Dallas Round-Up: Cowboys Panicking, Rangers Heading Towards Playoffs

Dallas Round-Up – Cowboys Panicking, Rangers Heading Towards Playoffs

Horse betting players are always skeptical of a slow-starting thoroughbred, but even they would be surprised by the Dallas Cowboys limping out of the gate to start the NFL season.  The Cowboys face a must-win this weekend in Houston, while the Texas Rangers are slowly getting ready to go to the postseason for the first time since 1999.

Dallas Cowboys

The Cowboys fell 27-20 at home to Chicago, committing three turnovers that all came at untimely junctures.  Dallas is riddled with problems, particularly with the offense.  Coordinator Jason Garrett is coming under fire for poor play-calling, and he can’t figure out a way to get the ground game going.  This is a shame as the Cowboys have Marion Barber, Tashard Choice and Felix Jones, yet Tony Romo leads the league with 98 pass attempts in two games.  The Cowboys have to find a balance or else teams are just going to start picking off the aerial attack.  Also, it’s only a matter of time before online football betting players see Dez Bryant starting over Roy Williams.  He’s been far more productive, and he ran back a punt for a score against the Bears, while Williams fumbled in the fourth quarter to rob the Cowboys of a chance to score.  This week, the Cowboys face unbeaten Houston, who are 2.5-point NFL betting favorites and are soaring with confidence.  The Cowboys have a bye next week, and if they lose, the firestorm will really pick up by those who make NFL picks.

Texas Rangers

The Rangers have a magic number of four to clinch their spot in the playoffs heading into Thursday’s opener of a four-game set against Oakland on the road.  The Rangers dropped two of three in Seattle and Los Angeles last week, but their big mission is to avoid any more injuries.  Nelson Cruz had a pair of homers and four RBIs over the week to lead the Rangers, will host Seattle in a three-game set after the Oakland series.  But even NFL football betting players know how tough injuries can be, and the Rangers are waiting on the status of slugger Josh Hamilton, who has a couple of fractured ribs.  He hopes to be back for the final series of the season, a four-game set in Los Angeles which starts next Thursday, but that may be the Rangers and Hamilton being very optimistic.  Hamilton was a Triple Crown threat and one of the favorites to win the American League MVP award.  Without him, the Rangers definitely are missing their most explosive player, even though they still have a powerful lineup.  Without Hamilton in the lineup, the Rangers’ betting odds will take a fall.

Dallas Round-Up: Cowboys Prepare for Regular Season | Ailing Rangers Slumping

NFL betting players are gearing up for the first week of the regular season, and Week 1 sees the Dallas Cowboys on the road against a bitter NFC East rival. In Major League Baseball action, the Texas Rangers are in the midst of a slide, and they may be losing their MVP candidate at the worst possible time.

Dallas Cowboys

The Cowboys begin their regular season at FedEx Field, where they’ll take on a revamped Washington team. The Cowboys were 3-2 in the preseason, but the offense didn’t look sharp at all, and owner Jerry Jones is looking for them to pick up as the Cowboys aim to be the first team in NFL history to play in the Super Bowl when their stadium is hosting it. Rookie receiver Dez Bryant, who NCAA football betting players will remember from his time at Oklahoma State before he was suspended, will be ready after sitting out the preseason with an ankle sprain. Bryant was supposed to challenge Roy Williams for the other spot opposite Miles Austin, but he’s behind in game action now, so look for the Cowboys to bring him along slowly. The Cowboys are actually a 3.5-point favorite on the road on Sunday night, and they’ve won three in a row against the Redskins, including two on the road.

