About a week ago, HWC took a look at Rangers Pudge vs. Post Rangers Pudge vs. Pudge Now.  Here's the full text of the post:

In their annual publication the year after Pudge left the Rangers in 2002, Baseball Prospectus wrote this quip under Einar Diaz's stats in 2003 (which, confusingly enough, appeared in the 2004 edition):

"It's not too often that a team replaces one of the best catchers in baseball history with one of the worst."

He's without a doubt one of the best catchers to play the game. If you're like me, you didn't really follow Pudge closely in his post-Rangers days. When we reacquired him, I found myself wondering, "How has Pudge been doing since he left?"

Here's a quick summary of some important stats which give a partial answer to the above question (along with Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Taylor Teagarden's performances this season for comparison):

AVG/OBP/SLG:

Pudge with the Rangers (1991-2002): .305/.342/.489
Pudge with everyone else (2002-2009): .291/.328/.442
Pudge the last 2 years (2008-present): .265/.302/.389
Salty this year: .236/.293/.375
Teagarden this year: .194/.264/.364

Average Games Played:

Pudge with the Rangers (1991-2002): 123.25
Pudge with everyone else (2002-2009): 125.86
Pudge the last 2 years (2008-present): 104
Salty this year: 83
Teagarden this year: 39

CS%:

Pudge with the Rangers (1991-2002): 49.8%
Pudge with everyone else (2002-2009): 38.5%
Pudge the last 2 years (2008-present): 32.3%
Salty this year: 24%
Teagarden this year: 41%

Note: What would make this more interesting would be how the all the Rangers catchers from 2003-present have done in his absence. I've scoured the internet, but can't seem to find this data. If anyone knows where I can find it, let me know.

 Nothing terribly surprising, but still interesting to see it laid out like that (especially next to Salty and Teagarden's numbers from this year).  Thought some people might be interested.

So, with Rangerfloppy's unofficial "guide to fanposts", the subsequent comments about blogs, original information, etc, I was wondering what the best Rangers blogs out there are.  I did a little bit of time-wasting today, and came across in excess of 25 Rangers blogs.  Some were good.  Some (many) were not. 

Of course, there are the behemoths of LSB, BBTiA, and Newberg.  And don't get me wrong, there are quite a few other good ones out there (just as there are quite a few crap ones). 

I know which blogs I enjoy and check on a daily basis, but I'd like to know which other blogs the LSBers frequent . . .

Hello Win Column takes a look at a comment made during the Sunday Night Baseball broadcast about teams who hit a lot of homers.  Here's an excerpt:

The commentator in question is Steve Phillips from a comment he made during ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball broadcast of the White Sox - Rangers game. He stated that (slightly paraphrasing) "only one team since 2000 that has led the league in home runs has made the playoffs," his implication being that teams who hit a lot of home runs are less likely to make the playoffs.

....

The fourth place team on the home run list has made the playoffs 3 times since 2000. Does it make sense to assert that coming in fourth in home runs makes a team less likely to make the playoffs? Of course not.

....

[After examining the above data] It appears that there is some (though not strong) correlation between hitting a lot of home runs and making the playoffs. Regardless of strength of correlation, there is certainly no evidence to suggest that hitting a lot of home runs lessens a team's chances of making the playoffs.

....

I imagine the argument that Steve Phillips meant to make was that offensively lopsided teams (such as our Texas Rangers) are less likely to make the playoffs, i.e. teams with monster offenses and no pitching are less likely to make the playoffs.

 So, it's not an article about the Rangers directly, but Phillips was referring to teams like the Rangers when he made this assertion.