Thursday Newsletter time: How hot has Joey Gallo been? He's nearly caught Adolis Garcia.
Gallo's solo shot in the ninth inning Wednesday was the Rangers' only tally in a 3-1 loss.
All good things must end, and that was the case Wednesday night when the Texas Rangers never got their bats going in a 3-1 loss to the Oakland A’s.
The one run came in the ninth, when Joey Gallo launched a one-out home run. At least that good thing, how hot Gallo is, did not come to an end.
The 420-foot blast was Gallo’s sixth homer in the past four games. He has nearly caught Adolis Garcia for not only the team lead but the American League lead in homers by an outfielder.
Gallo has 19, and hit 10 in June. Garcia has 20 and also leads AL outfielders in RBIs.
Garcia needs a late push to be voted as a starting outfielder for the AL All-Star team, but not necessarily a huge push. He was only 2% behind Michael Brantley, who was third.
Garcia is one of two very solid Rangers All-Star candidates, along with Kyle Gibson. Speaking of Gibson and Gallo, here’s a story posted Wednesday night on how the Rangers might be approaching the trade deadline as those two have thrived following MLB banning pitchers from using foreign substances on balls.
Hail State!
Congratulations to Mitch Moreland, Nate Lowe, Justin Foscue, Will Clark and Dak Prescott, whose Mississippi State Bulldogs collected the first national championship in school history in any sport Wednesday when they defeated Vanderbilt to win the College World Series.
(The only two schools yet to win a national title: Kansas State and Virginia Tech).
The Bulldogs solved Vandy right-hander Kumar Rocker, one of the top prospects in the upcoming MLB draft July 11-13. The Rangers draft second overall, and likely will have the chance to draft Rocker and teammate Jack Leiter.
Of the two, Leiter’s stock fell the least during the college season. Neither is expected to go first overall, which wasn’t the case earlier in the year.
Dallas Jesuit shortstop Jordan Lawler could be the first player selected.
Who are the Rangers going to take? They sure do love taking high-risk, high-reward prep players, don’t they? But they sure don’t have much of a track record developing ace starting pitchers, do they?
They have 10 days to make up their minds.
Happy Bobby Bonilla Day
The first day of July has become known in baseball circles as Bobby Bonilla Day, thanks to an incredibly bad decision, one of many, by New York Mets ownership who were conned by infamous investor Bernie Madoff.
The Mets wanted to buy out the rest of Bonilla’s contract, $5.9 million, so they agreed to pay him $1,193,248.20 over 25 years beginning in 2011. Their thinking was they could invest the money they saved with Madoff for a massive return.
Madoff, of course, was running a Ponzi scheme that fell apart and crushed the Wilpon family and the Mets financially. Bonilla, though, keeps cashing checks every July 1, and will do so until he turns 72.
Happy day for him, indeed.
Doggy video!
Finally, here is the doggy video of the day. I can relate. Enjoy. See you Friday.
