May Review — Blog by MP

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Another month of Rangers baseball in the books. And boy was it an interesting one. Yes, that punch will be talked about even though it's been talked about too death, I still have a lot to say about it. So here goes my thoughts and opinions about the Rangers May.(And if you're not one for baseball, you should still scroll to the bottom of this post for the Beltre gifs. Because everyone loves Beltre gifs! ;) )1.Ian DesmondKeeping in theme withlast month's review, let's start with Ian Desmond shall we?He continues to shut down this post, which I'm totally ok with (even if that post totally makes me look like an ass now.) I will never question Ian Desmond playing outfield again.He's now one of my favorite players on that team and definitely the outfielder I trust the most, aside from that kid Mazara. ;)When I talked about Desmond in April, his numbers were ok; batting .241, scored 21 runs (tied for 2nd in the majors), 11 RBI, and 5 stolen bases, on base percentage was .327.I'll be honest, when some of the sports writers were saying he is a streaky player, I was expecting a slump at some point in May. Again, I was wrong. He's currently batting .297 (batting .348 for the month of May,) scored 38 runs, 32 RBI, 10 stolen bases, and his on base percentage is .344.2.That kid MazaraI say "that kid" only because he's 21 and seeing someone in play in the majors that could've been in my high school graduating class. Just weird. But this "kid" is no joke! To me, the hype for Mazara being called up last month didn't seem as big as the hype for Gallo's call up last year, so I've been pleasantly surprised with how great of a start Mazara has had. Just last week he hit homer that went 491 feet, the longest homer this season. And he looks so relaxed playing the game, I guess that's why his nickname is "The Big Chill."3.That punchI held back from making an entire post about this when it first happened, because it was all over the news, even outside the sports world. But it wouldn't be a proper review of the month if this wasn't in it since it was one of the most talked about moments.If you've been living under a rock, this is what you missed:Now more obviously happened after that (which you can watch here) But that punch is the probably the main moment. First off, I don't know much about throwing punches and the grading scale for them but I can say that is an A+ punch right there. Solid contact.A couple things I have to just say once and for all before I attempt to shut up about it forever. (Ok forever is probably a lie, but like for a while...?) Anyway, I think Odor eight game, reduced to seven, suspension was too much and Bautista's one game, Pillar and Donaldson's no game, suspension was too little. I watched the entire fight at the very least 10 times, in addition to slow motion (you could call it investigative journalism) and I still don't understand how the league decided the suspensions. I don't understand how Elvis got a one game suspension when his punch/hit was less obvious, I missed it every time I watched the video and didn't even catch it until I slowed the video down to .25, it happens so fast, and if you're curious it happens at the 13 second mark in the video. How Pillar and Donaldson's leaping and swinging fists only got was a slap-on-the-wrist $1,000 fine is beyond me. I'm not saying suspensions should be handed out by whether or not a punch is obvious, I'm just saying I don't know what video the league watched when deciding who got what punishment. You can call me a homer all you want, and I'm not disagreeing about Odor deserving a suspension, but come on, the Blue Jays weren't exactly innocent victims in this entire brawl either.So that's all I have to say about that.4.That Joey Gallo call up Because of the brawl, the horrible bullpen situation, and numerous injuries, there was a lot of talk about who would be sent down, who would be brought up, and who would "replace" Odor while he served his suspension.The Rangers brought up Gallo on Monday when Stubbs was put on the disabled list. Which made absolutely no sense to me at the time and still doesn't. Gallo plays third base, why bring him up for an outfielder? Rangers originally said he was brought up to play the outfield (which he played a little last year, and I've made it known, putting infielders in the outfield is just something I don't agree with. Desmond is just a weird outlier here.) Again, made no sense, we had plenty of outfielders to take Stubbs spot. Then they said it was to have a bat on the bench. He had one at-bat the five games he was up for. Then they sent him down when they activated Darvish on Saturday. Sounds like a waste of a week for a young player who just came off the disabled list himself. Personally, I think they could've easily let him DH for a game or two, let Fielder have a few days off. Or let Gallo play first base, like he did Sunday and Tuesday in Round Rock, for Moreland.Or just let him play in general at some point in those five games.5.Those memorable momentsMy favorite thing about the Rangers, they just have fun playing the game. They're fun to watch and in a game that I'll admit can get boring at times, you have to enjoy watching a team that loves the game they're playing.Bobby Wilson hit two grand slams in a week (the Rangers didn't hit one all last season.)Elvis got taken out by a sniper rounding first.Alberto blew the best bubblegum bubble ever.Watching these guys just having fun!Yu came back.6.Those Beltre MomentsI'm sure you're all still here for the best part of this post, the Beltre gifs of the month. And of course, they're all gems.And my personal favorite ongoing Ranger gag, touching Beltre's headCan't wait to see what June has in store for this team!#NeverEverQuit