Texas Rangers: End of season Twitter questions

The League Championships Series start soon and sadly it won’t feature the Texas Rangers.  Everyone had high hopes of the Rangers making a very good playoff run.  Before the season started Buster Olney ranked the Rangers as having the best lineup in the majors.  Also, several others predicted that the Rangers would reach the World Series.  But, they couldn’t have been further from that this season.

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Now that the season is over it is time to reflect back on a season which everyone will soon try to forget.

Here are a few questions that were asked on Twitter about the 2014 season.  Here are how some of the fans answered.

• What was the best moment of the 2014 season?@dwcashmlb Last out, final game.

I can totally agree with Colin.  The after the month of June it was quite apparent that this Rangers team was heading now where.  It also didn’t help that every week it seemed like another player was injured and out for the season.

Watching Yu Darvish finally pitch a complete game shutout was also a very special moment.  He’s worked very hard and has been close to a perfect game and a no-hitter.  But, in those attempts he never finished the game.  Finally on July 11, against the Miami Marlins he was able to do it.

Jesse Wood brings up another good one.  Martin Perez looked very solid at the beginning of the season and managed to pitch back-to-back three hit shutouts.  He was quickly establishing himself as the club’s number two starting pitcher.  But, like how most stories ended this season, he ended up injured, which needed surgery and he missed the rest of the season.

• Who was the stand out player of the year?

Adrian Beltre did have another stellar season.  He didn’t hit the long ball as often, but he was always reliable at the plate.  Beltre did his best to lead by example and give it his all every day.  He managed to stay healthy the entire season and if it was up to him he would have never been on the disabled list.

Phil makes a good point about Rougned Odor.  Odor was called up to take over for Jurickson Profar.  He did his best with his on the job training.  He worked well with Ron Washington on a regular basis to fine tune his skills and looks to be the second baseman next season.

Also, Adam Gordon brings up a good name with Joey Gallo.   He’s one of the quick rising stars in the Texas Rangers farm system.  He tore the over off the ball in High-A and double-A ball.  He could some day be the Rangers third baseman or an outfielder

• Who is the comeback player of the year?

It’s easy to agree with everyone here.  Colby Lewis is easily the comeback player of the year.  He worked very hard to comeback after hip surgery.  No one else in baseball had ever attempted that before.  He had struggles early on during the season and was banged up by the Angels for 13 runs (10 earned).  But, he kept focused and finished the season very well.

• Best series the Rangers had?

Beating the Oakland Athletics is always nice.  It was specially nice doing it early in the season to take the lead in the American League West.  Then the Rangers did it again to almost completely knock the A’s out of the playoffs.

• What was the biggest disappointment?

Losing Prince Fielder due to injures was a tough one this season.  He was supposed to bring some power to a lineup that was lacking it with the loss of Nelson Cruz.  Also, the Rangers lost Josh Hamilton a few years ago.  It’s easy to see in their home run totals of 111 of the season that there was a power outage with the Rangers.  If Fielder was healthy he might have hit 30 or more home runs.  That still wouldn’t have made up the difference, but it would have gone a long way to help.

Many fans were disappointed to see Ron Washington resign.  Overall it appears it might have been the best direction for him and the club.

Overall, hands down Michael is probably right.  The injuries were the worst thing to happen to the Texas Rangers this season.  Using 64 different players, the disabled list 25 times and losing over 2000 games to the DL directly lead to the Rangers finish dead last in the division.

• Which 3 players were missed the most?

It’s hard to pick just 3, but without a doubt losing Derek Holland, Prince Fielder and Yu Darvish had a huge impact on the season.  If those 3 would have been 100% all season the Texas Rangers might have at least finish with their wins in the 80s.

• Is the ballpark a hitter’s or pitcher’s park?

The Texas Rangers did lack power hitters in their lineup this season.  The only real threat was Adrian Beltre and even his numbers were down this season.  But, after two seasons of seeing them play at the ballpark after several renovations it does seem like it is more of a pitchers park.  The wind doesn’t swirl around in the outfield as bad as it used to.  No longer are players losing their hats and watching fly balls go over their heads.  Maybe it was just a down year overall and next season things will change.  As it stands right now, I’d say it’s leaning more towards a pitcher’s park.

Thanks to everyone that participated.  Now it’s time to hope that Jon Daniels finds the perfect fit for a new manager, adds some power to the lineup and a another starting pitcher.  If he can do that next season should be pretty exciting.