The A's seem to be riding quite the pendulum right now. This team lost four in a row, won five in a row and has now lost four in a row again. If people seem a little on edge, it's probably because the A's looked like world beaters against the Mariners and now look like amateurs against the World Champs. To be fair, many of the pitchers that faced the White Sox tonight should still be in the minors. Casilla, Keisler and Flores are all replacements and in the best case scenario, they should've likely been long relief candidates or mop up guys this season. Something I like to call the Mike Neu role.
Any way, to get to my point, the worst part about the A's up and down performance this month and this season is the fact that with every loss and every Rangers win, it makes the Rangers become more and more likely to have a good shot at Roger Clemens. Clemens was arguably the best pitcher in baseball last season and he's basically demanding whatever he wants at this point. Tom Hicks and company have deep, deep pockets and if they smell a return to the playoffs, they can go for it. Make no mistake about it, Clemens would make the difference in this division. And to me the longer that the Rangers remain in and around first place, the more likely he is to look at Arlington as an appealing place to end his career. Houston has slipped down to third place in the NL Central and Boston and New York may be appealing, but they're also a good distance away from his family.
So, while this up and down nature has made most of us borderline psychotic, the worst part of this whole ordeal could be yet to come. That may be paranoia speaking, but if I'm Clemens then the Texas mashing offense combined with the first place performance and proximity make it too attractive. Hopefully that's just me.
