Texas Rangers Morning Roundup: Rangers will see A's run in Oakland end

The Rangers and A’s will play the final game at the Oakland Coliseum before the A’s pack up for the bright lights of Las Vegas … in a few years.

The end the Oakland Athletics’ long run in the Bay Area is coming to an end this week, and the final visitor to the Oakland Coliseum is the Texas Rangers.

The American League West foes begin a three-game series tonight, and the Coliseum finale is set for Thursday afternoon. A crowd of some 50,000 is expected, with a stadium replica giveaway planned. The catch? The A’s aren’t giving it away until after the game.

Good luck to those who have early dinner reservations. Or a flight to catch.

The crowd will be the largest Kumar Rocker has ever pitched in front of, so he’ll have a third straight knee-knocker of sorts to begin his career.

Some fear that the finale will be a fiasco, with fans running onto the field at multiple points throughout the game. The Rangers have been led to believe that won’t be the case, but seeing is believing.

Everyone who has been to a game there has a story, and the Rangers have many. Frank Francisco has a really big story. The Rangers were in Oakland the day good buddy Richard Durrett passed away back in Texas. Yu Darvish pitched that night and lost, as he usually did to the A’s.

Josh Hamilton lost a rather significant flyball in center field in 2012.

On a positive note, the Rangers clinched division titles there in 2010 and 2016. Nolan Ryan threw his sixth no-hitter at Oakland in 1990.

I wish I’d seen the place in person before Mount Davis was built in center field to accommodate the Oakland Raiders. The A’s will be joining them in Las Vegas in a few years after playing at a minor-league ballpark in Sacramento while their Vegas palace is being built.

It sure seems like it didn’t have to come to that, as owner John Fisher and the city never found common ground on a new ballpark. Maybe Fisher never really wanted to do it, and the city didn’t want to do it badly enough to convince him to stay.

For now, the impasse has left baseball fans in Oakland broken-hearted. Not enough of fans supported the club by attending ballgames, and that shouldn’t be overlooked amid all of the outrage from the vocal minority.

Maybe MLB will award Oakland with a franchise when expansion comes around, though two prerequisites will be an ownership group ready to spend and a city council ready to bend more than it ever did with the current franchise.

Until then, farewell, Oakland.

Final-week moves?

Even though only six games are left in the Rangers’ season, that doesn’t mean they won’t need to make a few roster moves. One is expected to come today.

Right-hander Josh Sborz said that he will come off the injured list as soon as tonight after another long absence because of a shoulder issue. He said that he thinks he has struck on something that has calmed the discomfort he’s been feeling.

The Rangers will need to option a pitcher, and Gerson Garabito might draw the short stick. However, he can provide length out of the bullpen, something the Rangers have needed the past two weeks and will need again this week.

Then, there’s the continued hope among fans, a few beat writers and even a few coaches that first baseman Blaine Crim is finally promoted to the majors.

At this point, the Rangers missed their opportunity to give Crim a long look against big-league pitching. While many with the Rangers believe Crim will play in the major leagues, they apparently don’t think it will be with them.

He’s a righty-hitting first baseman, at age 27, and the Rangers aren’t sure he would hit for enough power at a position where players have to drive the ball. On the other hand, some are convinced the Justin Foscue will hit for power from the right side.

The lefty-hitting Nathaniel Lowe is the incumbent at first, and he’s carrying a .380 slugging percentage this season with only 28 extra-base hits. If the Rangers are looking for power, taking a look at Crim would seem to make sense.

Minors matters

Double A Frisco lost Friday in Game 3 of the Texas League semifinals, and Triple A Round Rock lost Sunday at Tacoma. With that, the Rangers’ farm system is finished for 2024.

Overall, it was a better season on the mound than at the plate. Multiple pitchers took big steps forward in their development, while some hitters didn’t take the kind of steps forward that would have elevated them to the majors.

Frisco had the best season among the four full-season affiliates, setting a club-record .608 winning percentage (84-54). The RoughRiders were the only full-season club to reach the playoffs, though the Arizona Complex League team and one of the two Dominican Summer League clubs made the postseason.

The Rangers picked their minor-league award winners last week and honored them Saturday at Globe Life Field. The vast majority of minor-leaguers are finished for the season, though it’s conceivable that players are added to the major-league roster this week.

Others will be joining the group in Arizona for what’s left of fall instructs, and eight players will be selected for the Arizona Fall League. The AFL rosters should be announced this week.

Doggy video!

The birthday boy does not like to be photo-bombed. Enjoy.

Jeff Wilson, jwilson@alldlls.com