Texas Rangers

The Rangers’ MLB betting odds are going downhill slowly as they had lost five in a row ahead of Wednesday’s game in Toronto, and even though they have a healthy seven-game lead in the American League West, that’s about the only thing that is healthy in Texas. Josh Hamilton has a rib injury that will sideline him indefinitely, and the Rangers are just hoping that their Triple Crown threat will be back for the postseason. Ace Cliff Lee had been struggling anyway, but he has a bad back and had to miss his last start. This doesn’t leave the Rangers in a very good position as they look to shake out of their slump, but they’re going to have to figure something out because after they finish their four-game set in Toronto (of which they lost the first two games), the Rangers then head home to take on the New York Yankees, who have baseball’s best record. The Rangers are hoping that Lee will be ready for the series finale on Sunday, but he’s penciled in. Next week, the Rangers have a quick two-game set at home with the Detroit, and a day off after the Yankees’ series is just what they need. If the Rangers have any more serious injuries, you’ll see their online sports betting odds fall very quickly.

Dallas Round-Up: Rangers at the All-Star Game – Nowitzki Stays

If you’re betting on NFL football odds for the upcoming season, it’s pretty quiet for a change around the Cowboys’ camp, so there’s not much to talk about there, as well as with the Stars.  In baseball, the Rangers are sending a few players to the All-Star (held at the stadium of their division rival, no less), while the Mavericks ensured their star will probably retire in Dallas.

Texas Rangers

The Rangers will have a pair of All-Star starters in Los Angeles, as outfielder Josh Hamilton and designated hitter Vladdy Guerrero will represent Texas.  This is an extra-special trip for Guerrero, who played at the Angel Stadium of Anaheim for five years and was a fan favorite there.  Guerrero is second in the American League in RBIs and fifth in homers after most MLB betting players thought he was washed up, while Hamilton is third in average, second in homers and fourth in RBIs, showing everyone that last season’s decline was due to injuries.  Closer Neftali Feliz is tied for second in the league with 23 saves, so that was enough to get him on the roster, and the Rangers could have a fourth player if Michael Young wins the fan vote.

On the field, the Rangers have certainly cooled off, losing two of three at home to the White Sox last weekend, but they rebounded to win two of three at home against Cleveland through the week.  Hamilton had another big week, hitting .308 with three dingers and five RBIs, while Joaquin Arias also added five RBIs for the Rangers, who will wrap up the first part of their schedule with a four-game set against Baltimore at the Ballpark, and the Orioles are the worst team in the major leagues, so the Rangers will expect to take at least three of four heading into the All-Star break.  The Rangers swept a two-game set with the Orioles at home back in May.

Dallas Mavericks

College football betting players don’t have to worry about players staying for a team for 12 years, but they surely understand the importance of Dirk Nowitzki retiring as a Maverick.  That should happen now as the Mavericks re-signed their franchise player to a four-year, $80-million deal, and this benefits both sides.  One, Nowitzki knows that the market won’t be as good for players when the new CBA is negotiated, so he had to opt out of his previous deal so he could get as much as he could, but he was never in danger of leaving Dallas.  Second, he gave the Mavericks a bit of a hometown discount so they could pursue other free agents in hopes of helping Nowitzki get a championship.  Check out the Mavericks’ odds for next season when you’re betting online.

Dallas Round-Up – Rangers Catching Fire

World Cup betting players in Dallas should have been happy to see Clint Dempsey, a Texas native, score the goal that gave the Americans a 1-1 draw against England in their first match.  Outside of the World Cup, it’s been quiet in Dallas as the Cowboys, Mavericks and Stars are all getting ready for next season, which leaves the entire floor to the Rangers, who are showing that their quest for the American League West crown is no joke.

Texas Rangers

The Rangers have had a big week in interleague action, taking two of three in Milwaukee, and they were going for the sweep of Florida on the road on Thursday night.  Josh Hamilton has had a wild seven days, hitting .500 on 24 at-bats with four dingers and nine RBIs, and the Texas slugger is now tied for fourth in the American League with 16 homers.  Michael Young had a typically solid week, hitting .346 with a homer and four RBIs, but more importantly, Young set the Rangers’ all-time record for hits on Wednesday night against the Marlins.  Young now has 1,748 career hits, and there doesn’t seem to be any end in sight for the 33-year-old third baseman.  The Rangers may be a little worried because Ian Kinsler said that the ankle injury that kept him out of the Opening Day lineup isn’t fully healed yet.  To a USA World Cup betting player, this would be like Dempsey operating at half-speed for the national team.  Also on the injury front, the Rangers would love to have Nelson Cruz back in the lineup.

