The latest on the Rangers sale

Maury Brown with thoughts on the sale process and basically boiling it down to:

Who would the lenders force into bankruptcy, the Rangers or HSG? HSG makes more sense from his perspective thus forcing the sale of all their interests including the Stars.

And who makes the first move Selig and MLB or the lenders? The lenders are said to already have the bankruptcy paperwork drawn up.

My thoughts... Bud needs to act at the next moment the talks break down or Monarch digs in their heels. The lenders then file a bankruptcy against HSG to recoup the losses on the Rangers sale by forcing the Stars sale. Then they sue Hicks to try and force the sale of some of the Ballpark land to recoup costs. I'm no lawyer so I don't know if the back end of that works at all. If I'm Bud I sit down with the creditors and agree to burn Hicks in all of this but state that as commissioner you have to protect the Rangers and baseball.

Stating the obvious: The Rangers really missed a chance in this series in Oakland. Not only because of the two Angels loses but because of the schedule that both the Rangers and the Angels face from this point forward.

After today's game I was looking for that nugget of hope to hold onto and figured that the remaining schedules would somewhat favor the Rangers. I was ready to get excited again after the team laid the proverbial egg in the first three games by the bay. Here's what I discovered:

Right off the bat things looked challenging with the 10 games remaining against the Angels being played mostly in their park. Plus the Angels play 6 more games at home than the Rangers for the rest of the season. I figured I could find reason to hope in the opponents we faced. The Angels do have one more game against the Yankees than the Rangers do but they get 3 at home while the Rangers play the Yanks at their place. Of course, the Rangers don't face the Tigers any more and the Angels have them for 3... at home again. The Rangers do have Boston at home while the Angels face them at Fenway... for those straining for a nugget like me. All in all of those contending for their division or the wild card the Rangers play 29 games (13 at home) while the Angels play 26 (19 at home). (I did count the Twins as contenders in their division).

Basically what I got from my search for grounded hope was a lot more to worry about than to hope for... especially if we've seen the Rangers road mentality the past 4 day which is also reflected in their season mark of 23-26.

The only nugget I could find was the Angels record against the West, 14-17 vs. 22-12 for the Rangers. If that holds true then the Rangers shot is legitimate. But the past 4 days have done nothing but make me question the validity of that split. Plus the difference in the home/road is exactly reversed... in the Angels favor.

It's not over but it's an uphill battle all the way to the end of the season. The Angels are bound to cool off offensively and surely this isn't the real Josh Hamilton. Plus Ian should be better when he gets back right??? The Rangers can still win this but they better take care of the Angels head to head and start beating the teams they're "supposed" to beat. And with that GO RANGERS! ... even if nuggets of hope were impossible to find.

I really like what the Rangers are getting out of him. Yes it's only been two starts but he looks to be a great addition to the future of this team. He's not an ace but he appears to be a consistent starting pitcher who will give your team the opportunity to win the game. He's not going to either win or lose many games with his pitching alone but he's going to be a guy you know is going to give your team the chance to win.

So far with the Rangers:
1-1 4.63era 11.2ip 13 hits 6 runs 4BB 8k's 19/8 GO/AO

This season:
5-1 3.93era 52.2ip 41 hits 23 runs 22 BB 37 K's  77/43 GO/AO

What are your thoughts on this guy? He's better than I expected so I'm pretty pleased.