AL West 10/11: Rangers eliminated from postseason

The season is over for the 2016 Rangers squad after being swept by the Toronto Blue Jays in the ALDS. This is the second year in a row that the Jays have eliminated Texas. I’m sorry, I’m probably making this worse. Maybe this will help.

However, if you’d like some upbeat Texas news, we’re happy to oblige. The projected arbitration salaries for next year’s Rangers team have been release. In these projections, Sam Dyson, Shawn Tolleson, and Jake Diekman are three of the nine players currently on the Texas 40 man that are arbitration eligible. In case I’ve been speaking Greek for the past few sentences and you’ve been politely nodding along: arbitration means a player send a salary request to an arbitrator, who also has a proposed salary from the team. The arbitrator decides which proposal will be accepted, usually based on the current salaries of players of the same caliber. If you’re still a little fuzzy on it, this video will do the trick:

No one is less satisfied with the Astros’ season than AJ Hinch. After a one game playoff victory against the Yankees to advance to the 2015 postseason, this year’s expectations weren’t even close to being met. But that doesn’t mean the team needs to adopt the Royals “get rid of everything that isn’t nailed down and rebuild” model.

A slew of Athletics players will be free agency bound rather than be outrighted to Triple A. With the team looking to trim down from the 40 man, 12 players were given their send off, 11 to the minors and one lost on waivers. Eric Sogard and Jared Parker are just two of the six that will be seeking another team. Parting is such sweet sorrow.

Mariners’ AA player Tyler O’Neill just raked a pitch off of a tee and into the stands at the Arizona Fall League’s Bowman Hitting Challenge. If you understand basic physics, you’ll know that forces transfer and blah blah back to baseball. So a ball with no force coming at you, like one off of a tee, is much harder to hit further than one that already has it’s own opposing force. Guess no one told O’Neill that.

We can all agree that the Angels had a less than stellar season. But the hope for next year is alive, well, and winning multiple awards in the minor leagues. Matt Thaiss, the Halos’ first round draft pick, was named the Angels’ Top Prospect after only a few months of play under his belt. Oh Billy Eppler, you’ve outdone yourself.

Speaking of outdoing something...have you ever claimed to love your team until the day you die? Well why stop then? Take your passion for sports in the afterlife with you with this officially licensed Angels casket! Maybe if you’re lucky, members of the team will be present to lower you into the grave so they can let you down one final time (I’ll see myself out).