Everyone knows that the Rangers’ MLB betting odds will depend on how their pitching holds up, and it’s still doing pretty well two months into the season.  However, injuries could play a big role in this portion of the season, and the Rangers may have to decide if they’re going to go after a pitcher before the deadline (Seattle’s Cliff Lee and Houston’s Roy Oswalt are the big targets this year).  Rookie Tommy Hunter won his first major-league start, but left three innings into his next outing with an ailing hip.  Rich Harden is also on the disabled list again with a strained glute, and he’ll be out for at least three weeks, but he was struggling before he got hurt anyway, so the Rangers will probably let him work on some things in the minors before he comes back.  Neftali Feliz was 2-for-2 in save opportunities last week, and it appears as though the Rangers’ pitching is as good as it’s ever been.  Still, Nolan Ryan would love to get another starter in there, so we would lay a sports bet on Texas making contact with either Lee or Oswalt at some point.

An eventful weekend for the Rangers

First, the good part. Derek Holland looked awesome yesterday, the offense woke up (at least a little bit), and the Rangers took two of three from the Angels. It looks like the Rangers are in the Angels’ heads, plus the Texas nine are tied for the lead for the American League Wild Card berth. The Rangers get three against Cleveland this week before coming home to face the Red Sox, and while Cleveland has been playing better, the Indians are a team that the Rangers should beat.

Another good part: No more Vicente Padilla. Yeah, he was talented. He was also a headcase that wasn’t that good this year! He had an ERA of almost 5.00 with his worst K/9 rate as a Ranger and the second highest WHIP in his time in Texas. Frankly, I’d rather have Dustin Nippert. Is the Rangers staff a little bit thinner right now? Yes. If another one of these guys go down, the Rangers are probably going to have to start Doug Mathis or Guillermo Moscoso. But next year, this team will have A LOT of arms. Not to mention the fact that Ben Sheets is still a free agent and could very well help the Rangers significantly next year. Assuming the Rangers sign Sheets, the rotation could be something like this: Sheets/Millwood/Feldman/Holland/Hunter, with backup starters like Harrison, McCarthy, Moscoso, Nippert and Eric Hurley (kind of a forgotten man this year). I think McCarthy is best suited for the bullpen in the long run anyway, but that is a lot of options. And that’s not even factoring in Feliz. With a good winter season and spring training, we could be looking at Feliz in the rotation and Hunter (unfortunately) bumped to that group of backup starters.

Now, (gulp) the bad part. Josh Hamilton. A lot has been made about what happened in Arizona. There are plenty of places where you can read all of the information about Josh’s experience, apology, etc. But there are quite a few things that bug me about this story. Namely, it exists. I’m sure that the Rangers and Josh talked about coming out with the story in January, but I don’t think that would have been the right move. Josh has said that his memory of the night is quite spotty. Does he even remember posing for the pictures that surfaced over the weekend? If the Rangers had come out in January and talked about the incident without any pictures, what would the reaction have been then? Is this story really worthy of all the coverage, or are sports talk people simply searching for something to talk about? It’s a shame that Derek Holland hasn’t gotten more press and airtime for his performance yesterday and what more starts like that would mean for this team down the stretch.

But, alas, this world focused on Josh Hamilton is the world we live in today. The world where sports coverage doesn’t really have that much to do with sports. Ranger fans can’t be pumped to listen to the radio to hear about Derek Holland – they have to listen to more talk about Josh. Which, in the end, probably won’t affect the team too much, unless this story impacts Josh’s play. It didn’t on Saturday. If Josh stays hot for the next week or two? It will probably fade away. If he can’t get the average above .240, Josh is going to be dogged about this for the rest of the year.

Let’s hope, for the team’s sake, that it doesn’t come to that.

Photo edited by Matt Lawrence

Rangers thoughts from a disheartening loss

Up until the bottom of the 8th inning last night, the Rangers game was almost perfect. Dustin Nippert had given the team five shutout innings, Neftali Feliz looked otherwordly in his major league debut and the Rangers were up 2-0. The only thing that could have made things better would have been a better offensive performance.

