Lots of thoughts this morning about the Ryan Dempster trade. I never really had a chance to get fired up about landing Ryan Dempster. The whole thing caught me off-guard. Because so much talk surrounded Dempster’s refusal of a trade to the Braves and his insistence on wanting to be a Dodger, I never really considered him among the players we would even go after. It’s no secret that I wanted us to trade for Cliff Lee. I knew we were making a run at Zack Greinke. It all happened so fast and at a time when it looked like we would come up empty on a starting pitcher.
Dempster was not great in his first few Ranger outings. In a couple he was awful. But I think part of that was the suddenness he experienced in the deal. I would imagine at the same time I figured we wouldn’t get a pitcher in a deadline deal, Dempster was figuring to remain a Cub. Last night the real Ryan Dempster showed up.
Over the years I watched a lot of the Cubs. Not so much the last few, because of MLB At Bat, but back when Ryan first became a Cub, WGN was still a place, that if you are a baseball fan, you could turn to catch a game. But I did get to see him both as a starter and a closer. He always struck me as an un-rattle-able guy. He was methodic and always seemed to have a plan for each hitter he faced. We saw that guy last night. He went out and got the job done. In fact at the end of his night, as he retired his eleventh consecutive batter, it hardly seemed he had thrown 111 pitches.
The Ranger offense was the Ranger offense. Well the new Ranger offense. While Josh Hamilton seems to have turned things around, he did strike out twice last night. The new Ranger offense is being led by David Murphy. Murphy was red-hot again last night going 2 for 3 with 2 RBIs and walked once. He is playing so well that Ron Washington, who is a platoon guy in the bottom part of the order, is not platooning Murphy anymore.Say hello to the new full-time left fielder for the Rangers. Other highlights from the game, Ian Kinsler, still trying to get back on track, walking twice and a ridiculous play by Elvis Andrus on a ball in the hole between short and third. It’s one that happens in real life far less than it does on my PS3.
Tonight the Rangers face Chris Tillman. This is one of those scenarios that I had talked about earlier. Tillman, who started of nicely, has been struggling, especially in his last two starts. It seems like a nice setup for us. But these guys always seem to make their bones on the Rangers. His last start, he threw 110 pitches before he was pulled with two out in the fifth. If we work him and take some pitches, we can send him out of the game. We have Scott Feldman pitching tonight. After great starts from Harrison and Dempster, we’ll see if Scott wants to join the “Game One Starters Club”. We have no clear choice for game one of a playoff series and it looks like we have a min-competition going.
I like it.