“Kevin Sherrington’s A La Carte” is a weekly newsletter curated by DMN sports columnist Kevin Sherrington where he hits all of the latest sports topics around North Texas and all major sports. Sign up for the Ticket Ticker newsletter to receive exclusive content from Kevin Sherrington every week. Read an excerpt from this week’s newsletter below.
Kevin Sherrington’s A La Carte
— Maybe a little R&R really was all the Rangers needed to stop their tailspin. In sweeping Cleveland, they showed the benefits of late rallies and later relief. Nice work. Next: Take two of three from Tampa Bay, coming off its own funk.
— Good to see Martin Perez work himself out of an early mess and pitch five innings Sunday, but his command still isn’t what it was last year. He’s in a race with Andrew Heaney to see who remains in the rotation after the deadline. Chris Young needs to add another starter and at least one more bullpen arm, which could make either Perez or Heaney the long man.
— Does the development of Evan Carter and drafting of Wyatt Langford make Zeke Duran a trade candidate? For the right pitcher, the Rangers’ list of untouchables is shorter than my attention span.
— The Angels would have helped themselves as well as the Rangers if they’d held on to that lead Sunday over the Astros, allowing Houston to escape with a series win instead. Perry Minasian needs to go ahead and pull the plug. Trade Shohei Ohtani, for humanitarian reasons if no other. Bad enough that a franchise could waste Mike Trout’s talent. No use letting Ohtani wallow in the Angels’ misery.
—Story time: A recent Yahoo! Sports story about Ron Washington praised the “patron saint of pregame fielding practice” for his work ethic and the devotion he’s inspired among infielders, not that they could speak of it much. Mostly because most of what he says can’t be repeated in polite company.
Wash does, indeed, cuss a blue streak. His conversational style came up over the weekend in a discussion about the communication skills of Rangers managers during my time at SportsDay, dating back to 1985.
Bobby Valentine was erudite, if a bit condescending. Kevin Kennedy too often threw his players under the bus, or so they thought. Johnny Oates? Fragile. Jerry Narron? Scared. Buck Showalter? He’d tell you one thing off the record, then the opposite for publication. Wash wasn’t much good in a presser, but, off the record, he was fascinating and insightful. Chris Woodward needed five minutes of warm-up before getting to the point, and often couldn’t find it even then.
Bruce Bochy? Self-deprecating, concise, candid, funny. By far the best of the bunch both with the media and players. Also the most successful manager overall. Which, come to think of it, might not be such a coincidence.
More from Kevin Sherrington
— Can Rangers’ Bruce Bochy get Will Smith, Aroldis Chapman to thrive as co-closers?
— Rangers need to land a few big arms at the trade deadline to reignite this season
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