Disappointed

Well, I'm disappointed to awake this morning and find that the Rangers made no trade for a bat yesterday.

I went to bed last night without finding anything out about a trade. I had hoped to awake this morning and find out that they made a trade right before the 11:00 p.m. deadline last night. Everybody who is going to be on the playoff roster has to be there by last night. But alas, it's not to be.

Sure, they called up plenty of players from the minors with the rosters expanded to forty players last night. And there's lots of talent in that group that I am sure will be great for years to come. But I believe we needed to acquire an MLB-proven guy to come off the bench who has seen MLB pitching. Not a guy who has been watching Double-A pitching all year.

This has shown to be needed over the last two years in the playoffs. There was definitely a huge difference between our bench and the Cardinals bench last year. I won't say the Cardinals' player name . . . because it still hurts too much . . . but the Cardinals' huge bat coming off the bench last year was a big asset for them. We didn't have jack coming off the bench.

Lots of people are concerned about our pitching, particularly starting pitching, heading into what we hope is the stretch run of September, with October clearly in view down the road. But I really think pitching will be okay. The bullpen is great right now. And I think our starting pitching is coming into its own. Dempster is showing what he's capable of. I think resting Yu over the past month or two is paying huge dividends as he is really starting to kick butt lately. Harrison is having a career year. And Holland . . . well, he's Holland, frustrating and all. Last October taught us to have some faith in the young boy. I was there; and I'm a believer.

The Failed Experiment That Was Jose Cantu, two years ago, should have taught us that we need a reliable bat coming off the bench in the playoffs. Don't remember Jorge Cantu? Exactly. But I bet you remember a guy with the last name of Craig who played for the Cardinals last year.