But from the bottom of the 8th on, the game fell apart like a house of cards. Darren O’Day did look good in his appearance, but C.J. Wilson blew the save and the Rangers lost 3-2. It’s tough to lose games like that, but I guess it doesn’t hurt as much as a 9-7 loss would. Which is weird, considering that every other year in Rangers history the opposite has been true. One loss does not kill the season, but it sure would be nice to see Derek Holland give the Rangers six or seven strong innings tonight.

The season is far from over, with 58 games to go. The Rangers are 3 games behind Boston for the Wild Card and 4.5 games behind the Angels, with both teams matched up in tough series this week. It’s not inconceivable the Rangers could win the last three games in this series against Oakland, but all they need to do is have a winning road trip. Win six of the remaining nine games on the road trip and it will be successful. It’s not time to worry about the Angels and Red Sox just yet.

So with that optimism in mind, here are a couple of positives to come out of last night’s loss:

• Josh Hamilton. Apparently he read the post I wrote yesterday, as he went 2 for 3 with two singles and a walk. Fifth straight game with no strikeouts. Both hits came against the stellar Brett Anderson, a very solid left-handed starter. With Nelson Cruz injured for at least the next couple of days, Josh is going to have to step up in order to carry this team.
• Dustin Nippert. It would have been nice to see him go longer in the game, but Dustin put the team in a position to win. Can’t ask much more from your starter.
• Neftali Feliz. Holy crap this guy looks good. Combine that performance with what Derek Holland did to the Mariners the other night? I’m tingly all over. Stretch Neftali out over the winter and throw him in the rotation next year. The best-case scenario would be if there’s a new owner and Sheets could be signed, giving the Rangers a rotation of Sheets-Millwood-Feldman-Holland-Feliz. Or go Millwood-Feldman-Holland-Hunter-Feliz. Either way, the next few years should be awesome.

Those A’s are pesky. If they find some offense in their system the next few years, they are going to be really tough to deal with. The Mariners look like they know what they’re doing, and the Angels are always going to compete. The AL West was one of the worst divisions in baseball last year besides the Angels (who probably weren’t as good as their record indicated). Within the next couple of years, it could be one of the best.

Good luck tonight Derek. We need it.

What should be done about Josh Hamilton?

I don’t want to write this. I don’t want to write anything bad about Josh Hamilton. After what he did last year, Josh gets a lot of leeway.

But wow. I didn’t think he would be this bad.

A few stats just to give you an idea of how Josh has done since the All-Star Break: .158/.186/.228

That’s two extra-base hits (1 HR, 1 2B) in 15 games. Yikes.

Josh doesn’t even look good at the plate – he swings at way too many bad pitches and not enough good ones.

In his defense, there are a couple of reasons why Josh could be struggling with his numbers: 1. He’s still hurt. Josh did come back a lot quicker from his procedure than most players do. He could be in a significant amount of pain which could be contributing to his struggles. 2. His BABIP. Josh’s batting average on balls in play is a ridiculously low .262, which is bound to come up with more playing time, which means more hits. That does not, however, explain the complete lack of home runs, which don’t factor into BABIP.

This could just be a dreadful slump. If Josh could have a game where he had multiple hits, that might get him going mentally. I’m sure there’s also some form of pressing going on with Josh – he wants to be the thunder in the middle of the order so this team can win, so he is trying way too hard. I’m not sure why he’s been so bad at the plate (although his defense has been so good that he’s worth .5 wins above a replacement player), but maybe that has something to do with it.

So the question is this: What do you do with Josh?

Do you send him back down to the minors? Put him on the DL (because he just hasn’t recovered from that injury)? Or just ride it out?

Through the greatness of Fangraphs, we can see here just about everything you could possibly want to know about Josh Hamilton’s hitting statistics. Josh isn’t hitting as many line drives (19% vs. 21%), he’s striking out more (25% this year, 20% last year), he can’t seem to hit any type of off speed pitches (although he seems to be okay on fastballs), he’s swinging at a lot more pitches (59% this year vs. 55% last year) and making far less contact this year (70%) than last year (74%).

