Sports Radio Interviews

The Ryan Express Assesses The Texas Rangers

There may be no better offense in all of Major League Baseball than that of the Texas Rangers. Starting pitching is another story, as is usually the case in Arlington, but nevertheless, in what appears to be a down year in the AL West thanks to a less complete Angels club, the Rangers could very well find themselves in the hunt later this summer. After losing again on Wednesday night to the Blue Jays, the Rangers are now 6-8 and have lost seven of their past ten. Team president Nolan Ryan spoke to The Ticket in Dallas and talked about the squad, the AL West, and addressed the swirling rumors about beleaguered manager Ron Washington.

Assessing the Rangers season so far:

“You know, I was in hopes that we would have a better record at this point in time. I’m very pleased with the health of the ballclub. We have some people that are struggling right now with the bat. Those things happen, they’re going to happen during the course of the season. You always hope that they don’t happen early in the season because you want to get off to a good start.

We had quite a few home games, I wanted us to make a good showing. I would like to see our record reversed to what it is right now, but leaving on the note of yesterday on this road trip I think is big for our ballclub and it’ll help. I think it would’ve been a downer if Kansas City would’ve come in and swept us. I feel good about things but I’m like everybody else and at this I would like to see our won/loss record flip flop.”

On whether or not 85 wins could take the AL West this year:

“At this point in time you would project that possibly, because of what’s happened. You also look at the Angels and know that a club can have a year as they’ve started this first two weeks, that could change in two weeks to 30 days. They could get people healthy and they could get back and get on their game. What it does is, I think our division is a division whoever plays the best and whoever is the most consistent and injury-free is going to win the division.”

On the effect of speculation surrounding the managerial situation:

“I think it does if it gets to a magnitude that it’s discussed and talked about on a daily basis and made as the lead story with the ballclub. I think players start feeling pressure about that, the players don’t want to have the responsibility that because of their inability to do something that they let down somebody they like and respect and appreciate and it cost them their job.”

Listen here to the rest of Nolan Ryan on 1310 The Ticket in Dallas

Tags: 1300 The Ticket, MLB, MLB interviews, Nolan Ryan, Ron Washington, sports interviews, Texas Rangers