I know there is already at least one LSB Keeper League going on right now, but I wanted to see if there was enough interest to start another league. We are still forming the general rules, it will more than likely be an auction draft, H2H (daily or weekly), 12 teams, $100 buy-in. We are debating on the roster format right now, but I am thinking a 40 man roster, 25 major league players, 15 minor league players. Would have separate Major and Minor league drafts. I would prefer this to be a live draft, but we can always do it online if there are guys outside of the metroplex. If you are interested either post in the comments or shoot me an email, abstellar@gmail.com.

Being a red blooded American I am looking to exercise my second amendment rights to bear arms. Problem is, I am not from a hunting family or background. I bird hunt a few times a season and being in the oil business there are a lot of clay tourneys for different local industry organizations. I am looking for a decent bird hunting gun (been looking at a Browning 12 and 20 gauge) and I am also looking to get a handgun.

I have very little knowledge of handguns, but am not looking for something to start a war with, just something to keep in the bedside drawer that I will hopefully never have to use.

That being said if anyone has any insight into shotguns/handguns I should look into I would really appreciate it. I don't really have a price limit but would prefer to stay under $1,000 for each.

My Conversation With Rev Halofan (via stelldiggity)

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Alright, first not sure if anyone knows this or not, but I am currently in South Africa for the World Cup. I was there last night, and have to say it was and will probably remain the greatest sporting moment of my life. I wrote an e-mail to some of my friends and family this morning recounting the experience and figured you sports dorks would appreciate it. I am going to post a couple of pictures later (the business center computer won't let me post them).

Also, a little Ranger centric note...Ke Nako, the South African theme for the World Cup means...It's Time...

Ke Nako, Rangers, Ke Nako USA

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Humans,

Me and a few friends are making a road trip to your fine berg for one day in June. We are driving through OKC, stopping to watch a Rangers AAA game, then heading to KC Friday morning for a night game against Detroit before driving to St. Louis for a Cards game the next day.

My question is this...if there was ONE restaurant we HAD to eat at, ONE bar we HAD to drink at, ONE concession item we HAD to try, what are they? And what is one attraction we have to see before leaving your fine city?

Much appreciated, and if anyone wants to grab a drink before or after the game say when and where are we will be there.

One Love,

RangerFloppy

Humans,

Me and a few friends are making a road trip to your fine berg for one day in June. We are driving through ARK, stopping to watch a Rangers AA game in Springdale, then heading to STL Saturday morning for a day game against the Brew Crew. We aren't going to be in town long as we are headed to KC Sunday morning to catch a noon game before heading back to Fort Worth.

My question is this...if there was ONE restaurant we HAD to eat at, ONE bar we HAD to drink at, ONE concession item we HAD to try, what are they? And what is one attraction we have to see before leaving your fine city? (already planning on dropping by the arch).

Much appreciated, and if anyone wants to grab a drink before or after the game say when and where are we will be there.

One Love,

RangerFloppy

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Crazy 1st day. On to Day 2. No one cares about your bracket.

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A RangerFloppy PSA, apologies for the length:

The Rangers are in 1st place in the West, have the best record this far into a season since Adam Hydzu was on the 40 man, and have exhibited a combination of offense, defense and pitching which has not been displayed in the past decade of Rangers baseball. Their surprise performance, combined with the Mavs being down 2-0 to the Nuggets and the Cowboys being off the radar, has inspired some fair weather fans to drink the kool-aid that is Ranger Fandom. Let me be the first to welcome you all with open arms. And let me also tell you that if you are going to post on this site, make sure it is good (and I'm keeping my chubby fingers crossed right now that this post will be), because if it isn't you will be booed off the stage.

People are not polite here, people will not give you the benefit of the doubt, people will flat out hammer your self esteem until you are left a dejected bumbling mess in front of your monitor. As a Ranger Fan we have our established higher powers, the Newberg, the AJM, the Grant, the Brain Eating Zombie, among many other outstanding writers, reporters, and fundamental fans of this organization. That being said, if you are about to reel off your first FanPost, you are not one of them. While some might try (cough, me, i know, I'm not very good, cough) to break into the upper echelon of Ranger writers, we are mere mortals. This post is not a witch hunt, it is not meant to seek out anyone (f*ck it, I'll even leave Crops out of this), it is meant to inform. Before you post read this, the always enthralling GoET's User's Guide to LSB. Learn it. Know it. Live it. It will save you a lot of annoyance and anger down the road.