Lots of numbers there, but the point is that Josh has been worse this year in just about every conceivable way with the bat. Probably didn’t require all of those statistics to tell you that, as anyone who’s watched Josh play this year could tell you that he has been awful, but the question is why. Has he been awful because of injuries? Probably. Josh has really been banged up this year, although he says he’s healthy now. There was really only one week that Josh looked like himself, which was the week in which the Rangers won all of their games.

Beginning May 12, the Rangers ripped off six straight wins at home against Seattle and the Angels to post a seven-game win streak. Those six games (Josh exited the final one with an injury after crashing into the centerfield wall) were really the only games where Josh seemingly looked like himself. He went 5 for 21 with 3 HR, 9 RBI, 4 BB and 8 Ks. That was Josh’s best stretch of the season, which is good in terms of power, but not great in terms of average.

In the most recent series against the Mariners, Josh had two hits in 13 at-bats with a walk. He didn’t strike out once, and he had three line drives. Josh’s line drive rate isn’t really horrible, but it’s definitely not good. Only 12 players in the majors have line drive rates of 23% or better, so Josh is really not all that bad in that category.

The problem is the strikeouts. If Josh could find it within him to take a few more pitches – it’s not going to kill you to take a few pitches in the strike zone – and wait for his pitch, his stats would look a whole lot better.

Josh isn’t going anywhere unless an injury comes up. All that needs to happen is for Josh to take a few more pitches and swing at a few less pitcher’s pitches, or at least foul them off. If he does that, I’ve got a good feeling that Josh Hamilton will be able to help this offense tremendously. The Rangers don’t need the Josh Hamilton of 2008. Would they love it if he showed up? Sure. But they just need a guy who’s going to do better than the Josh Hamilton that’s in there now. If they get that, they might have a chance to catch the unconscious Angels.

THE RANGERS REPORT – July 7

Will Thiago Alves pull a UFC 100 fight card upset? That’s the vibe I’m getting if the Texas Rangers’ recent play is any indication. It seems we’re in a bizarro world; a week ago, the Rangers were free falling, and Kevin Millwood was the lone bright spot. Since then, they rattled off five straight wins only to see Millwood lay an egg to end the streak. Go figure.

Season record: 45-36
AL West rank: 2
Current baseball odds to win World Series: 19 to 1

THE LINEUP

The Rangers welcomed Josh Hamilton back to the lineup last night after his DL stint due to an abdominal injury; he didn’t miss a beat, going two for four with a run scored. To make space for Hamilton, the Rangers sent down wild-swinging Chris Davis, who was flirting with the Mendoza line. Davis strikes out every 2.2 at-bats and was on pace to shatter the Major-League record for whiffs in a season.

Manager Ron Washington wants to keep David Murphy’s bat in the lineup and is even giving him time at first place in an effort to do so. Big kudos go out to Michael Young, who made his sixth consecutive All-Star team on Sunday – this time as a third baseman.

THE ROTATION

Just when Kevin Millwood seemed poised to get an All-Star nod, the wheels fell off. In Monday’s debacle against the Angels, he allowed nine earned runs and has allowed 13 in 11.1 innings this month. Rookie Tommy Hunter continues to surprise; this time, he held baseball’s highest-scoring team to one run in 5.1 innings to beat the Rays and earn his first career victory. If Millwood’s slide continues, Texas will need Hunter’s nice run to continue, though most MLB predictions experts don’t see it happening.

THE BULLPEN

It’s all about opportunity for Frank Francisco. With the Rangers enjoying five straight wins last week, he finally got some save opportunities. He blew the first one but saved the next two and appears to be back in a rhythm.

OVERALL OUTLOOK

Just when the Rangers seemed ready to roll over in the AL West, they surged forward, recapturing their fans’ imagination. Are they back for good? It’s too early to tell. The rest of the series with the Angels will really determine the division’s landscape. I’m betting management in Texas hasn’t ruled out being a trade-deadline buyer, though.

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