Robert Chisholm created the template for the 1989 Cards for both the Rangers and the Royals (coming soon). Robert produced 16 cards in total for the Ranger's team set to be complete. A handful of the players' photos were very hard to find, but "Chiz" was able to make it happen.
This Rangers team will be piloted by Bill Keller, who has managed in at least 10 or 11 KOD's on and off throughout the years. Why split hairs ? Let's call Bill a "charter member", since he managed the '68 Tigers in KOD 1. Last year saw Bill win his first ever KOD championship with the 1981 Rangers, which is one of the reasons he has chosen to remain with the franchise. The other reason, "I finally get a chance to manage "the Express". Yes, the chance to finally manage Nolan Ryan was more than enough temptation to keep Bill in Arlington.
At the age of 42, this freak of nature, was still logging over 200 innings and striking out over 300. There is no explanation for Ryan other than no one did what he did longer or better. His 16-10 (3.20) record tells you that his team didn't give him the run support that he deserved. This is probably because the Rangers were 9th in the league in homers, which is not where you'd expect this "hit first, pitch second" franchise to finish. 24 year old Kevin Brown (12-9, 3.35) also suffered from lack of run support. Mike Jeffcoat went 9-6 (3.58) in 22 starts. Knuckleballer Charlie Hough made 30 starts, but posted a disappointing 10-13 (4.35) record. Texas pretty much had 6 starters. Bobby Witt and his inflated 5.14 ERA still managed to post 12 wins against 13 losses and an erratic 26 year old lefty named Jamie Moyer (4-9, 4.86) was still trying to find his niche. Keller needs to get 6 or 7 innings out of his starters, then he can hand the ball off to his awesome pen which featured 5 relievers that had sub 4.00 ERA's. Jeff Russell had a career year as the AL Reliever of the Year. He was 6-4 (1.98) with 38 saves in 72 2/3 innings worth of work. Nothing is a sure thing in the world of relievers, but the 1989 Russell was darn near close to it. His setup man is a young lefty named Kenny Rogers, who would notch the first 3 wins in a career that spanned 20 seasons and 219 wins. Cecilio Guante, Drew Hall and Gary Mielke will also do setup work for Russell.
The bats were definitely much lighter than what one would come to expect from a Ranger team. 23 year old Ruben Sierra led the team in homers (29) and RBI's (119), while batting .306 as the everyday rightfielder. "Inky", aka Pete Incaviglia hit 21 bombs, but struck out 136 times to go along with his .236 average. Julio Franco, who at 30 still had 20 more years of playing left, hit .316 to lead the team. Franco chipped in 13 homers and 92 RBI's, while playing an adequate second base. Centerfielder Cecil Espy stole 45 bases, but hit just .257 and had a low OBP (.313). Espy needed to steal first to be more effective. Unfortunately for Texas this is not allowed. A young (24) skinny line drive hitter named Rafael Palmeiro manned first and hit .275 with just 8 homers. "Raffy" needs to bulk up a bit and hit for more power if he's going to hold down this corner infield position. My suspicion is that the will do just that with that aid of something a bit stronger than Viagra. The bench is solid. Jeff Kunkel and Rick Reach both hit in the low .270's as platoon/bench guys. Fred Manrique hit .288 and played short when glove man Scott Fletcher wasn't in the lineup. Geno Petralli hit .304 as the teams "hitting" catcher. Chad Kreuter (.152) and an over the hill Jim Sundberg (.197) were the catch and throw guys. Mike Stanley also saw some time behind the dish and hit .246 in 122 AB's. Buddy Bell returned for his final go-round with the Rangers, but could only manage to hit a powerless .183 in 90 plate appearances. With Steve Buechele manning the hot corner, Bell was here just for sentimental reasons. Getting a shot at the biggs were two future star sluggers Sammy Sosa (20) and Juan Gonzalez (19). Both saw very limited time on the field and at the plate. Harold Baines got into 50 games as the team's DH, and hit a credible .285, but his 3 homers were not what the Rangers expected from this professional / well traveled hitter.
The Rangers finished 83-79, which was good enough for 4th place, 16 games behind the AL West Champion A's. Manager Bobby Valentine was able to squeeze the most out of the talent he was given in order to exceed expectations. Manager Keller will have to out-do Bobby V to get the Rangers to the post season.
The bats were definitely much lighter than what one would come to expect from a Ranger team. 23 year old Ruben Sierra led the team in homers (29) and RBI's (119), while batting .306 as the everyday rightfielder. "Inky", aka Pete Incaviglia hit 21 bombs, but struck out 136 times to go along with his .236 average. Julio Franco, who at 30 still had 20 more years of playing left, hit .316 to lead the team. Franco chipped in 13 homers and 92 RBI's, while playing an adequate second base. Centerfielder Cecil Espy stole 45 bases, but hit just .257 and had a low OBP (.313). Espy needed to steal first to be more effective. Unfortunately for Texas this is not allowed. A young (24) skinny line drive hitter named Rafael Palmeiro manned first and hit .275 with just 8 homers. "Raffy" needs to bulk up a bit and hit for more power if he's going to hold down this corner infield position. My suspicion is that the will do just that with that aid of something a bit stronger than Viagra. The bench is solid. Jeff Kunkel and Rick Reach both hit in the low .270's as platoon/bench guys. Fred Manrique hit .288 and played short when glove man Scott Fletcher wasn't in the lineup. Geno Petralli hit .304 as the teams "hitting" catcher. Chad Kreuter (.152) and an over the hill Jim Sundberg (.197) were the catch and throw guys. Mike Stanley also saw some time behind the dish and hit .246 in 122 AB's. Buddy Bell returned for his final go-round with the Rangers, but could only manage to hit a powerless .183 in 90 plate appearances. With Steve Buechele manning the hot corner, Bell was here just for sentimental reasons. Getting a shot at the biggs were two future star sluggers Sammy Sosa (20) and Juan Gonzalez (19). Both saw very limited time on the field and at the plate. Harold Baines got into 50 games as the team's DH, and hit a credible .285, but his 3 homers were not what the Rangers expected from this professional / well traveled hitter.
The Rangers finished 83-79, which was good enough for 4th place, 16 games behind the AL West Champion A's. Manager Bobby Valentine was able to squeeze the most out of the talent he was given in order to exceed expectations. Manager Keller will have to out-do Bobby V to get the Rangers to the post season.
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