Subject: Vicente Padilla

• Oh and 162?

  April 5, 2007

• Welcome Wagon

  March 29, 2007

• So Here's To You, Mr. Robinson

  March 26, 2007

• Danks For Nuthin'

  December 27, 2006

• Wake Me Up, Before You Zi-to

  December 13, 2006

• P.O.'d at T.O.

  August 17, 2006

• Are They Real or Fake?

  When it comes to your Texas Rangers, we're about to find out. Starting tonight at Yankee Stadium, the Rangers play their next 13 games against baseball's best teams - New York, the Boston Red Sox, Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Dodgers. Each of those teams is at least five games above .500. Against similar opponents this season, Texas is 2-10. In other words, come June 15th the Rangers will either still be in first place in the AL West, or the countdown to Cowboys' tr

  June 2, 2009

• The Texas Rangers Provided Us With Yet Another Season in Hell

  October 2, 2007

• Seriously, Tom Hicks, Just Sell the Texas Rangers and Stop Pretending Like You Give a Damn

  December 10, 2007

• Past the Halfway Mark, the Rangers Look Like Contenders and Pretenders

  July 3, 2008

• Sure, the Rangers Are Fun and All. But There's Still Some Fixin' To Do.

  July 30, 2008

• Byrd Watching

  August 5, 2008

• Bad Rangers' Pitching News and it's Only Friggin' January

  From the same team that lost Adam Eaton in spring training 2006 just hours after general manager Jon Daniels announced his starting rotation comes news that top pitching prospect Eric Hurley has undergone rotator cuff surgery and is out for the 2009 season. In news that will surprise no one: Rangers = Snakebit. Hurley, the team's first-round pick in '04, showed flashes at the big-league level last season, going 1-2 with a 5.47 ERA. Flashes, I said. His loss isn't devastating news, but it ain't

  January 22, 2009

• See Ya, Padilla

  This morning I wrote that you can never ever trust Vicente Padilla. Now, you won't have to. The Texas Rangers this afternoon requested outright waivers on the bean-balling, inconsistent, free-agent-to-be pitcher.

  June 3, 2009

• Yankees 35, Spankees 13

  Trust him at your own peril.Guaranteed your Tuesday was better than the Texas Rangers. Josh Hamilton back on the disabled list. Another reminder why they can never ever trust Vicente Padilla. Allowed a 7-run inning to the Yankees, biggest against them all season. Even TV analyst Tom Grieve suffered a hamstring cramp during the telecast. Oh yeah, and Yankees 12, Rangers 3. Not a good start a tell-tale 13-game stretch against the best teams in baseball. After four games so fa

  June 3, 2009

• New Park. Old Rangers?

  Upgrades be damned, Rangers Ballpark in Arlington is dwarfed in size and stature by Jonestown Coliseum.Went out and toured "new" Rangers Ballpark last month. Well, not exactly new, but how about refurbished? New video scoreboard in left field. Information ribbons wrapping the place. A fashion-forward brick wall behind home plate. My thumbs-up review is here. With a heralded youth movement playing in a spit-shined stadium, there's lots of optimism in Arlington these days. Still ...

  March 27, 2009

• The Texas Strangers

  Seriously, who are these guys? With generally the same cast of characters that has face-planted out of the gate the last two seasons, the Texas Rangers are off to a dream start. Granted 2-0 gets only a subtle nod in Boston or New York or Anaheim, but in Arlington it's cause to get Laura Miller on the horn and dust off the Mavericks' old parade route. At least in September we won't have to hear the same old status woe from manager Ron Washington: Sept. 26, 2007: "We made it real tough

  April 9, 2009

• Plan See

  With blueprints A and B trashed, the Rangers have stumbled onto a visually stimulating development

  July 17, 2008

• Can Nolan Ryan Save the Texas Rangers? Again?

  March 13, 2008

• Tom Hicks is Now a Global Billionaire Bozo

  He's a vilified clown of an owner on two continents. Or at least he should be.

  January 31, 2008

• Mood Swings

  The Rangers' hitting coach is remarkable, resilient and really good at his job

  April 5, 2007

• Rangers Redux

  Desperate for an assist from Dallas, the Rangers implement yet another rebuilding plan

  June 28, 2007

• Rangers: The Texas Treadmills

  Your Rangers yet again perfect the art of going nowhere fast

  October 4, 2007

• Texas Rangers Have Given Their Fans Something to Cheer About, Entering June With The Second Best Record in Baseball.