That being said, if you are new to the site, and have read the manual and think you are still ready to thrown down your first FanPost, be prepared for the worst. While you might think people are very interested in your opinions on the Galarraga debacle, or how Manny and A-Rod are a bunch of jerks, or how much you think Nolan Ryan has changed the framework of this team and how sorry Jon Boy is as a GM, there is a 92% chance they will dismiss your attempt at insight with scalding opinions of your writing style and your general worldview. Could they just ignore it and be nice? Sure. But they won't. That being said if you think your opinion is gold, and you are preparing to jump off the LoneStarBall high dive, consider these, the 5 stages of LSB FanPost Grief:

1) Denial:

Yes, your post is the f*cking sh*t. You spent all of 6 minutes writing, researching, editing, spell checking and looking through your post for grammatical errors. What could go wrong? Your opinions are fresh (especially the ones about the Danks trade and the Sammy Sosa signing), your writing style is borderline Shakespearian, and you are confident that this will be one of the best things anyone has ever seen written about the Rangers. Before you hit the "Publish" button you ponder dreams of JD sending you an email asking for your thoughts on pending trade possibilities, that Nolan will ask you about the state of the Ballclub, and that at some point Jamey Newberg will ask you to just take over the Report, because he has met his match. You hit the "Publish" button and kick your feet up on your desk, put your hands behind your head like a baseball Gordon Geko, and wait for your adoring public to carry you off the proverbial field on their shoulders. Then it happens. 1st comment.

From dirkatron:

"God dam*it, another sh*tty fan post this week, great"

Huh? Maybe that guy is just a dick, look at him in his picture, with his wife beater and ant eater tongue, this is still the best f*cking thing anyone has ever written. 2nd comment.

From tball:

"Cool, let's rehash all of this stuff again, there haven't been hundreds of articles, comments and posts about this done before, great job new guy!!"

Still the best thing I've written, f*ck these guys. 3rd comment.

"Meh"

"God this is terrible, I would rather spend an hour in a hot tub with Josey than read this crap"

"Dude, cut off your hands and never type again"

Alright, f*ck this, I'm getting pissed...

2) Anger:

Alright, screw these guys, they don't know what good writing is. I'm going to show their asses.

From RangersAreAwesome:

"You know what, you guys don't know sh*t. How cool are y'all. I have been a f*cking Rangers fan since Oil Can Boyd was on the mound and I don't need to put up with this crap from a bunch of losers who sit on their computer all day making fun of people for trying to voice their opinion! That's what this is right? A place for people to write opinions without having people be a*sholes to them? F all of you. You sure know how to make someone feel welcome."

That's right, no one can say sh*t now...

From Arlington Stadium Legend:

"Douche"

F*ck...

From RangersAreAwesome:

"Douche. Is that all you got? Mr. I know f*cking everything about the Rangers and I'm a cocky piece of s*hit who will make fun of anyone who writes anything that isn't Jamison D. Newberg or Adam Morris? Prick"

P'wnd...

From KnockoutKing (replying to Arlington Stadium Legend):

"+1"

From NoNameOnCard:

"Listen man, we aren't trying to piss you off, just realize, you aren't a good writer. You can voice your opinions in comments, just don't start a FanPost if it isn't very good or isn't very current. If it is go ahead with it, but don't bring weak sh*t to the table"

3) Bargaining. 90% of the time as soon as someone explains that we don't inherently dislike everyone who posts, that we just don't want to waste our time reading through someone's opinions if they have no basis or relevance for the current situation (i.e. past trades and roster moves, diatribes which could be confused as personal attacks, whining, bitching, or over-fanning) they usually cling to that person and enter the bargaining phase:

From RangersAreAwesome (replying to NoNameOnCard):

"Ok, so maybe it wasn't the best piece of writing, but there is no reason for you guys to be as*holes to the new guy for no reason. I'm still going to post what I want, whenever I want, but I'll try and make sure that it is good."

4) Depression:

3 days later...

From KnockoutKing:

"Where has RangersAreAwesome been? I miss his scalding hot sports opinions."

Meanwhile, RangersAreAwesome has reread the 94 comments on his initial fan post 3 times and is now too fearful to post. He considers replying but logs out and heads over to Crops so he can see some writing that was certainly worse than his (sorry, sorry, but I had to). He hangs his head, weeps a single tear, and turns off his laptop.

5) Acceptance:

From RangersAreAwesome (replying to KnockoutKing):

"Still here, figured I'd take a break from my awesome FanPosts for a while...God, I reread it yesterday, it really was brutal"

From KnockoutKing:

"No worries man, welcome back."

