’s pastime, and it’s been the essential differentiator between the AL and NL since I’ve been alive. That has to count for something, right?

The point is, there’s no reason to subject pitchers to playing offense. It doesn’t add or subtract from the strategy of the game, because all you do is have them bunt, or if they aren’t pitching well you pinch-hit for them. That’s it. It would actually help in determining how good a pitcher really is, because I don’t think you’d find many NL hurlers who believe it’s more difficult pitching to pitchers than it is a DH.

Anyway, food for thought. I guess.

All of a sudden, the 6th inning happened, and everything changed.

This is what Derek Holland looks like

The inning led off with Ichiro reaching on an infield single. Still, no harm no foul. After Chris Steward grounded out, advancing Suzuki to 2nd, Derek Jeter and Nick Swisher followed with successive RBI singles, cutting the Yankees deficit in half. Holland’s seamless control over the first 5 innings was starting to evaporate, and Rangers fans across the country began to hold their collective breath, as this was the Derek Holland we’ve regrettably come to expect. After Mark Teixeira struck out swinging on a diving 3-2 curveball in the dirt, Holland failed to record another out. Andruw Jones hit a game-tying two-run homer to left, and the newly-acquired Casey McGehee reached on an error to the out-of-place Mike Olt playing right field. That was it. Derek Holland’s day was done.

That run eventually scored on a green-light 3-0 single off the bat of Russell Martin, and Holland’s line was closed. 5.2 innings, 5 runs on 5 hits, no walks and 3 strikeouts. I so badly want to give him the benefit of the doubt every time he goes out, always wishing he’d finally turn the corner and transmogrify into the pitcher we’ve all expected him to become, but more and more it seems like his remarkable Game 4 start in last year’s World Series was an aberration, and not the true talent of the pitcher.

Let’s take a look at the numbers, and see just how much my perception matches up with the reality we’re dealing with.

For you traditional stat-keepers, thus far into the year Holland has amassed a 7-6 record with an ERA of 4.92. His strikeout numbers (7.41/9IP) and walk ratio (2.89/9IP) are relatively pedestrian; nothing special, but not terrible by any means. He sports an xFIP of 4.23 and SIERA of 4.05, indicating he’s better than how’s he’s pitched so far, but those peripherals are still very average on a league-wide scale. For a pitcher fresh off receiving a team-friendly 5-year/$28.5M contract extension this most recent offseason, it was expected he would take the next step into the more exclusive air of becoming a top-of-the-rotation pitcher. After all, this is what we’ve been preached by the media: He has the ceiling of a #2 starter. I don’t think any of us expected him to pitch closer to a #4. He’s supposed to be better than that.

And this may be the greatest predicament Rangers fans deal with when assessing just how good Derek Holland really is. We fight the battle between our high expectations and a reality we aren’t yet willing to accept. Last year his ERA was a full run lower (3.95), and he possessed an xFIP (3.76) and SIERA (3.86) that showed he was actually better than that, ultimately finishing in the top-third in all of baseball in WAR for pitchers at 3.6. Right now, he’s yet to produce even 1.0 win above a replacement level player, making it feel as if the pitcher who was tied for 2nd in baseball with 4 shutouts last year is simply gone altogether.

The most troubling aspect of this, a 2012 season that may very well go down as a lost year for Holland, is that his “stuff” doesn’t appear as if it’s gone anywhere. If we discount the month or so where he succumbed to a stomach virus and saw his velocity dip down into the upper-80′s/low-90′s territory, he’s mostly been the same pitcher as he was last year. He can still pump it up into the mid-90′s, and still hones a reliable curveball, change-up mix which helps complement his plus fastball. His issue has been locating. For how gorgeous it is to watch him while he’s in a groove, it’s just as frustrating when he’s throwing meatballs over the heart of the plate, which have already led him to allowing an uncharacteristic 22 home runs. A lot of people want to blame his lack of success on being unfocused, or too much of a goofball, but that’s nonsense. He cares about winning just as much as the other 24 guys on the roster, and he’s already proven himself on the biggest baseball stage on the planet. He’s a gamer. However, it is interesting that the fan base, including myself, look at Holland as if he’s still a young player. Maybe it’s the promise he’s teased us with; maybe it’s the facial hair. I don’t know. But he’s due to turn 26 while the Rangers will be in the postseason. We aren’t going to be able to look at him this way forever.

One thing is true: The only pitcher with more upside in the starting rotation is Yu Darvish. I still believe in my heart of hearts that this is all some stupid phase that Derek Holland is in. That maybe, possibly, probably, he’s got a magic bag of tricks up his sleeve and that he’s only teasing us before another stupendous postseason performance or two.

Right now, the Dutch Oven is cold. Ice cold. But I still can’t convince myself that he doesn’t have some fire left in the tank.

Aug. 14, 2012; Bronx, NY, USA; New York Yankees starting pitcher Hiroki Kuroda (18) pitches against the Texas Rangers during the second inning at Yankee Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Debby Wong-US PRESSWIRE

The Rangers recorded their first hit of the game in the seventh inning when Elvis Andrus grounded a ball to a diving Jayson Nix at short, who got up and made a throw to first that was too late to retire the speedy base runner. Josh Hamilton then hit one off the end of the bat to deep right-center, advancing Andrus to second. Kuroda retired Adrian Beltre and Nelson Cruz to end the threat.

Harrison struggled early with command issues, giving up hits in his first four innings and worked his way out of a bases loaded jam in the third.

After retiring the first batter in the bottom half of the seventh inning, Derek Jeter was on with a base hit. Just as he did in Sunday’s game with the Tigers, Ron Washington went to the bullpen early. This time it came back to bite the team. With fireballing Alexi Ogando on the mound, for the second game in a row Nick Swisher put the Yankees up with a go-ahead home run. The following batter, former Ranger Mark Teixeira, also went deep to put the Yankees up 3-0.

Catcher Luis Martinez, who was called up when the Rangers placed Mike Napoli on the disabled list, got his first start and went 0-3.

On the bright side, amid speculation of the call up of prospect shortstop Jurickson Profar, right handed reliever Tanner Scheppers made his case to stay with the Major League club as he threw one scoreless inning, striking out two.

The Yankees take a 2-0 series lead and lead the season series 3-2.

This is only the third time that the Rangers have been shut out this season.

The Rangers are now 6 games ahead of the A’s and 7.5 games ahead of the Angels in the AL West as they await the results from Anaheim.

The third game of the series in New York commences at 6:05 p.m. with Scott Feldman (6-7, 4.64 ERA) on to face Freddy Garcia (6-5, 4.85 ERA).