  June 4, 2009

• Boy Blunder

  Is baseball's youngest general manager man enough to rebuild the Rangers?

  July 12, 2007

• Play It Again, Sammy

  Can the Rangers' oldest rookie leave his diva days behind and deliver?

  March 29, 2007

• Washington Monument

  New Rangers manager injects hope and, yep, even optimism in Arlington

  February 8, 2007

• Déjà Boo

  Another Rangers season ends in a familiar Hunt for Dead October

  September 28, 2006

• Rangers Survive April, and The Aporkalypse

  Dude is touching 57 on the gun today. Wow.Regardless the outcome of this afternoon's pitching duel between Vicente Padilla and Bobby Bragan, it's already - I'm sorry, I'm being told the Oakland pitcher is actually Dallas Braden - a successful April for the Texas Rangers. Not only has Texas not had any players succumb to the international flu epigdemic - click here to see if you 'fraidy cats been infected - it will make it out of the season's first month with its best record since 2006. An

  April 30, 2009

• Whitt's End: 6.26.09

  Whether you're at the end of your rope of merely the end of your week, welcome to Whitt's End: *Ventured down to the Mavs' draft last night and it was ... sad. Not the selection of Rodrigue Beaubois - though underwhleming - but more the lack of buzz. I remember when a much worse Mavs' organization/team could attract 7,500 to Reunion Arena for a draft party. Last night's official "party" consisted of probably 50 patrons and three ManiAACs at the makeshift Chili's on the corner of t

  June 26, 2009

• Angels 5, Faders 2

  Time to switch sagas?The good news: The Texas Rangers got seven more hits and two more runs last night than they did on Sunday. The bad news: They suck. With a 5-2 loss to the Angels, the Rangers - who held a 5 1/2-game lead to start the month - are now 2 1/2 games in arrears as we stumble into July. Again, pitcher Vicente Padilla wasn't horrible, but Texas managed only two runs on back-to-back solo homers by David Murphy and Marlon Byrd. The Rangers are 10-15 in June and flirting with th

  June 30, 2009

• Rangers 2, Angels 1

  ​How you get shut down by Gio Gonzalez and then light up John Lackey I'll never know, but your Texas Rangers deflected the dirt from their coffin in Anaheim this weekend. I still don't think they'll catch the Angels or make the playoffs, but taking two of three in California keeps baseball relevant past mid-August. For the year before the year, it's an amazing season. Derek Holland was devastating in yesterday's complete-game, 7-0 shutout win. His fastba

  August 10, 2009

• Whitt's End: 8.14.09

  ​Whether you're at the end of your rope or merely the end of your week, welcome to Whitt's End: *Lots of you asking for a breakdown of the latest Arbitron PPM radio ratings for July. Not worth a separate item these days because - yawn - The Ticket's dynasty just rolls on. Dunham & Miller and The Hardline have the equivalent of four-touchdown leads in morning and afternoon drive. The battle for No. 2, however, just got interesting. While The Ticket (No. 1 in the market) still dominates

  August 14, 2009

• Whitt's End: 8.28.09

  ​Whether you're at the end of your rope or merely the end of your week, welcome to Whitt's End: *Okay, let me snap off this Olive branch and extend it to the Christians this week. Peace? *Props to 103.3 FM ESPN Radio's Randy Galloway for landing the first in-depth interview with Texas Rangers' outfielder Josh Hamilton since you know what. And props to Josh for sticking with his faith. "The Lord's been glorified a lot more," Hamilton told Galloway on Wednesday. "Jesus' name has been in the

  August 28, 2009

• Neftali Feliz is a fireballin’ pitching phenom who has brought the surprising Texas Rangers Christmas in September.

  September 10, 2009

• October = Baseball Bummer

  ​Seems like the Texas Rangers season ended months ago doesn't it? Don't look now, but the cool kids are still playing baseball. The League Championship Series start this week with Angels-Yankees and Dodgers-Phillies. According to national TV ratings, you're not looking at all - as Dallas/Fort Worth ranked 54th out of the top 56 metered markets during the first round of the playoffs. While Tom Hicks considers three serious buyers for his team and continues slashing budget by getting rid of

  October 14, 2009