I know this will probably booed off the stage, but that's ok. I have accepted my role here at LSB. If you are new here just take some time to get used to it. As horrible as some of these guys will come off as initially you will grow to like their styles. Just be informed, not too obtrusive or opinionated, and don't waste peoples time with poorly written, poorly researched FanPosts. You will regret it. That being said, I want to share with all the newbies a comment from the first FanPost I put up on this site:

From CanadianRanger:

You include yourself in the so called “informed” Rangers’ fans. No disrespect intended, but you don’t need to spam us with your miserable analysis everytime something squirts out your brain. This is an imaginary situation, and there is something extremely dishonest about using modern media to complain about old media. It absolutely does not matter how small your part in it may be, but if you’re contributing to public consciousness, criticizing people with whom you compete for my time is not worthy of content, and it certainly isn’t worthy of spamming us here. Please don’t behave as if you are somehow independent or superior to sports media.

Furthermore, as much as I enjoy the content that is sometimes made accessible here, your website is becoming more and more obviously below par. I’m sure you have some shred of talent within your body, but you’re too busy using it to bug your favorite players on facebook for worthless interviews in which you are being mocked without your knowledge to spend it on actual worthwhile analysis like Newberg or any of the other fine posters here. Please, stop.

Don't let these jackoffs get you down. Welcome to the club. Go Rangers.

Here are some pretty telling team stats for the past 7 games for the Little Rangers...

Hitting:

AVG: .315 - 2nd in AL

SLG: .512 - 1st in AL

Total Bases: 127 - Tied 2nd in AL

Runs: 35 - 5th in AL

Hits: 78 - 3rd in AL

2B: 17 - Tied 2nd in AL

K's: 50 - 3rd in AL

OBP: .357 - 6th in AL

OPS: .869 - 3rd in AL

These are pretty typical Rangers offensive numbers, but here are some more telling numbers:

Josh Hamilton: 0 AB's

Chris Davis: .208 AVG, .375 SLG, 1 HR, 24 ABs, 10 Ks

Hank Blalock: .214 AVG, .500 SLG, 2 HR, 6 RBI

Three of our "big power guys" have done very little over this stretch. The fact that this team is going out and winning games when the bats have been taken out of the hands of our major power threats is very encouraging. If mechanical problems (and dear God were there some problems) have been addressed with Kris Davis and Blalock is getting ready to turn a corner this offense could become very dangerous, very quickly. Cruz, Kinsler, Andrus, Young and Marlon Byrd have been carrying this offense during the absence of Hamilton, but imagine the damage we could do with a non-injured Hamilton on the field. Hopefully he has addressed his approach to hitting as well as his injured ribs, if he would start working counts and stop swinging at first pitch out of the zone sliders, he is going to be a monster again, and so will this offense...

All in all, the offense could be considered the 2nd best hitting club over the past 7 games (behind the red hot Toronto Blue Jays). But if I told you that at any point in the season that the pitching staff would collectively be the 2nd ranked American League team over the course of 7 games (going through the rotation 1 and 1/2 times) would you have believed it? Me either...but here are the stats...

Pitching:

Record: 5-2

ERA: 3.23 (just .003 behind Detroit) - 2nd in AL

Runs: 24 - 2nd in AL

Earned Runs: 23 - 2nd in AL

Hits: 55 - 3rd in AL

Walks: 14 - 1st in AL (best stat over the last 7 days, hands down)

K's: 33 - 2nd worst in AL (3 tied with 30), and I'll get to this stat in a bit

Saves: 3 - Tied for 1st in AL

HRs - 4 - Tied for 2nd in AL

OBA: .291 - 1st in AL (next best team? The Rays with a .313 OBA, amazing)

WHIP: 1.06 - 1st in AL

SLG Against: .359 - 2nd in AL

GO/AO - 1.39 - 4th in AL

Pretty unbelievable...For a team to be 2nd worst in the league in strikeouts over a 7 game period, it is pretty incredible for them to have the stats that they do. Their OBA is mind boggling, same with their WHIP. This is a stretch like I have never seen from a Rangers pitching staff. Ever. When you go out and consistently pitch like this you become a serious threat to everyone you play, especially when you have an offense like ours. I can't really say much else about the pitching other than it has been better than I could have ever imagined over the past couple weeks. Also, we now have Kris Benson in the bullpen and Derek Holland foaming at the mouth for a start. If this pitching staff has finally put it together sit back and enjoy it, because this team is about to make serious run.

In my opinion the next stat is the most telling:

Defense:

Total Chances: 278 - 4th in AL

Errors: 1 - 1st in AL

SB Against: 1 - Tied 1st in AL

Assists: 85 - 1st in AL

Fielding %: .996 - 1st in AL

Andrus, Young, Kinsler and Davis are slowly becoming as good of an infield as their is in baseball. Andrus has been nothing short of heart stopping, not only making every routine play hit his way, but making some spectacular ones as well. Michael Young has proven that he could eventually earn another gold glove, but this one won't have SS engraved on it. Kinsler appears to have put last year behind him (he did make the teams only error during the 7 game stretch, a lazy play at 2nd the other day, but he redeemed himself by turning a slick double play with Andrus on the next batter) and Davis has shown he can be a nice corner infielder. Marlon Byrd and Nelson Cruz continue to impress me with their defense (Byrd looks pretty damn good in center), and Murphy and Jones have held their own in left. The pitchers and catchers have improved their defense dramatically from last year as well.

