Don’t look now, but…

…this kid playing shortstop for the Rangers is the real deal. He’ll hit .255, maybe .260 this year, steal 30-40 bases, hit ten triples but the best thing is just what they’d told us it would be – he is a natural at short.

In my life, I’ve seen two guys in two sports that appeared similarly gifted as rookies; Alan Trammel and Steve Yzerman. On the other hand – we all remember Ruben Mateos, don’t we?

Still, next chance you get to see a game in person, watch Elvis as much as you can, keep a scorecard, take some pictures. I think you’ll be telling your grandkids about it some day.

…the Rangers have 69 games left. If they go 38 and 31 – basically the same .550 pace they’re at now – they’ll win 90 games. How about that?

…let’s HOPE there are no trades in the time between now and the trading deadline in July 31st. If it’s a “something for nothing,” then sure, but we are extremely fortunate to be seeing this now – it wasn’t supposed to begin to happen until next year. The team is very capable of winning 40 more games. Let’s see what happens with that.

…are you really, really convinced on young mister Derek Holland? I guarantee Nolan Ryan knows more about pitching than I do, and I like Holland’s moxie (to use a baseball cliché) but I see a fastball with little movement, a predictable slider and a tentative curveball. Might have been better to let him get 30 AAA starts this year.

…if it’s me, I go to Kinko, print line up cards for the next ten years with David Murphy in LF; one half of the stack with him batting seventh, the other half with him batting sixth. He’s my leftfielder until he retires. He plays the game, as they say, the way it’s supposed to be played.

…93 games left, five days between starts means somewhere between 15 to 18 starts for Millwood, Feldman, and the rest. I’ll take 15 wins from Feldman, thank you, and send Mike Maddux a fruit basket for whatever him and Nolan have done with these guys. Remember, we don’t have Jack Benoit or Eric Hurley out there the whole year. Spring training next year will be very, very interesting around the mound.

…there goes Michael Young; tenth in batting in the AL. We’ll be telling our grandkids about him, too.