Bottom line, the Rangers are not always going to put things together like this, but if they can put lines together similar to these week in and week out, this is going to be one of the most dangerous teams in baseball.

The Second Round of "Rangers Moustache Madness" is underway.

Moustache Madness, Round 2...

Some of the highlights of this round include...

Goose Gossage vs. Mike Maddux

Jim Kern vs. Geno Petralli

Juando vs. Oscar Gamble

Luis Pujols vs. George Wright

Also me and a few friends will have a tailgate going starting at 8:01 on Monday morning. Any and all LSBers (except you Josey...hell, it's Opening Day, Josey you can come too) are welcome to grab a few beers and hopefully some ballpark fare (the availability of a griddle is a coin flip right now) at our tailgate. Now go vote on filthy moustachioed men.

RangerRumors.com

From the Rangers Site...

Time	Event/Details
8:00 a.m.	All parking lots open North Side Lexus Valet Parking begins Majestic Grand Slam Gift Shop opens Shuttles begin running between the north parking lots and ballpark gates
10:00 a.m.	All Ballpark gates open Fans 21 & older receive a Bud Light Magnetic Schedule upon entry South Side Lexus Valet Parking begins
10:30-11:10 a.m.	Rangers take batting practice No infield practice will be taken
11:20 a.m.-12:00 p.m.	Indians take batting practice No infield practice will be taken
12:15 p.m.	US Army 4th Infantry Division Band from Fort Hood, Texas begins playing behind Home Plate Color Guard from the US Army 4th Infantry Division enters the field with the oversized American flag carried by 150 soldiers and family members of the US Army 4th Infantry Division
12:35 p.m.	Rangers Alumni introduced on field
12:40 p.m.	Indians starting players introduced
12:45 p.m.	All Rangers players and clubhouse personnel introduced
12:50 p.m.	Presentation of the Color Guard Playing of the National Anthem by US Army 4th Infantry Division Band Fly over by two B-1 Bombers from the 9th Bomb Squad, 7th Bomb Wing from Dyess AFB will appear above Rangers Ballpark in Arlington during the final stanza
12:55 p.m.	Introduction of special guests: Commanding General of the 4th Infantry Division, Major General Jeffery Hammond; former Navy Seal and author of Lone Survivor, Marcus Luttrell; and Vietnam Era Congressional Medal of Honor Recipient, 1st Sgt. (Ret.) David McNerney Ceremonial First Pitch by George W. Bush, 43rd President of the United States
1:05 p.m.	Indians vs. Rangers in Texas' Home Opener

Moustache Madness Round 2 to be thrown upon you this afternoon...

Alright boys,

My girlfriend and I are making our way to San Francisco this summer for the Rangers/Giants series (June 19-21). I am planning on going to at least 2 games, but do not know a lot about the Ballpark or the city of San Fran. What are some things that I need to see while I'm there and what are some things I should skip? Is there tailgating before Giants games? Is the Arcade a good place to sit? If not where should we sit? Restaurants to go to?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. My sincerest apologies for a waste of a FanPost.

Adam Stellar

RangerRumors.com

Steven Strasburg: 8 IP, 14 Ks, 1 BB, 3 H, 2 ER...

That was the statline for the future #1 pick (fingers crossed he doesn't fall to the Mariners) tonight against TCU. I was at the game taking pictures and taking notes. Here is a link to the pictures I took:

RangerRumors.com

Strasburg's 4-seam fastball sat between 96-99 MPH all night, consistently hitting 97. Along with a blistering fastball he has a knee buckling slider that is very impressive, it has an almost "sluve" action. I very rarely saw it hit a speed that wasn't 81 or 82 MPH. The significant speed change is devastating to hitters, and his arm angle did not appear to deviate much from his fastball, making it deceptive and hard to pick up.  He also threw a two-seamer that had pretty big movement that was anywhere between 91-94 MPH. 

Overall he looked just as dominant as I would have expected. This kid is the real deal. Other than a wind aided homerun (would have been a routine flyball on any other night) there were no balls hit hard off of him. He is the as close to unhittable as anyone I have seen in a college game. I tried to get photos of every phase of his motion and have some video I will be uploading to the main part of the site tomorrow. 

Hope the Nationals take this kid, because if they don't we will probably see him in a Mariners uniform by September.

UPDATE:

Here is some video as promised, it isn't the best quality but you get the gist of it (If you watch it in High Quality it makes it a little better)...